(Fixes Reuters Instrument Code for Lilly stock)
By Ransdell Pierson
Oct 25 (Reuters) - Eli Lilly and Co's LLY.N quarterly results were badly hurt by disappointing sales of its Humalog insulin and animal health products, but the company on Tuesday reaffirmed its full-year earnings forecast.
Global sales of Humalog fell 9 percent to $641 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, well below Wall Street forecasts of $732 million, as Lilly cut the drug's U.S. price to better compete with other mealtime insulins, including Novo Nordisk's NOVOb.CO widely-used NovoLog.
"We surpassed NovoLog's market share for the first time since 2007," a Lilly spokeswoman said.
Sales of Lilly's animal health products fell 9 percent to $706 million, about $97 million shy of Wall Street forecasts, in large part because wholesalers had already built up inventories of the products in the prior quarter, the company said.
Lilly, whose earnings growth resumed last year after three years of falling sales caused by generic competition, said revenue outside the United States fell 3 percent to $2.35 billion.
The company's results also were dented by generic competition for its antidepressant Cymbalta drug in Europe and Canada, for its antipsychotic treatment Zyprexa in Japan and cancer drug Alimta in several countries.
Excluding special items, Lilly earned 88 cents per share, below the analysts' average estimate of 96 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 4.7 percent to $5.19 billion, missing estimates of $5.28 billion. Lilly said growth was driven mainly by volume of prescriptions, rather than price increases. It cited increasing demand for it newer Trulicity and Jardiance diabetes drugs and its Taltz psoriasis treatment.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker said its net income fell to $778 million, or 73 cents per share, in the third quarter, from $799.7 million, or 75 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. said it continues to expect full-year 2016 earnings, excluding special items, of $3.50 to $3.60 per share. It earned $3.43 per share last year.