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.c The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Eli Lilly & Co. said Monday its third-quarter earnings
rose almost 10 percent, due in part to strong sales of its newest products
including Zyprexa, a drug used to treat schizophrenia.
Strong worldwide sales also helped boost earnings.
The Indianapolis-based drug manufacturer earned $456.9 million, or 41 cents
per share, on net sales of $2.1 billion. That compares with earnings of
$415.6 million, or 38 cents per share, on net sales of $1.8 billion in the
third quarter of 1996.
The results were in line with Wall Street expectations. Eli Lilly's stock
rose $1.87 1/2 to close at $64.62 1/2 on the New York Stock Exchange.
''Our new products continue to grow strongly in the marketplace highlighted
by the success of Zyprexa. In its first 12 months on the market, Zyprexa
sales totaled $550 million,'' Randall L. Tobias, Lilly chairman and chief
executive, said in a statement. ''Of our total sales growth in the third
quarter, new-product sales accounted for more than 74 percent of that
growth.''
Zyprexa had sales totalling $202 million in the third quarter, up 29 percent
from the second quarter. Zyprexa is being marketed in 26 countries, and is
cleared for marketing in 49 countries throughout the world.
Lilly also announced Monday it has entered into a strategic alliance with
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. to develop new products to treat advanced
diabetes, cardiovascular and related therapies.
Lilly will get the rights to Targretin, an oral therapy currently in early
clinical development for Type II diabetes; two second generation oral
diabetes compounds in preclinical development; and the rights to Ligand's
metabolic disease technology to develop more advanced diabetes,
cardiovascular and related therapies.
For the first nine months of the year, Lilly lost $842.6 million, or 77 cents
per share, on sales of $6.1 billion. That compares with earnings of $1.15
billion, or $1.05 per share, on sales of $5.3 billion during the same period
in 1996.
The losses this year reflect the impact of Lilly's $2.4 billion writedown of
a pharmacy benefits subsidiary.
AP-NY-10-20-97 1819EDT |
