By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries beat fourth-quarter profit expectations as gains in North American sales of Huntington’s disease treatment Austedo and migraine product Ajovy offset declines in generics.
The world’s largest generic drugmaker said on Wednesday it earned 77 cents per diluted share excluding one-time items in the October-December quarter, up from 68 cents a year earlier. Revenue fell 8% to $4.1 billion.
Analysts had forecast Israel-based Teva would earn 73 cents a share ex-items on revenue of $4.29 billion, I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv showed.
Teva forecast 2022 adjusted EPS of $2.40-$2.60 and revenue of $15.6-$16.2 billion, compared with adjusted EPS of $2.58 and revenue of $15.9 billion in 2021.
North American sales of Ajovy rose 49% to $53 million in the quarter, while Austedo sales jumped 52% to $282 million. Ajovy sales in Europe rose 121% to $29 million as the drug continues to be rolled out in many countries.
Generic sales fell 25% to $905 million.
Teva projects global sales of about $1 billion for Austedo in 2022, up from $808 million in 2021, while Ajovy sales are forecast to grow to $400 million from $313 million.
“We expect to see continued growth of our key products Austedo and Ajovy, as well as to continue to advance our core business through the launch of high quality generic medicines around the world,” CEO Kåre Schultz said.
He added Teva expects U.S. regulatory approval to launch Risperidone LAI, a treatment for patients suffering from schizophrenia.
Teva this week reached a settlement worth $225 million to resolve claims the drugmaker fuelled an opioid epidemic in Texas by improperly marketing addictive pain medications.
“It remains in our best interest to put these cases behind us and continue to focus on the patients we serve every day,” Schultz said.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer; editing by Jason Neely)
