(Reuters) – Incyte Corp on Tuesday reported second-quarter profit and revenue above Wall Street estimates as demand for its blood cancer drug Jakafi and skin disorder drug Opzelura picked momentum.
Jakafi, the company’s biggest-selling drug, brought in sales of $682.4 million, compared with Refinitiv IBES estimates of $$655.2 mln.
The beat reflects high demand for Incyte’s cancer drug while inventory held by distributors returned to normal from lower than usual levels in the first quarter.
The Delaware-based drugmaker also raised the low end of its annual forecast range for Jakafi sales to $2.58 billion from $2.55 billion expected earlier, while keeping the high end unchanged at $2.63 billion.
Incyte has been diversifying and strengthening its skin oncology and dermatology pipeline through collaborations as its cancer drug Jakafi is set to lose exclusivity in 2028 in the U.S market.
Sales from Opzelura rose multi-fold to $80.23 million in the second quarter from $16.6 million a year earlier on higher demand for it to treat vitiligo and mild to moderate atopic dermatitis in patients 12 years of age and older.
The analysts had expected $74.03 million in Opzelura revenue.
The company’s total revenue for the quarter came in at $954.6 million, beating estimates of $910.2 million.
Excluding items, Incyte earned $0.99 per share in the quarter compared with estimates of $0.83 per share.
Jakafi is used as a treatment for bone marrow related illnesses, such as two types of cancers called myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera, as well as graft-versus-host disease in which the donor’s bone marrow or stem cells attack the recipient’s body.
Shares of the company rose nearly 2% to $64.7 in premarket trading.
(Reporting by Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)
