ELAN SALES RISE 44% TO $135.8 MIL. IN FY 1993 PACED BY CARDIZEM CD, VERELAN

Elan fiscal year sales jumped 44% to $135.8 mil. and earnings spiraled up 62.5% to $32.3 mil. for the 12 months ended March 31. Elan Chairman Donald Panoz said May 4 that the "highlight of the year has been the success of the U.S. market for Cardizem CD," which Elan licenses to Marion Merrell Dow. Lederle, which licenses Verelan, "increased" that product's sales, Panoz noted. He added that the downturn of nicotine patch sales in the U.S. has been "somewhat offset by launches in new markets." Elan's patch product, marketed in the U.S. by Lederle as ProStep, is available in 12 countries. Elan announced that it has exercised its option to acquire the outstanding shares of Drug Research Corp., which is a vehicle to develop Elan's ETDAS electrotransport and IPDAS gastrointestinal absorption technologies. As a result, Elan will take a one-time charge of $82.5 mil. against first quarter FY 1994 earnings. DRC was formed in 1990 via a unit rights offering that raised $43.2 mil. Panoz said the board felt that it was an "appropriate" time to acquire DRC in light of the "imminent" filing of an NDA for Naprelan, a once-daily naproxen using an IPDAS formulation. Forest Labs reported a 19.3% sales increase for the year ended March 31 to $296.4 mil. Twelvemonth earnings rose 29.7% to $64.3 mil. For the fourth quarter, sales were ahead 18.2% at nearly $77 mil. and net income increased 28.6% to $17.8 mil. Commenting on the showing, Forest President Howard Solomon noted that "Aerobid, our largest product, has continued its excellent growth aided by Aerobid-M," which was introduced last autumn. He added that the Lorcet line, "following the launch of Lorcet 10/650, also grew strongly. The growth of these products, together with the continued excellent performance of Tessalon and Esgic line give us confidence in our future growth."