West Pharmaceutical raises annual profit forecast on demand for medical supplies

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(Reuters) – West Pharmaceutical Services raised its annual profit forecast on Thursday, after beating Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue and profit, banking on rising demand for cartridges and syringes used to manufacture injectable therapies.

The company now expects 2024 profit in the range of $6.55 to $6.75 per share, compared with its previous profit per share forecast of $6.35 to $6.65.

The Pennsylvania-based firm has been anticipating growth in sales owing partly due to the increase in demand for components used in the packaging of treatments which include Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic, weight-loss drug Wegovy, and Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro.

It also slightly nudged its full-year revenue forecast to be between $2.88 billion and $2.91 billion, up from the prior range of $2.87 billion to $2.90 billion.

Analysts, on an average, were expecting annual profit of $6.51 per share and total revenue of $2.87 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Sales for the third quarter was $746.9 million, beating analysts’ average estimates of $709.62 million.

Revenue for its proprietary products segment, through which West offers packaging products like stoppers, seals, syringes and cartridges for injectable drug, came at $601.4 million ahead of estimates of $565.15 million. The segment makes up more than half of the company’s total revenues.

On an adjusted basis, the company posted a profit of $1.85 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, above analysts’ expectations of $1.50 per share.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)