Genzyme rises on prediction of profit growth

Bernstein Research analyst Geoff Porges raised his rating to "Outperform" from "Market Perform," and lifted his price target to $90 from $82. He thinks the company will increase profits by 16 percent to 17 percent each year through 2012 -matching its goals and bringing Genzyme a profit of about $7 per share in 2011.

Porges said Genzyme has a wider range of products than many of its rivals, and said the three drugs with the most potential are osteoarthritis treatment Synvisc-One, Pompe disease drug Myozyme and Campath in multiple sclerosis.

The analyst said Synvisc-One -a single-shot version of a drug originally created as a series of three shots -could expand the market for injectable osteoarthritis drugs. Synvisc-One has been approved in Europe for osteoarthritis of the knee, and the original drug is on sale in Europe and Canada.

Porges said sales of Myozyme, which treats a genetic muscle disorder, will speed up in 2009 after the Food and Drug Administration approves an expansion of Genzyme's manufacturing capacity.

Campath is already on the market as a treatment for a kind of bone marrow cancer, and Porges said it should become the most effective drug for treatment-resistant MS when it reaches the market, perhaps in late 2011.

The stock gained $1.90, or 2.8 percent, to $69.91.