Pfizer Inc, the world's largest drugmaker, on Tuesday said first-quarter earnings tumbled on charges for the suspension of sales of its arthritis drug Bextra and the repatriation of overseas profit. Pfizer said it earned $301 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with $2.33 billion, or 30 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding special items, earnings would have been 54 cents per share. Analysts polled by Reuters Estimates, on average, expected 53 cents per share, which was the company's own forecast.
Pfizer forecast 2005 earnings would fall almost 7 percent to $1.98 per share, excluding one-time items, down 2 cents from the forecast it gave two weeks ago. It reaffirmed its growth forecast for 2006 and 2007.
Pfizer, which is based in New York, took a charge of $2.19 billion in the quarter for the planned repatriation this year of $28.3 billion in profits earned overseas and $766 million in charges for Bextra.
Earlier this month, Pfizer agreed to suspend sales of Bextra after US and European regulators said the risk of serious side effects from the drug, including a potentially fatal skin allergy, outweighed the benefits.
Pfizer said quarterly sales of impotence treatment Viagra grew only 5 percent to $438 million, amid competition from Eli Lilly and Co's longer-acting Cialis.
Comments
Comments are closed.