2000 was a year of strong sales growth and significant investment in opportunities to ensure our place at the forefront of the new era of medicine. Turnover, at £1,377 million, was up 10 per cent on 1999. Earnings per share were 22.5 pence, up eight per cent for the continuing business, before exceptional items and goodwill amortisation. The board is recommending a final dividend of 4.25 pence per share, giving a full year dividend of 6.40 pence per share, a growth of nine per cent.

The year 2000 saw Nycomed Amersham Imaging achieve excellent growth in sales, particularly in our patented diagnostic portfolio. In Amersham Pharmacia Biotech there was strong growth in our separations business. We halted the decline in sales of our laboratory products and we continued to deliver innovation and achieve good market shares across our drug discovery activities.

North America accounts for approximately half of group sales and during 2000 we achieved sales of £647 million in this key market, up eight per cent on a comparable basis. Sales in Europe were £346 million, up four per cent and in Japan we grew sales to £280 million, up 20 per cent.

In August, we announced our intention to float 10 per cent of Amersham Pharmacia Biotech on the US NASDAQ market, subject to market conditions. This will position this business alongside its peers in North America, enable us to attract and incentivise the best people and allow us to take full advantage of the opportunities which stem from our leading position in life sciences.

In order to give all employees a significant stake in the financial success of the group and align their goals with those of the non-employee shareholders, the board has agreed in connection with the float to grant share options to all employees. The grants will be for options over Amersham Pharmacia Biotech shares to a value of $8,000 for its employees and over Nycomed Amersham shares to a value of £5,000 for all other employees of the group. Not only is this a recognition of our sincere gratitude to all employees of the group, but we consider the share option issue protects shareholder value by retaining and motivating our skilled staff. As a truly international company we need to attract and retain talented people in markets across the world. At our Annual General Meeting on 9 May 2001, we will be proposing a new Executive Share Option Scheme to ensure our global competitiveness.

It remains a privilege and a pleasure to chair the Nycomed Amersham board, a powerful blend of commercial acumen and scientific expertise. During the last 12 months we reluctantly bade farewell to Ronnie Cresswell and Tom McKillop, each of whom played a key role in the evolution and delivery of our successful strategy. New blood came in the form of Sir Keith Peters, Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge University; Dr John Patterson from AstraZeneca plc; and George Battersby, who joined us from Laporte plc as Group Human Resources Director.

The executive management team is equally strong. It reflects great credit on our whole organisation that our Chief Executive, Bill Castell, received a Knighthood in the summer for services to the life sciences industry.

At our Annual General Meeting share holders will be asked to approve a name change for the group, which the board recommends should become Amersham. The Nycomed name belongs to Nycomed Pharma and our right to use it lapses in 2004. Amersham is a well-established name that represents a common thread uniting our businesses.

This Annual Report shows a business that is performing well and is excellently placed to take advantage of exciting new opportunities in medical science. We expect strong growth to continue throughout our business in 2001 and look forward to the drug discovery area benefiting, as new products come to market . We intend to play an increasingly significant part in the new medical era, in which disease will be diagnosed sooner and treated more effectively, to the benefit of all those involved with Nycomed Amersham.

Richard Lapthorne
Chairman