HispanicBusiness

$34.1 million last year. Benicar (olmesartan medoxomil) co-promotion income increased to $36.0 million, compared to $31.4 million in last year's third quarter.

Cost of sales as a percentage of sales was 22.6% in both the current and prior year third quarters. Selling, general and administrative expense for the current quarter was $428.4 million as compared to $396.1 million in the year-ago quarter. The current level of spending reflects the resources and activities required to support our currently marketed products, particularly our newest products: Teflaro, Daliresp, Viibryd, Tudorza and Linzess.

Research and development (R&D) spending for the current quarter was $325.3 million compared with $191.3 million in last year's third quarter. The current quarter includes upfront licensing/agreement payments of $76.0 million and milestone payments of $44.5 million compared to $24.6 million of milestone payments in the prior year's quarter.

Income tax benefit for the quarter was $30.7 million, reflecting a quarterly effective tax rate of -16.6%. For the quarter ended December 31, 2012 a net loss of $153.6 million or loss of $0.58 per share was reported compared to net income of $278.4 million or income of $1.04 per share reported for last year's third quarter.

Nine Month Results

Revenues for the nine months ended December 31, 2012 decreased 34.7% to $2.3 billion from $3.5 billion in the prior year.

Net income for the nine months ended December 31, 2012, the Company reported decreased to a net loss of $77.5 million compared to net income of $786.4 million reported in the nine months of the prior year. Reported earnings per share decreased to a loss of $0.29 per share in the current year's nine months as compared to earnings per share of $2.85 in last year's nine months.

Fiscal 2013 Guidance

The Company now expects that non-GAAP earnings per share for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013 will be at the lower end of the previously guided range of $0.45 to $0.60. Total net revenue (includes product sales as well as the earnings contribution from Benicar, authorized generic sales of Lexapro, interest income and other income) is now expected to be between $3.1 billion and $3.2 billion.

Howard, Solomon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Forest said: "In the third quarter of fiscal 2013, as expected, we incurred a loss resulting principally from sales lost following the expiration of Lexapro's patent exclusivity in March 2012. The third quarter had lower sales of branded and generic Lexapro than the prior two quarters, as Lexapro declined in sales closer to its ultimately anticipated levels.

"More importantly, in the month of December 2012, we launched two major new products, Tudorza and Linzess. We believe sales of those products, and the seven products already launched and two products, levomilnacipran and cariprazine, which were filed with the FDA this year, and which we anticipate will be launched in our next fiscal year, will ultimately equal and exceed the sales lost following the expiration of Lexapro's exclusivity and the potential loss in subsequent years of Namenda's exclusivity. And, of course, there is always the potential for additional new products.

"Our strategy for acquiring products has repeatedly been confirmed, in concept and in execution. Of course, the sales potential of each varies.