On Thursday, shares of Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT) are surging, up almost 24% to $42.14 per share in morning trading after the biotech company reported second-quarter revenues that blew past expectations in its earnings report yesterday after the bell.
Sarepta reported quarterly revenue of $35 million, which was $13 million above what analysts at Thomson Reuters expected and reflected sequential growth of 115%. This outperformance was mainly due to strong sales from Sarepta’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) drug, Exondys 51.
The company also incurred a narrower-than-expected loss in Q2, reporting earnings of a loss of 65 cents per share and beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 92 cents per share. Investors should note that loss per share excludes restructuring costs and gain from asset sale but includes the impact of share-based compensation expenses.
Sarepta ended the second quarter with a strong balance sheet, boasting $301.7 million in total cash. And earlier this week, the company announced it has settled a global patent litigation with BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:BMRN) regarding the exclusive license on a patent pertaining to exon skipping technology used in DMD therapies. If Sarepta hadn’t settled with BioMarin, the latter could have prevented Sarepta from commercializing Exondys 51 in several new areas.
Looking ahead, Sarepta updated its guidance for Exondys 51, and now expects sales for the therapy to range from $125 million to $130 million in 2017, higher than its previous forecast of $95 million. The company raised its outlook primarily because of increasing market penetration, start forms from physicians, and additional new patients in the second quarter. Exondys 51 is also close to breaking into the European Union market, a positive next step for a controversial drug that costs $300,000 a year.
SRPT is currently a #5 (Strong Sell) on the Zacks Rank. Shares of Sarepta have gained over 22% year-to-date, and are up almost 52% over the past 12 months.
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