Allergan Q2 revenues up but losses widen

Botox maker Allergan reported a jump in second-quarter revenue but a wider loss on the back of discontinued operations.

Revenue in the quarter edged up to $3.68bn from $3.63bn in the same period last year, but this missed expectations of $3.72bn.

The Dublin-based drug maker, which terminated its planned merger with Pfizer in April, said its loss in the quarter widened to $501.7m from $243.1m.

Allergan said that as a result of the decision to hold the sale of its Anda distribution business to Teva as of 30 June and the now completed divestiture of its Global Generics business to Teva on 2 August, the second-quarter results of these businesses are being reported as discontinued operations.

The company reported Botox sales of $719.7m, up from $631.4m in the second quarter of 2015 and ahead of estimates of $699.5m.

Chief executive officer and president Brent Saunders said: "2016 has been a year of significant, positive transition for Allergan. On August 2, we announced the completion of the divestiture of our Global Generics business, and on August 3, announced the proposed divestiture of our Anda distribution business, to Teva.

“These steps position Allergan as a pure branded focused business able to maximize the power of its therapeutic areas and the promise of its leading Open Science pipeline of 65+ mid-to-late stage development programs.”

At 1450 BST, Allergan shares were down 3.2% to $245.75.