Schering-Plough Forecasts 15% EPS Rise For 1996

Based on business results to date, and baring any unforeseen changes in the marketplace, Schering-Plough expects to achieve earnings per share for 1996 of $3.26, or around 15% higher than for 1995, the company's president and chief executive, Richard Kogan, told analysts and portfolio managers in New York.

Mr Kogan attributed the anticipated strong results to continuing growth in the USA and in international markets, new product introductions and higher sales or Claritin (loratidine), the world's largest-selling antihistamine, and of Intron A (alpha interferon). The analysts were also given a comprehensive presentation of the company's research pipeline (for details of this see pages 20-21).

Among its pharmaceutical peers, S-P currently ranks number one in operating profit as a percent of sales, number one in net income as a percent of sales, and number one in return on average shareholders' equity (for three years in a row), Mr Kogan boasted. In addition, the company ranks third in both sales per employee and net income per employee, but "we are looking to do better," he said; the mandate to S-P employees is "innovate and implement."