Genzyme 3rd-qtr sales rise; profit falls on charge
Genzyme Corp., a Cambridge biotechnology company, said today that its third-quarter earnings fell 25 percent as a one-time fee to license a product offset higher sales of its drugs for rare and chronic diseases.
The said net income fell to $119.6 million, or 42 cents a share, from $159.3 million, or 58 cents a share, a year ago.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.04 a share. Analysts had on average expected $1.00 a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
The company paid $100 million in the quarter to acquire rights to a late-stage genetic disease drug called PTC124.
Revenue rose 21 percent to $1.16 billion, compared with $960.2 million a year ago. Analysts had expected revenue of $1.18 billion.
The company said it expects 2009 earnings of $4.70 a share excluding one-time items. Genzyme said it expects earnings excluding one-time items to rise to about $7.00 a share by 2011.
Sales of Genzyme's drugs rose 21 percent in the quarter, driven by growth of its newest product, Myozyme, a treatment for Pompe disease, a muscle disorder. Myozyme sales grew 43 percent to $76.7 million.
The company is seeking regulatory clearance to produce Myozyme in larger quantities. An advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration yesterday recommended that the agency approve the request, but said the company should conduct additional trials.
"Following the near-unanimous vote, we believe there is a high likelihood of FDA approval on November 29," Geoffrey Meacham, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, said in a research note.
The manufacture of Myozyme, which was approved in 2006, is based on a 160-liter bioreactor. The company wants to increase production using a 2000-L bioreactor. The company's 2000-L version of Myozyme is already approved in 43 countries outside the United States.
The FDA has argued that the drug produced on the larger scale is different from Myozyme and therefore needs to be approved separately.
Genzyme said it expects European approval for a 4000-L scale production of Myozyme in the first half of next year. Sales of Fabrazyme, a treatment for the genetic disorder Fabry disease, which rose 20 percent to $125.6 million.
Sales of Cerezyme, for Gaucher disease, rose 8 percent to $309.3 million. (Reuters)
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