Biovail sees sales shrink, profit disappear after turmoil
Biovail three-month chart
Canada's biggest publicly traded drug company lost money and saw its sales shrink in the second quarter as it absorbed the costs of a proxy fight, a management change and a losing legal battle over drug promotion tactics in the United States.
Toronto-based Biovail Corp., which reports in U.S. dollars, said Wednesday that its total revenue fell to $186.1 million in the three months to June 30 from $203 million a year earlier,
The loss for the quarter was $25.3 million or 16 cents a share. A year earlier, Biovail showed a profit of $67.8 million or 42 cents a share.
On the Toronto Stock Exchange, its share price opened at $10.40 Cdn, down 10 cents, after the announcement. It slid as low as $10 before recovering to about $10.35 in early trading.
The stock changed hands for as much as $19.47 last fall and as little as $9.64 last month.
"We have made progress in the implementation of our new strategic focus and the transformation of Biovail," CEO Bill Wells said in a statement. "Our cost-efficiency initiatives are beginning to produce results, our business-development efforts are extremely active, and Biovail's balance sheet and cash balances are robust."
Four items more than accounted for the loss: restructuring costs ($51.7 million), management succession costs ($6 million), proxy contest costs in a fight with founder Eugene Melnyk ($5.4 million) and a $24.6-million legal settlement with the U.S. Justice Department.
The company was the subject of a grand jury probe involving allegations that it offered doctors as much as $1,000 US to write between 11 and15 prescriptions for its latest heart pill and then complete a report on each patient.
0 comments:
Post a Comment