Ionis Pharmaceuticals' (IONS) Q1 Loss Wider Than Expected

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, such as antisense. 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.

Ionis’ only approved product, Kynamro (homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia), is marketed in the U.S. and other major markets.

Meanwhile, the company has a deep pipeline with several candidates in mid or final stages of development. Some promising candidates include IONIS-TTRRx (transthyretin amyloidosis – phase III), nusinersen (spinal muscular atrophy in infants and children – phase III) and volanesorsen (familial chylomicronemia syndrome and familial partial lipodystrophy – phase III) among others.

In this scenario, investor focus remains on late-stage pipeline candidates and their commercial potential apart from the usual top-and bottom-line numbers.

Ionis’ track record has been disappointing so far. Over the four trailing quarters, the company has posted an average negative earnings surprise of 1.21%, having beaten estimates in two quarters and missed it in the other two.

Currently, Ionis has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) 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 a wider-than-expected loss in the first quarter of 2016. The company reported a loss of 52 cents per share while our consensus called for a loss of 50 cents.

Revenues: Revenues were also below expectations. Ionis posted revenues of $36.9 million, compared to our consensus estimate of $40 million.

Key Stats: Ionis continues to progress with its pipeline and earn milestone payments for the same. It plans to complete phase III studies on nusinersen, IONIS-TTRRx and volanesorsen in 2016. Data from these studies are expected in the first half of 2017. Currently, the company is engaged in preparing New Drug Applications for all the three candidates.

Check back later for our full write up on this Ionis earnings report later!


IONIS PHARMACT (IONS): Free Stock Analysis Report

Original post

Zacks Investment Research