By Padmanabhan Ananthan (Reuters) -Incyte on Tuesday raised its annual sales forecast for Jakafi after the cancer drug helped the company post third-quarter results above Wall Street estimates. However, Incyte shares fell 4% after the company halted development of three experimental drugs to focus on candidates with higher potential. The drugmaker is bracing for loss […]
Health
Incyte lifts forecast for key drug Jakafi, but pipeline rejig drags shares
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By Padmanabhan Ananthan
(Reuters) -Incyte on Tuesday raised its annual sales forecast for Jakafi after the cancer drug helped the company post third-quarter results above Wall Street estimates.
However, Incyte shares fell 4% after the company halted development of three experimental drugs to focus on candidates with higher potential.
The drugmaker is bracing for loss of exclusivity of Jakafi in 2028, and has so far leaned on Opzelura, its cream for the skin conditions, vitiligo and eczema, and Niktimvo for chronic graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) to drive future growth.
Incyte will focus on seven drugs, including treatments for several types of cancers and their late-stage oral drug candidate, povorcitinib, for several skin disorders, it said on Tuesday.
The company is not looking for all seven of its priority drug programs to be successful, CEO Bill Meury said.
“We just need two or three of these out of the seven to hit, and we’ll build a business that’s bigger than the one that we have post 2029.”
As part of the prioritization, Incyte has stopped development of povorcitinib for another skin condition called chronic spontaneous urticaria, along with some early-stage drugs for vitiligo and certain blood cancers.
Investor focus now shifts to December’s ASH meeting, where more data for another early-stage drug to treat a form of bone marrow cancer is expected, J.P. Morgan analyst Jessica Fye said.
The data could shape whether the drug could have potential for frontline use or be used after other treatments fail, Fye added.
Annual sales of Jakafi, the company’s flagship treatment for blood cancers such as myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera, is expected to be in the range of $3.05 to $3.08 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $3 billion to $3.05 billion.
Quarterly sales of Jakafi climbed 7% to $791 million.
Total revenue came in at $1.37 billion, surpassing estimates of $1.26 billion.
Incyte’s adjusted profit of $2.26 per share beat estimates of $1.66 apiece.
(Reporting by Padmanabhan Ananthan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore, Shailesh Kuber and Leroy Leo)