Drug firm stock falls despite big profit gain: AstraZeneca's earnings rose 40% in the quarter. Investors were not happy when it said 2006 results would be flat.

Publication: The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2006 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Byline: Thomas Ginsberg

Feb. 3--Cash-rich drugmaker AstraZeneca P.L.C. posted a 40 percent increase in quarterly profit and boosted its dividend yesterday. But investors sent the stock tumbling on disappointing projections.

AstraZeneca, based in London with U.S. headquarters near Wilmington, offered a flat outlook for 2006 based on a potential hit to its $1.7 billion sales from Toprol-XL, the top-selling beta-blocker heart drug used for high blood pressure.

On Jan. 17, a federal judge invalidated AstraZeneca's patents on Toprol-XL, clearing the way for cheaper generics. It then was hit with a class-action petition in federal court demanding AstraZeneca compensate patients for years of charging excess prices over generics....

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