Staying at Par?

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Now that it has finally caught up with its financial statements, after falling behind to restate earnings from 2006, investors can see how Par Pharmaceutical (NYSE: PRX) did in 2007.

Revenue rose only 6% year over year, but the bottom line made investors happy. Even with higher research and development costs, licensing a few branded drugs helped Par double its adjusted income from continuing operations. Lower administrative costs contributed to a lot of that increase, but so did selling higher-margin products. Looks like I should throw Par onto my list of companies benefiting from a shift to higher-margin products.

The bright spot for the company last year was clearly its branded-drug business, which grew revenue 72% and in-licensed three phase 3 drugs. It even added a fourth phase 3 drug -- Onconase, a potential oncology product from Alfacell (Nasdaq: ACEL) -- at the beginning of this year. Investors shouldn't have to wait long to see whether these licensing deals will pay off. Clinical trial data for both Onconase and Loramyc are due in the first half of this year.

There was one sour spot for the branded business: Development of one of the products it licensed, Pafuramidine, has been discontinued. The good news is that Par lost only the $3 million up-front payment it made to Immtech, so it wasn't a huge disaster.

On the generics side, there might be a little more uncertainty. The company had some pretty big launches last year, but it's seeing pricing pressure on almost all of its products. Par plans to launch a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE: GSK) Imitrex in the fourth quarter, and it has a few more possibilities for 2009 and beyond, but the near-term future of the company seems uncertain.

Lumpy revenues are a fact of life in the generic-drug industry. Indeed, it looks like Par Pharmaceutical may have trouble staying at par this year.