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Biotech / Medical : Eli Lilly -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (161)	4/21/1998 1:06:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 640

Pfizer, Lilly lead boisterous drug parade Monday April 20, 10:03 pm Eastern Time By Ransdell Pierson NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Shares of Pfizer Inc. (PFE - news) and Eli Lilly and Co (LLY - news) vaulted higher Monday on favorable news for key new products, helping nudge the drug sector higher. Pfizer Inc. soared 8-1/4 to 113-3/8 on data from auditing group IMS America, showing a spectacular 36,263 new prescriptions were written for its new impotence drug, Viagra, for the week of April 10 -- the pill's first week on the market. The gain comes on top of a 4-1/2-point Pfizer advance Friday on expected high Viagra sales numbers that proved true. Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Tighe said even the most successful new drugs typically start out only between 1,100 and 3,500 new prescriptions during their first week of sales. ''This is a completely different order of magnitude. It looks unprecedented,'' Tighe told Reuters, referring to Viagra's initial sales. Analysts had varying estimates for Viagra's likely 1998 sales, ranging from $350 million to upwards of $1 billion. Lilly, riding strong growth in revenues from two blockbuster behavioral drugs, on Monday reported first-quarter sales and profits in line with Wall Street estimates. Prozac, prescribed for depression, and Zyprexa, for schizophrenia, generated almost 40 percent of Lilly's quarterly net sales of $2.3 billion, up from sales of $1.9 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Net income for the quarter ended March 31 was $521.1 million, or 46 cents per diluted share, up from $432.6 million, or 38 cents per diluted share, a year ago. At the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Indianapolis Monday, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Randall Tobias had little to say about continued excitement on Wall Street concerning the breast cancer-fighting potential of Evista, Lilly's new drug for preventing osteoporosis. Lilly shares rose 3-7/16 to 71-13/16 in trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, in reaction to a newspaper story citing results of an as-yet unreleased story about Evista's effectiveness in preventing breast cancer. Data on Evista's breast-cancer prevention role is expected to be announced May 17 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual conference in Los Angeles. Abstracts, or summaries, of retrospective data from earlier osteoporosis trials of Evista suggested a 58 percent reduction in breast cancer incidence among 12,000 women who participated in the trials, Wall Street analysts said. ''Lilly and Pfizer are helping the whole sector because investors are being reminded how big sales and profits can be from important drugs,'' said OrbiMed Advisors drug analyst Sven Borho. Schering-Plough Corp. (SGP - news) rose 2 to 83, while Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY - news) gained 1-5/16 to 106-5/16. Both companies report first-quarter earnings Tuesday. Warner-Lambert Co. (WLA - news) jumped 5-3/4 to 181-1/8 on continuing enthusiasm for its new cholesterol drug Lipitor. Merck and Co. (MRK - news) gained 1-5/8 to 122-1/4. Bucking the upside trend were Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - news), which fell 1-3/16 to 71-1/2, and American Home Products Corp. (AHP - news), which eased 1/2 to 94-9/16. biz.yahoo.com