2017's first-quarter reports, with the newest from Big Pharma

Print 28 April 2017
FiercePharma

Every quarter, the FiercePharma team analyzes biopharma earnings reports and investor calls, and so far, the first quarter is a mixed bag. J&J saw key drugs shrink while Remicade held up under biosim attack; Lilly rolled out impressive sales growth amid pipeline questions; Novartis put up a couple of growth surprises in an otherwise unimpressive period—you get the picture.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb walked back its 2017 guidance last quarter, in a move some industry watchers attributed to immuno-oncology star Opdivo and its recent setbacks. The first quarter turned that trend right around. Street-beating Opdivo sales of $1.13 billion—which blew past $988 million estimates—helped the New Jersey drugmaker come in ahead overall on the revenue front. It posted a top-line haul of $4.93 billion, well ahead of the $4.75 billion analysts expected. 

AstraZeneca’s castoff strategy has raised eyebrows, but it helped drive another earnings beat for the lacking-in-sales drugmaker to kick off the year. And this time, it was a big one. Sell-off revenue of $562 million—which made up 10% of AstraZeneca’s $5.41 billion top-line haul—pushed core earnings to 99 cents per share, good for an outperformance of 18 cents. Of course, the company won’t necessarily be able to keep up that clip, and with sales falling short—even among AZ's so-called growth products—the questions about its offloading moves are likely to continue.

AbbVie investors were jittery late last year as its mega-blockbuster Humira kept missing sales expectations overseas, especially when the drug came up against competitive pressure from a new biosimilar. So, investors were relieved when the company announced first-quarter results that exceeded its own forecasts, driven largely by a 15% increase in global Humira sales.

Amgen needs a deal: Its blockbuster Enbrel took a $200 million-plus hit in the first quarter, helping drag the big biotech's overall sales down by 8%, to $5.46 billion. Repatha, its new PCSK9 med, came in below expectations, and its multiple myeloma med Kyprolis and Vectibix also fell short. But a 13% cut to R&D spending boosted margins. "[W]e see the company more than ever in need of, and possibly preparing for, a significant acquisition," Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges wrote. 

Roche totted up a sales increase, thanks to strong growth from its newer cancer meds. Breast cancer duo Perjeta and Kadcyla steamed ahead to 746 million Swiss francs between them, beating estimates and partly offsetting a decline for aging colorectal cancer therapy Avastin. Meanwhile, immuno-oncology treatment Tecentriq doubled sales to 113 million Swiss francs. Overall, pharma sales rose by 3% in constant currencies to 10.17 billion francs, despite a 26% decline for Tamiflu. Group sales hit 12.94 billion francs, up 4%.

Bayer turned in €13.2 billion in first-quarter sales, a 9.4% increase over the same period last year. Of that amount, life sciences sales were approximately €9.7 billion, with pharma growing 7.4% during the quarter. 

Celgene grew net sales 18% in the first quarter to $2.95 billion, with the big-selling Revlimid jumping 20% on the period to $1.9 billion. The big biotech is bumping up its 2017 EPS guidance of $5.95 to $6.29, up from a previous projection of $5.85 to $6.21. 

If any GlaxoSmithKline investors were hoping new CEO Emma Walmsley would break with her predecessor and pursue a split-up, they got a rude awakening on Wednesday. On the company’s first-quarter conference call, she echoed the sentiments of previous skipper Andrew Witty, insisting that there are benefits to “being a three-business healthcare company” comprising pharma, vaccines and consumer health. 

Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos, facing stepped-up competition for the company's critical multiple sclerosis business, contends it's “ready and well-equipped” to forge ahead. And that includes "value-based and innovative contracting" with payers, the helmsman told analysts on Tuesday. Biogen turned in $2.8 billion in first-quarter revenues, a 3% increase over last year. 

Eli Lilly stunned investors less than two weeks ago with unexpected bad news about its highly anticipated rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib, spurned by the FDA even after the company was given three extra months to address safety concerns. And that news, of course, followed the high-profile failure of Lilly’s phase 3 Alzheimer’s drug solanezumab. So investors were in the mood for some good news—and they got a bit of it in Lilly’s first-quarter earnings report, even as concerns about the company’s pipeline cast a cloud over the numbers. 

Novartis put up some surprising numbers Tuesday, leading analysts to suggest the worst may be behind the company.  Bernstein’s Tim Anderson, for one, pointed to “decent growth,” even for the struggling eye unit Alcon, which expanded (by 1% in constant currencies) for the first time since 2015’s second quarter. Generics unit Sandoz managed to eke out 1% growth, too, despite the price erosion plaguing the sector. With those units under control, it was up to Novartis’ new pharma products to deliver—and they did, helping the Swiss drugmaker meet quarterly sales expectations with a haul of $11.54 billion. 

Johnson & Johnson missed analyst expectations on pharma and consumer health sales in the first quarter as some of its stalwart performers shrank instead of grew. One bit of good news? Remicade is holding its own against Pfizer's new biosim rival, Inflectra. J&J brought in $17.8 billion in first-quarter revenues, a 1.6% increase over 2016. 

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