Lundbeck publishes third-quarter report

Research-based pharmaceutical company Lundbeck has published its interim financial report for the third quarter of 2006.

Consolidated revenue for the third quarter fell one per cent compared with the same time last year, declining to DKK 2,248 million (204.3 million pounds), while net profit grew three per cent to DKK 403 million, compared to the same quarter in 2005.

Growth in sales of depression and Alzheimer’s drugs Cipralex and Ebixa rose in the quarter, with revenue also gained from the recent launch of Parkinson’s disease treatment Azilect and schizophrenia drug Serdolect.

These sales counterbalanced the declining revenue from citalopram and mature antidepressants and anti-psychotics, Lundbeck noted.

“Underlying growth in Lundbeck’s business outside the USA is satisfactory, but as in the two previous quarters, the consolidated financial performance is adversely affected by Forest Laboratories’ reduction of in-house escitalopram inventories in 2006,” the company reports.

The supervisory board of Lundbeck recently decided to initiate a share buyback program, whereby the company will buy up to ten per cent of its own shares by the end of 2007 for a limit of DKK 6 billion.

In accord with European Commission regulations, a maximum of 25 per cent of the average trading volume of company shares on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange will be repurchased.