Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) with Blowout Quarter

Submitted by Mark Hanna

Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.

There are a lot of interesting companies in the mid cap space reporting in the latter half of this week and next week – under the radar of most of the CNBC crowd.  Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) is among those.  Wow, what a year in both the stock performance and operations.   The company reported probably the best quarter I’ve seen out of anyone this side of Apple, versus expectations.  Revenue came in at $232M versus expectations of $173M!  EPS was a blowout at non GAAP of $.37 versus expectations of losses of $0.24.  I assume that is non GAAP as well (I am using Yahoo’s estimates).  REGN was even profitable on a GAAP basis (11 cents).  The company’s prime drug, Eylea is just going gangbusters.   The forecast increase is jaw dropping:

• Full year 2012 EYLEA U.S. sales forecast increased from $250-$300 million to $500-$550 million.

Needless to say the stock gapped up and continues to be one of the 2012’s star performers.  Full report here.

Via Reuters:

• “Investors were expecting an increase in 2012 Eylea guidance to the $400 million range,” Cowen and Co analyst Phil Nadeau said in a note to clients.  Eylea was approved in November to treat a form of macular degeneration, a common cause of blindness in the elderly, and now contributes more than half of Regeneron’s revenue.
• The company said last month that surveys suggested Eylea was capturing 60 percent of its sales from patients who have abandoned Roche Holding AG’s Lucentis and Avastin medicines.
• Eylea’s advantages over Lucentis include a 45 percent lower annual cost and the need for roughly only half as many injections into the eye.
• The company has full marketing rights to the drug in the United States and would share overseas profits equally with Bayer AG  if Eylea wins regulatory approval in other countries.

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