Astellas' net income for full-year 2005 reaches 103.6 billion yen

Japanese drug major Astellas says that its operating income for the fiscal year ended March 2006, which edged up 0.4% to 193.0 billion yen ($1.72 billion), was below its target of 205.0 billion yen. The firm attributes the under-performance to lower-than-expected sales of several of its key products.

Despite missing its annual forecast, Astellas did see a steep increase in net income during the year, which hit 103.6 billion yen, up 74.1%. The company said that the income hike was thanks, in part, to a drop in its level of extraordinary expenses associated with the creation of the company via the merger of Yamanouchi and Fujisawa (Marketletters passim), which were 21.2 billion yen in 2006, from 60.3 billion yen last year.

Astellas reported that global sales of its immunosuppressant Prograf (tacrolimus), indicated for the prevention of graft rejection in transplant recipients, rose 18.8% to 145.9 billion yen. The firm added that this growth had been led by a 35.2% revenue increase in its home territory, combined with an 11.4% sales expansion to $658.0 million in the USA and a 12.9% increase to 43.4 billion yen, in European sales.