The year-old launch of a drug product used to treat eye disease continued to drive sales and earnings growth at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in the third quarter this year.
The company reported third quarter revenues of $428 million that blew away analysts”™ projections, compared with $103 million of revenue in the third quarter of 2011, as the Tarrytown biopharmaceutical firm again raised expectations for 2012 sales of its drug Eylea. The company’s net product sales in the quarter were $249 million, compared with $5 million in the third quarter of 2011.
Regeneron”™s Eylea, launched last November, accounted for most of that quarterly sales increase of $244 million. The drug has been approved for use in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, or wet AMD. Third-quarter sales of Eylea were up 26 percent from the second quarter.
Leonard S. Schleifer, founding president and CEO of Regeneron, said Eylea is expected to continue to drive growth through 2013 and beyond, following its recent approval in the U.S. for the treatment of macular edema after central retinal vein occlusion and the drug”™s expected launch by the end of this year in Japan, Australia and Europe as a treatment for wet AMD.
Schleifer said the company is forecasting 2012 U.S. Eylea sales of $790 million to $815 million, surpassing a July estimate of $700 million to $750 million in total sales.
Overall, revenues for the company were up by more than four times over third quarter 2011 revenues of $102.8 million. For the nine months ending Sept. 30, the company reported $963.9 million in revenues, compared to $322.8 million in revenues for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2011.
Regeneron reported third-quarter profit of $217 million, or $1.89 per diluted share. Profit in the first nine months of 2012 totaled $359 million, or $3.19 per diluted share.
Sanofi, the French biotech company partnering with Regeneron in the global development and marketing of Zaltrap, made a third-quarter milestone payment of $50 million following the drug”™s approval in August for patients in the U.S. with metastatic colorectal cancer. Sanofi reported $8 million in net sales of Zaltrap in the third quarter.
Regeneron”™s collaborator for Eylea, Bayer Healthcare, made a third-quarter milestone payment of $15 million for the drug”™s marketing approval in Japan.
Editor’s note: Updated 12:15 p.m. Oct. 29, 2012 with additional reporting by John Golden.
