Health care reforms charges are witnessed to assist squeeze Eli Lilly and Co.'s first-quarter profit by nearly 5 percent thereby offsetting strong sales growth attributed to its some of its top-selling drugs.

The Indianapolis drug maker on Monday posted that it took a one-time charge of $85 million in the three months that ended March 31 because of its retiree prescription drug coverage.

It estimates that its Medicaid-related rebates to squeeze revenue by $350 million to $400 million this year.

Lilly posted that it earned $1.25 billion or $1.13 per share for the first quarter, lowered from the $1.31 billion, or $1.20 per share, the previous year.

Excluding charges, the adjusted profit registered was $1.18 per share.

Moreover, the company witnessed its revenue climbed 9 percent to $5.49 billion.

However, analyst polled by Thomson Reuters on average estimated a profit of $1.10 per share on revenue of $5.54 billion.

Sales for Lilly's best-selling drug, the anti-psychotic Zyprexa, marked a rise 8 percent touching $1.2 billion, while, the sales of the cancer drug Alimta surged 57 percent to $527 million.