Eli Lilly Raises Profits Forecast, Extends PCS Offer Again

Us drugmaker Eli Lilly has revised upward its third-quarter and year-end earnings estimates, based on strong sales of its antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine). New prescriptions, as well as a buy-in prior to a price increase, helped boost sales, and Lilly has just raised the price of Prozac by 3.5% in the USA.

The company expects third-quarter earnings to be $1.08-$1.12 per share after a special charge of about 14 cents per share related to the acquisition of Sphinx. And it forecasts year-end earnings of $4.65-$4.85 per share without the Sphinx special charge or a 16 cents per share for an antibiotic recalled earlier this year. It also does not include any impact from the company's divestiture of its medical device and diagnostics business in January and any effects of the PCS Health Systems purchase.

Meantime, Lilly has extended yet further its offer for PCS until October 11 (Marketletter September 19) to give both companies more time to comply with a request by the Federal Trade Commission for more information about the transaction and also to give McKesson, PCS' parent company, more time to transfer all its non-PCS assets and liabilities to a newly-formed corporation. Lilly's offer has already been extended from September 8 to September 26, and the company says it may need a further extension if the requirements cannot be met by this latest deadline.