Celgene Profit Beats Forecasts as Revlimid Delivers

Celgene's quarterly earnings rose 14%, beating expectations, on strong sales of its Revlimid cancer treatment and lower costs, and the biotechnology company narrowly raised its full-year profit forecast.

The company said on Thursday it earned $424 million, or 97 cents per share, in the third quarter, compared with $373 million, or 81 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding special items, Celgene earned $1.29 per share. Analysts, on average, had expected $1.27, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 14% to $1.42 billion, topping Wall Street expectations of $1.41 billion.

Revlimid, a treatment for multiple myeloma, is Celgene's biggest product and profit driver. Sales of the drug jumped 18% to $970 million, in line with Wall Street forecasts. The growth was fueled by patient use of the drug earlier and over longer time frames, and introduction of the medicine in new regions.

But sales of Abraxane, a treatment for metastatic breast cancer, fell 6% to $106 million. Celgene said the decline was partly due to a surge in U.S. demand for the drug in 2011 as a result of shortages of standard chemotherapy agent paclitaxel.

Sales of Vidaza, used to treat a group of blood disorders known as myelodysplastic syndromes, rose 15% to $220 million. Sales of Thalomid, the company's older treatment for multiple myeloma, fell 10% to $75 million.

The company boosted its 2012 earnings forecast, excluding special items, to between $4.85 and $4.90 per share, from a previous view of $4.80 to $4.85.

Celgene said it expects full-year Revlimid sales to rise about 18% to between $3.75 and $3.8 billion. It previously forecast $3.75 billion to $3.85 billion.