By Sten Stovall
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA), the world's largest
generics drug maker, Wednesday reported higher quarterly earnings
that beat analyst forecasts, helped by robust sales of its
Parkinson's disease pill Azilect and multiple sclerosis therapy
Copaxone.
For the quarter to end-June, Teva's non-GAAP net income was $984
million, up from $981 million a year earlier, giving earnings on a
non-GAAP basis of $1.10 per share compared with $1.08 a year
earlier. Wall Street analysts had forecast earnings of $1.08 a
share for the latest quarter.
Net sales rose 11% in the quarter, to $4.2 billion. Turnover in
North America fell 15% while that in Europe surged 82% during the
quarter.
Teva Chief Executive Shlomo Yanai said "contributions from
across our company enabled us to offset the challenges we faced in
our U.S. generics business. We anticipate increased growth in U.S.
generics, as well as continued growth across all our geographies
and businesses, in the second half of the year."
Teva said it will pay a quarterly dividend of 23.5 cents on Aug.
18.
Teva is in the process of closing its acquisition of Cephalon
Inc. (CEPH) for $6.8 billion. The deal is expected to complete in
the third quarter, pending regulatory review.
In May, Teva backed its full-year adjusted earnings projection
of $4.90 to $5.20 a share on sales of $18.5 billion to $19 billion.
The company's guidance doesn't include the Cephalon
acquisition.
At the time, it also reiterated a 2012 projection from last year
that called for per-share earnings of $5.30 to $5.86 on revenue of
$21 billion to $23.2 billion.
As the year progresses, Teva expects new products to help drive
growth, including generic versions of Eli Lilly & Co.'s (LLY)
antipsychotic Zyprexa and Sanofi-Aventis SA's (SNY, SAN.FR) allergy
drug Nasacort AQ.
-By Sten Stovall, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9292;
sten.stovall@dowjones.com (Tom Gryta in New York contributed to
this article.)