BOSTON (AP) - Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday reported a loss of $75.5 million in its fourth quarter, but its adjusted profit beat Wall Street expectations on strong sales of its new cystic fibrosis drug.
On a per-share basis, the Boston-based company said it had a loss of 31 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and stock option expense, came to 17 cents per share.
The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 14 cents per share.
The drugmaker posted revenue of $417.9 million in the period, topping the average Street estimate of $406 million, according to FactSet.
A year earlier, Vertex lost $131.8 million, or 74 cents per share, on revenue of $144.6 million.
Orkambi revenue totaled $219.9 million. The combination drug was approved in July for the most common form of cystic fibrosis, the debilitating inherited disease that causes internal mucus buildup, lung infections and early death. The twice-a-day treatment costs more than $250,000 for a year’s treatment.
Orkambi is the follow up to Kalydeco and combines that drug with a new ingredient, lumacaftor. Kalydeco sales during the fourth quarter rose 45 percent to $180.7 million.
For the year, the company reported that its loss narrowed to $558.1 million, or $2.31 per share. Revenue was reported as $1.03 billion.
For 2016, Vertex expects to log Kalydeco revenue of $670 million to $690 million.
Vertex shares slipped $1, or 1 percent, to $91.50 in aftermarket trading following the release of the earnings report. Through the close of regular-session trading Wednesday, they have decreased 26 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has decreased nearly 8 percent.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (https://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on VRTX at https://www.zacks.com/ap/VRTX
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Keywords: Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Earnings Report
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