By Juhana Rossi
Danish pharmaceutical company H.Lundbeck A/S (LUN.KO) said
Wednesday it had appointed a new chief executive after the company
swung into a net loss amid heightened uncertainty during the first
quarter.
Lundbeck, which has been facing tough competition and a price
erosion of some of its mature products, said it had named Kare
Schultz as its new president and chief executive officer starting
May 20.
Prior to joining Lundbeck, Mr. Schultz forged a long career at
Lundbeck's bigger Danish rival, the insulin maker Novo Nordisk A/S
(NVO), where he rose to become the company's chief operating
officer.
However, Mr. Schultz resigned from Novo last month when the
company's board decided that Novo's current CEO Lars Rebien
Sorensen should remain in his position for the time being.
Lundbeck's quarterly net loss for the three months through March
was 81 million Danish kroner ($12.2 million), compared with a net
profit of DKK331 million in the year-earlier period.
The net loss figure was precisely the same as the median analyst
forecast in a poll carried out by financial data provider SME
Direkt.
Lundbeck's quarterly revenue was DKK3.56 billion, slightly down
from DKK3.59 billion a year earlier and above a median forecast of
DKK3.20 billion.
The company said that it is experiencing unusually high
uncertainty as it invests in the launch and late-stage development
of new products.
Lundbeck kept its full-year 2015 guidance unchanged. It is
expecting its core revenue to be between DKK13.2 billion and
DKK13.7 billion in 2015, compared with DKK13.5 billion in 2014, and
its core operating profit to be at zero, down from DKK1.2 billion
in 2014.
"The outlook reflects constant exchange rates and expectations
for continued robust performance of the portfolio of strategic core
products which partly offsets the continued generic erosion of
mature products," the company said.
Write to Juhana Rossi at juhana.rossi@wsj.com; Twitter:
@WSJNordics
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