Blueprint (BPMC) Q4 Earnings Beat, Stock Up as Ayvakit Shines
Blueprint Medicines Corporation BPMC reported a fourth-quarter 2023 loss of $1.82 per share, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $2.04 and a loss of $2.65 in the year-ago quarter.
Quarterly revenues of $72.0 million also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $67.3 million. Revenues rose 85.5% year over year.
Quarter in Detail
Blueprint’s total revenues comprise net product revenues from Ayvakit/Ayvakyt and collaboration revenues.
Ayvakit (avapritinib), an inhibitor of KIT and PDGFRA proteins, is approved for treating treat PDGFRA Exon 18 mutant gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and advanced and indolent systemic mastocytosis (ISM).
Net product revenues from Ayvakit were $71.0 million in the fourth quarter, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $65.0 million. Sales of Ayvakit grew 39% on a sequential basis and 83.0% on a year-over-year basis, driven by new patient starts, a decline in the share of free goods, low discontinuation rates and a high compliance rate. Out of the total revenue generated from Ayvakit sales, $63.6 million came from the U.S. sales of the drug.
For full-year 2023, Ayvakit recorded sales of $204.2 million, up 84% year over year. The launch of Ayvakit for the ISM indication in the United States led to significant year-over-year revenue growth in 2023. ISM disease is of a chronic nature, due to which patients stay on therapy for longer durations. ISM comprises about 95% of all patients with SM. Ayvakit was approved for the ISM indication in the EU in December 2023, which should contribute to sales growth in 2024.
Ayvakit is the first and only therapy approved for treating ISM. It has the potential to become a multibillion-dollar product and to drive durable revenue growth for Blueprint for the next few years.
Collaboration revenues were $0.9 million, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.0 million. Blueprint recognizes collaboration revenues from the agreements with CStone Pharmaceutical and Roche.
Blueprint has a collaboration with CStone Pharmaceuticals to develop and commercialize its three clinical-stage candidates, avapritinib, pralsetinib and fisogatinib, in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, either as monotherapies or combo regimes.
Another drug of Blueprint, Gavreto (pralsetinib), is approved for metastatic rearranged during transfection (RET) fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and RET-mutant and RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer. Blueprint was co-developing Gavreto with Roche RHHBY and recorded its share of profit and loss for Gavreto in financial results. It did not record any net product revenues from Gavreto sales.
However, In February 2023, Roche announced its decision to discontinue the collaboration agreement. Blueprint is set to regain the global commercial rights to Gavreto, effective late February 2024. Along with the fourth-quarter results, Blueprint announced that it has identified another partner for Gavreto. An update on the new partnership deal will be provided next week around the same time as the termination of the deal with Roche.
Research and development (R&D) expenses were $97.5 million, down 17.2% from the year-ago figure. The primary reason for the decrease in R&D expenses was continued operational efficiency gains across Blueprint’s portfolio along with favorable timing of manufacturing of clinical trial materials.
Selling, general and administrative expenses were $79.3 million, up 23.9% year over year. The uptick in such expenses is due to higher compensation and headcount costs related to the commercialization of Ayvakit.
Blueprint had cash, cash equivalents and investments worth $767.2 million as of Dec 31, 2023, compared with $827.2 million as of Sep 30, 2023.
2024 Outlook
Blueprint expects Ayvakit to generate $360 million to $390 million in product sales in 2024, which represents an impressive growth of 80% at the midpoint, driven mainly by the ISM indication. The company believes Ayvakit has a peak sales opportunity of $2 billion. The company does not expect any material collaboration revenue from existing collaborations in 2024.
Operating expenses and cash burn are expected to further decline in 2024.
Shares of BPMC soared 14.0% on Thursday in response to the better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, the strong performance of Ayvakit in the quarter and upbeat guidance for the year.
Blueprint has gained 96.5% in the past year against the industry’s decline of 10.6%.
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Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider
Blueprint currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Blueprint Medicines Corporation Price and Consensus
Blueprint Medicines Corporation price-consensus-chart | Blueprint Medicines Corporation Quote
Some better-ranked stocks in the healthcare sector are Puma Biotechnology PBYI and ADMA Biologics ADMA. While Puma Biotechnology has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), ADMA Biologics has a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
In the past 60 days, estimates for Puma Biotechnology’s 2024 earnings per share have improved from 64 cents to 69 cents. In the past year, shares of PBYI have risen 67.4%.
Earnings of Puma Biotechnology beat estimates in three of the last four quarters while missing the same once. PBYI delivered a four-quarter average earnings surprise of 76.55%.
In the past 60 days, earnings estimates for ADMA Biologics for 2024 have increased from 16 cents to 22 cents. In the past year, shares of ADMA are up 55.6%.
ADMA Biologics beat estimates in three of the last four quarters and delivered in-line results on the remaining occasion. ADMA delivered a four-quarter earnings surprise of 63.57%, on average.
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