Lundbeck has posted a 9% decrease in revenues for the third quarter as a result of generic competition to its flagship antidepressant Cipralex/Lexapro.

Sales came in at 3.56 billion kroner (about $609.3 million), while operating profit was flat at 661 million kroner. The antidepressant Cipralex (escitalopram) slipped 4% to 1.40 billion kroner, hit by generic competition in Spain while the US version of the product - sold by Forest Laboratories as Lexapro - sank 89%% to just 54 million kroner, due to patent expiry across the Atlantic.

The Alzheimer's disease drug Ebixa (memantine) was down 6% to 667 million kroner, while sales of Azilect (rasagiline) for Parkinson's disease increased 9% to 328 million kroner. As for Lundbeck's newer products, Xenazine (tetrabenazine) for the treatment of chorea associated with Huntington's disease posted sales of 317 million kroner, up 64%, while epilepsy drug Sabril (vigabatrin) brought in 123 million kroner, an increase of 59%.

Lundbeck also noted that in the first nine months of 2012, the antipsychotic Sycrest/Saphris (asenapine) generated revenues of around 75 million kroner, while Onfi (clobazam) for the treatment of Lennox Gastaut-syndrome, which was launched in the USA in January 2012, "has been well received by physicians". Revenue for the first nine months was 174 million kroner.

Chief executive Ulf Wiinberg said "I am also very pleased with the strategic progress of our new product launches and our geographic expansion.” He also noted that the firm's new antidepressant vortioxetine has now been filed in Europe, Canada "and the very important US market".

For full-year 2012, Lundbeck still expects revenues of 14.50-15.20 billion kroner, down from 2011's total of just over 16 billion kroner, and it is likely to be at the lower end of the range. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation should be in the region of 3.00-3.50 billion kroner, down from EBITDA of 4.63 billion kroner last year.