Lundbeck has posted fairly flat earnings for the third quarter but revenues climbed 16%, pretty much in line with analyst estimates.
Net income came in at 605 million kroner, about $120 million, compared with 611 million kroner in the like, year-earlier period. Revenues reached 3.26 billion kroner.
Lexapro (escitalopram), sold in the USA by licensee Forest Laboratories, had flat sales of 600 million kroner, but that represented a 10% rise at constant exchange rates. Turnover of Lundbeck’s own Cipralex brand of the antidepressant advanced just 2% to 1.26 billion kroner.
The Alzheimer’s disease drug Ebixa (memantine) climbed 14% to 548 million kroner, while sales of Azilect (rasagiline), for Parkinson’s disease, leapt 43% to 93 million kroner. Xenazine (tetrabenazine) for the treatment of chorea associated with Huntington’s disease, which was launched in the USA in November 2008, had sales of 89 million kroner, up from 81 million kroner in the second quarter of the year.
Highlight of the quarter was the launch of Sabril (vigabatrin) for the treatment of refractory complex partial seizures and the treatment of infantile spasms. The drug, which Lundbeck notes is the only treatment approved by the US Food and Drug Administration “to help manage this difficult-to-treat condition”, was acquired by the firm through its purchase of Ovation Pharmaceuticals earlier this year.
The Danish company, which also posted a 35% rise in R&D spending to 769 million kroner, reiterated its previous full-year guidance for operating profit of 2.8–3 billion kroner and sales of 13.1–13.6 billion kroner.
