(Reuters) - Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN) Pharmaceuticals on Monday reported eye drug Eylea's fourth-quarter preliminary U.S. sales below Wall Street expectations, as the company's blockbuster product faced pressure from a rival.
The company garnered $1.46 billion from Eylea drug sales, in comparison to consensus Wall Street estimates of $1.53 billion as pegged by Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal last week.
Shares of Regeneron were down over 2% in premarket trading.
Eylea, jointly developed with Bayer AG (ETR:BAYGN), has driven Regeneron's earnings for years, but sales have now come under pressure, partly from Roche's Vabysmo that secured U.S. approval in 2022.
Regeneron has set its hopes on a higher-dose version of Eylea. U.S. sales of the version came in at about $123 million in the quarter, the company said.
Wall Street expectations pegged sales of high-dose Eylea at $129 million, according to the consensus estimates compiled by Well Fargo.
The higher dose version, which has 8mg compared to the regular dose of 2mg, got U.S. approval in August for treatment of a disease that is a leading cause of blindness among the elderly .
The regular dose of Eylea could also face further pressure from possible entry of biosimilar drugs, as Regeneron's claims in a key patent litigation against Mylan (NASDAQ:VTRS), now part of Viatris, were upheld last month, and Wells Fargo said it expects biosimilar competition from 2026-27. (This story has been corrected to fix Eylea sales to $1.46 billion, not $1.34 billion, in paragraph 2)