BRIEF: Glaxo profit down on declining Avandia sales

Feb 07, 2008 (The Philadelphia Inquirer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- GSK | news | PowerRating | PR Charts -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc reported a 10 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit, which was slightly worse than analysts estimated, and executives projected a percentage decline in the mid-single digits of earnings per share in 2008.

The performance came down to a single drug: Avandia.

Sales of the diabetes drugs fell 55 percent, continuing a swoon that began with a May 2007 analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggesting that the pill could cause more heart attacks.

"We took a big hit with Avandia," said CEO J.P Garnier.

The company's stock fell sharply in London, dropping by more than eight percent at one point.

Net income was $2.2 billion on sales of $12.1 billion.

Garnier left more questions unanswered on the fate of the firm's human papilloma virus vaccine, Cervarix, a potential blockbuster that the Food and Drug Administration has delayed approving.

Garnier declined to say what objections the FDA had to Cervarix. Garnier said the company will answer the FDA's concerns by the second quarter, and expects FDA approval "sometime in the future."

Contact staff writer Karl Stark at 215-854-5363 or kstark@phillynews.com.

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