Gilead first quarter profit rises 55 pct

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD.O) said on Wednesday its first-quarter profit rose 55 percent amid higher sales of its drugs for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, sending the company's shares up nearly 3 percent.

The biotechnology company reported net income of $407.4 million, or 85 cents per share, compared with $262.7 million, or 55 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts expected a profit of 80 cents a share, including stock compensation costs.

Excluding stock compensation costs of $40.2 million, Gilead said it earned 93 cents a share in the quarter.

Revenue rose 48 percent to $1.03 billion, exceeding the $992.7 million forecast by analysts.

Sales of HIV drugs rose 56 percent to $705.1 million, including $345.9 million for the two-drug combination HIV pill Truvada, and $190.2 million for Atripla, a once-daily pill approved by U.S. regulators last July that layers Truvada with Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMY.N) Sustiva.

First-quarter sales of Viread and Emtriva, the two older HIV drugs used in the combination pills, fell 16 percent to $160.7 million and by 16 percent to $8.3 million, respectively, as patients switched to the newer treatments.

Foster City, California,-based Gilead also collects royalties on sales by Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX) of Tamiflu, an antiviral treatment being stockpiled as a potential treatment for bird flu.

First-quarter royalty and contract revenue more than tripled to $188.2 million, including $167.9 million from Roche for fourth-quarter 2006 Tamiflu sales.

The company said quarterly research and development costs rose to $130.1 million from $88.4 million, while sales and administrative expense rose to $166.6 million from $142.5 million.

Gilead is awaiting a decision from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its application for ambrisentan, a drug developed by Myogen for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. If approved, the drug could generate annual sales of more than $1 billion, analysts estimate.

Gilead's shares are up more than 21 percent so far this year, compared with a gain of nearly 8 percent for the American Stock Exchange Biotech Index .BTK.

The stock, which closed at $78.43 on Nasdaq, was higher at $80.50 in after hours trading.