Astra's underlying profit dips 10%

28th Oct 2010 07:05

Third quarter sales for drugs giant AstraZeneca were much as the market had anticipated, with competition from generic alternatives to its drugs denting sales in the US.Revenue in the third quarter eased 4%, or 2% using constant exchange rates (CER), to $7,898m from $8,200m a year earlier. Reported profit before tax declined by 26% to $2,258m from $3,032m the year before while underlying profit before tax dipped 10% to $3,083m from $3,437m.Revenue in markets outside the US increased by 7% at CER, including a 14% increase in Emerging Markets. US revenue was down 13% at CER in the third quarter."As expected, revenue in the US was affected by generic competition for Arimidex, Pulmicort Respules and Toprol-XL, as well as the absence of H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine revenue that benefited the third quarter 2009," the company said. Core earnings per share (EPS) was slightly ahead of some expectations at $1.50, albeit down 10% on a CER basis from last year; Nomura had predicted EPS of $1.47 while Charles Stanley was on the money with its forecast of $1.50."We remain firmly on track to achieve our full year financial targets," said David Brennan, chief executive officer of Astra. Based on the year to date performance and the outlook for the rest of the year, revenue for the full year is now likely to be broadly unchanged in constant currency terms compared with full year 2009, the company said.The company has lifted the bottom end of the range of its guidance for full year earnings. Based on the January 2010 average exchange rates for its principal currencies, the target for Core EPS for the full year is in the range of $6.50 to $6.65, a narrowing of the previous $6.35 to $6.65 guidance range.