Profit Falls at Bristol-Myers, Rises at Pharmacia, Wyeth

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said Tuesday that its quarterly profit plunged as overstocked wholesalers cut orders and doctors switched patients to generic drugs. Profit rose at two other pharmaceutical companies, Pharmacia Corp. and Wyeth.

Bristol-Myers, the world’s fifth-largest drug maker, said net income fell 63% in the second quarter and profit would be lower than forecast through 2003.

Pharmacia’s net grew 23% on a payment for rights to Ambien, a sleeping pill. Wyeth’s net rose 26% on sales of depression and heartburn drugs.

The gulf between drug makers with good prospects and those with weaker pipelines is widening, said John Borzilleri, fund manager with State Street Research.

Bristol-Myers follows Merck & Co. and Eli Lilly & Co. in reporting lower profits after losing patent protection on top-selling products. Patents held by Pharmacia and Wyeth have years to run.

Bristol-Myers’ net income fell to $440 million, or 23 cents a share, from $1.2 billion, or 61 cents, a year earlier. Sales fell 14% to $4.05 billion.

Sales of the Glucophage diabetes drug, the Taxol cancer medication and the Buspar anxiety treatment plunged 93% to $51 million after Bristol-Myers lost exclusive rights, opening the market to cheaper generics.

Bristol-Myers’ results for the quarter were short of the 26-cent average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call.

Bristol-Myers shares fell 70 cents to $21.10 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Pharmacia, which last week agreed to be bought by No. 1 drug maker Pfizer Inc., said net income in the second quarter rose to $907 million, or 69 cents a share, from $737 million, or 55 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose 4.1% to $3.55 billion.

Pharmacia received $424 million for U.S. rights to Ambien from French partner Sanofi Synthelabo, contributing 32 cents a share to the quarterly results.

Combined worldwide sales of Pharmacia’s Celebrex painkiller and its successor, Bextra, were $896 million in the quarter, up 26% from Celebrex’s sales alone a year earlier. Bextra’s sales, in the drug’s first quarter on the market, were $89 million.

Shares of Peapack, N.J.-based Pharmacia fell 39 cents to $36.01 on the NYSE.

Net income at Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth, formerly known as American Home Products Corp., rose to $599.9 million, or 45 cents a share, from $477 million, or 36 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 10% to $3.5 billion.

Wyeth is evaluating how much sales of its Premarin line of hormone replacement products may decline after researchers earlier this month said that they halted a study of one of the hormone drugs, Prempro, because it may raise patients’ risk of breast cancer and heart disease.

Wyeth said it won’t issue a profit forecast yet because it can’t estimate sales of the medicines.

Sales of the Effexor antidepressant rose 70% to $604.2 million, and sales of the Premarin line of products, including Prempro, gained 4% to $445.4 million. Sales of the Protonix heartburn medicine rose 45% to $192.2 million.

Wyeth shares rose 91 cents to $31 on the NYSE.