Hospira Inc.'s (HSP) third-quarter profit jumped 42%, beating analyst' expectations by a wide margin as a new generic version of a Sanofi-Aventis SA (SNY, SAN.FR) colon-cancer drug quickly ramped up sales.

It looks like a short-term benefit for Hospira, however, which doesn't expect the drug to help much in the fourth quarter. The maker of injectable drugs and medical devices affirmed its full-year sales-growth outlook and modestly increased its twice-raised 2009 earnings guidance due to a tax benefit.

Shares of the Lake Forest, Ill., company recently traded up 54 cents, or 1.2%, to $46.84. Through Monday, Hospira shares had risen about 73% on the year.

The company reported earnings of $116.2 million, or 71 cents a share, up from $81.8 million, or 51 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, including charges linked to a restructuring plan in the recent quarter, earnings rose to 90 cents from 63 cents.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast, on average, earnings of 69 cents in the recent quarter.

Gross margin rose to 39.3% from 36.1%.

Quarterly sales for Hospira, which spun off from Abbott Laboratories (ABT) in 2004, topped the 1 billion mark for the first time by reaching $1.01 billion, far ahead of Wall Street's $936.2 million projection.

Sales were up 8.9% from a year ago, or 10.8% excluding the impact of foreign currency.

The driver was Hospira's business for specialty injectable drugs, where sales surged about 24% to $575.7 million. Due in part to unfavorable currency rates, other major product categories saw year-over-year declines in the third quarter.

Christopher B. Begley, Hospira's chairman and chief executive, said in a release that results were helped by the restructuring program started in March and the U.S. launch this summer of a generic version of the Sanofi drug, which is known as Eloxatin.

Hospira didn't define the drug's sales but did say it got off to a fast start that won't repeat. "We believe that sales from future quarters were accelerated into the third quarter," Thomas E. Werner, Hospira's chief financial officer, said on a conference call. He added that Hospira doesn't expect significant fourth-quarter sales from the drug, known generically as oxaliplatin.

There is an ongoing patent fight concerning the drug, and a federal appeals court ruled in Sanofi's favor in September while throwing out an earlier trial-court ruling in favor of generic competitors including Hospira. Hospira kept shipping the drug, however, and Begley said on the call that "we feel very confident in our legal position."

The restructuring plan announced in March, called "Project Fuel," includes a 10% work force reduction and the slimming down of Hospira's product offerings alongside the potential sale of non-core businesses.

Hospira backed its forecast for 5% to 7% sales growth this year excluding the impact of foreign currency. Based on a tax benefit, the company hiked its adjusted earnings guidance by 5 cents to a range of $2.85 to $2.90 per share. Including items, full-year earnings are seen at $2.25 to $2.30 a share.

Regarding the sales outlook, Werner also said that most expected sales benefits related to making pandemic flu vaccine for other companies have been pushed out to next year. He also said Hospira doesn't see any positive changes regarding a slow-down in hospital spending that has hurt sales of medical devices.

-By Jon Kamp, Dow Jones Newswires; 617-654-6728; jon.kamp@dowjones.com