New AHP CEO reviews growth strategy

In his first meeting with financial analysts and investors, AmericanHome Products' new chief executive, Robert Essner, focused on what he described as "key points - or strategic assets - that provide AHP with strong competitive advantages both today and for the future."

AHP's momentum in the marketplace, he said, will be sustained by the continued growth of the firm's three foundation products: the antidepressant Effexor (venlafaxine); the Premarin (conjugated estrogens) family of products for hormone replacement therapy; and Enbrel (etanercept) for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, Mr Essner said growth will be fostered by the sales contribution of nine new products that AHP has launched in the past two years, as well as the introduction of innovative new products, such as the intranasal flu vaccine FluMist and recombinant human BMP-2, a bone growth factor, which he told analysts should be filed for US marketing approval late this year. Analysts at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter forecast peak sales of $500 million for both FluMist and BMP-2.

Looking forward to 2004, the company indicated that it is now positioned to reach over $20 billion in total annual revenues, and earnings are expected to grow at a mid-teens compound annual rate, reaching $3.40 in earnings per share that year. For full-year 2001, AHP gave an EPS guidance of $2.15-$2.20.