Pfizer profit soars on gains, but revenue falls : Urgent Report

Pfizer Inc.'s second-quarter earnings quadrupled as asset-sale gains and other items overshadowed the drug maker's steeper-than-expected revenue decline
Pfizer's profit has improved in recent quarters as it worked to bounce back from the 2011 loss of U.S. exclusivity for blockbuster cholesterol-cutting drug Lipitor by cutting costs and bringing new drugs to market
At the same time, the company has pursued shareholder friendly actions such as shedding nonpharmaceutical assets and using the proceeds to repurchase its shares
Pfizer's former animal-health unit, Zoetis Inc. (ZTS), completed its roughly $2.2 billion initial public offering in February
Pfizer split off its remaining interest in the former unit last month through a voluntary exchange offer with its shareholders
Pfizer reported a profit of $14.1 billion, or $1.98 a share, up from $3.25 billion, or 43 cents, a year earlier
Excluding items such as asset-sales gains, acquisition costs and restructuring charges, adjusted earnings fell to 56 cents a share from 59 cents a share
Revenue dropped 7.1% to $12.97 billion
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast per-share earnings of 55 cents on revenue of $13.01 billion
Operating margin improved to 41.3% from 29.9%
Lipitor sales dropped 55% to $545 millionwhile sales of its top seller, the pain drug Lyrica, rose 9.6% to $1.13 billion
Pfizer said Monday it will reorganize its commercial operations into three units, in a rejiggering that the drug maker says will help it focus on the evolving needs of its various markets but could eventually pave the way to splitting up the company
The changes, which take effect starting in January, establish units selling drugs for pain disorders and inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis; cancer and consumer products; and the products that lost patent protection or will through 2015
They mean that sales in emerging markets like China and India, once separate, will be conducted by each of the new units
Pfizer has been under pressure from some on Wall Street to split off its "value" business selling drugs like the cholesterol fighter Lipitor that lost patent protection and can't generate the heady growth that branded drugs can
Some analysts viewed the changes as a step closer toward such a separation
Yet a spokeswoman said the new moves weren't made with a split in mind
The company also backed its full-year guidance