Forest Laboratories Inc.'s (FRX) fiscal second-quarter profit
surged 53%, partly because of prior-year charges, as revenue
improved more than expected.
The drug maker also raised its earnings forecast for the year a
second time, boosting it 13 cents to $3.80 to $3.90 a share.
Shares were recently up 0.5% in light premarket trading to
$33.74.
The company has seen revenue improve in recent quarters, but the
bottom line was damped in the first quarter by litigation charges.
The Justice Department in September said the company will pay $313
million to settle civil and criminal charges as it improperly
marketed anti-depressants and distributed an unapproved thyroid
drug.
Like many drug makers, Forest Labs is also looking to partner
with drug developers to bolster its pipeline. Patent protection for
Forest Lab's Lexapro, a depression treatment and its main money
maker, will expire in March 2012. Sales of Lexapro have slowed in
the past year amid competition and were flat in the quarter at
$569.3 million from a year earlier.
Sales of Namenda, the company's No. 2 drug and a treatment for
Alzheimer's and dementia, increased 12% to $310.1 million.
For the quarter ended Sep. 30, Forest Labs reported a profit of
$286.1 million, or $1 a share, up from $186.7 million, or 61 cents
a share, a year earlier, which included 24 cents of charges.
Revenue increased 2.3% to $1.09 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently estimated
earnings of 93 cents and $1.07 billion in revenue.
Gross margin widened to 23.7% from 23% while
research-and-development expenses fell 41%.
-By Jodi Xu, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3037;
jodi.xu@dowjones.com