REH> stocksandmoney.com has a STRONG BUY recommendation on RNA
REH, What is the idea of using YOUR OWN web site www.stocksandmoney.com to promote this stock??
Isn't that just a little unethical? Even for you!
BTW since you are conveniently missing, I thought I would post this for you.
Ribapharm quarterly profit falls 30 pct
Thursday May 1, 6:50 pm ET
By Deena Beasley
LOS ANGELES, May 1 (Reuters) - Ribapharm Inc. (NYSE:RNA - News) said on Thursday its first-quarter earnings fell 30 percent due to higher costs and lower sales of its hepatitis C drug ribavirin, which is facing new competition.
The company, based in Costa Mesa, California, posted net income of $21 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with $30 million, or 20 cents a share, a year ago. Wall Street analysts on average expected a profit of 19 cents a share, according to research firm Thomson First Call (News - Websites).
The company said royalty revenue from sales of ribavirin -- an antiviral drug developed by Ribapharm and marketed by Schering-Plough Corp. (NYSE:SGP - News) fell to $48.6 million from $57 million in the first quarter of 2002.
Ribapharm attributed the nearly 15-percent sales drop to competitive efforts on the part of Schering in response to Roche Holding AG's (ROCZg.VX) launch late last year of a Pegasys/Copegus, competing combination hepatitis C treatment.
Larry Smith, an analyst at Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co., said Schering probably acted in the fourth quarter of last year to stock wholesaler inventories in order to clog channels and make it harder for Roche to sell its product. Schering may also have cut its price, the analyst said.
"The shortfall wasn't due to demand -- prescriptions were up 67 percent in the quarter," Smith said.
In January, Roche said it would price its drug 43 percent below the Ribapharm product. Analysts, noting that drugs are commonly sold to wholesalers at a discount to list prices, put the price gap at about 20 percent.
Ribapharm officials, during a post-earnings conference call, declined to detail Schering's "competitive efforts." The company also declined to issue financial guidance for 2003.
Early this year in settlement of a patent dispute, Roche agreed to pay an undisclosed royalty to Ribapharm.
Roche said last month that its hepatitis C treatment had captured 19 percent of the overall U.S. prescription market and just over 26 percent of new prescriptions.
Ribavirin may also face competition from generic drug makers, which have challenged Ribapharm's patents. Kim Lamon, Ribapharm's chief executive, said court action on those patent challenges is expected over the next few weeks.
"We continue to believe in the strength and validity of our ribavirin patents," the CEO said.
Shares of Ribapharm, which closed at $4.40 on the New York Stock Exchange (News - Websites), were not trading after hours.
Ribapharm, which is developing another treatment for hepatitis C and a drug for hepatitis B, was partially spun off in April 2002 by ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE:ICN - News), which still owns more than 80 percent of the company. |
