Medicis revenue climbs 45%

Despite new competition for Restylane, its star performer, Scottsdale drug maker and marketer Medicis boosted revenue 45 percent in the quarter that ended Sept. 30 compared with third-quarter 2006 numbers.

The company’s bottom line got a big boost from two relatively new acne products, Solodyn and Ziana, CEO Jonah Shacknai said Wednesday in a conference call with analysts.

And wrinkle-filler Restylane continued to be a strong market leader even though Medicis rival Allergan launched a similar product earlier this year. Shacknai credited TV commercials and other direct-to-customer marketing with significantly boosting Restylane Web traffic and creating new business.

The short-term future looks so good Shacknai upped annual earnings estimates to $1.22 from the $1.12 he predicted at the beginning of the year.

He also said a packed product pipeline will fuel business in the longer term.

“In the business development area, we’ve never been more encouraged,” Shacknai said.

He is hopeful of getting government approval to roll out the Botox alternative Reloxin within the next year to round out the company’s facial fix-up offerings. But Shacknai also said that while the growth of therapeutic prescription products such as the acne lines looks solid, he is not as sure about the cosmetic pharmaceutical market.

“They are discretionary products, so it’s difficult to quantify the effect of the economic downturn,” he said.

The target Restylane-Reloxin customer is 35 to 55 years old with household income topping $75,000, he said, and high-end retail is still flourishing. But plastic surgeons are reporting that the cosmetic surgery business is slowing with the economy, he said.

“At the end of the day, the physicians are our canaries in the coal mine,” Shacknai said.