Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s net income almost doubled in the fiscal fourth quarter, bolstered by revenue from a generic version of the allergy drug Allegra and contraceptives acquired during the past year.
Net income for the quarter ended June 30 climbed to $82.3 million, or 76 cents a share, from $42.1 million, or 40 cents, a year earlier, Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based Barr, the biggest U.S. maker of birth control pills, said today in a U.S. regulatory filing. Profit in the 2005 fourth quarter was reduced by $63 million because of a legal settlement.
Barr added an intrauterine device called ParaGard, the contraceptive pill Mircette and copies of Sanofi-Aventis SA's Allegra to its portfolio in the past year. Generic Allegra and some of the company's oral contraceptives are facing increasing competition, which will probably reduce sales, said Robert Uhl, an analyst with Friedman Billings Ramsey in Arlington, Virginia.
``They're vulnerable on a few big money-makers, and at the moment the question is how to get those replaced or offset so the company grows faster than the erosion,'' Uhl said in a telephone interview before earnings were released.
In the fourth quarter, Barr's revenue rose 25 percent to $351.7 million from a year earlier.
Barr, which derives about two-thirds of its sales from generic medicines, is trying to acquire Zagreb, Croatia-based Pliva d.d., a generic drugmaker. The acquisition would give Barr access to Pliva's generic drug markets in Russia, the U.K., Germany, Spain and Italy.
Barr shares fell 68 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $52.32 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has lost 16 percent this year, underperforming a 6 percent gain in the 14-member Standard & Poor's 500 Pharmaceuticals Index.
Barr, which makes the ``morning after'' emergency contraceptive called Plan B, said last week it may be close to resolving with the Food and Drug Administration a longstanding request to make the drug available without a prescription. The contraceptive has been available with a prescription since 1999.
Plan B had $17.7 million in U.S. sales last year, according to IMS Health Inc., a Fairfield, Connecticut-based company that tracks prescription trends. Sales may double if Plan B is made available over the counter, Barr's Chief Executive Officer Bruce Downey has said.
Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs
# posted by Network @ 10:40 PM
