Boston Scientific doubled first-quarter earnings, spurred by brisk sales of its new drug-coated stent to treat clogged heart arteries, which will be produced at its Galway plant.
The company, which employs 1,600 people in Galway and almost 3,000 overall in Ireland, reported net income of $194 million (€163.5 million), or 23 US cents a diluted share, up from $97 million, or 11 cents a diluted share, a year earlier. The year-ago profit included a charge of $20 million.
Analysts' average earning estimate was 22 cents a share.
Boston Scientific, which also makes urology and other devices, said its first-quarter sales topped $1 billion for the first time, at $1.08 billion, up from $807 million a year earlier.
"We have come a long way," Mr Jim Tobin, chief executive of Boston Scientific, said in an interview. "This is what we set out to do."
Boston Scientific said its Taxus stent, which had sales of $98 million in the first quarter, continues to sell at a torrid pace. From April 1st to April 19th, the device had preliminary sales of about $93 million. - (Reuters)
