Hikma reaffirms full-year revenue forecast, cites better generics business

(Reuters) - Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc (HIK.L) on Friday reaffirmed its revenue guidance for the full year, noting its generics business was performing better due to a favourable product mix, despite continued pricing pressure in the United States.

Shares of the company were up as much as 4 percent at the market open before settling up 0.7 percent at 0725 GMT.

The drugmaker, which was forced to cut revenue guidance for its generics business three times in 2017, said it continued to expect revenue from the business to be between $550 million (407 million pounds) and $600 million in 2018.

Sigurdur Olafsson, former generics chief at drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA.TA), was named Hikma's chief executive officer in February.

The company suffered a setback in March for its generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK.L) blockbuster lung drug Advair, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked Hikma to conduct a further clinical study evaluating the drug, dashing hopes to get it to the market this year.

"The study is proceeding as planned and we expect to submit a response to the FDA with the new clinical data as early as possible in 2019", the company said on Friday.

(Reporting By Justin George Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)