UPDATE 1-Celgene 3rd-qtr profit rises on cancer drug sales

Published: 22 Oct 2009 17:08:24 PST

BOSTON, Oct 22 - Celgene Corp said on Thursday that its third-quarter earnings rose on higher sales of its blood cancer drugs.

Net income rose to $217 million, or 46 cents a share, from $136.8 million, or 29 cents a share a year ago.

Earnings excluding one-time items were 56 cents a share. Analysts on average expected earnings of 54 cents a share according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose to $695 million from $592.5 million a year ago, driven by higher sales of Revlimid, a treatment for multiple myeloma, whose sales rose 31 percent to $450 million.

Sales of Vidaza, its drug to treat a group of blood disorders known as myelodysplastic syndromes, rose 62 percent to $103 million.