BioChem Pharma Dn; 1Q Lamivudine Sales Lower Than Expected
By MARY WEIL
Dow Jones Newswires
TORONTO -- BioChem Pharma Inc.'s (BCHE) stock is off Friday after the company reported lower-than-expected lamivudine sales in the first quarter, analysts said.
Eric Ende, an analyst with Lehman Brothers Inc., said sales of BioChem's drug to treat chronic hepatitis B came in at US$800,000, below his estimate of US$6.5 million.
As a result, Ende has ratcheted down his lamivudine sales outlook for the rest of the year, as well as his earnings outlook for 1999.
Ende said he lowered his 1999 net income outlook to 82 U.S. cents a share from his previous estimate of 88 U.S. cents a share.
In 1998, BioChem earned 71 U.S. cents a share, or C$1.06 a share.
The fact that lamivudine sales were so low rekindled uncertainty about the potential of the drug, said Michael Jams, an analyst with Levesque Beaubien Geoffrion Inc.
But Jams stressed that broad conclusions can't be drawn about lamivudine's long-term prospects based on sales in just one quarter.
In Nasdaq trading Friday, BioChem's stock is off 1 1/2, or 6.8%, at 20 1/2 on about 1.9 million shares.
The company's stock has already taken a beating this year, falling from a 52-week high of 30 1/4 on Nasdaq near the beginning of January.
Earlier in the year, several analysts wrote reports warning about what a proposed change in U.S. accounting rules could do to BioChem's income statement.
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