Significant profit increase for Teva

Teva Pharmaceutical has reported a non-GAAP net income of $1.2bn for the third quarter of 2010 – an increase of 47 per cent on the same period last year.

Non-GAAP earnings per share were also up, increasing by 46 per cent to $1.30.

Non-GAAP figures exclude several one-off items such as a $27m payment for impairment of assets, and acquisition and restructuring expenses, also coming to $27m.

"This was another outstanding quarter of profitable growth for Teva, with record-breaking sales across all our geographies and major businesses, leading to record-breaking results across the board," said Shlomo Yanai, president and CEO, Teva.

"This was also a quarter of major strategic achievements and operational successes, particularly in the US with high growth rates in our generics business, and in Europe, where we closed our acquisition of Ratiopharm and are already making excellent progress on the integration – which we now expect to complete ahead of schedule."

Total sales for the company increased by 20 per cent from the third quarter of 2009, reaching $4.3bn.

Strong performing products included multiple sclerosis therapy Copaxone (glatiramer acetate injection), which made $808m – an increase of 4 per cent on 2009.

The continued success of Copaxone helped revenue in North America increase 22 per cent, with results in the region accounting for 64 per cent of total sales.

A healthy performance from Teva's generics portfolio also boosted the company's performance in North America, increasing by 34 per cent to $1.6bn.

In other regions, European revenue reached $1.0bn , increasing 24 per cent, with international sales up 7 per cent to $525m.

Sales in all regions were boosted by the first time consolidation of Ratiopharm's results. Teva acquired the generic drug firm in August 2010 after entering a definitive agreement to purchase Ratiopharm earlier in the year.