By Chelsey Dulaney
Eli Lilly & Co. on Thursday lifted its outlook for the year,
as the pharmaceutical firm logged better-than-expected revenue and
earnings in the second quarter.
Lilly said it now expects profit, excluding special items, to
come in at $3.20 a share to $3.30 a share, up from $3.10 a share to
$3.20 a share. The company has raised the lower end of its revenue
forecast to $19.7 billion to $20 billion, compared with its
previous call for $19.5 billion to $20 billion.
Shares of Lilly added 5.6% in premarket trading.
In the latest quarter, Lilly said it was helped by higher prices
and an 8% increase in volume.
Overall, for the period ended June 30, Lilly posted earnings of
$600.8 million, or 56 cents a share, down from $733.5 million, or
68 cents a share, in the prior-year period.
Excluding items such as impairment charges, earnings were 90
cents a share, up from 74 cents a share a year earlier.
Revenue inched up to $4.98 billion from $4.94 billion a year
earlier.
Analysts had projected a per-share profit of 74 cents and
revenue of $4.91 billion.
Animal health revenue grew 40% from the prior year to $840.8
million. Meanwhile, lower demand continued to hit Cymbalta and
Evista sales, which have been hurt by U.S. patent expirations.
Cymbalta sales fell 32%, while Evista sales fell 45%.
Lilly, like other pharmaceutical companies, has been hurt
recently by a wave of patent expirations, on top of
foreign-exchange pressures. But excitement over its experimental
Alzheimer's drug has helped lift its stock by 25% this year through
Wednesday's close.
On Wednesday, Lilly presented results at a conference showing
that people with mild Alzheimer's disease who started taking the
experimental drug earlier in the course of their disease fared
better than patients who started later in a clinical trial. Lilly
is hoping the drug, solanezumab, becomes the first marketed
treatment to slow the worsening of the underlying disease.
The new data aren't final proof of the drug's benefit--a
separate, continuing study due to end in late 2016 is designed to
more definitively test its efficacy and safety.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com
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