Improved Botox sales cause Allergan’s 2Q profit to soar 3%

Thanks to improved sales of specialty drugs and medical devices, Botox maker Allergan Inc.’s net income for the second quarter jumped 3 percent.

The Irvine, CA based company also raised its earnings and net sales expectations for 2011.

In the three months that ended on June 30, Allergan made profits worth $246.6 million, or 79 cents per share, which is a sizeable increase from $240.1 million, or 78 cents per share, in the same quarter of last year.

Adjusted earnings were 96 cents per share, and total product sales spiked 14% to $1.4 billion.

According to Factset, analysts expected average revenues of 95 cents per share on $1.34 billion in sales.
Compared to revenues from the last year’s quarter, Allergan’s revenues for specialty pharmaceuticals increased 14 percent and net sales for medical devices climbed 12.2 percent. The company’s popular wrinkle treatment Botox bagged global revenues rising 16 percent to $418 million.

In the quarter, the R&D costs of the company rose 37 percent to $257.4 while the selling general and administrative expenses climbed 14 percent to $566.7 million.

For the third quarter, Allergan anticipates revenues ranging from 88 cents to 90 cents and product sales between $1.26 billion and $1.34 billion. On an average, analysts expect profits of 91 cents per share and $1.3 billion in sales.

Allergan has now forecasted yearly product sales revenues from $3.59 to $3.63 per share, or between $5.22 billion and $5.37 billion. Both the approximations represent increases as compared with the company’s estimate of its revenues in May when it expected earnings of $3.56 to $3.62 per share on $5.05 billion to $5.25 billion in revenue.
Analysts anticipate sales earnings of $3.64 per share on $5.31 billion.

In afternoon trading, Allergen’s shares increased 2.4%, or $1.89, to close on $79.27.