Bergen Brunswig Posts Flat Quarter : Earnings: Despite a 17% jump in revenue to $1.2 billion, a slow increase in drug prices took its toll.

Bergen Brunswig Corp. posted flat second-quarter earnings of $17 million despite a 17% jump in revenue, to $1.2 billion, compared to a year earlier.

The pharmaceutical supplier blamed slower-than-usual increases in the price of the drugs it distributes. That meant profit margins were slimmer even as sales increased.

The Orange company’s earnings for the quarter ended Feb. 29 amounted to 42 cents a share compared to $17.1 million, or 38 cents a share, a year earlier.

(The company has been buying back its own shares, so the average number of shares used to compute earnings per share decreased to 37.6 million for the latest quarter from 43.1 million last year.)

President Robert E. Martini said Monday in a statement that more of the company’s revenue is coming from sales of drugs to hospitals. Profit margins, he said, are slightly slimmer for hospital sales than for sales to drugstores.

Martini said the results were “on target” with the company’s expectations.

Bergen’s stock closed Monday at $19.375, up 62.5 cents a share in American Stock Exchange trading.

The company reported earnings of $1.5 million from its Commtron Corp. subsidiary, which distributes prerecorded videocassettes. Bergen recently announced plans to sell its 81% interest in Commtron to a subsidiary of Ingram Industries, a Nashville, Tenn., conglomerate.

Bergen Brunswig, one of Orange County’s largest companies, is also one of the nation’s biggest distributors of prescription drugs and other health-care products.

For the first half of its fiscal year, Bergen’s earnings fell to $25.9 million, or 65 cents a share, from $34.1 million, or 75 cents a share, last year. Revenue from continuing operation increased 14% to $2.4 billion from $2.1 billion a year earlier.