Pfizer, the world's number one drug company, said today that its net profit surged 46% in the fourth quarter as a battery of blockbuster medicines boosted sales.
Net profit leapt to $2.86 billion or 46 cents a share in the three months to December 31 from $1.96 billion or 30 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue rose 14% to $9.33 billion.
Over the whole of 2002, net profit climbed 17% to $9.13 billion or 1.46 dollars a share and sales advanced 12% to $32.37 billion.
Last week Pfizer announced that it is to open a shared services centre in Dublin creating 200 jobs. The centre will provide office backup for the company's European operations.
'We met the needs of millions of patients around the world as we marketed eight of the world's 30 largest-selling medicines, and four of the top 10,' chairman and chief executive Hank McKinnell said.
Ten of Pfizer's drugs - Lipitor, Norvasc, Zoloft, Neurontin, Viagra, Zithromax, Celebrex, Zyrtec, Diflucan and Aricept - sold more than $1 billion each last year, Pfizer said.
'The US, Japan, Germany, the UK, Spain and Canada all delivered double-digit revenue growth for the year. In each of these markets, and in most markets around the world, new prescription growth for our major products continued to outpace the growth of their individual therapeutic categories,' Pfizer said. It added that it was rolling out six new products in the US and the European Union.
The group also sold or was in the process of selling several businesses including Tetra, Adams and Schick-Wilkinson Sword, which did not fit the group's goals, said Pfizer chief financial officer David Shedlarz. The sales would be completed in the first half of 2003.
Earnings per share, excluding some significant items and the Pharmacia merger-related costs, for Pfizer on a standalone basis were expected to amount to about $1.80 in 2003.
