Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca posted record quarterly profits today and raised its 2006 earnings forecast.
Boosted by demand for established drugs such as Seroquel for schizophrenia. Europe's third-biggest drugmaker said it made a pretax profit of $2.04 billion (€1.64 billion) in the three months to March 31st, up 38 per cent on a year earlier.
Medicines such as Nexium, Seroquel and cholesterol fighter Crestor have all enjoyed rapid growth this year, helped by a reformed US Medicare system that is making prescription medicines more available to the elderly.
But ulcer medicine Nexium also faces stiff competition, and Chief Financial Officer Jon Symonds said AstraZeneca was prepared to engage in competitive pricing to drive sales of the medicine.
Sales rose 8 per cent to $6.18 billion, just missing analysts' average forecast of $6.29 billion, with Nexium falling a little short of expectations.
AstraZeneca also raised its 2006 EPS forecast to $3.60-3.90 from $3.40-3.60 previously, assuming no generic versions of heart drug Toprol XL are launched in the United States in 2006.
In recent months, AstraZeneca has signed deals potentially worth about $2 billion to bring in new drugs, but analysts say it still needs to do more to broaden and deepen its pipeline.
AstraZeneca shares trade at around 16 times forecast 2006 earnings, according to Reuters Estimates, which is a modest discount to the European sector average of 17 times.