Eli Lilly posts 3Q profit ahead of Street views

[October 21, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Eli Lilly & Co. said Wednesday it turned a profit in the third quarter as a legal costs came off its books, and the drugmaker raised its forecasts for the year.

The Indianapolis company said it earned $941.8 million, or 86 cents per share. Excluding restructuring and other costs, Lilly earned $1.20 per share. Thomson Reuters says analysts expected $1.02 per share.

A year ago, Lilly lost $465.6 million, or 43 cents per share, after setting aside almost $1.5 billion to settle government investigations into the marketing of Zyprexa, its top selling drug.

Most of the restructuring costs came from Lilly's sale of a manufacturing plant in Indiana. It sold a facility in Lafayette, Ind., to Evonik Industries for an undisclosed amount. Lilly took a charge of 23 cents per share on the sale, which is part of a plan to cut thousands of jobs and $1 billion in annual spending by the end of 2011.

Revenue grew 7 percent to $5.56 billion from $5.21 billion. Wall Street expected $5.41 billion. Sales of anti-psychotic Zyprexa rose 3 percent to $1.22 billion. Sales of cancer drug Alimta jumped 47 percent to $461.9 million. Sales of antidepressant Cymbalta, insulin drug Humalog and erectile dysfunction drug Cialis rose. However, sales of cancer drug Gemzar skidded 25 percent.

Sales of blood thinner Effient totaled $22.6 million. Lilly began selling Effient in August, marking its first launch of a new product since 2005. Patent protection on Zyprexa will end in 2011, and in 2013, Cymbalta, Humalog and Gemzar will all go off-patent.

Eli Lilly cut its sales costs by about $100 million in the third quarter, but that was more than offset by greater spending on research and development and marketing.

The company now expects an adjusted profit of $4.30 to $4.40 per share, excluding one-time items, up from $4.20 to $4.30 per share. Analysts expected $4.29 per share. It called for revenue growth in the mid-single digits from 2008's total of $20.34 billion.

[Associated Press]

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