Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Thursday its profit shrank 89 percent in the fourth quarter as a tax benefit worth more than $200 million came off the Cheshire drug maker’s books, The Associated Press reports.
Meantime, Alexion’s global search for more drugs to fill its product pipeline bore fruit, with the company announcing that it paid $3 million to acquire an experimental therapy in Germany for a rare genetic condition that causes severe brain damage and death in newborns.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, Alexion said its profit decreased to $26.5 million, or 28 cents per share, from $237.1 million, or $2.59 per share.
Its results from the fourth quarter of 2009 included a tax benefit worth $214.5 million. Excluding one-time items from both quarters, the company said its profit grew to 51 cents per share from 31 cents per share.
Sales of the company’s blood disorder drug Soliris increased 41 percent, to $156 million from $110.6 million.
Analysts expected a profit of 50 cents per share and $153.8 million in revenue, according to FactSet. Analyst estimates usually exclude one-time items.
Soliris is a treatment for the blood disease paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, which causes a breakdown of red blood cells and leads to anemia. Soliris is Alexion’s only marketed product, and the company started selling the drug in Japan in 2010. It was approved in the U.S. and the European Union in 2007.
The company said its annual profit fell 67 percent to $97 million, or $1.04 per share, from $295.2 million, or $3.26 per share. Revenue grew 40 percent to $541 million from $386.8 million.
In the German therapy acquisition, the therapy is designed to treat molybdenum cofactor deficiency Type A. Patients with the deficiency do not have a particular compound in their blood, and the deficiency causes sulfites to build up in their bodies. The high sulfite levels cause seizures, severe brain damage, and death. Patients typically live for weeks or months, Alexion said.
There are no approved treatments for molybdenum cofactor deficiency.
The therapy was developed by Orphatec Pharmaceuticals GmbH of Germany. Alexion said the first patient treated — an Australian girl born in May 2008 — has had “clinically meaningful results.”
The deal also includes potential milestone payments if the treatment advances through clinical development and regulatory review, and reaches sales targets.
Looking ahead to the full year, Alexion forecast earnings per share of $2.10 to $2.25 per share on product sales of $715 million to $735 million. Analysts expect an annual profit of $2.27 per share and revenue of $713.6 million, on average.
