By Anita Komuves

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian pharmaceutical company Richter expects a slowdown in sales growth for its flagship product, Vraylar, next year while supply chain disruptions continue to pose challenges, CEO Gabor Orban told Reuters on Wednesday.

Orban said 2025 would be a difficult year for Richter as supply chain disruptions that started with the coronavirus pandemic and were exacerbated by the war in Ukraine persist.

"Supply chain management is probably even harder than it was 5 years ago, which makes it harder to serve patients. We also see that global shortages are also more frequent," Orban said.

Richter's Cariprazine, an antipsychotic developed in the early 2000s, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and sold as Vraylar in the United States by AbbVie.

In 2023, Vraylar revenues for AbbVie were up 35.4 percent to $2.76 billion.

Following its third-quarter earnings report, AbbVie revised its 2024 sales forecast for Vraylar to around $3.3 billion, down from an expected $3.4 billion.

Royalty income from Vraylar in the third quarter exceeded 60 billion forints ($153.71 million) and rose 18% year-on-year, Richter said.

"For a product that has been on the market for more than 8 years, it is a wonder that it was the fastest growing anti-psychotic drug in the U.S. for such an extended period," Orban said, adding it is typical for growth to slow at this stage in a drug's life cycle.

The ending of Cariprazine's patent protection in 2030 poses the "biggest strategic challenge" for Richter.

"But I think we are well equipped to soften that shock," Orban said, pointing to growth in the core business.

The other three divisions of Richter - women's healthcare, general medicines and biotechnology - all showed double-digit growth in the first three quarters of this year. The company is also eyeing more acquisitions next year after four major deals struck in 2024, Orban said.

Richter is facing difficulties in its Russian operations. The pharmaceutical industry has not been hit with sanctions, but supplying operations in Russia with spare parts, for example, has become more difficult due to sanctions in other fields.

Richter paid a dividend of 432 forints per share on its 2023 earnings, about 20% more than the year before.

"That pace of change (growth) in the payouts definitely cannot be maintained," Orban said, adding that the aim was to at least maintain the 2023 level of dividend payouts.

($1 = 390.3500 forints)

(Reporting by Anita Komuves;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)