AstraZeneca alters earnings forecast

By Ben Deighton

LONDON (Reuters) - Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca (AZN.L) saw shares plummet 11 percent on Wednesday after it said its full-year earnings per share (EPS) would be at the lower end of its previously stated range.

Earnings would be hit by about $0.16 per share after it signed a distribution and supply deal with Par Pharmaceutical (PRX.N) for an authorised generic of its asthma drug Pulmicort.

It said the deal is in response to the launch of a generic by rival Teva (TEVA.O), even though the drug is still covered by an AstraZeneca patent. AstraZeneca has filed a temporary restraining order against the company.

As a result it predicted EPS will be near the bottom of the $4.90 (3.25 pounds) to $5.05 range communicated with its third-quarter financial results.

The news coincided with the announcement of mixed results from AstraZeneca's late-stage trial for its lung cancer treatment Zactima on Wednesday, after which its stock fell on worries about the firm's relatively thin pipeline of new drugs to replace blockbusters facing generic competition.

AstraZeneca said its trial for Zactima, one of a new class of drugs called TK inhibitors, met its key goal in combination with Sanofi-Aventis's (SASY.PA) chemotherapy treatment Taxotere, but not with Eli-Lilly's (LLY.N) Alimta.

The results also showed the drug did not perform better than Roche Holding (ROG.VX) Genentech's DNA.N and OSI Pharmaceuticals' (OSIP.O) Tarceva, the first of the TK inhibitors.

Analyst Simon Mather said that the results meant the drug would be useful in about 40 percent of second line patients suffering from non small cell lung cancer, the most common form of lung cancer.