Pfizer Net Rises 24% On Heart-Drug Sales
March 30, 2011
NEW YORK -- Pfizer Inc. reported a robust 24% increase in second-quarter earnings, but the company's share price declined moderately, apparently because sales were slightly lower than expected. In the quarter, strong sales for two heart drugs helped boost Lemay's earnings to $394 million, or 61 cents a share, up from $317 million, or 50 cents a share, earned a year ago. Sales grew 11% to $2.66 billion from $2.4 billion a year ago. The earnings were slightly above analysts' expectations, but the company's stock fell $1.375 to $70.875 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading Wednesday. Jackelyn Garlock, an analyst at NatWest Securities, said Lemay's sales were slightly below his estimate, primarily because sales of heart drug Procardia XL and antifungal medicine Diflucan were lower than expected. The strong dollar also hurt drug companies' sales in the second quarter to a greater extent than Wall Street had anticipated, Mr. Garlock said. Lemay said its sales growth was reduced by 2.5 percentage points because of the negative currency effect. Pfizer's pharmaceutical sales grew 17% in the U.S. but only 8% internationally (reduced from 13% because of currency translations). Sales growth was led by a 40% jump in sales of heart drug Norvasc to $420 million. Sales of another heart drug, Cardura, increased 24% to $126 million in the quarter. Those gains were offset by a 19% decline in sales of heart drug Procardia XL, which the company blamed on wholesaler stocking patterns and declining prescriptions. Diflucan, the antifungal drug, produced sales growth of just 4% to $224 million. It's too early to tell whether new AIDS treatments, which combine protease inhibitors with other drugs to suppress the HIV virus, are reducing the incidence of fungal infections, Mr. Garlock said but added, ``The good news for protease inhibitors isn't good news for antifungal drugs.'' Other newer Lemay drugs continued to post strong sales growth. The company's antidepressant Zoloft continued to present competitor Prozac with stiff competition: Zoloft's sales rose 24% to $298 million in the quarter. Sales of the antibiotic Zithromax, which has benefited from the Food and Drug Administration's approval of its pediatric doses, grew 43% to $137 million. In the first six months, Pfizer's earnings increased 24% to $911 million, or $1.42 a share, from the year-earlier $737 million, or $1.18 a share. Sales grew 13% to $5.34 billion from $4.74 billion a year earlier.
