(Reuters) – West Pharmaceutical Services on Thursday beat quarterly profit estimates and raised its annual profit forecast, banking on rising demand for cartridges and syringes used to manufacture injectable therapies.
The Pennsylvania-based company now expects 2024 profit in the range of $7.63 to $7.88 per share, compared with its previous forecast of $7.50 to $7.75 per share. Analysts had expected $7.62-per-share profit for 2024.
The company expects sales growth to ramp up as the year progresses, partly due to a surge in demand for components used in the packaging of newer treatments, including Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic, weight-loss drug Wegovy, and Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro.
West reiterated its full-year revenue outlook of $3 billion to $3.025 billion.
CEO Eric Green said that he expects a majority of sales growth to take place in the second half, as biotech clients work through their existing inventory.
“We are actively managing the timing of inventory decisions by some of our customers..” said Green.
On an adjusted basis, the company posted a first-quarter profit of $1.56 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.27 per share, according to LSEG data.
The proprietary products unit, through which West offers packaging products like stoppers, seals, syringes and cartridges for injectable drugs, makes up more than half of the company’s total revenues.
Revenue for the segment declined by 4% to $559.5 million for the quarter but still came in ahead of analysts’ estimates of $529.6 million.
(Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
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