Schering Plough turnaround “on track”

Schering-Plough has said that its first quarter performance has suggested that the company is on track in its six- and eight-year plans.

The company said that the results indicate that the turnaround phase of its plans are progressing well following the introduction of its action agenda three years ago.

Sales have now grown for six successive quarters year-over-year, with the first quarter 2006 sales of $2.6 billion equalling an eight per cent growth.

“Our businesses are performing well across multiple fronts and geographic regions,” said Fred Hassan, chairman and chief executive officer.

“We’ve driven top-line growth while exercising financial discipline and gaining greater efficiencies. These fundamentals have translated into significant bottom-line growth. We remain determined to become a high-performance competitor for the long term ? and over the past several quarters we have made steady progress toward that goal.”

The company revealed that net income available to common shareholders was $350 million for the quarter, which translates as $0.24 per common share.

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