Forest Laboratories reports increased revenues, sales of marketed brands

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., Oct. 17 - Forest Laboratories, Inc. said net revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2007 increased by 15% to $847 million from about $736.5 million for the prior-year period.

Net revenues included net sales, which were up 13% at $778.7 million, compared with $691.6 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2006.

The company reported earnings per share of $0.75 for the quarter, up 27% over fully diluted earnings per share of $0.59 for last year's second quarter.

Looking ahead, the New York City-based pharmaceutical company increased its expectations for fully diluted earning per share for the fiscal year ending March 31 to between $2.60 and $2.65 from prior guidance of $2.45 to $2.50 per share.

"Our underlying business performed very well during the quarter," president and chief executive officer Ken Goodman said in a conference call on Tuesday.

"We saw an increase in prescription volume for all of our key marketed products - Lexapro, Namenda and Benicar - good underlying volume growth in each product's respective category and record financial contributions from each of these products."

Lexapro sales for the quarter were up 12% at $522.7 million, Namenda sales grew 26% to $155.6 million and Benicar earnings increased 55% to $48.3 million.

Net income rose 18% to $241.1 million for the second quarter from $204.9 million for the second quarter of 2005. Forest saw research and development expenses increase by 43% during the quarter to $93.8 million.

For the first six months of 2006 in comparison to the same period of 2005, revenues grew 15% to $1.7 billion, net income increased 5% to $441.7 million and diluted earnings per share rose 12% to $1.36.

"While supporting our key brand remains a clear focus for the company, we are also allocating significant resources behind our current product pipeline as well as efforts to further expand the pipeline," Goodman added.

Forest Laboratories is a New York-based pharmaceutical company.

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