ACTELION 
LONDON (Reuters) - Pharmaceuticals company Shire (>> Shire PLC) missed market expectations for second-quarter earnings after it spent more on new products and competition hit sales of its ADHD drug Intuniv.
Shares in Shire, at a seven-week high ahead of results, traded 0.5 percent lower at 5,440 pence at 1410 GMT after earnings per share came in at $2.63 against analysts' forecasts of $2.80.
Revenue rose 9 percent at constant exchange rates to $1.56 billion (1.00 billion pounds) for the London-listed maker of drugs to treat hyperactivity and rare diseases.
Chief Executive Flemming Ornskov said he had put more cash than the market expected behind new products, including Vyvanse for binge-eating disorder, Natpara for hypoparathyroidism, Gattex for short bowel syndrome and dry-eye disease medicine lifitegrast.
"We have invested beyond just the quarter (...) in growth for the full year and for the coming years," he told reporters.
"We actually upgraded EPS guidance for the year. I don't think you do that if you don't have increased confidence in your outlook and you have your expenses under full control."
Shire said it now expected its earnings growth for the year to be in the mid-to-high single digit range, up from its forecast of mid single digits in April.
Shire has shown interest in buying Actelion (>> Actelion Ltd), Europe's biggest biotech company, it was reported in June. Both companies declined to comment at that time.
Ornskov did not go further on Actelion on Thursday, but he said acquisitions were still on the agenda.
"We have a strategy of becoming a leading global biotech company focused on rare disease and select other speciality areas and M&A small or large could be part of that," he said.
Deutsche Bank noted that Shire's investment behind new launches was more first-half weighted than assumed.
"(But) importantly, cost guidance has been maintained and overall cost growth is expected to moderate in the second half," they said. "More significantly, strong performance has allowed management to raise full-year guidance."
Shire recorded an 18 percent increase in sales of Vyvanse, its ADHD drug that has recently been launched as a treatment for binge eating disorder, to $425 million.
But sales of Intuniv, another ADHD treatment, fell 91 percent to $9.5 million after the introduction of generic competition in the United States.
(Editing by Neil Maidment and Keith Weir)
By Paul Sandle
