UPDATE: Teva 1Q Profit Up 13% On Branded, Generic Drug Sales
09 Mai 2012 - 4:08PM
Dow Jones News
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) said Wednesday its
first-quarter profit rose 13%, as sales growth for branded and
generic drugs in the U.S. and emerging markets helped offset
Europe's poor performance.
Teva's overall revenue, however, fell short of Wall Street
expectations. Teva said its recent efforts to restructure its drug
distribution agreements in the U.S. and negative currency-exchange
rates hurt revenue for the quarter.
The company also declined to update prior financial guidance for
2012, as new chief executive Jeremy Levin said he wanted to
complete a business-performance review first.
Teva's American depositary shares declined 3% to $43.12 in
pre-market trading.
Israel-based Teva is a company in transition. It's the world's
biggest maker of generic drugs by sales, but it has expanded its
footprint in the market for branded, proprietary drugs, including
its October 2011 purchase of Cephalon for $6.5 billion.
In addition, Levin, a former Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY)
executive, took over as Teva's chief executive Wednesday, replacing
Shlomo Yanai in a move announced in January.
On a conference call with analysts, Levin said he expects to
unveil a strategy for Teva's future later this year. He said he
hopes to build on Teva's past achievements and capitalize on new
opportunities.
Levin said until he completes a business review, "we'll not be
addressing our guidance" for 2012. Teva had previously predicted
adjusted full-year earnings of $5.48 to $5.68 per share, excluding
various items.
For the first quarter, Teva's profit rose to $859 million, or 97
cents a share, from $761 million, or 84 cents a share, a year
earlier.
Excluding amortization of purchased intangible assets and other
items in both periods, earnings rose to $1.47 per share from $1.04
a share a year earlier, exceeding the $1.44-per-share mean estimate
of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Teva sales rose 25% to $5.1 billion from $4.1 billion a year
earlier, falling short of the $5.5 billion Thomson estimate. Teva
said the renegotiated distribution agreements cut branded-drug
revenue by about $180 million for the quarter.
Net revenues in the U.S. were $2.8 billion in this year's first
quarter, representing 54% of total revenues and a 46% rise from the
first quarter of 2011.
Teva attributed the U.S. gain to the launch of seven new generic
products that weren't sold a year earlier, and a rise in branded
drug sales primarily due to the inclusion of Cephalon.
Teva has recently begun selling a generic version of Eli Lilly
& Co.'s (LLY) antipsychotic Zyprexa, and also receives a
portion of sales from Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.'s (500359.BY)
generic version of Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) Lipitor cholesterol-lowering
drug.
Teva's global revenue from Copaxone, a branded treatment for
multiple sclerosis, rose 8% to $909 million.
Net revenues in Europe were $1.3 billion--representing 26% of
total revenues--down 2% compared to the first quarter of last year.
Teva said generic-drug sales declined in Europe due to
macro-economic weakness and health-care reforms in key markets.
Net revenues in the rest of the world, which includes Canada,
Israel, certain markets in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia,
totaled $1 billion, or representing 20% of total revenues, up 21%
on the same year-ago period.
Teva also declared an unchanged quarterly cash dividend
equivalent to 26.3 cents per share at Tuesday's exchange rates.
-By Sten Stovall, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9292;
sten.stovall@dowjones.com
-Peter Loftus, Dow Jones Newswires; +1-215-982-5581;
peter.loftus@dowjones.com