May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s profit almost doubled from a year earlier when acquisition costs damped earnings. The company missed analysts' estimates, and lowered its full-year forecast.

First-quarter net income jumped to $23 million, or 21 cents a share, from $12 million, or 11 cents, a year earlier, the Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based company said today in a statement. Revenue rose 1.8 percent to $608 million, driven by sales of generic drugs and birth-control pills

Barr paid $2.5 billion for Pliva d.d., a Croatian drugmaker, in October 2006 to gain access to European markets, cheaper raw materials and the technology to copy medicines made from living cells. The purchase should help fuel Barr's growth as competition intensifies in the U.S. generics market, said Ronny Gal, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein in New York.

``We like Barr on its differentiated business model and see potential upside in '09-'10 as synergies from the Pliva acquisition begin to trickle in,'' Gal said in an April 10 note to investors. He's among 11 of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg who recommend buying Barr shares and owns none.

Profit excluding certain items was 57 cents a share, including 6 cents of stock-based compensation, missing the 79 cent average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Barr lowered its forecast for full-year earnings because of lower-than-expected results in the first quarter. The company now expects profit to be $2.75 to $3.05 a share, 30 cents less than it projected on Feb. 28.

Barr fell by 35 cents to $49.65 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The company has lost 6.5 percent so far this year, outperforming a 12 percent decline in the Standard & Poor's 500 Pharmaceuticals Index.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Larkin in Washington at clarkin4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 8, 2008 07:45 EDT