Forest Laboratories Inc.'s (FRX) fiscal third-quarter profit
rose 53% on strong sales of the pharmaceutical company's
Alzheimer's and dementia treatment.
Shares were up 2.2% in premarket trading at $32.14 as the
results beat estimates and the drug maker raised its earnings view
for the year for the third time, now predicting $4.20 to $4.30 a
share. In October, that outlook was $3.80 to $3.90 a share. The
stock is up 2.5% in the past year.
Like many drug makers, Forest Labs is 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 but edged up 0.7% in the quarter at
$586.5 million.
Sales of Namenda, the company's No. 2 drug and a treatment for
Alzheimer's and dementia, increased 13% to $319.8 million.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Forest Labs reported a profit of
$320.7 million, or $1.11 a share, up from $210.2 million, or 69
cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding a charge for a licensing
payment and other one-time items, earnings rose to $1.11 a share
from 69 cents a share. Net revenue rose 5.8% to $1.13 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of 99
cents a share and $1.11 billion in revenue.
-Lauren Pollock and Jenny Roth, Dow Jones Newswires;
212-416-2356; lauren.pollock@dowjones.com