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By Marta Falconi
Shire PLC (SHPG) said Thursday a one-time break-up fee related
to a failed merger pushed fourth-quarter profits sharply higher,
but cautioned its rate of sales growth may slow this year.
Dublin-based Shire said fourth-quarter profit soared to $2.17
billion, compared with $64 million in the year-earlier period,
after it received $1.64 billion as a break-up fee following the
collapse of a takeover attempt by AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) in
October.
Sales in the quarter rose nearly 19% to $1.58 billion from $1.33
billion the year earlier. The performance beat the $1.55 billion
forecast in a FactSet poll of analysts.
Still, the company said volatile exchange rates and the loss of
exclusivity for one of its key products--attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder treatment Intuniv--would push growth rates
below last year's. Shire said it expects low-to-mid single digit
product sales growth this year.
Shire's preferred measure of profit--non-GAAP diluted earnings
per American depositary share, a figure that isn't calculated in
line with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles--came in at
$2.63. That was up 17% from the same quarter a year earlier.
Earnings growth is expected to be in the mid-single digits.
Shire is honing its focus in rare-disease treatments following
the collapse of North Chicago, Ill.-based AbbVie's buyout.
AbbVie scrapped the acquisition, which was designed to lower its
tax rate through the purchase of a foreign company, after the Obama
administration took steps to deter so-called inversion deals.
Last month, Shire said it was acquiring New Jersey-based NPS
Pharmaceuticals Inc., (NPSP) a maker of treatments for rare
diseases, for $5.2 billion.
Sales of Shire's best-selling drug, the attention deficit and
hyperactivity disorder treatment Vyvanse, rose 16% to $383.4
million in the quarter. The drug recently caught headlines when it
won approval in the U.S. to treat some of the estimated 2.8 million
adults there who have a binge-eating disorder.
Sales of Cinryze, which treats a hereditary disorder that causes
swelling and was recently acquired by Shire, generated $142.4
million in the quarter.
Write to Marta Falconi at the marta.falconi@wsj.com
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