Other finance stories in brief
Biogen profits up 24% dueto Tysabri
Drugmaker Biogen said yesterday its first-quarter profit rose 24 per cent on its fastest-growing product, the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri. Irish biotechnology company Elan is Biogen's partner in marketing Tysabri, which it developed. Biogen is the world's largest manufacturer of multiple sclerosis drugs.
Biogen said net income rose to $163.1 million, or 54 cents a share, from $131.5 million, or 38 cents, a year earlier.
Revenues grew by 31.6 per cent to $942.2 million on the back of strong Tysabri sales.
Looking forward, the company said it expected revenues to grow 20 per cent this year driven by Tysabri.
Elan reports first-quarter results today. - (Reuters/Bloomberg)
Island reports first-half profit
Irish exploration group Island Oil & Gas reported a first-half pretax profit yesterday morning, reversing a losses over the same period last year, and said it was "highly confident" about its prospects.
The company reported a pretax profit of £418,000 (€520,852) for the six months to January 31st, 2008, against a loss of £5.34 million the previous year.
Island said the profit related mainly to the sale of a 10 per cent interest in the Amstel field development in The Netherlands.
Yahoo does better than expected
Yahoo posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit yesterday, buoyed by a $401 million non-cash gain on a stake in China's Alibaba.com Ltd.
The internet company's first-quarter net income rose to $542.2 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, from the year-ago quarter's $142.4 million, or 10 cents per diluted share. Excluding one-time items and stock compensation costs, it reported a profit of $150 million, or 11 cents per share.
Genzyme revenue reaches $1.1bn
Revenue at biotechnology company Genzyme grew by 25 per cent to $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2008 from $883.2 million during the same period in 2007. The increase was driven by growth across all product lines, the company said.
Genzyme, which employs 420 people in Waterford, recently announced a €130 million expansion that will create an additional 170 jobs at the company's biotechnology facility.
Profits fall 13% at drugs company
First-quarter pre-tax profits at drugs company GlaxoSmithKline fell by 13 per cent to £1.87 billion in the first three months of 2008, from £2.14 billion in the same period last year.
The company was hit by tumbling sales of diabetes drug Avandia and generic competition to other products. However, the fall in profits was less than had been expected by analysts thanks to strong sales of over-the-counter remedies.
Irish ban on violent video games
Ireland is one of only four EU states to have banned violent video games such as Manhunt 2, according to a European Commission survey. This is one of the main findings of a study by the commission of how the Pan European Game Information (Pegi) rating is being implemented in states.
Pegi ratings describe the the violence, sexual content and bad language in a game.
