Condoms buy helps Reckitt Benckiser to £552 million

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Suboxone, Reckitt's heroin substitute, has not had patent protection in the United States since 2009 but the group hopes a new unique "film" version will extend the life of the product.

The film version dissolves on the tongue and is easier for recovering heroin addicts to take than traditional tablets.

Reckitt, whose chief executive Bart Becht steps down later this year, said Suboxone tablets now represent less than 50% of its healthcare division RBP's revenues. There has been speculation that Reckitt may want to sell RBP, which generates a fifth of group profits.

The consumer goods firm, which also makes cleaning product Cillit Bang and Nurofen painkillers, saw pre-tax profits rise 9% to £552 million in the quarter.

Revenues jumped 16% to £2.34 billion. Taking out the impact of acquisitions, like-for-like sales were up 5%.

Reckitt continues to look to emerging markets for growth.

"We have seen in Europe a challenging market environment for pretty much a year with market growth rates relatively anaemic and continued heavy competition," said Becht.

The shares slipped 28p to 3450p.