Schering-Plough's 3rd Qtr EPS Up 23%

Ahead of the company's scheduled reporting date (October 21),Schering-Plough president Richard Kogan has announced a 23% increase to $0.48 in earnings per share for the third quarter of 1997. EPS for the first nine months of 1997 totaled $1.50, he said, compared with $1.27 for the corresponding period last year.

Reviewing the company's pharmaceutical and health care businesses before analysts and investors in New York, Mr Kogan also noted that third-quarter sales, including revenues from the Mallinckrodt animal health business acquired earlier in the year (Marketletter June 2), reached $1.7 billion. He added that S-P expects 1997 full-year sales to be $1 billion higher than the like, year-earlier figure of $5.7 billion.

Offering a forecast for EPS for the full year, Mr Kogan said the company "will come in with at least a 17% increase." With regards to R&D expenditure for 1997, S-P expects a climb of 17.6% on last year's total, to approximately $850 million.