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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Embattled Chiron Corp. reported Tuesday that its third-quarter earnings nearly doubled, mostly because at that time last year the biotechnology company was caught up in a messy manufacturing problem that cost the United States nearly half its expected 100 million flu shot stockpile.
The company called the latest quarter a "turning point" because federal regulators have approved Chiron's first batches of flu shots, about 1.5 million, for delivery. The company offered no further guidance on how many flu shots it expects to deliver this year.
For the third quarter, Chiron said it earned $51 million, or 27 cents a share compared to $27 million, or 14 cents a share in the same quarter last year when it took a $91 million charge because of its inability to deliver 48 million contaminated flu shots made in its Liverpool, England plant. The latest quarter was also affected by another flu shot manufacturing problem in its Germany plant which wiped out an estimated $41 million in vaccine sales in Europe.
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