SHARES in drugs giant Novartis rose 1.8% in early trading after the Swiss-owned group announced its latest figures for 2009 and its most recent quarterly data.

The firm, which employs about 600 staff at its Speke flu vaccine manufacturing plant, revealed that it had achieved record figures last year, helped by sales of its H1N1 swine flu vaccine produced at several European sites, including Speke.

Net sales for 2009 came in at around £27.3bn, a 7% increase calculated in US dollars, while net sales figures for the fourth quarter surged by 28% to £8bn.

Net profits for the year were 4% ahead at around £5.2bn, and showed a 54% rise in the fourth quarter to £1.43bn, which was broadly in line with analysts’ forecasts.

The sales figures were driven by revenues from more than 100m doses of H1N1 swine flu sold around the world.

Speke produces conventional flu jabs, mainly for the US market, but last year’s seasonal production run was completed earlier than usual to allow the plant to switch to production of the H1N1 vaccine.

Novartis predicted that 2010 will be a “year of significant progress in implementing strategic priorities with continued focus on innovation, growth and productivity.”

But, with most of the H1N1 sales already accounted for, it said it sees sales growing at “mid-single digit rate” during 2010.

Chairman and chief executive Dr Daniel Vasella, who is standing down to be replaced as chief executive by Joe Jimenez on February 1, said: “Novartis delivered an excellent performance in 2009 driven by strong underlying growth across our entire healthcare portfolio.”

However, the group could face a possible re-scaling of revenues from H1N1 over the next 12 months and beyond as governments around the world review their orders after a lower than predicted level of pandemic, fewer vaccines so far administered to eligible recipients, and widespread caution over perceived side effects from the H1N1 vaccine.