InterMune, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITMN) reported a drop to a loss in the fourth quarter driven by higher costs. Reported a loss of $44.5 million (69 cents per diluted share) in the quarter. The biotechnology company had net income of $206.1 million or $3.34 per share in the year earlier quarter. Revenue fell 96.8% to $7.8 million from the year earlier quarter. InterMune, Inc. beat the mean analyst estimate of a loss of 71 cents per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $7.9 million.

Dan Welch, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of InterMune said, “The fourth quarter was the first full quarter of the commercial launch of Esbriet in Germany, marking the first commercial launch in Europe of an approved therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (NYSE:IPF). We are very pleased that the Esbriet launch is off to a very strong start and is among the most successful launches of a specialty product in Germany in terms of revenue and new patient prescriptions. We are also very encouraged by the new Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) and survival data from our RECAP study which illustrates favorable outcomes observed in IPF patients treated with pirfenidone for a year or more.”

Competitors to Watch: Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRTX), Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(NASDAQ:IDIX), Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), Amarillo Biosciences, Inc. (AMAR), Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), Pharmasset, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRUS), Roche Holding Ltd. (RHHBY), and Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDS).

MedCath Corporation (NASDAQ:MDTH) climbed to a profit in the fourth quarter, but still came up short of analyst expectations. Reported a GAAP profit of $30.8 million ($1.52 per diluted share) in the quarter. MedCath Corporation had a net loss of $21.7 million or a loss $1.09 per share in the year earlier quarter. Revenue rose to $42.5 million from the year earlier quarter. MDTH reported an adjusted net loss of 33 cents per share. The mean estimate was 6 cents per share.

Competitors to Watch: Universal Health Services, Inc. (NYSE:UHS), Community Health Systems (NYSE:CYH), Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE:THC), Health Management Associates, Inc. (NYSE:HMA), SunLink Health Systems, Inc. (AMEX:SSY), LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPNT), Dynacq Healthcare, Inc. (NASDAQ:DYII), Select Medical Hldgs. Corp. (NYSE:SEM), HCA Holdings Inc (NYSE:HCA), and RehabCare Group, Inc. (NYSE:RHB).

To contact the reporter on this story: Derek Hoffman at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com

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