Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has posted another very strong set of financials for the second quarter, boosted by the contribution of recently-acquired Barr Pharmaceuticals and its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.
Net income was up 25% to $742 million, although includi
ng items, some related to the Barr acquisition, it was down 2.3% to $521 million. Sales jumped 20% to $3.40 billion, and rose 36% in North America to $2.05 billion.
The latter benefited from the launch of a generic of Shire’s Adderall XR (amphetamine salts) for attention deficit hyperactiv
ity disorder, plus continued strong sales of copycat versions of Novartis’ blood-pressure-lowering treatment Lotrel (almodipine/benazepril), Bayer’s contraceptive Yasmin (drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol), Wyeth’s antiulcerant Protonix (pantoprazole) and GlaxoSmithKline’s migraine drug Imi
trex (sumatriptan).
The company noted that as of July 21, it had 198 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 $54 bi
llion. In Europe, Teva has 3,275 marketing authorisation applications pending approval, relating to 214 compounds in 448 formulations.
The company’s branded business was again dominated by Copaxone (glatiramer acetate). The treatment brought in a record $682 million, an increase of 21%, and
continues to be the number one MS therapy in the USA.
Sales of Azilect (rasagiline) for Parkinson’s disease reached $55 million, up 31%, while global respiratory revenues were up 13% at $189 million. Teva’s women’s health business, which was acquired as part of the Barr purchase, had sales of $80 million, up 4%.
Chief executive Shlomo Yanai said that the Barr integration “continues to run ahead of schedule and we are realising more synergies more quickly than we had initially forecast”. He added that “a quarter like this one, when we had only one key launch, but still delivered the best numbers in our history, provides a very clear demonstration of Teva’s unique qualities and the strength of [its] growth momentum”.
