Pfizer third-quarter profit rises
Written on October 20, 2009
Pfizer Inc reported higher third-quarter profit as aggressive cost-cutting helped offset unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates and declining sales of drugs, including those facing competition from cheaper generics.
The world’s biggest drugmaker, which completed its $67.3 billion acquisition of Wyeth last week, posted a net profit of $2.88 billion, or 43 cents per share in its last pre-merger quarter, compared with a profit of $2.28 billion, or 34 cents per share, a year ago.
Excluding items, Pfizer earned 51 cents per share. Analysts on average expected 48 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Sales declined 3 percent to $11.6 billion, but that topped analysts’ estimates of $11.41 billion.
Pfizer’s bought Wyeth to help soften the 2011 blow from the loss of U.S. patent protection on the cholesterol drug Lipitor — the world’s biggest-selling prescription medicine — by adding Wyeth’s lucrative vaccines and injectable biologic medicines.
Lipitor’s worldwide sales for the third quarter declined 9 percent to $2.9 billion. They were down 12 percent in the United States, amid competition from cheap generic versions of rival cholesterol lowering drugs.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Derek Caney)
Filed in: technology.