Glaxo quarterly profit down 13%

Competition from generic drugs ate into profits at GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C., sending its first-quarter net income down 13 percent from a year earlier, the London company said today.GlaxoSmithKline, which employs 4,500 people in the Philadelphia region, said revenue rose 19 percent to 6.7 billion British pounds ($9.7 billion) in the first three months of 2009, despite a 22 percent decline in U.S. sales. Outside the U.S., pharmaceuticals sales grew 7 percent to 3.3 billion pounds.