Here's what one big drug can do: Celgene announced that it expects fiscal 2007 profits to double to $1.05 per share, as sales of its cancer drug Revlimid skyrocket. And the company projects that Revlimid will be its profit engine for 2008 as well.
Overall revenue for the company shot up by 50 percent to $1.4 billion; Revlimid's sales grew by a whopping 140 percent to $770 million-plus. As the juggernaut rolls forward, profits should grow a further 45 percent to $1.50 to $1.55 per share on a 30 percent hike in sales to $1.8 billion. And Revlimid will account for 60 percent of that figure, or about $1.25 billion.
Analysts are even more bullish on the company: They're projecting 2008 sales of more than $2 billion. The lion's share of that would come from Revlimid, though Celgene will add another blood-cancer treatment to its quiver when its buyout of Pharmion--and its drug Vidaza--closes later this year.
- see the press release from Celgene