Mylan's earnings soar 94% in fiscal 2nd-qtr

Strong sales of products like the painkiller fentanyl, a copy-cat version of Johnson & Johnson's Duragesic, helped drive USA-based generics firm Mylan's fiscal second quarter performance. Net profits for the three months ended September 30, 2007, were $149.8 million, or $0.60 per share, up 93.8% on the comparable period last year.

Revenue in the quarter grew 32% to $472.4 million, ahead of the consensus forecast of $471.5 million that emerged from a Thomson Financial analyst poll. Mylan said that the improvement was despite increased competition in the US generics market. The firm attributed turnover growth in the period to the performance of products launched since the end of September last year, such as amlodipine and oxybutynin, which contributed $66.2 million.

Matrix Labs, the Indian generics company that Mylan purchased last year (Marketletter September 4, 2006), contributed $80.0 million, but also increased overall R&D expenditure some 48% to $10.9 million. Additionally, the inclusion of Matrix in its figures, coupled with costs related to the introduction of a new enterprise resource planning system, pushed the Pittsburgh-headquartered firm's selling, general and administrative expenses up 93% for the quarter to $46.7 million.