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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 (513)	7/10/1998 1:05:00 AM
From: Sonki	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

ANTHONY, THIS IS SO VERY BULLISH.. i put the whole article cuz yahoo pages disappear after a month or so. i would like to refer to this right before next qurter end. no split? PFE split last time at 120. Thursday July 9, 10:10 pm Eastern Time FOCUS-Pfizer earnings, helped by Viagra, top forecasts (Adds details, analyst comments, closing share price, byline) By Ransdell Pierson NEW YORK, July 9 (Reuters) - Drug maker Pfizer Inc. (PFE - news) said on Thursday its profit for the second quarter was $628 million, a 38 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago, fueled by strong sales of key prescription drugs, including the blockbuster impotence drug Viagra. The company said its diluted per-share earnings for the quarter were 47 cents, 2 cents higher than the consensus estimate of Wall Street analysts polled by First Call Corp., and 34 percent higher than the year-ago figure of 35 cents. Viagra, launched in early April amid a torrent of media publicity, chalked up U.S. sales of $411 million in the second quarter. Pfizer said 2.7 million prescriptions were written for Viagra by June 26, a performance breaking all records for a newly launched drug. ''While we caution that it is too early to make long-range projections about sustainable Viagra prescription levels, the initial response has been truly extraordinary,'' said Pfizer Chief Executive William Steere. ''It was a great quarter for Pfizer and it shows Viagra has already clearly become a huge franchise for them,'' said Ian Sanderson, an SG Cowen Securities pharmaceuticals analyst. Pfizer said the company had total revenues of $3.63 billion in the second quarter, up 25 percent from a year ago. It added that revenues would have been 3 percent higher if not for the strong dollar, which reduced the value of overseas sales. The giant New York-based drug maker said increases in the volume of products sold contributed 26 percent to its revenue growth in the quarter, while price increases boosted revenues by 2 percent. Pfizer, known as a heavyweight research and development company, said it planned to boost its R&D budget to $2.3 billion in 1998 -- a 20 percent jump from its 1997 budget of $1.92 billion. (PFE - news) David Shedlarz, Pfizer's chief financial officer, said in a statement he felt comfortable with the consensus view of analysts that Pfizer would deliver 1998 diluted per share earnings in the range of $2.05 to $2.10. Salomon Smith Barney analyst Mark Striker said he believed Shedlarz' 1998 earnings guidance was ''conservative'' and that Pfizer might well boost it to a higher target later this year if Viagra sales continue on their stellar sales path. ''Pfizer's second quarter looks great,'' said Striker, who added Viagra was a key reason the company's U.S. pharmaceutical sales soared 64 percent compared with the 1997 quarter -- reaching $1.8 billion. Striker said he was also impressed sales of Pfizer's antidepressant Zoloft hit $398 million, up 23 percent from the year-ago quarter. He noted sales of Norvasc, the company's flagship hypertension and angina drug, jumped 18 percent to $618 million in the second quarter. Also noteworthy, Striker said, was the fact Pfizer's alliance revenues leaped to $198 million from $59 million in the 1997 second quarter. The revenues are from co-marketing Warner-Lambert Co. (WLA - news) anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor and Aricept, a treatment for Alzheimer's disease developed by Eisai Co. Ltd. (4523.T). Sales of antifungal drug Diflucan fell 3 percent, however, to $211 million in the quarter. Also on a negative note, Pfizer said sales of its consumer health care products fell 11 percent in the quarter to $120 million because of negative currency factors and competition in over-the-counter medicines. The company said sales in its animal health group edged up 2 percent to $320 million, especially hurt by foreign exchange factors because over 58 percent of the segment's sales in the quarter were made abroad.