Impax Laboratories Inc. said Tuesday its first-quarter profit soared as the company saw a big revenue boost from its generic version of the enlarged prostate treatment Flomax.
The Hayward, Calif., company said it earned $131.5 million, or $2.06 per share, in the three months that ended March 31. That compares with a profit of $2.2 million, or 4 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2009.
Revenue rose to $323.3 million from $58.9 million.
Those results trumped Wall Street expectations. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected, on average, earnings of 49 cents per share on $163.4 million in revenue.
Impax said its generic version of Flomax, which launched March 2, contributed $176.2 million to first-quarter sales. But the company also said it doesn't expect sales to remain at that level because competing generic versions entered the market in late April.
On April 28, Mylan Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. both announced the launch of their own versions of Flomax.
German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim developed Flomax and sells it through a partnership with Astellas Pharma of Japan.
Impax said its first-quarter revenue increase also was driven by sales of a generic version of the attention deficit hyperactivity drug Adderall XR, which is made by Shire PLC.
The drugmaker also saw its operating expenses climb 15 percent to $32.8 million.
Impax shares rose 93 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $18.89 in Monday morning trading. Earlier the stock hit a 52-week high of $18.99.