Despite setbacks on the R&D side of its oncology business, Gilead Sciences' commercial cancer franchise is ramping up.
During the second quarter of the year, Gilead's oncology sales grew 71% to $527 million, passing the $500 million threshold for the first time. Trodelvy, the company's treatment for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and advanced bladder cancer, grew sales by 79% to $159 million during the period.
Gilead says it's just getting started with Trodelvy, the key asset in its $21 billion Immunomedics buy. The company is talking with the FDA about a "potential regulatory pathway" in late-stage HR-positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer after the drug bested chemotherapy on the progression-free survival marker in the TROPiCS-02 study. Importantly, though, questions remain about whether the results were "clinically meaningful."
Aside from that potential use, Gilead is running or planning to initiate more than a half-dozen other studies of Trodelvy—either alone or in combinations—in various cancers.
Also in the oncology franchise, Gilead's cell therapy revenues grew 68% to $368 million. Yescarta's approval in second-line relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma back in April "increased awareness and demand not only for Yescarta's second-line patients but also for those in later lines of treatment," CEO Daniel O'Day said on a Tuesday conference call.
Yescarta's sales grew by 66% to reach $295 million in the second quarter, while Gilead's second cell therapy Tecartus posted a 78% sales increase to $73 million.
Of course, the company’s crown jewel is still its HIV unit. In that franchise, sales increased 7% year over year to $4.2 billion thanks to higher demand to both treat and prevent HIV, the company said. Front-runner Biktarvy delivered a 28% sales increase, reaching $2.6 billion during the quarter.
While HIV screening is down 8% from pre-pandemic levels and diagnoses have declined about 30%, the company maintains that the market is recovering. For preexposure prophylaxis therapies, the market has “more than recovered,” and rates of usage are higher than ever, Gilead's chief commercial officer, Johanna Mercier, said on the call.
All told, Gilead's growth in HIV, cancer and elsewhere helped the company make up for the downfall of COVID-19 antiviral Veklury, sales of which slipped 46% to $445 million. In total, Gilead delivered 1% revenue growth from the same period last year.
The performance led Gilead to raise its revenue expectations for the year. The company is now projecting total sales for the year to come in between $24.5 billion and $25 billion, up from past guidance of between $23.8 billion and $24.3 billion.