UPDATE 2-Sepracor profit badly misses views, shares slump

(Recasts; adds shares, analyst comment, details on results)

NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Sepracor Inc SEPR.O on Tuesday reported second-quarter results that badly missed analyst expectations on disappointing sales and high expenses, and the company cut its full-year revenue forecast, sending its shares down as much as 16 percent.

Net income rose to $395.1 million, or $3.41 per share, compared with $4.8 million, or 4 cents per share, a year earlier. Results for the 2008 quarter were helped by a tax benefit related to a valuation on deferred tax assets.

Earnings excluding items were $6.7 million, or 6 cents per share, 16 cents below the average expectation of analysts, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue increased 6.3 percent to $294.1 million. Analysts had expected $302.6 million.

Combined sales of its Xopenex asthma drugs fell 14 percent to $99.5 million. Xopenex sales have been hurt by lower reimbursement rates from the U.S. Medicare health program.

"The downside was primarily driven by revenues, principally Xopenex franchise sales," Goldman Sachs analyst James Kelly said in a research note.

Sales of its Lunesta insomnia drug, which has been facing competition from generic versions of sleep aid Ambien, edged up 3.6 percent to $148.1 million.

Sales, general and administrative expenses fell slightly to $207.8 million, but that was higher than the $196 million expected by Goldman Sachs.

Sepracor forecast full-year revenue of $1.28 billion to $1.38 billion, down from its previous view of $1.35 billion to $1.45 billion. The midpoint of the new projection would represent revenue growth of 8.1 percent.

Sepracor shares fell $2.96 to $17.40 in morning trade on the Nasdaq, after touching an intraday low of $17.18, a four-month low. (Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf, editing by Maureen Bavdek and Derek Caney)