Par Pharmaceutical Reports First Quarter 20...( Reports First Quarter Adjusted...),Health

Reports First Quarter Adjusted EPS of $0.17 per Diluted Share

Provides Full-year 2008 EPS Guidance and Projects its Pipeline

Opportunities

WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J., May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. (NYSE: PRX) today reported results for the first quarter ended March 29, 2008.

Par reported total revenues of $154.9 million and net income of $2.6 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, which included a $5.0 million payment to Alfacell Corporation for the exclusive U.S. commercialization rights to ONCONASE(R) (ranpirnase), a novel product currently in Phase III clinical development. Adjusting for this item, earnings per diluted share were $0.17 for the three month period ended March 29, 2008. This is compared with reported revenues of $234.2 million and net income of $41.5 million, or $1.19 per diluted share, for the same period in 2007, which included a $20.0 million gain on the sale to Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of marketing rights to the investigational drug Difimicin (PAR 101). Adjusting for this item, earnings per diluted share were $0.84 in the first quarter of 2007.

First Quarter Review

For the first quarter ended March 29, 2008, total revenues decreased 33.9% compared with the same period in 2007 due primarily to a greater number of 2007 new product introductions in the Company's generics business and increased pricing pressures on existing generic products, partly offset by higher revenues from Par's branded division, Strativa, which increased 28.6% from the same period in 2007 driven by increased net sales of Megace(R) ES.

Revenues of the generic division decreased 39.5% in the first three months of 2008 compared to the same
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