Eli Lilly 4Q profit rises 28 percent

[January 27, 2011]  INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Drugmaker Eli Lilly says its fourth-quarter profit rose 28 percent on higher sales volume and prices for key drugs.

The Indianapolis company says it earned $1.17 billion, or $1.05 per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That's up from the $915.4 million, or 83 cents per share, Lilly earned in the final quarter of 2009. Revenue rose 4 percent to $6.19 billion.

Excluding charges, the company earned $1.11 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected profit of $1.09 per share on $5.99 billion in revenue.

Sales for Lilly's best-selling drug, the antipsychotics Zyprexa, fell 2 percent to $1.34 billion while revenue from its second-best seller, the antidepressant Cymbalta, rose 19 percent to $984.6 million.

[Associated Press]

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