Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has posted another very strong set of financials for the second quarter, boosted by sales of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone and a host of generics launches in the USA.
Net income rose 53% to $797 million, while sales increased 12% to $3.80 billion. Turnover rose 17% in North America to $2.47 billion, helped by the launch of generic versions of Merck & Co’s antihypertensives Cozaar (losartan) and Hyzaar (losartan/hydrochlorothiazide) and Bayer’s contraceptive Yaz (drospirenone/ethinyl estradiol).
The figures were also helped by continued strong sales of Teva’s versions of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Mirapex (pramipexole) for Parkinson’s disease, Sanofi-Aventis’ cancer drug Eloxatin and AstraZeneca’s asthma drug Pulmicort Respules (budesonide).
The Israeli company’s branded business was again dominated by Copaxone (glatiramer acetate). The treatment brought in $773 million, an increase of 13%, and it remains the world’s best-selling MS therapy.
Sales of Azilect (rasagiline) for Parkinson’s disease reached $70 million, up 29%. Global respiratory revenues were up 17% at $221 million, while Teva’s women’s health business, which was acquired as part of its acquisition of Barr last year, had sales of $82 million, up 3%. Active pharmaceutical ingredient sales to third parties totalled $163 million, a rise of 21%
The company noted that as of July 16, it had 206 product applications awaiting final US Food and Drug Administration approval. The company believes it will be the first to file on 82 of these applications, relating to products whose annual US branded sales are worth over $48 billion.
In Europe, since the beginning of 2010, Teva has received 594 generic approvals in Europe relating to 111 compounds in 209 formulations, As of June 30, it had over 2,570 marketing authorisation applications pending approval, relating to 241 compounds in 470 formulations.
Chief executive Shlomo Yanai said “this was truly a superb quarter, in which Teva achieved record-breaking results, including outstanding organic growth”. He added that it was an especially strong quarter in North America, where we had nine new product launches, and in Europe, where we experienced solid growth (sales up 4%) despite the challenging market environment”.
Mr Yanai added that he expects the 3.63 billion euro acquisition of German generics firm Ratiopharm to be completed by the end of this quarter, ahead of schedule.
Analysts were impressed with the figures but Teva’s stock has struggled in the last week since the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first generic version of Sanofi-Aventis’ blood clot treatment Lovenox (enoxaparin) made by Novartis’ Sandoz unit and Momenta Pharmaceuticals. That green light caused concern among Teva investors who are worried that the FDA could approve a copycat version of Copaxone, which is said to be complicated to manufacture, like Lovenox.
Teva, which itself is waiting to hear from the FDA about a generic version of Lovenox, has previously said it does not believe Copaxone copycats will be approved before 2013 or 2014, when its patents expire.
