Shire Announces Profit in 3rd Quarter

27 October 2006

Shire PLC, Britain's third-biggest drugmaker with offices in Basingstoke, said Friday it had swung to a profit in the third quarter compared with a loss a year earlier after one-time acquisition costs were not repeated and have raised its outlook for full-year revenue.

The maker of the attention deficit disorder treatment Adderall XR said net income for the three months through Sept. 30 came to US$87.2 million, compared with a loss of US$630.7 million in the same period a year earlier.

Total revenues rose 19 percent to US$449.4 million as product sales climbed 25 percent to US$386.2 million.

Total sales for the full year will now probably grow between 12 percent and 14 percent compared with a previous forecast of less than 10 percent, Shire said in a statement.

"Total costs are expected to be in line with previous guidance... As 2007 approaches, we remain focused on implementing our strategy and we are on track to deliver several more new products to market."

Shire received a favourable ruling earlier this month as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted conditional approval for the drug NRP104 a successor to Adderall XR. But it later emerged that that its portion of the profit earned on sales of the drug would be less than expected. Shire codeveloped the drug with New River Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Radford, Virginia.

Basingstoke-based Shire also said this month that its Hunter syndrome drug Elaprase received a positive recommendation for approval by a European review committee.

Shire shares climbed 1.6 percent to 961 pence on the London Stock Exchange.

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