|
Asthma drug boosts GSK
|
 |
February 14, 2002: 8:13 a.m. ET
Europe's biggest drug company expects sold growth this year and next
|
LONDON (CNN) - GlaxoSmithKline, Europe's biggest drug maker, said fourth-quarter earnings rose 16 percent on strong demand for new asthma drug Advair.
Earnings, before merger and restructuring costs, for the three months to December 31 rose to £1.2 billion compared with £1.06 billion in the year ago period. Earnings per share rose to 20.4 pence from 17.5p.
GSK, formed by the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham in December 2000, promised solid profit growth for this year and next. It had previously said earnings would grow 13 percent in 2001.
"GSK expects business performance to deliver earnings per share growth in the mid-teens in 2002 and low-teens or better in 2003," the company said in a statement.�
In a cautionary note, it said growth would depend on it successfully defending its patents on antibiotic Augmentin and antidepressant Paxil. Like its rivals, GSK is vigorously defending its grip on the patents as generic producers attempt to break its stranglehold.
GSK's stock rose 2.7 percent to 1,790 pence in midday London trading after the release of its earnings.
Its asthma drug Advair, launched in the United States last April, was the best performer among its portfolio, with sales of £850 million.
GSK has a strong cabinet of respiratory medicine but investors are looking for reassurance that the company is addressing a looming gap in new products beyond 2003. Cost savings from the merger are expected to evaporate by next year and legal challenges to its patents could also seriously dent earnings.
AstraZeneca, Europe's second biggest drug company, said late last month it was working hard to drum up sales for ulcer drug Nexium because the patent on its best-selling ulcer pill Losec is at an end. It warned earnings would decline as it prepares to launch new products to replace its Losec.
Losec was the world's best selling drug with annual sales of more than $6 billion in 2000.
The Anglo-Swedish drug maker's outcome for 2002 hinges on a legal battle now being fought in a New York court over patents on Losec, which is sold as Prilosec in the U.S. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
