The big drugmaker reported net income was $3.03 billion, compared with $1.5 billion, a year earlier, slightly higher than analyst expectations.

Sales of the Advair asthma medicine and Avandia diabetes treatment rose more slowly than last year because warm weather is cutting asthma cases and new diabetes treatments from Lilly and Merck entered the market. The company also lost patent protection on the allergy spray Flonase, antidepressant Wellbutrin XL and nausea drug Zofran, medicines that brought in more than a $1 billion in revenue a year earlier.

“This is going to be the hardest quarter for them,” says analyst Max Herrmann of ING Wholesale Banking in London. “You have the impact of three generics in this quarter.”

Glaxo is counting on the introduction of the Tykerb breast cancer treatment and the Cervarix HPV vaccine to boost sales.

Further reading…
Bloomberg News;
Glaxo earnings statement.[tags]GlaxoSmithKline[/tags]