Forest Laboratories reports ‘strong fiscal year’ in 2007

Forest Laboratories has announced its financial results for the financial year ended March 31st 2007, with the firm generating revenues of $3.44 billion (1.72 billion pounds), a 16 per cent increase on the 2006 fiscal year.

Revenues were driven by a 12 per cent increase in the sales of Lexapro, while revenues from Celexa and its generic forms rose by 49 per cent. Sales of Namenda rose by 30 per cent while earnings from the co-promotion agreement for Benicar increased by 52 per cent.

Net income for the year fell by 36 per cent to $454.1 million, while reported earnings per share fell from $2.08 in 2006 to $1.41 in 2007.

The firm has forecast reported diluted earnings per share for 2008 of between $3.05 and $3.15, with this figure including planned milestone payments in the region of $85 million.

Howard Solomon, chairman and chief executive officer of the firm, said: “Fiscal 2007 was another strong year for Forest and we continue to be pleased with the performance of our key marketed products.”

Mr Solomon added that the company was also flourishing in its business development activities while it continued to make progress with the widening of its pharmaceutical research and development pipeline.

In February 2007, Mr Solomon announced that he had filed Form 144 with the US Securities and Exchanges Commission relating to the sale 3.5 million of his shares in Forest Laboratories.