Net profits fall 27% at Eli Lilly

Higher sales of depression and diabetes medicines has helped Eli Lilly & Co to counter a 44% plunge in revenue from schizophrenia drug Zyprexa.

Net profit fell 27% to $858.2m (€651.8m), or 77 cents a share, the US company said.

Revenue from the antidepressant Cymbalta rose 20% and the diabetes treatment Humalog 21%, helping offset sales of Zyprexa that the drugmakers said last month was declining faster than expected in the face of generic competition. Eli Lilly has treatments for diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease in final-stage trials.

The depression and diabetes drugs “all hung in there pretty well”, said Seamus Fernandez, an analyst at Leerink Swann.

While margins were just “a little better” than expected, “they basically beat relative to expectations”.

Revenue fell 2% to $6.05bn, higher than the $5.88bn that analysts had projected, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Zyprexa sales declined 44% to $749.6m, while revenue for Cymbalta rose to $1.18bn and Humalog grew to $662m.

Research and development expenses declined 6%. The company reaffirmed its 2012 forecast of $3.10 to $3.20 a share.

Lilly said a data-monitoring committee recommended that two final-stage trials of Alzheimer’s drug Solanezumab would continue as planned.

Eli Lilly employs close to 450 people in Kinsale, Co Cork.