Carlsbad, CA-based Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) is a drug discovery and development company that focuses on the development of products using ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based technologies. The company discovers new drugs and out-licenses them to partners for license fees, milestone payments, and royalties. Ionis has partnership agreements with several leading health care companies like Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) and GlaxoSmithKline among others.
In this quarter, the company received $115.7 million in upfront fees and milestone payments from its partners. Also, regulatory applications for approval of volanesorsen and Inotersen are under review in the United States and EU.
Ionis’ earnings track record has been mixed so far. Over the four trailing quarters, the company posted an average negative earnings surprise of 6.67%, missing estimates in two quarters and beating the same once.
Currently, Ionis has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) but that could definitely change following the company’s earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:
Earnings: Ionis reported an earnings of 2 cents including stock based compensation which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of loss of 8 cents.
Revenues: Ionis posted revenues of $172.3 million, beating the consensus estimate of $115.44 million.
Key Stats: Research, development and patent expenses amounted to $128.3 million, up 26.8% year over year. General and administrative expenses increased almost 153% year over year to $45.7 million on increased costs related to commercialization of volanesorsen and inotersen, and increase in fees related to in-licensing of Spinraza. Spinraza saw strong uptake in full year 2017 with $884 million in sales.
2018 Outlook: The company expects the R&D expenses to be in the range of $360 million - $390 million, while SG&A expenses are expected in the range of $180 million - $210 million. Ionis also plans to launch inotersen and volanesorsen in 2018.
Share Market Activity: Share price are down 0.2% in pre-market trading.
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Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IONS): Free Stock Analysis Report
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