UPDATE: Celgene 2Q Profit Up 8.8%; Again Increases 2010 View

Celgene Corp.'s (CELG) second-quarter earnings rose 8.8%, as sales growth continued for its flagship blood cancer drug Revlimid.

The Summit, N.J., drug maker's results exceeded Wall Street profit and revenue expectations and the company again bumped up its 2010 projections for both, largely on increased sales of Revlimid. Although it seeks to push into broader areas, Celgene's business remains focused on selling treatments for blood cancer, primarily multiple myeloma, where steady growth continues.

The stock, which was down 5% for the year through Wednesday, rose 4.1% to $55 premarket.

Celgene raised its full-year earnings range expectations by 5 cents a share, the same increase it made in April, to $2.65 to $2.70 a share. Wall Street analysts were already expecting the company to beat its previous forecast with an average of estimate of $2.68 a share.

Notably, the earnings projection includes an estimated reduction of about 5 cents a share from Celgene's planned $2.9 billion acquisition of Abraxis BioScience Inc. (ABII), which the company has said will close in the fourth quarter.

The company now see revenue of $3.4 billion to $3.45 billion, up from $3.3 billion to $3.4 billion. Analysts expect $3.36 billion. The latest topline projection from the company excludes any benefit from the Abraxis acquisition.

When Celgene gave its initial 2010 view earlier this year, some analysts believed the company was being conservative to avoid a repeat of last year's March earnings warning, which sent its stock reeling.

In the latest quarter, sales of Revlimid rose 48% to $587.1 million, exceeding analyst expectations of $558 million, according to MDRx Financial. On the back of that growth, Celgene again raised its 2010 sales projection for the drug to a range of $2.3 billion to $2.35 billion, up from a previous range of $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion.

Sanford Bernstein analyst Geoffrey Porges said that Revlimid sales seemed to benefit from a "significant increase" after data was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in June.

That increase bodes well for the drug's prospects for the rest of the year, Porges said in a note to clients, and he expects Wall Street expectations to increase.

Sales of Vidaza, another blood-cancer drug, rose 43% to $132 million, in line with Wall Street expectations.

For the three months ended June 30, Celgene's profit rose to $155.4 million, or 33 cents a share, from $142.8 million, or 31 cents, a year earlier. Excluding items, earnings were 69 cents a share, beating analyst expectations of 66 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 36% to 852.7 million, also above expectations of $821 million.

-By Thomas Gryta, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2169; thomas.gryta@dowjones.com

Abraxis Bioscience Inc. (MM) (NASDAQ:ABII)
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