>>CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Abbott Laboratories makes lots of drugs. But when it releases first-quarter earnings early Wednesday, the focus will be on one: the recently approved Humira.
Abbott launched Humira, a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, with a good deal of hype early this year after a quicker-than-expected approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (News - Websites). Abbott considers Humira one of its most important product introductions; Abbott's first quarter will be judged in part by how well Humira sales went, even though they won't be high enough yet to have much of an effect on total sales.
"All eyes are on Humira," said Glenn Novarro, analyst with Banc of America Securities (News - Websites) LLC.
Overall, analysts expect Abbott to report 7% to 8% year-over-year sales growth in the quarter not including a positive foreign currency effect, but negative year-over-year earnings due to the costs associated with launching Humira and various Humira clinical trials. Analysts project first-quarter revenue of around $4.5 billion before foreign-currency adjustment.
A Thomson First Call survey of analysts predicted first-quarter earnings per share of 51 cents for the company, down about 5.5% from year-ago earnings per share of 54 cents. In the fourth quarter, Abbott fell one cent shy of projections with earnings per share of 55 cents
Humira, which Abbott expects to eventually achieve $1 billion a year in sales, has arguably become even more crucial to the company since February, when Abbott's in-development cancer drug atrasentan didn't meet a key goal in a Phase III prostate cancer trial.
Novarro expects Abbott to meet the Street consensus for earnings. He looks for first-quarter Humira sales of $20 million, with the drug on target to reach Abbott's projected mark of $150 million or more for the full calendar year.
Other analysts say Humira sales have been so impressive that Abbott might raise its estimate for full-year Humira revenue toward $200 million.
"With weekly sales in the $2 million to $2.5 million range exiting the quarter, Humira seems to be running ahead of Abbott's internal goal of $150 million and our $168 million forecast," said Dan Lemaitre, analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co. He suspects full-year estimates for Humira will rise toward $200 million and 2004 sales will reach $700 million.
Lemaitre rates Abbott a buy and doesn't own any shares. Merrill Lynch has no investment-banking relationship with Abbott.<<
snip
Cheers, Tuck |
