Forest Labs Sales Advance

Forest Laboratories(FRX) reported fourth-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street estimates, thanks to solid results for its Lexapro antidepressant and Namenda treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

The New York-based drugmaker also predicted that earnings for the 2008 fiscal year would be $3.05 to $3.15 a share, excluding items, which is in line with the Thomson First Call forecast of $3.11.

For the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, Forest earned 74 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $885.4 million. The average analyst forecast had been for earnings of 71 cents and sales of $865 million.

When the results were calculated using generally accepted accounting principles, Forest recorded a big charge related to the acquisition of Cerexa, a maker of antibiotics, earlier this year. The charge of $476 million was worth $1.49 a share.

Including items, Forest lost $237.9 million, or 75 cents a share, for the fourth quarter. For the same period last year, Forest earned $91.9 million, or 28 cents a share, on revenue of $756.3 million.

Sales of Lexapro rose 14% year over year to $530.4 million, and company executives said sales have grown despite increased competition from generic versions of other antidepressants. Owing primarily to a price increase, Forest expects Lexapro sales to grow 9% to 10% in the current fiscal year from $2.1 billion in the just-completed fiscal year.

Fourth-quarter sales of Namenda were $179.7 million, up 24% from the year-ago quarter. Forest predicts that Namenda's sales for the current fiscal year should grow 14% to 16% over the recent year's total of $660.3 million.