UPDATE 1-Par Pharma Q1 profit jumps, shares rise

* Q1 EPS $0.48 vs $0.04 a year ago

* Revenue up 32 pct to $204.0 mln

* Shares up 19 pct before the bell

May 6 (Reuters) - Par Pharmaceutical Cos Inc (PRX.N) reported a more than 11-fold jump in quarterly profit, boosted partly by sales of its generic hypertension drug, sending its shares up 19 percent before the bell.

Par said it became the exclusive supplier of the blood pressure drug metoprolol succinate from the first quarter, resulting in increased volume and price. Metoprolol succinate is the copycat version of AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) Toprol XL.

For the first quarter, the company reported a net income of $16.1 million, or 48 cents a share, compared with $1.4 million, or 4 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, it earned 49 cents a share.

Revenue rose 32 percent to $204.0 million. Net product sales rose to $200.2 million, from $151.2 million a year ago.

Analysts on average expected earnings of 27 cents a share, excluding special items, on revenue of $170.2 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

Gross margin rose 29 percent to $64.1 million.

Par shares were trading at $13.50 before the bell. They closed at $11.34 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

For the alerts, double-click [ID:nWNAB4074] (Reporting by Anand Basu in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar)