Takeda Pharmaceutical Co has posted a reasonable set of financials for the April-September 2011 period, but warned that full-year profits will be hit by the impact of its recent takeover of Nycomed and the strong yen.
Net income at Japan’s biggest drugmaker was down 5.9% to 135.70 billion yen (about $1.70 billion), while sales slipped 1.6% to 702.50 billion yen. The firm’s biggest earner, the diabetes drug Actos (pioglitazone), was hit by warnings from US and European regulators regarding an increased (but small) risk of bladder cancer and fell 12.6% to 171.00 billion yen.
Sales of the blood pressure drug Blopress (candesartan cilexetil) increased 3.1% to 112.30 billion yen, while the prostate and breast cancer treatment Leuplin (leuprorelin) climbed 8.7% to 60.90 billion yen. The gastrointestinal drug Prevacid/Takepron (lansoprazole) fell 17.1% to 62.30 billion yen, battered by generic competition in the USA, where sales crashed nearly 51%.
US sales of the multiple myeloma drug Velcade (bortezomib) were up 10% to 28.10 billion yen, while the arthritis therapy Enbrel (etanercept) grew 13.3% to 20.80 billion yen. The new gout drug Uloric (febuxostat), climbed 47.9% to 6.10 billion yen, while Dexilant (dexlansoprazole), a reformulated version of Prevacid, grew 39.7% to 10.80 billion yen.
For the full year, Takeda has reduced its net income forecast by 32% to 170.00 billion yen, due in part to acquisition costs of 77.00 billion yen ssociated with the Nycomed buy. The firm’s sales estimate, however, has been upped 6.2% to 1.450 trillion yen.
