Lundbeck earnings soar as citalopram sales continue to increase

Danish drugmaker Lundbeck says that revenues in the first nine months of2001 rose 48% to 5.62 billion Danish kroner ($677.8 million), while pretax profits and net income were up 57% to 1.61 billion kroner and 51% to 1.04 billion kroner, respectively. Operating profit leapt 126% to 1.75 billion kroner, considerably higher than analysts had previously forecast.

As expected, growth was driven by the antidepressant Cipramil (citalopram), which jumped 38% to 3.42 billion kroner in markets outside the USA. Major European markets such as the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany boosted growth of this selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, as did Australia and Canada.

However, it was citalopram's performance in the USA, where it is sold as Celexa by Forest Laboratories, that was most impressive. Lundbeck received total income of 1.14 billion kroner from its US partner, an increase of 89% compared with the like, year-earlier period, and Celexa's share of new SSRI prescriptions in the USA was over 15.8% by the end of September.