Gilead Sciences Posts Higher 2Q Earnings, Sales

   By Dave Sebastian

Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) posted higher second-quarter earnings as sales in one of its chronic hepatitis drugs rose.

The biopharmaceutical company reported quarterly net income of $1.88 billion, or $1.47 a share, compared with $1.82 billion, or $1.39 a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting $2.2 billion, or $1.31 a share.

Excluding one-time items, per-share earnings were $2.3 billion, or $1.82 a share, compared with $2.5 billion, or $1.91 a share, a year ago. Analysts expected $1.72.

The company, whose products include chronic hepatitis C treatments Harvoni and Epclusa as well as HIV medications Genvoya and Truvada, posted $5.69 billion in revenue, inching up from $5.65 billion a year earlier. Analysts expected $5.53 billion.

Overall sales of chronic hepatitis C treatments dropped to $842 million from $1 billion a year ago as the company said it saw a decline in U.S. Medicare prices and lower patient starts.

HIV product sales brought in $4 billion in the most recent period, up from $2.7 billion a year earlier as the company said it saw continued uptake in HIV medication Biktarvy, whose sales rose to $1.12 billion from $185 million last year.

Gilead has been trying to offset lower sales of hepatitis C drugs that drove an earlier sales surge. The company, which has a strong HIV/AIDS franchise, paid about $11 billion in 2017 to buy one of one of the pioneering companies in a type of cancer treatment known as CAR-T that uses patients' immune cells to fight cancer.

Sales of its CAR-T therapy Yescarta rose to $120 million in the second quarter compared with $68 million a year ago.

One of the drugs that saw a decline in sales during the quarter is chest-pain medication Ranexa, dropping to $19 million from $208 million in the prior year.

The company earlier this month said it is paying $5.1 billion to boost its stake in Galapagos NV (GLPGF) and gain rights outside Europe to the Belgian biotechnology company's treatment in development, in a broad research collaboration aimed at increasing growth at the drugmakers.

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 30, 2019 16:38 ET (20:38 GMT)

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