By Jonathan D. Rockoff and Austen Hufford 

Allergan PLC's chief executive said the company "doesn't need" to make a big acquisition, as the drugmaker reported strong sales of many products but a doubling of its quarterly loss, due to the impact of discontinued operations.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Allergan and Merck & Co. sounded out biotech Biogen Inc. about a deal. On a conference call Monday, Allergan CEO Brent Saunders said the company would always look "if some extraordinary situation presented itself," but that its focus was elsewhere: on $5 billion in share buybacks this year and smaller-size deals.

"Allergan doesn't need to do any big M&A," Mr. Saunders said. "Our focus is on steppingstones."

Mr. Saunders said Allergan has more than $20 billion available to do deals or make investments. He said Allergan was exploring making "manageable investments" to increase its sales overseas.

The Dublin-based drug company, which counts wrinkle-eraser Botox, eyelash plumper Latisse and dry-eye treatment Restasis among its portfolio of specialty pharmaceuticals, closed a $40.5 billion deal last week to sell its generics business to Teva. In April, Allergan and Pfizer terminated their planned megamerger after the Obama administration took aim at the so-called inversion deal.

During the quarter, several drugs across Allergan's portfolio logged double-digit sales increases, with Botox revenue increasing 14% to $719.7 million and Restasis sales increasing 20% to $390.6 million.

Restasis is to set to face competition from a newly approved drug from rival Shire PLC. Allergan Chief Commercial Officer Bill Meury said the company is taking several steps to face the new threat, including adding 60 more sales representatives and increasing its spending on consumer advertising.

Sales in its U.S. general medicine segment fell 9.9% to $1.45 billion as the Namenda IR Alzheimer's treatment lost exclusivity. U.S. specialized therapeutics revenue grew 10% to $1.49 billion on growth in eye care, facial aesthetics and neuroscience. International sales grew 5.6% to $757 million on eye care, facial aesthetics and Botox growth.

In all for the quarter, Allergan reported a loss of $501.7 million, compared with its loss of $243.1 million a year prior. Much of the increased loss came from the impact of discontinued operations.

On a per-share basis after the payout of preferred dividends, the company posted a loss of $1.44, compared with its loss of 80 cents a year prior. Excluding special charges and items related to acquisitions and divestitures, earnings per share were $3.35. Revenue increased 1.5% to $3.68 billion.

Analysts had projected $3.34 in adjusted per-share earnings and $4.08 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters. Last week Allergan said Teva would purchase its generic pharmaceuticals distributor for $500 million and that the impact of that sale might not be yet taken into account by Wall Street analysts, potentially skewing estimates.

Shares in the company, up 26% over the past three months, declined 0.7% to $251.99 in premarket trading.

Write to Jonathan D. Rockoff at Jonathan.Rockoff@wsj.com and Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 09, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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