Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., a major drug maker, reported on Friday that its third-quarter profit fell 16 percent as the company continues to struggle with loss of patent protection on key products but also increased spending on research and development.
For the quarter, Bristol-Myers earned $758 million, or 38 cents a share, compared with $906 million, or 47 cents a share, a year earlier. The results were in line with the estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.
Sales rose 1 percent to $5.42 billion from $5.37 billion.
The company said its new drugs including AIDS treatment Reyataz, antipsychotic drug Abilify and cancer medicine Erbitux, which it shares with ImClone Systems Inc., performed well during the quarter.
Research and development costs increased 9 percent to $615 million.
For the first nine months of the year, the drug maker earned $2.2 billion, or $1.16 a share, down from $2.6 billion or $1.34, a share, a year earlier. Net sales increased 5 percent to $16 billion from $15.2 billion a year ago,
