US generic drugmaker Mylan Laboratories felt the pinch of competition in the third quarter, with revenues dropping 3% to $298 million – well short of analyst consensus estimates – as pricing pressures affected its product portfolio.
For the quarter, Mylan’s net profit for the quarter declined 26% to $35.8 million, or 16 cents per share, although the company said it would have earned 22 cents per share without litigation costs and other special items, including restructuring charges in the wake of its failed merger with king Pharmaceuticals earlier this year [[28/02/05b]].
Mylan is closing its brandname business, Mylan Bertek, in order to focus on generic activities, and is also trying to license out its developmental hypertension drug nebivolol, deemed ‘approvable’ by the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year [[02/06/05f]].
On the plus side, Mylan noted that new products launched in the past year brought in revenues of $34 million, with the major contributor being the company’s generic version of Johnson & Johnson’s Duragesic (fentanyl) analgesic patch, which was introduced in the USA in January.
In a conference call, Mylan chief executive Robert Coury said he expected to have a partner for nebivolol by the end of the year, and suggested that the wave of consolidation washing over the generics sector would continue. Mylan is on the lookout for acquisition candidates, he suggested.
