Forest Labs 3rd-qtr profit grows on sales of Namenda and newer products, Lexapro revenue dips

New drug sales lift Forest 3Q profit 12 percent

NEW YORK — Drugmaker Forest Laboratories Inc. said Tuesday its profit grew 12 percent in the fiscal third quarter due to stronger sales of its Alzheimer’s disease treatment Namenda as well as newer drugs.

Forest’s profit rose to $210.2 million, or 69 cents per share, from $188 million, or 62 cents per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31. Excluding one-time expenses, Forest said its profit fell to 97 cents per share from $1.03 per share.

Revenue, which includes product sales, contract revenue and interest income, grew 7 percent to $1.06 billion from $998 million.

According to Thomson Reuters, analysts were expecting a profit of 86 cents per share and $1.04 billion in revenue. Analyst estimates usually leave out one-time items.

In December, Forest licensed a chronic lung disease and asthma drug called LAS100977 from Almirall SA, a Spanish drugmaker. The license fee amounted to $75 million, or 25 cents per share. Forest also posted a restructuring charge of 3 cents per share.

Quarterly sales of its antidepressant Lexapro slipped less than 1 percent, to $582.6 million. Namenda sales grew 17 percent to $282.5 million. Sales of its high blood pressure drug Bystolic, which was launched in early 2008, more than doubled to $47.5 million. Revenue from the fibromyalgia drug Savella, launched in April, was $15.4 million.

Forest said its contract revenue edged up 6 percent, $55.8 million from $52.4 million, and its interest income dropped to $7.3 million from $24.2 million. Other income grew to $4.6 million from $1.3 million.

In morning trading, shares of the New York company rose 87 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $31.53.