A LOSS-MAKING medical publisher has gone into examinership amid doubt over the viability of its business. Eireann Healthcare Publications, owner of the Medicine Weekly newspaper and a number of other titles, is understood to have informed its staff late yesterday about the examinership.
Businessman Chris Goodey, who established the company in 1994, did not return messages left on his mobile phone yesterday evening. Calls to the company's office in central Dublin and to another company executive were not answered.
The reasons for the examinership were unclear last night. However, sources with knowledge of the company's difficulties said a significant reduction in spending by pharmaceutical advertisers was a big contributory factor to its financial difficulties.
The Irish Times was unable last night to determine the extent of the company's liabilities or to identify its examiner.
Medicine Weekly was introduced in August 1997 and is one of three weekly newspapers for the health professions, the others being the Irish Medical Times and the Irish Medical News.
Other titles in the Eireann stable include Modern Medicine, Hospital Doctor and Irish Psychiatrist.
The company's website says it has an event management service for the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector and a separate service that offers to conduct editing, design and production work for medical-related publications.
Filings in the Companies Office indicate Mr Goodey controls the entire share capital of M&C Publishing, the ultimate owner of Eireann Healthcare Publishing.
The latest available accounts for that company, for the 18 months to December 2006, show it had 30 employees and had a net loss of €141,570 in that period.
These accounts, signed off last October, show the company had revenues of €6.25 million and an operating loss before interest charges of €25,665. The company's bill for interest and similar charges in that period was almost €116,000.
The accounts said the directors of the business were planning to restructure the company during 2007 and planned to expand its operations in Britain.
The auditors report said the accounts were prepared on a going concern basis by the directors as they were confident that the company could raise additional funding and "significantly improve financial performance".
