A file photo of a drug dispensary at a Shoppers Drug Mart location in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in Toronto, Feb. 7, 2011.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. reported Thursday a second-quarter profit of $56.4-million, up from a year-earlier $40-million.
The drug developer said its profit amounted to 17 cents per share, compared to 21 cents per share in the same period a year earlier. Revenue jumped to $609.4-million from $238.8-million on the effect of Valeant's merger with Biovail - prior-year revenue included only legacy revenue from Biovail and none from Valeant.
On a cash basis, Valeant said it earned $240.2-million or 73 cents per diluted share. Based on the strength of its results, it also said it has raised its expectation for cash earnings per share this year to between $2.70 and $3 from earlier guidance of $2.65 to $2.90.
"The second-quarter once again demonstrated the strength of our diversified business model," said J. Michael Pearson, chairman and chief executive officer.
"While the organic growth in our U.S. operations faced a number of headwinds this quarter, such as a tough comparison to the second-quarter of 2010 when Legacy Biovail product sales were at unusually high levels, coupled with lower than expected results delivered by partnered Legacy Biovail generic products, we still delivered solid pro forma organic growth," Mr. Pearson said.
"We remain confident that our full year pro forma organic growth should be approximately 8 per cent due in part to the strong performance from our businesses in Europe, Latin America, Canada and Australia."
Valeant, which has its headquarters near Toronto in Mississauga, was formed last September by the merger of Biovail Corp. and California-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl.
Since then, Valeant has made a number of corporate and product acquisitions and was forced to back away from one hostile takeover attempt.
In mid-July, it announced separate agreements to buy the Ortho Dermatologics division of Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $345-million and skin care treatment company Dermik, a unit of Sanofi, for $425-million.
It also agreed in February to acquire U.S. and Canadian rights to anti-cold sore drug Zovirax from GlaxoSmithKline for $300-million.
In May, Valeant bowed out of its attempt to buy U.S. drug developer Cephalon Inc. , after Valeant's hostile offer $5.7-billion (U.S.) was topped by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. , which agreed to pay $6.8-billion including Cephalon's assumed debt.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Valeant made a takeover approach to Meda AB, a Swedish specialty drug maker.
Earlier this year, Meda sold Valeant the rights in the U.S., Canada and Mexico for two dermatological creams, Elidel and Xerese. Under that agreement, Valeant will pay $76-million over 18 months, plus milestone and royalty payments.