Eli Lilly predicts costs will hit profit

ELI Lilly has forecast profit gains next year below its expected 2006 growth of 8% to 12%, held back by higher costs.

Indianapolis-based Lilly, which announced plans this week to create 200 jobs in Cork in a €400 million biopharmaceutical plant, gave the forecasts at a meeting in New York with Wall Street analysts to describe its pipeline of experimental products.

Lilly, which makes schizophrenia treatment Zyprexa and anti-impotence drug Cialis, said it is counting on steady introduction of new drugs to keep earnings growing.

“Our goal is to launch at least one new product per year, on average, through the remainder of this decade, and to position ourselves to launch two per year early in the next decade,” the company said.

Lilly said it continues to expect a 2006 profit of $3.10-$3.20 per share, excluding special items.

It projected 2007 earnings of $3.25-$3.35 per share, including the estimated 10 cent per share dilutive impact of Lilly’s planned $2.1 billion (€1.58bn) acquisition of biotechnology company ICOS.

Lilly’s most important experimental drug is prasugrel — a compound to prevent blood clots. It hopes to complete late-stage trials of the medicine next year.