Celgene Slips Further on Weak Outlook

Updated from 3:10 p.m. EST

SAN FRANCISCO -- Celgene (CELG Quote) offered 2009 financial guidance that fell below consensus expectations, as uncertainty over the global economy and the looming health-care reform in the U.S. weighed on management's outlook.

The Summit, N.J.-based drugmaker forecast 2009 earnings in the range of $2.05 per share to $2.15 per share, below the consensus view of $2.29 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Total revenue for 2009 is expected to reach $2.6 billion to $2.7 billion, Celgene said. Again, the forecast was below the consensus forecast of $2.9 billion.

Celgene announced 2009 financial guidance at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Shares were closed Monday down 60 cents, or 1.2%, to $49.67.

Investors had been expecting Celgene to offer a conservative outlook for 2009, and in that way, the company did not disappoint.

"We are in a global economic crisis right now that is affecting every country," said Celgene CEO Sol Barer. This crisis, coupled with uncertainty over President-elect Barack Obama's plans for health-care reform, has created "great uncertainties over [drug] pricing and growth," he added.

Celgene's most important revenue driver is the cancer drug Revlimid, which is marketed in the U.S. and internationally as a treatment for multiple myeloma and myelodysplastic syndrome -- two forms of blood cancer.

In recent weeks, investors have grown concerned about the Revlimid's growth trajectory, especially as it faces pricing pressure in Europe and competition from Velcade, a competing drug marketed by the Japanese drug maker Takeda.

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