(Adds details and background on Eylea in paragraphs 5 and 7, sales of other drugs in paragraphs 8 and 9)
May 2 (Reuters) – U.S. drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc missed Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Thursday, due to softer sales of its blockbuster eye drug Eylea and its eczema treatment Dupixent.
The company reported an adjusted profit of $9.55 per share for the quarter, compared with analysts’ estimates of $10.09, according to LSEG data.
Regeneron has been looking to switch Eylea patients to the high-dose version as the eye drug, which has long been its cash cow, faces the threat of biosimilars and fierce competition from rivals including Roche’s Vabysmo.
The company said net product sales of Eylea fell, primarily due to changing market dynamics that resulted in lower volumes and lower selling price.
Sales of Eylea, jointly developed with Bayer AG, fell 2% to $1.40 billion in the January-to-March quarter. Analysts were expecting $1.86 billion in total Eylea sales, according to LSEG estimates.
The higher, 8 milligram dose version contributed $200 million to Eylea’s total sales, in line with estimates from JPM analysts.
Analysts have high hopes for the high dose. They expect the high-dose version to gain market share over the standard dose largely over the next year, slowing the hit from Roche’s Vabysmo, which clocked in sales of $847 million Swiss francs ($847.00 million) in the first quarter.
Regeneron’s anti-inflammatory drug Dupixent brought in sales of $3.08 billion, missing analysts’ estimates of $3.19 billion.
Its lone approved skin cancer drug, Libtayo, brought in sales of $264 million, which came ahead of estimates of $257.66 million. Regeneron bought the global rights to the cancer drug from partner Sanofi in 2022.
Regeneron posted total revenue of $3.15 billion, falling short of estimates of $3.22 billion. (Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
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