Irvine-based Allergan Inc. reported a third-quarter profit that met Wall Street expectations after spending cuts that helped offset lower than expected sales.
Allergan reported an adjusted profit of $199 million, up 12% from a year earlier. The profit figure met what analysts were expecting on average.
The company, which makes eye and skin drugs and medical cosmetic products, saw sales come up short of expectations at $1.08 billion.
Analysts were expecting sales $1.09 billion to $1.14 billion, with an average estimate of $1.11 billion.
Allergan is seeing a slowdown in sales of wrinkle remover Botox and other medical cosmetic products that patients pay for themselves.
Spending cuts helped shore up Allergan’s profits amid slowing sales, according to Chief Executive David Pyott.
“In spite of the impact of the economy in Europe and the U.S. on our cash-pay businesses, we made tough spending tradeoffs as we have applied discipline and execution to deliver the top end of our earnings per share guidance for the third quarter,” he said.
Allergan lowered its sales and profit outlook for the remainder of the year and was cautious about 2009.
The company now forecasts an adjusted 2008 profit of $774 million to $786 million.
At the end of the second quarter, Allergan forecast a profit of $786 million to $792 million.
It now sees 2008 sales of $4.29 billion to $4.3 billion, versus an earlier forecast of $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion.
The lowered guidance is in line with tempered expectations on Wall Street.
That likely helped drive a rebound in Allergan’s shares, which opened down as much as 7% but closed slightly up on a market value of about $11 billion.
For 2009, Allergan said it isn’t likely to meet past profit growth in the mid to high teens. It’s initial estimate for next year is a 5% to 12% profit gain.
The company said it is working with Irvine-based drug developer Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. on a drug for bladder cancer.
Under the terms of the deal, Allergan will pay Spectrum $41.5 million and additional payments of up to $304 million if Spectrum’s apaziquone drug is approved by regulators.
Allergan gains the rights to market apaziquone in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
