Genzyme Corp. shares fell as much as 22 percent after the biotechnology
company said revenue and profit from its general division this
year will be less than the company forecast.
Genzyme shares fell $5.77 to $20.10 in Instinet trading
before the opening of U.S. markets. Genzyme said yesterday after
the close of U.S. markets that prescriptions for its Renagel
kidney drug didn’t meet expectations, and wholesalers cut
inventories.
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The maker of treatments for rare genetic disorders said sales
of Renagel, a treatment for dialysis patients, will be $200
million to $210 million in 2002, far less than the prediction of
as much as $280 million earlier this year. First-quarter sales of
the drug, once Genzyme’s fastest-growing product, were half what
of that in the fourth quarter of 2001.
Investors were concerned about slowing growth of Renagel in
March when Genzyme said it wanted to reduce wholesaler inventories
of the drug to a six-week supply, helping build its own stocks to
allow fast movement into new markets where Renagel is approved.
Today, the company said it had overestimated the number of
doctors’ prescriptions.
Genzyme cut its 2002 revenue forecast by 4 percent to between
$1.1 billion and $1.15 billion. Profit will be $1.18 to $1.23 a
share, the company said. Genzyme has been expected to earn $1.36,
the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.
Second-quarter earnings will be 25 cents or 26 cents; analysts had
expected 33 cents.
Genzyme, a global company based in Cambridge, Mass., has three tracking stocks, including Genzyme
Molecular Oncology and Genzyme Biosurgery. There is a Genzyme Biosurgery unit located in Fall River.
Bloomberg News
