VANCOUVER, July 17 /CNW/ - QLT Inc. (NASDAQ:QLTI; TSX:QLT) today reported
that Novartis AG announced global sales of QLT's Visudyne(R) (verteporfin)
product of US$40.7 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008. This is
a decrease of 31.5% over global sales reported in the second quarter of 2007.
However, Visudyne's sales for the second quarter increased 11.5% over the
first quarter of 2008. Sales in the U.S. were $10.1 million, down 1.8% from
the prior-year second quarter, while sales outside the U.S. were
$30.6 million, down 37.7% from the prior year. The drop in Visudyne sales was
primarily due to the approval and reimbursement in Europe of alternative
therapeutics for age-related macular degeneration.
