Seattle Genetics, a Seattle-based biotechnology company that makes the cancer therapy Adcetris, beat Wall Street expectations in its 2017 earnings Thursday.
The company announced $482.3 million in revenue for 2017, higher than the $469 million analysts had expected. It also narrowly beat expectations in loss per share, announcing a $0.88 loss per share compared to an expected $0.90. The company’s stock was largely unaffected by the report, initially dipping then rising in after-hours trading. As of 2 p.m. Pacific Time, it had risen just under two percent to $54.24.
“During 2017, we continued to deliver on the promise of ADCETRIS as shown by growing commercial sales, FDA approval of a fourth labeled indication and, importantly, the positive outcome of our phase 3 ECHELON-1 clinical trial,” Seattle Genetics CEO Clay Siegall said in a press release.
The company is hoping that data from the ECHELON-1 trial in combination with data from the ECHELON-2 trial will convince the FDA to approve Adcetris as a frontline treatment for some kinds of lymphoma, giving it a bigger chunk of the market. ECHELON-2 is in its final stage and is due to report data soon.
The company’s success in 2017 was heavily reliant on Adcetris, its only drug on the market to date. Adcetris sales for that year totaled $307.6 million, compared to $265.8 million in 2016. The company also brought in $66.1 million in royalty fees in 2017, most of which comes from the international sale of the drug by Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda.
Seattle Genetics also announced last week that it has reached a deal to acquire Cascadian Therapeutics for $614 million, likely adding another late-stage cancer drug to its portfolio of treatments under development.
