Gilead profit beats Street, shares up 3pct

Gilead Sciences Inc said on Tuesday its quarterly profit rose a better-than-expected 43 per cent on higher sales of its core HIV drugs and royalties on sales of the flu drug Tamiflu, boosting its shares more than 3 per cent. Gilead posted a fourth-quarter net profit of $802.2m, or 87 cents per share, compared with $560m, or 59 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items, the company earned 93 cents a share, which beat the average analyst estimate of 85 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Quarterly revenue rose 42 per cent to $2.03bn, while product sales rose 30 per cent to $1.8bn. Sales of AIDS drug Truvada rose 19 per cent to $670.7m, beating Wall Street's average forecast of $644m, as compiled by Citigroup. Royalty, contract and other revenue more than quintupled to $228m from $40.4m. Gilead gets most of its royalty revenue from Roche AG's sales of Tamiflu, which has seen strong demand because of the swine flu pandemic.