New drugs lift Lilly's 2nd qtr sales 16%

Second-quarter 2001 sales at Eli Lilly were boosted by the performanceof its newer drugs and reached $3.03 billion, a rise of 16% on the like, year-earlier period, with net income up 24% at $827.7 million and earnings per share 25% higher at $0.76. However, the company's chief executive, Sidney Taurel, while saying "we remain confident in our ability to weather the patent loss of Prozac (fluoxetine) and aggressively grow our underlying business," warned that single-digit sales and EPS growth should be expected in 2002.

Combined sales of Lilly's blockbuster antidepressant Prozac and the line extension Sarafem (also fluoxetine) rose 10% to $692.4 million, while in the USA turnover of these products was up 12% at $605.7 million, but just 1% overseas at $86.7 million, primarily due to continued generic competition.

Also, Lilly noted that, on July 18, the day before releasing its results, it learnt that the US Court of Appeals will not rehear the case of Lilly vs Barr Laboratories turning aside the company's request to extend the Prozac patent through 2003. Lilly is appealing to the Supreme Court but, if it fails, Barr could bring a generic product to market as early as next month.