Generic drug maker maker Mylan on Wednesday reported a first-quarter profit that edged past expectations, helped by demand for products it gained through the acquisition of Swedish drugmaker Meda.
Shares of the EpiPen maker rose 2.3 percent to $38.87 in early trading after Mylan also backed its full-year forecast.
Mylan's forecast for 2017 profit and revenue, which it first announced in March, was in sharp contrast to downbeat expectations from rivals despite prolonged pressure and scrutiny on pricing for generic drugs in the United States.
"Our overall expectations for the global pricing environment are unchanged and we are still predicting mid-single digit percentage erosion globally for the year," Mylan President Rajiv Malik said.
Mylan's affirmation of its 2017 forecast may be comforting to some following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent rejection of the company's generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's blockbuster Advair asthma treatment, Goldman Sachs analysts said.
So far, Mylan has provided no details of the FDA's concerns or how long the product might be delayed.
Mylan has come under fire for sharply increasing the price of EpiPen and classifying the life-saving treatment as a generic rather than a branded product, which led to much smaller rebates to state Medicaid programs.
The company said first-quarter sales of EpiPen in North America declined due to increased competition and the launch of its authorized generic.
In March, the company said it was recalling thousands of EpiPen devices following reports of the treatment failing to work in emergencies.
Mylan said net income surged to $66.4 million, or 12 cents per share in the first quarter ended March 31, from $13.9 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, Mylan earned 93 cents per share, beating analysts' average estimate by 1 cent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 24 percent to $2.72 billion. Analysts on average had expected $2.84 billion.