Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd posted its first quarterly operating loss on record due to one-off costs from acquisitions, but raised its full-year forecast by 17%, pushing its shares up 3%.
Japan's largest drugmaker had said in May it would book about $1.7bn in costs this year for the research and development of drug candidates taken over in its $8bn+ acquisition of US biotech firm Millennium Pharmaceuticals and in a buyout of a US joint venture.
Those costs pushed Takeda to a group operating loss of ¥27.2bn in the April-June first quarter, versus an operating profit of ¥153.12bn a year ago. Sales rose 8% to ¥396.9bn.
But Takeda lifted its group operating profit forecast for the year to March 2009 to ¥280bn from ¥240bn. The market consensus was for ¥249.4bn in a poll of 16 analysts by Reuters Estimates.
Takeda shares were up 3.1% at ¥5,690 by 05.22 GMT. The benchmark Nikkei average was flat.
With top-selling medicines losing patent protection in the world's largest markets, many drug firms are increasing R&D budgets to beef up their product pipelines. Some have also used corporate acquisitions and tie-ups to speed that process.
Takeda, whose mainstay Actos diabetes pill will lose US patent protection in 2011, bought Millennium in May in a bid to strengthen its cancer drug business.
Takeda expects its R&D spending to rise 76% this fiscal year, chiefly because of one-time costs for taking over in-process R&D assets at Millennium, as well as part of TAP Pharmaceutical Products, a former joint venture in the US.
Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd, Japan's No.3 drugmaker, earlier reported a 41% drop in operating profit for the first quarter. It stuck to its full-year forecast of ¥130bn.
Takeda shares have fallen 16% this year through Wednesday, while the benchmark index is down 13%.
By Yumiko Nishitani, Reuters
