(Reuters) – Incyte Corp on Tuesday reported first-quarter profit and revenue below Wall Street estimates as sales of two of its key drugs were hit by lower medical insurance coverage.
The Delaware-based pharmaceutical company reported revenue of $808.7 million for the quarter through March, missing estimates of $859.2 million, according to Refinitiv estimates.
Sales of cancer drug Jakafi came in at $580 million for the quarter, below expectations of $615.8 million, as the government insurance coverage fell short of pricier drugs.
The company said Jakafi sales were also impacted by a rise in discounted drugs that were offered under the Federal program, while a $11 million drop in revenue was due to the lower-than-normal level of inventory held by distributors.
Jakafi is the biggest selling drug for Incyte and 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.
The U.S. drugmaker, however, slightly raised the low end of its forecast for Jakafi sales to $2.55 billion from $2.53 billion expected earlier. High end of the range remained unchanged at $2.63 billion.
For the skin disorder drug Opzelura, Incyte reported sales of $56.6 million, lower than analysts’ average estimate of $66.6 million.
Excluding one-off items, Incyte earned $0.37 per share for the quarter ended March 31, compared with estimates of $0.76 per share, according to Refinitiv data.
(Reporting by Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)
