Forest Laboratories has reported that its fiscal third quarter of 2009 net income was $187.98 million, a downturn compared with the $301.8 million reported in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year.

The New York City-based company booked revenues for the 2009 third fiscal quarter of $997.96 million, slightly off the $998.2 million in the year-ago period.

The company said that selling, general and administrative expense increased 1.5 percent to $289.97 million, including “significant investment spending to support the launch of [hypertension drug] Bystolic as well as pre-launch activities for [fibromyalgia drug] Savella.” Research and development spending for the quarter was $279.1 million, an increase compared with the $108.25 million reported in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year.

Forest said its newest product, Bystolic, a beta-blocker for the treatment of hypertension, which was launched in late January 2008, had sales of $20.96 million for the third quarter. Also included in revenues was other income of $77.9 million, which includes contract revenue of $47.28 million from the co-promotion of hypertension drug Benicar.

“In addition to the two product approvals, we recently announced two late-stage product collaborations completed during the quarter that will further expand our development pipeline. The first collaboration is with Phenomix Corporation to develop and commercialize dutogliptin, a proprietary dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with Type II diabetes. It is already in Phase III,” said Howard Solomon, chairman and CEO of Forest.