Lower Earnings For Some US Drugmakers In 3rd Qtr

Some of the US companies featured in this week's round-up of financial results for the third quarter of 1994 reveal net income lower than that achieved a year earlier. The reasons for this are various. Biogen, for example, has taken a charge in the quarter relating to one of its products that has failed in development (see also pages 18 and 19), while Marion Merrell Dow attributes its lower net income in the 1994 third quarter to changes in product mix. Alza is making allowances for potential royalties reductions.

- American Cyanamid took a one-time charge in the 1994 third quarter of $25 million ($0.28 per share) relating to its pending merger with American Home Products (Marketletters passim). The company's medical product sales were ahead, compared with the like, year-earlier quarter. Sales of ethical pharmaceuticals, consumer health products and generic pharmaceuticals increased in the USA, while US sales of ophthalmic products declined. Sales of international agricultural products, however, were said to have been the driving force behind the third-quarter increase in sales worldwide.

- Alza Corporation has taken a charge of $0.05 per share in order to start building up a reserve to compensate for a potential reduction in royalty income. This relates to royalty income from Procardia XL (nifedipine) over the period from November 1993 to September 1994. The US Patent Office issued to Bayer AG in November 1993 a composition of matter patent relating to nifedipine crystals with certain surface areas as the active ingredient in a sustained-release formulation of nifedipine (Marketletters passim).