Vertex posts loss as hepatitis drug sales plunge
This article was originally published in Scrip
Vertex Pharmaceuticals said it lost money in the first quarter as sales of its hepatitis C drug Incivek plunged.
The company lost $308 million, or $1.43 a share, in the quarter compared with $92 million in net income in the year-earlier period.
Sales of Incivek (telaprevir) fell 42% to about $206 million. While the drug was only approved a couple of years ago in the US, the product is expected to be replaced within a year by a superior treatment being developed by Gilead Sciences. Vertex also is testing next-generation hepatitis C treatments.
In after-hours US trading April 30, the company’s stock rose almost 1% after dropping during regular hours on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Vertex shareholders are largely looking ahead toward the company’s cystic fibrosis drug development program. Sales of Vertex’s one approved drug for the disease, Kalydeco (ivacaftor) more than tripled in the quarter to about $62 million.
Company executives said they expect Kalydeco to record as much as $340 million in sales for 2013, which is an increase from a previous forecast of as much as $320 million. Overall sales dropped 25% to about $328 million in the first quarter.
The company said it also recorded almost $314 million in one-time charges in the first quarter.