July 30 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Kyowa Hakko Co. had the biggest gain in more than five years after the Japanese drugmaker reported first-quarter profit more than doubled.

Kyowa Hakko shares rose 89 yen, or 8.1 percent, to 1,190 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today, the biggest gain since March 6, 2002. It was the sixth-largest gainer on the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index.

First-quarter net income rose to 5.32 billion yen ($44.9 million), or 13.37 yen a share, from 2.05 billion yen, or 4.86 yen a share, a year earlier, the company said July 27 in a statement to the exchange. Profit was bolstered by sales of anti-allergy medicines such as Allelock and Patanol, the Tokyo- based company said.

Revenue rose 11 percent to 95 billion yen, and operating profit, or sales minus costs of administration and goods sold, fell 7.3 percent to 7.6 billion yen, Kyowa Hakko said.

Kyowa Hakko expects net income to reach 26 billion yen in the year ending March 2008 on sales of 395 billion yen. It previously forecast net income of 25 billion yen on sales of 380 billion yen.

To contact the reporter for this story: Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo at at kmatsuyama2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 30, 2007 02:31 EDT