Copycats hit Glaxo for £1bn
CUT-PRICE competition has knocked more than £1bn from sales of two leading drugs at GlaxoSmithKline since the start of the year.
Glaxo chief Jean-Pierre Garnier blamed the expiry of patents protecting antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin as he posted a 9% slump in trading profits to £1.6bn for the three months to September on turnover of £5bn, 8% down on a year ago.
Glaxo and other blue-chip pharmaceuticals have been battling to bring new products on line as they lose sales on existing blockbusters to copycat drugs from generic producers.
Paxil sales were down 51% to £246m in the third quarter, but Garnier said earnings should recover in coming months.
He added: 'These results confirm Glaxo's success in managing to absorb over £1.2bn of lost sales to generic Paxil IR and Wellbutrin SR during the first nine months of the year.'
Excluding the hit on Paxil and Wellbutrin, sales would have been up 12% in the US and 8% globally, led by asthma treatment Seretide/Advair, which notched a 20% rise to £609m.
Max Hermann, an analyst at ING, said: 'The revenues were slightly weaker than we expected, but the margin was better. Overall it's neutral.'
