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The company repeated its recent full-year guidance for earnings of $2.80 to $2.90 per share, excluding any one-time costs.

Analysts are forecasting $2.86.

Wyeth plans to increase research spending 15 percent in the second half of 2005, compared to 2004.

Rauch, whose company has provided services to Wyeth in the past year, said it is pushing a lot of drugs into late-stage human testing - crucial because it will get significant generic competition in 2007 and 2008 to its blockbuster Effexor, blood pressure drug Altace and antibiotic Zosyn.

"They want to get some things on the market before they hit that cliff," Rauch said.

Wyeth officials said a new oral contraceptive taken continuously to prevent menstruation could be approved next spring, while three experimental drugs could get approval in 2007: a nonhormonal medicine to prevent osteoporosis, a nonhormonal menopause treatment and a combination pill for both conditions.

Other drugs in the pipeline include a new antidepressant that could be a successor to Effexor and a drug for various types of cancer.

In addition, Wyet...

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