Drug maker Forest Laboratories Inc. said Tuesday its fiscal first-quarter profit decreased 9 percent, as it took a large charge after ending an agreement to promote a hypertension drug with Daiichi Sankyo.
In May, Forest withdrew from a pact to co-promote the drug Azor, saying it wanted to provide more support for its own products. It agreed to make a payment of $44.1 million to Daiichi Sankyo, which reduced its first-quarter profit by 8 cents per share, to $242.9 million, or 79 cents per share. Its revenue for the period grew 4 percent, to $966.8 million.
A year ago, the company earned $268.2 million, or 83 cents per share, on $928.3 million in revenue. According to Thomson Financial, analysts expected Forest to post a profit of 80 cents per share on $974.1 million in revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2008.
In morning trading, the stock fell 27 cents to $35.56.
Sales of Forest's top-selling drug, the antidepressant Lexapro, rose 6 percent to $583.1 million, while revenue from its Alzheimer's disease drug Namenda grew 14 percent, to $218.6 million. Revenue from Benicar, which Forest promotes with Daiichi Sankyo, came in at $52.4 million, about even with the first quarter of fiscal 2008.
Sales of Bystolic, a hypertension drug that was launched in January, totaled $4.4 million.
The company maintained its profit forecast of $3.10 to $3.20 per share for the year ending March 31, 2009. Excluding the payment to Daiichi Sankyo, the middle of Forest's outlook was above expectations.
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