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Biotech / Medical : Pharma News Only (pfe,mrk,wla, sgp, ahp, bmy, lly) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (387)	6/22/1998 3:16:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 1722

U.S. Drugmakers' Profits Rise on New Products: Industry Outlook Bloomberg News June 22, 1998, 3:06 p.m. ET U.S. Drugmakers' Profits Rise on New Products: Industry Outlook June 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. drugmakers, led by Warner- Lambert Co., will report higher second-quarter profits because they're making more efficient or more convenient medicines, such as Pfizer Inc.'s impotence pill Viagra. Warner-Lambert Co.'s earnings are surging on sales of its year-old drug Lipitor, which cuts cholesterol at lower doses than rival products such as Merck & Co.'s Zocor. Drugmakers also are benefiting from newfound freedom to run television commercials for their products. These ads are helping make people aware of medicine for chronic conditions such as high cholesterol and allergies. The aging of the U.S. population, meanwhile, is spurring demand for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s heart and diabetes drugs and for bone protectors from Merck and Eli Lilly & Co. ''More than that, the drugmakers are executing, and executing well,'' said Mark Stoeckle, who manages the $900 million Colonial U.S. Stock Fund. ''Most people just focus on one drug or two. There's a lot more to Pfizer than one drug, a lot more to Merck than one drug.'' Pfizer could beat estimates by a penny or so because of Viagra's unprecedented success, analysts said. The drugmaker is forecast to earn 43 cents a diluted share, the average estimate of analysts polled by IBES International Inc. It earned 34 cents a year ago. Although Viagra became one of the best-selling drugs in the U.S. within weeks of its introduction, many analysts said they want to see a quarter's worth of prescription data before raising their estimates. Pfizer In addition to Viagra, Pfizer began selling its antibiotic Trovan this year. The New York-based drugmaker also makes the antidepressant Zoloft and heart medicines such as Procardia and Norvasc. Pfizer has an agreement to sell Warner-Lambert's Lipitor and profits from those sales. Warner-Lambert, which also sells the diabetes treatment Rezulin and Hall's cough drops, is expected to earn 35 cents a diluted share, up from 28 cents a share, adjusted for a 3-for-1 stock split, according to IBES. Lipitor has grown in part by taking market share from the world's top-selling cholesterol reducer, Merck's Zocor. Fighting back, Merck has been running commercials on television to boost Zocor sales. Since August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has let drugmakers say more about their products on the air. Merck, which with $14 billion in worldwide pharmaceutical sales last year is the largest U.S. drugmaker, put four new drugs on the market in the past year, including Propecia, a pill to treat baldness. The Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based drugmaker is expected to earn $1.08 a diluted share, up from 96 cents, according to analysts polled by IBES. Like Merck, Schering-Plough Corp. also is running ads to boost sales of its top-selling product, the allergy pill Claritin. It is expected to earn 60 cents a diluted share, up from 51 cents. The drug industry spent $844 million on direct-to-consumer advertising in 1997, up from $595 million in 1996, according to IMS Health, an industry group. Company 2nd-Qtr Year-Ago Number of Estimate EPS Analysts Abbott Laboratories $0.37 $0.34 13 American Home Products 0.39 0.35 25 Bristol- Myers Squibb 0.82 0.74 24 Johnson & Johnson 0.74 0.66 20 Eli Lilly 0.43 0.38 26 Merck 1.08 0.96 31 Pfizer 0.43 0.34 30 Pharmacia 0.37 0.35 15 Schering-Plough 0.60 0.51 25 Warner-Lambert 0.36 0.28 26 --Kerry Dooley in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (387)	6/22/1998 3:27:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 1722

Merck & Co. Reiterated 'Buy' at Cowen & Co. Bloomberg News June 22, 1998, 7:46 a.m. PT Princeton, New Jersey, June 22 (Bloomberg Data) -- Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK US) was reiterated ''buy'' by analyst Ian C. Sanderson at Cowen & Co. -- Andrew Bekoff in Princeton, New Jersey, (609)279-3652

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (387)	6/22/1998 3:29:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1722

Higher U.S. Sales Sends World Drug Market Up 6% in Last 52 Wks Bloomberg News June 22, 1998, 10:50 a.m. PT Higher U.S. Sales Sends World Drug Market Up 6% in Last 52 Wks London, June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Surging sales of sedatives, antidepressants and tranquilizers pushed retail drug sales up 11 percent in the year to March in the U.S., the world's fastest- growing major drug market, market research firm IMS Health said. Prescription drug sales through pharmacies in North America, the largest drug market, grew to $72.8 billion, with the U.S. making up $68.6 billion of those sales, IMS said in a report. The U.S. proved to be the key driver in the $179 billion drug industry for the year. The global industry grew 6 percent in the year to March 1998 in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, the largest markets. U.S. growth was fueled largely by central nervous system drugs, now the largest U.S. class at $14.5 billion in 1997 sales. Of these, antidepressants like Eli Lilly & Co.'s Prozac and SmithKline Beecham Plc's Paxil surged 20 percent to $5 billion, while sedatives and tranquilizers grew 28 percent to $2.5 billion, IMS said. Growth in the five largest European markets -- the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain -- grew 5 percent to $49.4 billion. Recession-shocked Japan, the world's third-largest drug market, was alone of the major markets in posting a sales revenue drop of 5 percent, to $40.3 billion. In Japan and Europe, drug prices are typically controlled by central government regulators, which routinely cut drug reimbursement levels to save costs. In the U.S., drug prices are subject to private negotiations in a decentralized market. IMS also published a listing of the world's top 20 drug companies sales to both pharmacies and hospitals in 1997. Starting with the largest, they are: 1. Merck & Co. 2. Glaxo Wellcome Plc 3. Novartis AG 4. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. 5. Johnson & Johnson Co. 6. Pfizer Inc. 7. American Home Products Corp. 8. SmithKline Beecham Plc 9. Hoechst AG 10. Eli Lilly & Co. 11. Roche Holding AG 12. Abbott Laboratories 13. Schering-Plough Corp. 14. Bayer AG 15. Astra AS 16. Warner-Lambert Co. 17. Rhone-Poulenc SA 18. Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. 19. Boehringer Ingelheim AG 20. Takeda Chemical Co. Ltd. --Dane Hamilton in the London newsroom (44-171) 330-7727/mpk