Reuters: Hot Stocks: UPDATE 1-Vertex posts loss as hepatitis C drug sales plunge

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UPDATE 1-Vertex posts loss as hepatitis C drug sales plunge Jan 29th 2013, 22:02 Tue Jan 29, 2013 5:02pm EST * Maker of Incivek reports third straight quarterly loss * Net loss of 35 cents/share in fourth quarter * Revenue $334 million * Sees 2013 revenue $1.1 bln to $1.25 bln (Adds 2013 forecast, sales, revenue, R&D details) Jan 29 (Reuters) - Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc on Tuesday reported a third straight quarterly loss as sales of its hepatitis C drug, Incivek, again fell sharply while research and development spending rose. Incivek sales in the fourth quarter fell by half to $222.8 million from $456.8 million in the year-ago period. Its shares were down 2.4 percent at $45.25 in after-hours trading on Tuesday. After a first year on the market that saw Incivek sales soar past $1 billion in record time, sales have steeply declined over the past few quarters. Many patients have chosen either to wait for new drugs that promise fewer side effects and shorter treatment duration, or have signed up for clinical trials testing new interferon-free options being pursued by several companies, including Vertex itself. Incivek was approved in 2011 to great fanfare as it doubled cure rates for the serious liver disease. But it must be taken with interferon, which causes miserable flu-like symptoms that lead many patients to delay or discontinue treatment. New options are seen as being less than a year away. The Massachusetts-based biotechnology company reported a net loss of $76.1 million, or 35 cents per share, compared with a profit of $158.6 million, or 74 cents per share, a year ago. The results included a charge of $85.1 million in large part to account for a reserve against the potential for excess Incivek inventory. Sales of Vertex's new cystic fibrosis treatment, Kalydeco, rose to $58.5 million from $49 million in the third quarter. Sales growth of Kalydeco is somewhat limited by the fact that it treats only about 4 percent of CF patients with a specific gene mutation. Vertex is testing combinations of drugs aimed at addressing a far greater portion of CF patients. For 2013, Vertex forecast revenue of $1.1 billion to $1.25 billion, in line with Wall Street estimates of $1.14 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The forecast includes Kalydeco sales of $280 million to $320 million. The Kalydeco sales target assumes completion of reimbursement discussions in countries outside the United States, the company said. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $334 million, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $318 million. R&D expenses were $213.1 million, up from $186.4 million a year ago, as the company pours money into clinical trials for hepatitis, cystic fibrosis and other diseases. (Reporting by Bill Berkrot; editing by Bernard Orr and Matthew Lewis) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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