Alkermes raises profit forecast

Irish-American pharmaceutical company Alkermes has increased its full-year profit forecast for the second time in three months.

On the back of a strong set of third quarter figures, published yesterday, the Dublin-headquartered/New York-listed company said that it now expects to generate “between $135m and $155m” (€99.4m-€114.1m) in net income in its current financial year, which runs to the end of March.

The US company — which changed the location of its headquarters following its near €1bn 2011 takeover of Elan’s Athlone-based drug delivery business, EDT — yesterday reported an 8.2% year-on-year increase in total revenue for its third quarter to the end of December, to $135.9m; growth driven by an improved performance of its main commercial products.

Net income for the quarter came in at $16.3m, wiping out a net loss for the same period last year of $14.8m.

After good revenue growth in the second quarter of its fiscal year, Alkermes initially upped its profit guidance to between $120m and $140m for the 12 months.

“With results now spanning an entire year, the power of Alkermes is becoming evident. Our strong financial performance was driven by our five key commercial products, which grew 33% year-over-year,” commented James Frates, Alkermes’ chief financial officer.

“Today, we are again improving our financial expectations for fiscal 2013, based on our robust operational performance across the business,” he added yesterday.

“This quarter demonstrates the strength of Alkermes’ business model, which is characterised by two robust portfolios — our commercial products and our development pipeline. The quarterly financial results underscore our ability to hit financial goals while investing in a promising pipeline,” chief executive, Richard Pops added.

“As we move into 2013, we are excited by how our late-stage pipeline is taking shape, with interesting new medicines that have blockbuster potential and many important data read-outs this year,” he said.