Forest Laboratories reports third quarter earnings

Forest Laboratories has announced its financial figures for the third quarter of the 2007 fiscal year. The company reported an 18 per cent increase in revenues to $893.03 million (454.26 million pounds) compared to the same quarter in 2006.

The company’s fully diluted earnings per share increased 37 per cent over the comparable quarter last year to $0.78.

Following the publication of these results, the company has increased its forecast for full-year fully diluted earnings per share from $2.60-2.65 to $2.79-$2.84, with this guidance including the impact from research and development costs incurred in relation to the acquisition of Cerexa.

Howard Solomon, chairman and chief executive officer of Forest Laboratories, said: “We are encouraged by both the performance of our key marketed products and by the opportunities we currently have in our development pipeline, as well as the prospect to add future development programmes.”

He added that the third quarter had seen the company’s acquisition of Cerexa, which would provide it with market opportunities in the field of injectable anti-infectives, a sector in need of novel drugs due to increasing resistance to antibiotics.

Last week, Forest Laboratories announced that it had completed its acquisition of Cerexa for $493.6 million, with a potential additional $100 million to be paid in milestone payments.