Eli Lilly & Co. said Monday flat costs and strong sales of several top-selling drugs boosted first-quarter profit 23 percent, surpassing Wall Street expectations.
Higher sales volume and increased prices helped boost revenue from many of Lilly's drugs. Those factors helped offset a reduction in revenue caused by the stronger dollar, the company said.
Sales of the antidepressant Cymbalta, Lilly's second-best seller, grew 17 percent to $709 million, and the insulin Humalog saw revenue rise 11 percent to $450.6 million.
Lilly earned $1.31 billion, or $1.20 per share, compared with profit of $1.06 billion, or 97 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 5 percent to $5.05 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 99 cents per share on revenue of $5.05 billion.
The cancer drug Alimta saw strong growth, with sales surging 36 percent to $335 million.
Lilly also recorded $94.1 million in revenue from the cancer drug Erbitux, which was part of the company's $6-billion-plus acquisition of ImClone Systems Inc. last fall.
However, Lilly's top seller, the anti-psychotic Zyprexa, had flat sales of $1.12 billion. Another top-selling drug, the cancer treatment Gemzar, saw sales fall 14 percent to $367.8 million.
The company said its overall costs remained flat, on a mix of lower marketing expenses and higher research and development expenses. Lilly's cost of sales fell 27 percent to $816 million.
Looking ahead, the company backed full-year profit guidance between $4 and $4.25 per share. Analysts forecast $4.14 per share.
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AP Business Writer Damian J. Troise in New York contributed to this report.
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