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Earnings Calls: 
Schering Plough First Quarter Earnings Call
Author: Rozalina Destanova
123jump.com
Last Update: 3:48 AM EDT May 28 2008

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Revenue rose 57% to $4.66 billion, up from $2.98 billion, which included sales from Organon. The company acquired European drug developer Organon in November 2007. Sales of rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade jumped 36% to $507 million, while sales of the allergy medication Nasonex increased 8% to $307 million. Sales of global cholesterol joint venture, which include cholesterol-controlling drugs Vytorin and Zetia, totaled $1.2 billion.


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Robert J. Bertolini: I would estimate in the quarter, about 4 cents was contributed by OBS and we are on track.

Seamus Fernandez (Leerink Swann): Why the company is pursuing vicriviroc when sales of salventry, the other selengentre the other CCR5 inhibitor in the marketplace launched by Pfizer where that company had higher expectations than the $5 million that were booked in the first quarter of this year and is about one year after the launch?

Thomas P. Koestler: I like this product for a couple of reasons. Number one, unlike Mariviroc, this product is a true once a day drug. It does not have the drug-drug interaction concerns that the other product has, so it is going to be convenient to be dispensed in the marketplace, particularly for these patients who are on heart therapy, which is complex therapy, so we do not have to do a lot of dose adjustments or any dose adjustments with vicriviroc. We are on our way into our Phase III program. Not only is it once a day but it also crosses the blood brain barrier and we are exploring what that might mean from a patient benefit point of view going forward. We like vicriviroc for those reasons.

Seamus Fernandez (Leerink Swann): The headline RBR data and in fact Schering-Plough''s publication of a correlation of RBR to SBR, which is going to be at the DDW meeting, would suggest that your product may in fact be inferior to talaprovir Vertex''s drug. Why Schering would plan to move forward with such a costly program in the context of your cost cutting programs?

Thomas P. Koestler: What counts at the end of the day is the SBR, which is Sustained Biologic Response. We do believe and we have published data correlating the predictive value of RBR. That is for interferon based therapies. It still remains to be proven with good SBR data whether or not an early RBR response will be predictive when one''s looking at the protease class of inhibitors. We do have data that is going to be presented at the Easel meeting this week, on Saturday in Milan.

Seamus Fernandez (Leerink Swann): Could you provide some incremental details on the contribution to SG&A and R&D from OBS just so that we can get down to an OPM?

Robert J. Bertolini: It is difficult to break out this going forward as we integrate OBS into our structure, so we can not break out the OBS operating margin.

David Risinger (Merrill Lynch): You mentioned IP challenges in your opening remarks. Could you talk about the key IP challenges facing Schering-Plough and also discuss the timing for CLARINEX generics?

Fred Hassan: I was referring more to the industry challenges, the fact that in the past we have had a strong consensus between the U.S and Europe and other countries on the subject of IP, and I can see that that whole alliance needs to be reworked and strengthened. I am the President of the International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, and I do see some pressures developing around the world as individual countries want to break intellectual property rights and there is not the same organized sense of monitoring this as I saw 10 years ago. We are working hard to make people understand that without IP you are not going to have any new products coming along 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, down the road. On the subject or IP challenges to our company we are rather fortunate. We have a few but compared to our competitors we have few. In fact in the last 10-K, there was nothing significant to report.

Jamie Rubin (Morgan Stanley): Could you provide color around the SG&A line because is seems that that is where the bulk of the leverage is coming from?

Robert J. Bertolini: There was currency in the quarter. That helped our bottom line when you look at it on a comparative basis. The top line was more than 200, half of that based on our estimates fell through the bottom line; that may or may not continue going forward. Two, we had about 2 cents benefit in the SG&A line, that FAS 123R adjustment. Three, OBS contributed 4 cents in the quarter. Now we may have some additional spending as we move NUVARING going forward in the SG&A line. That may not continue with that level, but we had a good quarter that was also helped by currency. Those are some of the big drivers that are doing that. The second quarter SG&A tends to be a seasonal quarter. So you should expect to see some large promotional spending as we support CLARITIN and the rest of the allergy franchise.
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