Biogen 2nd-quarter profit up on MS drug sales | Reuters

(Reuters) - Biogen Idec Inc (BIIB.O) said on Tuesday its second-quarter earnings topped expectations on higher sales of its drugs to treat multiple sclerosis, and the company increased its profit forecast for the year.

The company's shares rose 3.5 percent in premarket trading.

Higher-than-expected sales of Avonex, its biggest-selling multiple sclerosis drug and Rituxan, its cancer drug, offset lower-than-expected sales of its newer multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri.
The Weston, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company raised its full-year profit forecast to above $6.20 a share from a previous forecast of above $6.15 a share. It left its revenue guidance unchanged for growth in the mid-single digits.

Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst at ISI Group, said the forecast could be conservative.
Net profit rose to $387 million, or $1.61 a share, from $288 million, or $1.18, a year earlier. Last year, the company's earnings were hurt by a charge of 15 cents per share due to arbitration involving its partner Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX).
ts were on average expecting earnings of $1.56 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.



Biogen 2nd-quarter profit up on MS drug sales | Reuters

 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/24/us-biogen-earnings-idUSBRE86N0P420120724