Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said it made its final deliveries of REGN-COV to the government in the fourth quarter.
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals on Friday issued financial results that substantially beat Wall Street expectations. Shares dropped in the premarket hours, however, as the Covid-19 therapeutic that played a large part in the stock’s more than 30% climb in 2021 appears to be losing its relevance.
Regeneron (ticker: REGN) reported non-GAAP diluted earnings of $23.72 per share for the fourth quarter of 2021, beating the FactSet analyst consensus estimate of $20.40. The company reported fourth-quarter revenues of $5 billion, while $4.5 billion had been expected.
Fourth-quarter revenues were up 104% from the same quarter last year. Not including the company’s Covid-19 therapeutic, REGEN-COV, they were up 17%.
REGEN-COV sales were $2.3 billion for the fourth quarter and $5.8 billion for the full 2021 fiscal year. The company said that it had made its final deliveries of REGEN-COV to the U.S. government in the fourth quarter.
Late last month, the Food and Drug Administration effectively revoked the emergency-use authorization of REGEN-COV, saying it likely doesn’t work in people infected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19. REGEN-COV’s lack of expected efficacy against Omicron had been an issue for months, and the federal government had stopped distributing the therapeutic in December, before restarting again.
Those shipments have now stopped, and REGEN-COV seems unlikely to have a significant future.
In its earnings statement on Friday, Regeneron said it was working on a next- generation monoclonal antibody therapy that would be active against Omicron and other variants, but provided few details on timing. It said only that new versions “could enter clinical development in the coming months.”
Aside from REGEN-COV, sales of Regeneron’s macular degeneration drug Eylea were up 15% to $1.6 billion in the quarter. Sales of Dupixent, on which the company partners with Sanofi (SNY), were up 51%, to $1.8 billion. Regeneron had preannounced the Eylea sales last month.
“In 2021, Regeneron delivered strong results across our core business with impressive EYLEA and Dupixent growth, while also helping address the ongoing pandemic by delivering REGEN-COV to millions of patients,” said the company’s CEO, Dr. Leonard Schleifer, in a statement.
Regeneron shares were down 2.3% in premarket trading.
In a note out early Friday, Piper Sandler analyst Christopher Raymond noted that the Dupixent sales “soundly beat” expectations.
As of the close of trading on Thursday, Regeneron shares were down 1.7% this year, and up 24.4% over the past 12 months. The stock trades at 13 times earnings expected over the next 12 months, down from its 5-year average of 17.6 times.
Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]
