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J&J kicks off biopharma earnings season
Johnson & Johnson kicks off the industry's earnings season on Tuesday, with all eyes on the health care giant's financial outlook for the coming year. Cautious commentary offered by CEO Joaquin Duato at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference — he mentioned inflation, pricing pressure, and lower pharmaceutical sales as headwinds — has tempered investor expectations for the company's 2023 financial guidance. Current Street consensus: adjusted earnings of $10.37 per share on total revenue of $97.79 billion.
At Friday's $168 close, J&J shares are down 5% since the start of the year.
Biotech investors and watchers of cell therapy will be paying particularly close attention to reported fourth-quarter sales of Carvykti, the BMCA-targeted CAR-T treatment for multiple myeloma that J&J co-markets with Legend Biotech. The Q4 sales consensus is $61 million, compared to previously reported Q3 sales of $55 million. Manufacturing issues and supply constraints have limited the number of patients who can access Carvykti therapy — problems that are being addressed, the companies have said.
This week, J&J and Legend may also announce the results from a closely followed study called CARTITUDE-4 that is investigating the use of Carvykti in earlier lines of therapy for multiple myeloma patients. The outcome of the study, if positive, would expand the number of patients with multiple myeloma who could benefit from treatment with Carvykti. More patients means higher sales, and that would boost Legend's stock price.
Immunotherapy
The TIGIT tide will turn on a press release
TIGIT is the once-hot, now lukewarm cancer immunotherapy target being actively pursued by the Genentech unit of Roche, among other biopharma players. Within weeks, perhaps mere days, Genentech scientists are expected to learn the outcome of a second, interim survival analysis conducted on a Phase 3 study of its anti-TIGIT antibody called tiragolumab in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
The first analysis of the study, last May, was disappointing. Tiragolumab failed to slow tumor growth, but it was too early to draw any conclusions about survival.
With longer follow-up, another look at the tiragolumab study data approaches. If the anti-TIGIT drug demonstrates a statistically significant survival benefit for lung cancer patients, Roche/Genentech plans to announce the good news via press release, a spokesperson confirmed to STAT. But if this second interim look at the survival data is inconclusive, the company will stay mum, meaning no press release. Instead, Genentech/Roche will wait for a final survival analysis to mature in the second half of the year.
So, watch for an imminent press release, or the absence of one. That will tell the tale of tiragolumab for Roche, and perhaps other TIGIT pursuers, including Merck, Gilead Sciences and Arcus Biosciences.
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