Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., which recently won approval for
its cholesterol drug, said profit doubled in its second quarter as
sales of its eye-disease treatment surged.
Shares gained 2.4% in premarket trading.
Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Regeneron commercializes medicines for eye
diseases, high cholesterol and a rare inflammatory condition. The
company also has a number of other treatments in its pipeline.
Last month, federal regulators approved Praluent, the first of a
powerful new class of cholesterol-lowering medicines that Regeneron
developed with French drug maker Sanofi SA.
Praluent provides a new option for several million high-risk
heart patients who can't get their cholesterol to desirable levels
with statin drugs, but it promises to escalate a growing chorus of
concern over high drug prices.
Last week, Regeneron and Sanofi announced a new immuno-oncology
collaboration, which has been a particularly hot area for cancer
treatment development recently.
For the period ended June 30, Regeneron posted a profit of
$194.6 million, or $1.69 a share, up from $96.4 million, or 85
cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding special items, per-share earnings were $2.89 a share,
up from $2.47 a share a year earlier.
Revenue jumped 50% to $998.6 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast per-share
earnings of $2.77 on revenue of $887.8 million.
Product revenue jumped 57% to $657.8 million, as U.S. sales of
eye-treatment Eylea grew to $655 million from $415 million a year
ago.
Revenue from its Sanofi collaboration grew 37%, while revenue
from its collaboration with Bayer HealthCare jumped 38%.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com
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