Continued growth in a year of transformation

Net Profit after tax increases by 6% (19% at constant exchange rates)

UCB’s 2004 net profit after tax of € 362 million was up 6% in real terms (19% at constant exchange rates) under Belgian GAAP. This continued growth was achieved in a year of major transformation for UCB. Celltech was consolidated within UCB as of August 1 st, 2004 and Surface Specialties over the whole year, except for the Films business which was consolidated for the first 9 months of 2004.

Roch Doliveux, CEO of UCB said: “2004 was an exciting year for UCB. We made a
number of important strategic moves transforming the company from a hybrid industrial group into a pure biopharmaceutical leader, combining a unique research platform of small and large molecule with existing profitable and growing global commercial operations.
UCB is now better prepared to face its future challenges with more opportunities at hand to fuel its growth. Our priorities for 2005 are to complete the transition to pure biopharmaceutical, to expand our base of marketed products and to advance the clinical development of our strong product pipeline”.