Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, on Wednesday reported strong second-quarter earnings on booming sales of cholesterol and depression drugs and merger-related cost savings.
Pfizer earned $2.86 billion, or 38 cents per share. That compared with a loss of $3.59 billion, or 48 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter, when the company took charges of almost $5.8 billion to account for costs of its $56 billion acquisition of Pharmacia Corp.
Excluding special items, including $747 million in charges related to the 2003 Pharmacia acquisition, Pfizer earned 47 cents per share, in line with the average forecast of 46 cents per share among analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.
The New York-based company said quarterly revenue grew 24 percent to $12.27 billion, helped by a new slate of products from Pharmacia and by the benefit of the weak dollar.
