Financial News

Canadian generic drug makers expressed dismay over a new plan to reduce reimbursements for a half-dozen generic medications in most of the country's provinces. According to published reports, a group of premiers had reached a coordinated deal to reduce the prices their governments paid for six generic drugs, hoping to save the provinces nearly $100 million.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target is planning a rollout in Canada that will be bigger than any single year's worth of its store openings in the United States ever, executives of the company said Wednesday morning in a call with Wall Street analysts to discuss the mass merchandise retailer's fourth-quarter and full-year 2012 results.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Dollar Tree reported consolidated net sales for the fourth-quarter jumped 15.4% to $2.25 billion compared with $1.95 billion reported for the quarter ended Jan. 28, 2012. Comparable-store sales increased 2.4%, on top of a 7.3% increase for the fourth quarter 2011.

Earnings per diluted share for the fourth quarter were $1.01, an increase of 26.3% compared with the 80 cents earnings per diluted share reported for the fourth quarter 2011.

NEW YORK — According to published reports, Flowers Foods is set to buy Hostess bread brands, including Wonder bread, for $360 million after no other bidder came forward with a competing offer, a source familiar with the sale acknowledged Wednesday.

According to a Reuters report, Hostess, which went bankrupt last year, was scheduled to host an auction on Thursday for the brands — which also include Butternut, Home Pride, Merita and Nature's Pride — but as no other bids were announced, the company will not go through with an auction.

NEW YORK — A privately owned drug maker in New York is offering $6.5 billion for Irish drug maker Elan, but hasn't heard back from it, according to published reports.

The Associated Press reported that Royalty Pharma's $11-per-share offer for Elan represented a 4% premium over its closing price Friday. Royalty buys royalty interests in drug products that are in late-stage development or have already entered the market, but doesn't develop or market drugs of its own, the AP reported.

When Albertson's LLC announced last month that its parent company, AB Acquisition, an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, signed an agreement to acquire 877 stores from Supervalu in a deal valued at some $3.3 billion — a move that will reunite all Albertsons stores under one operator — it recast the rankings of the industry's leading pharmacy retailers.

Homeopathy is hopping. Sales of many of the homeopathy brands represent some of the fastest-growing products across the OTC landscape these days, as evidenced by the number of brands escalating on the top 10 lists across several categories. Overall, sales of homeopathic medicines totaled $1.3 billion for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 22, up 8% according to SPINS, which tracks sales across both the natural channel (excluding Whole Foods) and mass retailers.

Sore throats and dry coughs are more prevalent symptoms associated with the flu. With the severe 2012-2013 flu season to date, that means a healthy amount of lozenge sales. One of the bigger winners across the top 10 vendors is Reckitt Benckiser, which launched Cepacol Sensations this fall. The product line contains a lower amount of numbing medication than traditional Cepacol products, yet still provides either an instantly cooling, warming or refreshing sensation. Sales of all Reckitt Benckiser lozenges totaled $10.9 million, up 67.6%.