Teva Pharmaceuticals shares gained 5 percent Monday after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter profit as sales of its generic drugs drove performance.
The Israel-based drugmaker earned an adjusted $1.36 per share for its latest quarter, beating analysts' estimates by 19 cents. Revenue also beat forecasts, despite no new generic drug introductions during the quarter.
Teva's sales of generic drugs amounted to $2.2 billion, a decrease of 17 percent hurt by the loss of exclusivity of proton pump inhibitor Esomeprazole and Crohn's disease treatment budesonide. However, global revenues of of Teva's multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone outperformed, with $1 billion in sales for the quarter, a 9 percent increase compared to a year ago.
Teva is currently in the process of buying Allergan's Actavis generic business for $40.5 billion. Depending on U.S. regulatory approval, Teva expects to close the acquisition this June. In a conference call with analysts, Siggi Olafsson, CEO of Teva's global generic medicines said "with Activis Generics we see over 1,000 new product launches growing to approximately 1,500 new launches in 2017."
Olafsson also said Teva has not seen any changes in the pricing environment in the past two quarters. "Teva experienced approximately 4 percent price negotiation in the United States last year and our guidance for this year is that it will remain the same." Olafsson said on the call.
Health care stocks overall gained more than 1 percent to lead most S&P 500 sectors higher Monday. Allergan and Mallinckrodt led health care advancers with gains of more than 6 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
Teva shares have slumped more than 13 percent in the past 12 months, and 20 percent year-to-date.