Allergan misses third quarter earnings forecast

Allergan CEO Brent Saunders took the blame for disappointing quarterly earnings as the drugmaker announced a decline in sales of older medicines, forcing it to cut its 2016 profit forecast. Revenue grew 4.4% to $3.62 billion, but fell short of Wall Street's projections of $3.68 billion.

On the positive side, Allergan’s eye care, facial aesthetics and neuroscience and urology divisions drove a 12% increase in net revenues for U.S. specialized therapeutics net revenues.

Restasis net revenue was up 14% to $356.4 million; Lumigan/Ganfort, up 9% to $78.3 million; Alphagan/Combigan, up 15% to $93.4 million and the dexamethasone implant Ozurdex was up 19% to $20.9 million.

Allergan this quarter completed the sale of its generics business to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. resulting in a $2.6 billion current period payment of taxes. Allergan shares fell 4% after the earnings announcement.

In other good news, the company expanded its share buyback program by $5 billion to $15 billion and initiated a first-ever quarterly dividend of 70 cents per share, beginning in the first quarter of 2017.

In May, Allergan said it would buy back up to $10 billion in stock, and on Wednesday said it had repurchased $5 billion in shares ahead of schedule.

The Dublin-based company earned $3.32 per share, excluding special items, in the third quarter, widely missing the average analyst estimate of $3.56, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.