Pfizer’s, Wyeth’s Profits Climb

Strong sales of some key products helped Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth post double-digit second-quarter earnings growth Wednesday. Meanwhile, cancer drug sales pushed profit for the first six months of this year up 4% at Roche Holding.

Second-quarter results at Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug company, were helped by one-time gains and sales of the company’s cholesterol drug Lipitor.

The New York-based company’s net income increased 21% to $3.46 billion, or 47 cents a share, from $2.86 billion, or 38 cents, a year earlier. The results include an $816-million accounting adjustment for acquisitions and other items representing $1.04 billion in income. Without those, Pfizer would have posted earnings of $3.42 billion, or 46 cents a share, in the latest quarter.

Revenue edged up 1.2% to $12.43 billion from $12.27 billion a year earlier.

The results topped expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call, who predicted the company would earn 44 cents a share on sales of $12.15 billion.

Pfizer shares fell 32 cents to $27.06 on Wednesday.

Pfizer said it planned to announce a reorganization of its research-and-development operations today, including job cuts, as part of its effort to return to double-digit percentage growth in annual profit by next year.

Wyeth said net income grew 18% to $976.6 million, or 72 cents a share, from $827.3 million, or 61 cents, a year earlier. Analysts had predicted earnings of 70 cents a share.

Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth said revenue climbed 12%, including a 2-percentage-point gain on foreign exchange rates, to $4.71 billion from $4.22 billion last year. U.S. sales increased 6.4% to $2.6 billion, while foreign revenue grew three times as much, up 18.6% to $2.2 billion.

Wyeth shares rose $1.28 to $46.28, above their 52-week high of $45.76 reached earlier this month.

Sales of antidepressant Effexor, Wyeth’s No. 1 drug, rose 7% to $889 million in the quarter. Sales climbed 17% to $454 million for Protonix, a treatment for severe heartburn, and surged 48% to $323 million for Prevnar, an infant vaccine against pneumonia, meningitis and ear infections that had been in short supply last year.

Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland, said its first-half net income rose 4% to 3.24 billion Swiss francs ($2.5 billion) on strong sales, particularly of its cancer drugs.

Sales rose 14% to 16.6 billion Swiss francs. The company does not break out quarterly figures.