Troubled S-P still struggling - but upbeat

Schering-Plough is still struggling financially, reporting another quarter of disappointing results, with net income sliding 71% to $173m.

Although these results were not unexpected, as the company had previously cut its full-year 2003 guidance, ceo Fred Hassan has now withdrawn this forecast saying he does not want to be constrained by earlier business assumptions.

The firm says its weak performance was due predominantly to the loss of US sales and profits from the former blockbuster antihistamine, Claritin (loratadine). Total first quarter sales of $2.1bn were 19% lower than the corresponding period last year, while phar-maceutical sales dropped down 26% to $1.6bn, and US pharmaceutical sales slid 52% to $648m.

Worldwide sales of the Intron products totalled $516m, down 7% on the previous year, with US sales dropping 18% to $342m. This was due mainly to increased competition from Swiss rival, Roche, who slashed the price of its hepatitis C product Copegus (ribavirin).

Sales of the brain cancer treatment, Temodar (temozolomide), were flat, but the rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease treatment, Remicade (infliximab), fared much better, managing an 89% rise to $114m.

Fred Hassan, the company's new chairman and ceo, said he believed that despite the major challenges that S-P faces, it will succeed in delivering the turnaround and getting on a track of solid, long-term growth.