Teva Pharm second-quarter profit tops forecast, reaffirms 2020 outlook

By Tova Cohen and Steven Scheer

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' <TEVA.TA> quarterly profit beat estimates by two cents and the company reaffirmed its outlook for 2020 despite uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 crisis.

The company also released with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals <REGN.O> results for advanced trials for pain medication fasinumab. They said primary endpoints were achieved with a 1 mg monthly dose, demonstrating "significant improvements in pain and physical function over placebo at week 16 and week 24".

Teva CEO Kare Schultz said the companies were still waiting for more safety data.

"Assuming that we get good long-term data that we will be reporting probably in the beginning of next year, we expect to file the product with Regeneron in the first half of 2021," he told Reuters.

Regulatory approval could be granted in late 2022, he said, adding it could become a significant product for Teva, which would book sales outside of the United States.

The world's largest generic drugmaker earned 55 cents per diluted share excluding one-time items in the second quarter, down from 60 cents a year earlier.

Revenue fell 7% to $3.9 billion.

Analysts had forecast Israel-based Teva <TEVA.N> would earn 53 cents a share ex-items on revenue of $3.93 billion, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.

Lower sales of generic and over-the-counter products "in Europe and international markets were in line with our expectations, after the unusually high demand seen in the prior quarter due to the initial response to the pandemic," Schultz said.

North American sales of migraine treatment Ajovy rose 50% to $34 million while sales of Austedo for Huntington's disease jumped 67% to $161 million. Sales in North America of multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone fell 13% to $238 million.

Ajovy sales have fallen short of initial projections because of strong competition that hurt prices. But Schultz is optimistic the launch of Teva's autoinjector will boost its market share to 25% of prescriptions by mid-2021 from 15% now.

Teva reaffirmed its 2020 forecast for adjusted EPS of $2.30-$2.55 and revenue of $16.6-$17.0 billion. Analysts are forecasting EPS of $2.50 on revenue of $16.8 billion.

Its shares were up 7.1% on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Tova Cohen and Steven Scheer; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)