UPDATE 3-AstraZeneca ups outlook after generic drugs stall

* 2009 EPS now seen $5.70-6.00 vs $5.15-5.45 previously

* Q2 core EPS up 31 pct at $1.64 vs consensus $1.41

* Q2 sales flat at $7.96 bln vs consensus $7.72 bln

* Shares up 2 pct

(Adds analyst comments, paragraphs 2 and 15)

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca (AZN.L) raised its full-year earnings forecast on Thursday after better than expected second-quarter results, helped by the absence of generics to heart drug Toprol XL and cancer treatment Casodex.

The increased outlook had been widely anticipated, given the company's lucky break in avoiding the generic threats, but the shares still rose by 2 percent by 1220 GMT after what Sanford Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson described as "a good quarter".

AstraZeneca's upbeat performance follows a generally buoyant results season from other global pharmaceutical companies, demonstrating the industry's relative resilience in the downturn.

"We've been more resilient to the economic recession than expected," Chief Executive David Brennan told reporters.

Healthy near-term prospects, however, contrast with doubts about the sector's long-term outlook due to a wave of patent expiries for many top products.

AstraZeneca has its share of looming losses but has escaped some of the pain expected in 2009 because of the lack of large-scale generic competition to some of its drugs in the United States, where generic companies have struggled with manufacturing issues.

Pretax profit at the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker rose 14 percent in the quarter to $2.61 billion on sales flat at $7.96 billion, equivalent to "core" earnings per share of $1.64.

Brennan said cholesterol drug Crestor had been the "star performer" in the quarter while anticulerant Nexium, which faces growing pricing pressure, had been "resilient".

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast core earnings per share (EPS), which excludes certain restructuring costs and charges, of $1.41.

The group's lifted its forecast for 2009 EPS to $5.70-$6.00 from $5.15-$5.45, taking it above many analysts' numbers.

At the reported level, profits were held back as AstraZeneca took provisions of $430 million over U.S. litigation relating to drug marketing practices.

NEW DRUG HOPES

The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker has struggled with a barren new drug pipeline since 2003 but is finally looking well-placed to bring a batch of new medicines to market, with four new filings expected in 2009.

One of its key new drug hopes is the diabetes medicine Onglyza, which AstraZeneca and partner Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N) hope will get a green light from U.S. regulators later on Thursday.

The company also has a new rival to Sanofi-Aventis's (SASY.PA) blood thinner Plavix, which analysts believe could be a multibillion-dollar-a-year seller. Further clinical data on Brilinta will be reported at a medical meeting in Barcelona at the end of August.

Paul Mann of Morgan Stanley said news on Onglyza and Brilinta would likely support the shares in the near term but after a 50 percent outperformance in the past 18 months the stock's valuation was starting to looked stretched.

Like some of its rivals, AstraZeneca is expected to book windfall sales of H1N1 swine flu vaccine in the second half of the year, although the boost from the flu pandemic will be less than for larger vaccine makers like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis (NOVN.VX). (Editing by Kate Kelland, Simon Jessop and Karen Foster)