US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said today that its quarterly profit dived 30% but sales held up despite the expiry of patents on some of its best-selling medicines.
The world's largest drugmaker, which employs more than 2,000 people at its Cork and Dublin operations, said that for the three months to June, its net income came to $2.41 billion, down from $3.46 billion in the same quarter of 2005.
Revenue for the second quarter rose 3% to $11.74 billion. That was less than Wall Street targets for sales of $12.63 billion.
Pfizer's earnings per share came to 33 cents, or 50 cents before exceptional items. That compared to a consensus forecast on Wall Street of 48 cents.
'We achieved strong operating performance in the face of increased generic competition and revenue losses due to patent expirations,' the company's CEO Hank McKinnell said.
'Our latest results show that we are consistently and successfully meeting the challenges we face, in particular offsetting loss of exclusivity for several of our products with solid growth from in-line and new products.'
The company was boosted by Lipitor, the world's best-selling branded prescription drug. Global sales of the cholesterol-lowering medicine increased 9% to $3.1 billion in the quarter.
Pain reliever Celebrex had been another billion-dollar drug for Pfizer but its popularity has been declining. In the second quarter, however, its sales recovered 17% to $471m.
