Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
We will take our first question from Jim Birchenough with Barclays.
Jim Birchenough - Barclays
Just wondering on the PROVIGIL number for the quarter, it was down 10%. I'm having trouble reconciling that with the price increase and what seemed to be relatively flat volume trends. Could you maybe describe what happened with PROVIGIL in the quarter?
Kevin Buchi
We're looking. One second. Prescriptions were down slightly versus quarter four.
Frank Baldino
Q1 versus Q4, prescription volume was down, price was up.
Jim Birchenough - Barclays
I guess what I'm seeing is $281 million in sales in the fourth quarter reduced to $253 million, which was a 10% decline. I saw scripts down 2%. Seemed like the price increase more than offset that. So I'm still struggling with the magnitude of the decline.
Frank Baldino
Well, I'm looking at U.S. only, right. There was an exchange effect associated with the European piece. U.S.-only, PROVIGIL sales were down around 10%, and that in my view was a 5% increase average in price and about an 18% decline in volumes.
Jim Birchenough - Barclays
And then maybe just looking ahead to the second quarter, there was the comment that towards the end of the first quarter, we saw trends accelerating and getting to record weekly levels. I am trying to reconcile that with guidance that's essentially flat for the second quarter in terms of sales.
Kevin Buchi
I think if you look at what's going on in the second quarter, virtually all the PROVIGIL promotion has been pulled at this point in time. I shouldn't say virtually all the promotion. All the promotion has been pulled at this point in time, in anticipation of the NUVIGIL launch coming up in the next several months. We certainly got growth with AMRIX, and we've got excellent growth with TREANDA.
The CNS franchise probably isn't going to do much this quarter, and so that's really the basis for a modest increase in sales in the second quarter. Then as NUVIGIL starts to take hold as we start to move that out and start to promote it, you're going to see very solid growth we would expect in the third and fourth quarter.
You're seeing a similar trend with earnings, because on the expense side, you've got all the expenses associated with NUVIGIL launch in the second quarter. Those will start to moderate third and fourth quarter. The combination of product growth and fairly flat expenses should yield very substantial earnings growth in Q3 and Q4.
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