Drugmaker Eli Lilly reports 4th-quarter profit, revenue boost from key drugs

Drugmaker Eli Lilly reports 4Q profit, sales jump

NEW YORK — Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Co. said Thursday it turned a fourth-quarter profit after recording a loss in 2008 following the buyout of cancer drug maker ImClone Systems Inc.

Eli Lilly also reconfirmed its 2010 profit guidance.

The Indianapolis company earned $915.4 million, or 83 cents per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That compares to a loss of $3.63 billion, or $3.31 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue was up 14 percent to $5.93 billion.

Excluding charges, Lilly earned 91 cents per share.

On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings per share of 92 cents for the quarter on $5.67 billion in revenue.

Sales of Lilly’s top-selling drug, the antipsychotic Zyprexa, climbed 19 percent to $1.37 billion, while the second-best seller, the antidepressant Cymbalta, saw sales rise 15 percent to $830.8 million.

For the full year, the company earned $4.33 billion, or $3.94 per share, compared with a loss of $2.07 billion, or $1.89 per share, in 2008. Revenue rose 7 percent to $21.84 billion from $20.37 billion.

In August, Lilly launched its first new product since 2005, the blood thinner Effient, in the U.S. Some analysts said the drug started slowly, as it rang up $22.6 million in third-quarter worldwide sales. Fourth-quarter sales of Effient slid to $3.8 million worldwide. Effient was launched in Europe earlier last year.

Lilly developed with Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo Co., and the companies are sharing revenue.

Some analysts say the drug could surpass $1 billion in annual sales but it faces competition from Plavix, the world’s second-bestselling medication. Plavix loses patent protection in 2012.

The Indianapolis drugmaker’s pipeline of new products under development and a wave of expirations for patents protecting some of its best sellers remains a dominant issue.

Lilly will lose patent protection for Zyprexa next year. In 2013 and 2014, Lilly will lose protection for four drugs that each generated more than $1 billion in annual sales last year, including Cymbalta and the cancer drug Gemzar.

Losing patent protection exposes the drugs to generic competition.

Looking ahead the company expects profit $4.65 and $4.85 per share in 2010, while analysts expects profit of about $4.73 per share.