UPDATE 2-Gilead posts 4th-quarter profit, sales rise

(Recasts, adds company comment, analyst comments, byline)

By Deena Beasley

LOS ANGELES, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O) posted a fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday due to higher sales of drugs that treat the virus that causes AIDS, and projected 2008 sales could rise as much as 28 percent to $4.8 billion.

The forecast is higher than the $4.6 billion Wall Street analysts had expected, said Eun Yang, an analyst at Jefferies and Co.

Gilead reported a quarterly net profit of $401.6 million, or 41 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $1.67 billion, or $1.81 per share, a year earlier, when it took a large charge for its purchase of Myogen Inc.

Excluding items, Gilead earned 44 cents a share in the quarter, exceeding the average Wall Street estimate of 40 cents a share, as compiled by Reuters Estimates.

"Overall, a solid quarter, but not the 'blow-out' that some had expected," Bear Stearns analyst Mark Schoenebaum said in a research note.

Fourth-quarter revenue jumped 22 percent to $1.09 billion, meeting Wall Street estimates. Product sales increased 34 percent to $1.03 billion during the quarter.

"People were expecting more on the sales side. There was some disappointment that it was an in-line quarter," said Hamed Khorsand, an analyst at BWS Financial.

Quarterly sales of HIV drugs rose 35 percent to $864.2 million, which included a 33 percent jump in sales of the two-drug combination medicine Truvada to $448.8 million.

Sales of the newer Atripla, which combines Truvada with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's (BMY.N) Sustiva into a single pill, rose 89 percent to $259.7 million.

The figures fell short of analyst estimates for Atripla sales of $272 million, Mark Schoenebaum said.

Fourth-quarter sales of Letairis, approved last June as a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, were $15 million, which was also slightly lower than analyst estimates.

Royalty, contract and other revenue fell 48 percent to $68.8 million. Gilead gets much of its royalty revenue from Roche Holding AG's (ROG.VX) sales of the Tamiflu flu treatment.

Chief Financial Officer John Milligan also said the company expects 2008 research and development costs of $610 million to $630 million and sales, general and administrative expenses of $710 million to $730 million.

Gilead shares rose 1.4 percent to close at $44.81 on Nasdaq and were slightly lower at $44.70 in after hours trading.

Year to date, the stock had fallen about 3 percent before the earnings announcement, compared with a drop of about 5.4 percent for the American Stock Exchange Biotech Index .BTK. (Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe/Andre Grenon)