TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said on Thursday first-quarter profit slumped 39% percent from a year earlier, when earnings had been boosted by the sale of its diabetes drug portfolio.
Operating profit was 150.5 billion yen ($1.11 billion) in the three months through June 30, the drugmaker said, compared with 249 billion yen a year earlier.
The company held its forecast for full-year operating profit at 520 billion yen. That compares with a consensus forecast of 539 billion yen, according to a Refinitiv poll of 15 analysts.
Takeda benefited from a one-time gain of 131.4 billion yen a year ago when it sold off the diabetes assets to refocus on core businesses following its acquisition of Shire Plc.
($1=135.3400 yen)
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Clarence Fernandez)
