Gilead Earnings Fall Short, Hurt by Faltering Sales of Key Drugs

(Bloomberg) -- Gilead Sciences Inc. posted weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, as sales of some of its best-known drugs declined from a year earlier.

• Adjusted earnings per share of $1.30 were down from $1.44 a year earlier and short of analyst estimates of $1.67, on average. Total revenue was $5.9 billion, up 1.4% from a year earlier and stronger than the $5.71 billion analysts expected.

Key Insights

• Sales of the company’s HIV drugs were $4.6 billion, compared with $4.1 billion for the fourth quarter a year prior. Biktarvy, which launched in 2018 and has quickly become a lucrative drug, brought in $1.58 billion, better than the $1.44 billion that analysts expected.
• Gilead’s cornerstone hepatitis C franchise continued its steady decline. Sales were $630 million, compared with $738 million for the fourth quarter of 2018.
• CAR-T cancer therapy Yescarta, which Gilead got in its $11.9 billion purchase of Kite Pharma in 2017, brought in $122 million, versus estimates of $131.57 million and $81 million a year prior. Sales could improve this year if the drug gains approval in Europe.
• As Gilead attempts to reinvigorate its drug-development pipeline, a planned Chinese trial of a drug for the novel coronavirus could be key. Remdesivir is a new antiviral therapy to treat infectious disease including Ebola and SARS. But rivals including GlaxoSmithKline Plc are also racing to develop treatments.

Market Reaction

Gilead shares were down 0.2% in late trading; over the past 12 months through Tuesday’s close, the stock has fallen 3.8%.

Get More

• For more details on the results, click here.
• To read Gilead’s news release, click here.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kristen V. Brown in San Francisco at kbrown340@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Timothy Annett, Mark Schoifet

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