Pharmacia, the US drugmaker slated to merge with Pfizer in coming weeks, said today its fourth-quarter earnings rose on higher sales of key drugs and a special gain from a legal settlement.
Pharmacia said net profit rose 549 per cent to $554 million, or 41 cents per share, from $86 million, or 6 cents a share.
Year-ago results included merger and restructuring charges and certain write-downs from the company's acquisition in early 2000 of Monsanto, the bio-agriculture firm it has since spun off and now treats as a discontinued operation.
Pfizer, already the world's largest drugmaker, has said it expects its $53 billion purchase of Pharmacia to close by the end of the first quarter, subject to approval from US and European regulators.
Pharmacia's most important medicines are its arthritis treatment Celebrex and a newer treatment called Bextra.
Sales of glaucoma treatment Xalatan rose 8 per cent in the quarter to $243 million, while those of incontinence medicine Detrol jumped 44 per cent to $195 million.