(Reuters) – AmerisourceBergen Corp on Tuesday raised full-year profit forecast and beat estimates for the second quarter, as the drug distributor benefited from demand for costly specialty therapies.
The Pennsylvania-based company has been looking to diversify its specialty services business, through which it distributes medicines, both branded and generic, for the treatment of complex and chronic conditions like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, among others.
It is also expected to benefit from the launch of cheaper versions of some branded drugs, as drugmakers like AbbVie Inc face looming patent cliffs for its top-selling drugs, like Humira for rheumatoid arthritis treatment that lost its exclusivity this year in the US market.
AmerisourceBergen now expects adjusted 2023 earnings in the range of $11.70 to $11.90 per share, compared with its prior forecast of $11.50 to $11.75. Analysts were expecting annual profit of $11.63 per share.
Its U.S. sales rose 11% to $56.7 billion in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a year earlier.
The biosimilar market represents a $31 billion revenue opportunity by 2025 for U.S. drug distributors such as AmerisourceBergen, Evercore ISI analyst Elizabeth Anderson said in a note ahead of the results.
The drug distributor recently acquired a minority stake in cancer care provider OneOncology for around $685 million, and had announced plans to rename itself as Cencora in the second half of the year.
For the second quarter, it reported total revenue of $63.5 billion, topping analysts’ estimates of $60.4 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
Excluding one-off items, profit came in at $3.50 per share, beating expectations of $3.29 per share.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)
