AstraZeneca Profits Decline 5%
LONDON (
) --
AstraZeneca
(AZN) - Get Report
, the Anglo-Swedish drugs company, said fourth-quarter earnings fell 5% as revenue in the U.S. dropped 12%.
AstraZeneca earned $1.63 billion in the quarter on total revenue of $8.6 billion vs. $8.95 billion a year earlier.
Revenue in the U.S. felll on generic competition and the absence of H1N1 vaccine sales from a year earlier, AstraZeneca said in a statement Thursday. Revenue from the rest of the world rose 5%.
AstraZeneca said sales of Crestor, its anti-cholesterol drug, rose 26% to $1.59 billion in the fourth quarter. U.S. sales of Crestor jumped 36%.
The drugmaker plans to repurchase $4 billion shares in 2011, up from $2.1 billion in 2010.
-- Written by Joseph Woelfel
>To contact the writer of this article, click here:
Joseph Woelfel
>To submit a news tip, send an email to:
.
Copyright 2011 TheStreet.com Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.
