Amgen profits drop, Teva's grow

It's a good news-bad news day on the earnings side, with Amgen reporting a drop in profits, but a boost in its 2008 forecast, and Ranbaxy earnings on the flat side, while Teva's are on the rise. Here are the details:

  • Amgen saw second-quarter net drop by 7.7 percent to $941 million, while revenue grew by a modest 1 percent to $3.76 billion. Sales figures still managed to beat analyst expectations, though. Like some other drugmakers this quarter, Amgen reported a drop in U.S. sales--of 1 percent, to $2.84 billion--offset by a big increase in international sales, namely 17 percent. The best news, though, came in the form of better-than-expected sales of its anemia drugs, which have been depressed by safety concerns for months now.
  • Ranbaxy Laboratories posted a $39 million profit for the quarter, virtually unchanged from the same period a year ago. Sales, however, grew by 13 percent to $440 million.
  • Teva Pharmaceutical's profits grew by 4.6 percent to $539 million on growth in generic sales and in its branded multiple sclerosis treatment Copaxone. Overall, revenues grew by 18 percent to $2.82 billion, beating analyst estimates. A 12 percent increase in North American sales was fueled in part by a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's antidepressant Wellbutrin XL.
  • Sepracor saw its quarterly revenues increase by 6.3 percent to $294.1 million, with profits of $6.7 million, up from $4.8 million a year ago. Its insomnia treatment Lunesta grew sales slightly, to $148.1 million from $142.9 million a year ago

- see Amgen's results in the Wall Street Journal
- check out Ranbaxy's figures
- get the Teva news from BusinessWeek
- read Sepracor's release