Allergan’s 2nd-Quarter Profit Up 21%

Allergan Inc., an Irvine maker of drugs for eye and skin care, said second-quarter profit rose 21% on sales of glaucoma treatments and the neuromuscular drug Botox.

Operating profits rose to $62.7 million, or 47 cents a share, from $51.9 million, or 39 cents, a year earlier. Analysts had estimated earnings of 46 cents a share, according to a survey by First Call/Thomson Financial.

Allergan said net income in the latest quarter totaled $21.9 million, or 16 cents a share, after special items, including a charge of $40 million, or 30 cents a share, for the purchase of Allergan Specialty Therapeutics Inc., which Allergan had spun off previously to research and develop new pharmaceutical products.

Sales rose 3.2% to $417.2 million. Sales of Botox, used to treat muscle pain and a disorder of the eye muscles that control blinking, rose 27%.

Allergan also won U.S. regulatory approval in December to market Botox for muscle pain of cervical dystonia, a head and neck ailment. That helped make up for $19 million in revenue lost to the decline of European and Japanese currencies against the dollar, Allergan said.

“Botox sales were a little better than expected, and they did a good job managing foreign currency,” said Angela Larson, an analyst at Salmon Smith Barney, who rates the stock a “buy.”

Weak overseas currencies hurt sales because a company gets fewer dollars for each unit of foreign currency it converts.

Allergan’s stock moved up $5.55 to $74.55 a share on the New York Stock Exchange.