Forest Lab's profit slumps nearly 13%, but sales up 9%

US drugmaker Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) has posted disappoint results for its fiscal second quarter ended September, with net income falling 12.7% to $249.8 million and earnings per share of $0.91 compared with $1.00 in the like, year-earlier period. Net sales for the quarter increased 9.0% to $1.13 billion. Forest’s shares fell 3.7%, to $30.92, in Tuesday trading.

The figures fell short of analysts’ forecasts, as R&D costs jumped 28% to $197.3 million. Analysts had expected EPS of $0.99, on $1.1 billion in revenues. Nevertheless, Forest reaffirmed its annual guidance, indicating that EPS for the year ended March 2012 will be in the range of $3.60 to $3.70.

Sales of Bystolic (nebivolol), a beta-blocker for the treatment of hypertension, were $82.3 million, an increase of 29.2% over the year-ago period. Sales of Savella (milnacipran HCl), for the management of fibromyalgia, rose 19.1% to $25.5 million. Teflaro (ceftaroline fosamil), a broad-spectrum bactericidal cephalosporin for the treatment of adults with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) and with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infection (ABSSSI), recorded sales of $5.3 million. Teflaro was launched in March 2011.