NEW YORK (AP) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the world’s largest maker of generic drugs, said it is cutting its annual profit and sales forecasts.
The Israeli company expects weaker sales of generic drugs, which bring in most of its revenue, and of brand-name products, which has become a priority for Teva in recent years and drove its recent $6.8 billion acquisition of Cephalon Inc. Teva cut its expectations for a variety of products, but in particular the company is forecasting weaker sales in Europe.
Teva said it expects to report an annual adjusted profit of $5.30 to $5.40 per share on net sales of $20 billion to $21 billion. Last year the company projected income of $5.48 to $5.69 per share on about $22 billion in revenue.
Analysts were expecting a profit of $5.58 per share and $21.31 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
On May 9, Teva reported first-quarter sales that fell short of Wall Street expectations. Analysts have cut their revenue estimates by about $600 million since then.
Teva is now forecasting $10.7 billion in annual sales of generic drugs and ingredients, $1.1 billion below its previous estimate. It expects $8 billion in sales of brand name drugs, down from $8.2 billion.
In total the company now expects $10.5 billion in revenue from the U.S. and $5.8 billion from Europe. In December it forecast $11 billion in U.S. revenue and $6.6 billion from Europe. It also trimmed its estimate for sales in other markets to $4.2 billion from $4.4 billion.
Teva still expects $3.8 billion in sales of its biggest brand-name product, the multiple sclerosis treatment Copaxone, and it maintained its forecast of $1 billion in sales of over-the-counter medications. However it expects lower sales of its Parkinson’s disease treatment Azilect and women’s health products, and of Cephalon’s sleep disorder drug Provigil.
Date: May 24, 2012
Source: Associated Press
