Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, today said second-quarter earnings rose 21 per cent from more than $1 billion in special gains and tax adjustments, but sales of prescription drugs fell slightly.
New York-based Pfizer earned $3.46 billion, or 47 cents a share, compared with $2.86 billion, or 38 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding special items, profit fell 5 per cent, or to 46 cents per share, but came in 2 cents per share better than Wall Street had expected.
The company employs 2,200 people in Ireland in nine operations including six manufacturing plants, two services operations and a bank.
He said investors are most concerned whether Pfizer will win its ongoing battle to prevent India's Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd from selling a cheaper form of Pfizer's Lipitor cholesterol fighter - the world's best-selling drug which is by far the company's biggest product.
But Pfizer shares rose 1.4 per cent to $27.76 in pre-market electronic trade on the Inet electronic network, up from a close of $27.38 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Pfizer's global revenue rose 1 per cent to $12.43 billion. Sales of prescription drugs fell 1 per cent, but strong sales gains were seen in the smaller consumer health care and animal health businesses.
Pfizer forecast a "modest decline" in revenue this year as well as lower earnings, due to the strengthening dollar, the recent withdrawal of its Bextra arthritis drug and competition from cheaper generics.
It forecast double-digit percentage profit growth in 2006 and 2007. To restore earnings growth, the company is moving to cut annual expenses by $4 billion by 2008, via reductions in travel, entertaining and consulting expenses, energy conservation, and restructuring of its factories and the way it deals with suppliers.
Sales of Lipitor, the world's top-selling drug, rose 21 per cent in the quarter to $2.9 billion as doctors more aggressively take aim at cholesterol. Sales of Norvasc, for high blood pressure, jumped 12 per cent, to $1.16 billion.
But sales of epilepsy drug Neurontin, now facing generic competition, plunged 79 per cent to $161 million. Revenue from arthritis drug Celebrex fell 45 per cent to $401 million on concerns about its heart safety.
Bextra, a newer arthritis drug, was withdrawn earlier this year on similar concerns, as well as its links to a potentially fatal skin disorder. Sales of anti-fungal Diflucan and another blood pressure drug, Accupril, were cut in half due to new competition from cheaper generics.
Pfizer's quarterly results were helped by a special gain of $490 million related to a revised estimate of its tax liability for the planned return to the United States this year of almost $37 billion in overseas profits, as well as a $586 million gain from resolution of other tax issues.