BERGEN BRUNSWIG DRUG AND HEALTH CARE SALES UP 16% TO NEARLY $1 BIL. IN THIRD QUARTER; BIOCRAFT FY 1990 SALES INCREASE 27% TO TOP $100 MIL. MARK

Bergen Brunswig revenues from its prescription drug and health care products distribution business climbed 16.2% to $997.5 mil. in the third quarter ended May 31. Through nine months of fiscal 1990, drug and health care sales have risen 15.2% to $2.9 bil. Consolidated revenues for the third quarter and nine months rose 15.7% and 13.4%, respectively, to $1.14 bil. and $3.3 bil. Quarterly drug distribution operating profits rose 14.5% to $33 mil.; in the year so far, profits from that business are ahead 13.5% at $86.4 mil. Corporate net earnings also jumped significantly -- quarterly earnings were $21.3 mil., up 58%, and net income through nine months is $51.5 mil., up nearly 40%. * Biocraft Labs fourth quarter sales slipped 2% to $28 mil. for the three months ending March 31. Fiscal 1990 revenues increased 26.9% to $113.6 mil. President and CEO Harold Snyder, reporting financial results on June 6, said sales of Biocraft's antibiotics "continued strong." Commenting on earnings for the quarter and the year, Snyder noted: "Obviously, the results of fiscal 1990 were distorted by the settlement of the cefadroxil litigation." At the end of March, Biocraft and Zenith Labs agreed to pay cefadroxil patent holder Bristol-Myers Squibb and to halt sales of their generic versions of the antibiotic Duricef. Biocraft agreed to pay $10 mil. to Bristol in FY 1991 and additional payments over seven years. Bristol said the total was$21 mil. ("The Pink Sheet" April 2, T&G-12). The one-time charge to earnings showed up in the fourth quarter as a $7.9 mil. net loss. For the year, Biocraft earnings were $3.2 mil., a 61.5% plunge from FY 1989.