ABBOTT's WORLDWIDE Rx/NUTRITIONAL SALES GROW NEARLY 9%, TO OVER $ 800 MIL. IN THIRD QUARTER; BIOGEN PRODUCT REVENUES UP 20%; BARR's FY 1991 SALES INCREASE 34%

Abbott's worldwide pharmaceutical and nutritional sales were up 8.6% to $ 822 mil. for the third quarter, the company reported Oct. 8. Third quarter sales were helped by the U.S. launch of Survanta (beractant), which was approved on July 1 as a lung surfactant for treatment of infants with respiratory distress syndrome ("The Pink Sheet" July 8, T&G-1). Ross Labs launched the product July 16 ("The Pink Sheet" July 22, T&G-7). Abbott also launched its oral quinolone antibiotic temafloxacin in Sweden on Sept. 2. The product is copromoted by ICI ("The Pink Sheet" Sept. 9, T&G-1). For the nine months, pharmaceutical and nutritional product sales were up 13.6% to $ 2.4 bil., the company reported. "Worldwide registrations and launches of our two new anti- infective products, temafloxacin and clarithromycin, continue to be on track, with product introductions and approvals in markets in Europe and Latin America in the third quarter," Abbott Chairman Duane Burnham noted. Worldwide sales for all Abbott products in the third quarter reached $ 1.7 bil., up 9.8% over 1990, Abbott said. For the nine months, corporate sales were up 12.2%, to $ 5 bil. U.S. sales were up 11.1% to $ 1 bil. for the third quarter, Abbott said, while domestic sales for the nine months were $ 3.1 bil., up 10.8%. Net earnings for the third quarter were $ 252 mil., up 13.9%. For the nine months, Abbott earned a net of $ 774 mil., up 12.8%. Biogen reported revenues of $ 16.6 mil. for the third quarter, up 17.4 %. Product related revenues were up over 20% for the quarter, the company said, "due to continued strong royalty growth on sales of Intron-A alpha interferon and hepatitis B vaccines and diagnostics." Schering-Plough markets Intron-A worldwide. Contract revenue and interest income were down in the third quarter, the company added. For the first nine months of 1991, Biogen reported that revenues rose 20% to $ 52 mil. Net income was $ 1 mil. for the quarter, down 42%. For the nine months, net income was up 20.2% to $ 6.2 mil. Biogen increased its R&D spending by 21% in the third quarter, to z 11.7 mil., due, in part, to an expansion of the clinical programs for the synthetic thrombin inhibitor hirulog and beta interferon. The company has spent $ 32.4 mil. on R&D so far in 1991. Biogen noted that it entered into two R&D agreements with hirulog: one with Mallinckrodt, for development of nuclear imaging diagnostic products, and one with Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL) of Australia, for use of hirulog as a human therapeutic. Barr Labs reported sales of $ 94 mil. for its fiscal year ended June 30 - representing a 34% increase over FY 1990 sales. For the fourth quarter, the generic firm's sales were up 42% to $ 24.4 mil. Barr CEO Ed Cohen noted that 75% of the FY 1991 sales increase "was from Barr's core business and the balance of this increase was associated with the two new product approvals received during fiscal 1991." Barr's erythromycin and methotrexate ANDAs were approved in mid-October 1990 ("The Pink Sheet" Oct. 29, T&G-11). Cohen's figures suggest sales for the products were nearly $ 6 mil. R&D spending is up 50% to $ 5.9 mil., Barr noted. Cohen said he "is optimistic that some of the company's 80 ANDAs, encompassing 40 different chemical entities, currently at FDA will be approved during the next fiscal year." Barr's earnings for the year were $ 4.5 mil., up from $ 1.1 mil in fiscal 1990. For the fourth quarter, earnings were $ 944,000, up from $ 58,000 a year ago. "The increased profitability of the company was a result of an improved product mix and the stabilization of pricing within the industry," Barr said. Chart omitted.