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Biotech / Medical : Barr Laboratory BRL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wolf 2 who wrote (161)	4/21/1999 11:35:00 PM
From: harkenman	Respond to of 207

Barr Labs CEO: Co. To Devote More Funds To Pdt Pipeline>BRL By Heesun Wee NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Barr Laboratories Inc. (BRL) Chief Executive Bruce Downey is in good spirits these days, and for good reasons. The New York drug company earlier posted third-quarter operating earnings of 55 cents a share, beating First Call Corp.'s estimate of 52 cents. Downey told Dow Jones the strong earnings will allow the company to dedicate more funds to on-going development of new drug programs. "There was a broad increase in business across our product line," Downey said. The profits will benefit the company's strategy, that beginning two years ago, shifted from a focus on generic drugs to one balanced between generic products and brand name drugs, the executive said. Downey said the company had the expertise to pursue new products, and the market tends to reward brand names. Of the 10 new drug projects now under way, the first is scheduled to come to market in the first half of calendar 2000, Downey said. In addition to Barr Laboratories' commitment to creating new drugs, the company is pursuing more than 30 generic products, Chief Executive Downey said. Shifting focus, the executive said the company continues to fight anti-generic drug legislation. In contrast, Barr Laboratories is less concerned about the current buzz surrounding online pharmacies. While the Internet will affect chain and mail-order drug companies that deliver products to patients, Barr Laboratories' goals remain developing, manufacturing and marketing drugs - regardless of whether or not they reach customers through the Internet. The Internet "is unlikely to affect us directly," he said. As reported earlier, the company posted third-quarter net income of 54 cents a share compared with 31 cents a year ago. Barr Laboratories shares recently were up 2 9/16, or 8%, to 34 1/2 on volume of 208,800. Average daily volume is 162,000. -Heesun Wee; 201-938-5392

To: Wolf 2 who wrote (161)	5/18/1999 11:24:00 PM
From: harkenman	Respond to of 207

DJ SmartMoney: Street Smart: Raising The Barr This story appears in the June issue of SmartMoney magazine. By Lauren Young Although drug stocks have surged 109 percent in the two years since we recommended Barr Labs (BRL) in our July 1997 cover story, "The 11 Best Mid-Year Investments," this generic-drug maker has been stymied by court battles and marketing challenges. Shares gained just 25 percent in that time, despite a cabinet full of promising new products. We caught up with CEO Bruce Downey to find out what's holding Barr back and what the future may bring. Q:Earnings are on course to grow 43 percent in fiscal 1999, so why hasn't Barr's stock done better? A:The courtroom is the battleground where our profitability is [being decided]. Lately there's been a lot of attention paid to the patent fight we are waging against Eli Lilly for its popular antidepressant drug Prozac -- a $1.8 billion business. We are aggressively appealing a recent district court's decision and hope to launch a generic version within the next 18 months. That should help lift the stock price. Q:Were you surprised by DuPont's opposition to your generic version of its anticoagulant Coumadin in 1997? A:Yes. Coumadin has been off patent for over 30 years without a generic competitor. But DuPont lobbied the FDA, state legislatures, patient groups and physicians against us. Despite all that, we still managed to sell $50 million worth of the anticoagulant in 1998. Q:Is there still room for tamoxifen, your already- popular generic breast cancer drug, to grow? A:After one study showed that the branded version helps prevent breast cancer in healthy women, the FDA recommended expanding the drug's labeling guidelines. Now we're in line to help 10 million women who are at risk of getting the disease. If we capture just 3 percent of that group, we would double our annual sales. Q:What kinds of initiatives will help Barr continue to grow in the future? A:We are still working to bring a generic version of the hormone-replacement drug Premarin to market. In addition, it is getting even more difficult to get good products that are off patent, so we are spending $30 million over four years for research and development of our own proprietary drugs. Right now we have nine products in various stages of development. Creating our own products is a rite of passage for us to move to the next level within the health care community.