January 12, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Biotech darling Celgene gave Wall Street a surprise Monday, when it said in a conference presentation that it can sketch out its financial guidance all the way into 2020, when it expects the company to reach $20 billion in net sales and adjusted earnings per share of $12.50, and that it will fast-track a study of Crohn’s drug GED-301.
Celgene made the announcement at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference which begins Monday in San Francisco and the oldest and largest conference of its type. It will include 300 of the largest biotech, healthcare and biopharma companies presenting their top-line data and estimates to a sea of eager bankers, analysts, institutional investors, hedge funds and journalists
CEO Bob Hugin said Celgene expects to meet or exceed previous 2017 guidance, but did not officially raise its guidance, and he provided numbers the above numbers for 2020.
Otherwise, Celgene stayed largely within projected estimates from analysts, narrowing its forecast for total net product sales to a closer span of $9 to $9.5 billion from $8.5 to $9.5 billion, which is right in line with the market’s current consensus estimate of $9.3 billion. Traders remained sanguine about the news in midday trading, leaving Celgene shares flat after an earlier boost in the morning.
Some of that caution may be related to the fact that although Celgene released numbers for its prize drug candidate Revlimid, it didn’t say much about a possible American launch of other marquee name drug Otezla, was mum on new Crohn’s data on for closely watched experimental therapy GED-0301.
Celgene was upbeat about the always-hot category of CAR-T therapies, which it is currently investigating via partnerships with with Bluebird and Agios Pharma‘s cancer metabolism drug AG-221. Hugin said Acceleron Pharma (XLRN) and Agios were “the most important addition” to the company’s pipeline and 2014.
As such, Hugin said Celgene is hoping to fast-track a Phase III study of GED-301, which could be a major competitor to other injectables from AbbVie or similar products.
Hugin did give analysts something to chew on, saying Revlimid will rake in net sales of $5.6 to $5.7 billion for 2015, which is down from the general consensus of $5.8 billion, an unsurprising gambit considering Celgene traditionally downplays its estimates at J.P Morgan so it can enjoy a boost later.
Celgene didn’t say anything about a possible run at acquisition targets, a hot topic analysts had been hoping the company would cover Monday, nor did it mention the possibility of a dividend.
Analysts were wary about Celgene’s announcements Monday, saying they would wait and see how the next stage of drug study progresses before building in value to a price target.
“The guidance has historically been conservative so this is solid and will be partially driven by Agios and Acceleron drugs,” wrote Citigroup analyst Yaron Werber in a note to investors following the announcement. “We do believe that the outlook for GED-301 is promising but it is tough to get super bullish given that Phase II do not always translate into Phase III success.
