Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated VRTX reported adjusted earnings of $3.98 per share for the fourth quarter of 2024, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.99. The bottom line declined 5.2% on a year-over-year basis.
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The company reported total revenues of $2.91 billion for the fourth quarter, comprising cystic fibrosis (“CF”) product revenues. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.77 billion. Total revenues rose 16% year over year, primarily driven by higher sales of Trikafta/Kaftrio (marketed as Kaftrio in Europe).
More on VRTX's Q4 Earnings
The company currently markets four CF products, Trikafta/Kaftrio, Symdeko (marketed as Symkevi in Europe), Orkambi and Kalydeco.
Net product sales rose 17% yearly in the United States to $1.84 billion, while sales outside the United States increased 14% to $1.07 billion.
Trikafta generated sales worth $2.72 billion, up 16.6% year over year. The product’s sales beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate and our model estimate of $2.58 billion and $2.54 billion, respectively.
Trikafta sales were driven by strong demand in both the United States and outside the U.S. market.
Sales from other CF products increased 3.7% year over year to $191.2 million. In recent quarters, sales of other CF products have been negatively impacted as more patients switched to Trikafta.
While CF remains the main area of focus, Vertex has seen rapid success in its non-CF pipeline candidates’ development in the past year. Vertex and partner CRISPR Therapeutics’ CRSP one-shot gene therapy, Casgevy, was approved for two blood disorders, sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia, in multiple regions in late 2023/early 2024. Casgevy’s approval has diversified its commercial opportunity.
Vertex leads the global development and commercialization of Casgevy under the terms of the 2021 agreement with support from CRISPR Therapeutics.
VRTX’s product revenues in the quarter included $8 million from Casgevy sales.
VRTX's Cost Discussion
Adjusted research and development (R&D) expenses were up 28.8% year over year to $899.8 million, due to higher investment in various ongoing clinical studies. Adjusted selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses increased 8.6% to $310.1 million in the reported quarter, due to expenses for the commercial launch of Casgevy and Journavx (suzetrigine).
During the fourth quarter, Vertex recorded acquired in-process research and development (AIPR&D) costs of $87.5 million compared with $17.8 million reported in the year-ago quarter.
Adjusted operating income was almost $1.20 billion in the quarter, indicating an increase of almost 4.1% year over year.
VRTX's Full-Year Results
For 2024, Vertex generated revenues of $11.02 billion, implying 12% growth year over year.
For the same period, the company reported adjusted earnings of 42 cents per share, down from $15.23 year over year.
Shares of Vertex have gained 12.3% in the past year against the industry’s decline of 10.9%.
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VRTX's 2025 Guidance
The company expects total product sales in the range of $11.75-$12 billion for 2025. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for total revenues is pegged at $11.72 billion for 2025.
Combined adjusted R&D, AIPR&D and SG&A expense guidance for 2025 is in the band of $4.9-$5 billion. The adjusted tax rate is expected to be in the range of 20.5-21.5%.
Recent FDA Nod for VRTX's Two Products
The FDA approved Vertex’s oral, non-opioid, highly selective NaV1.8 pain signal inhibitor, Journavx, for the treatment of adults with moderate-to-severe acute pain in January 2025.
Following the nod, Journavx became the first and only non-opioid oral pain signal inhibitor and the first new class of pain medicine to be approved by the FDA in more than 20 years.
Management has priced Journavx at $15.50 per pill or $31 per day at the list price.
Vertex’s fifth CFTR modulator therapy, Alyftrek (vanza triple), is a next-in-class triple combination regimen that was approved by the FDA in December 2024 for treating people with CF, aged six years and older.
Alyftrek is a combination of vanzacaftor, a CFTR potentiator, deutivacaftor, a CFTR corrector and tezacaftor. This new once-a-day oral combination medicine has the potential to offer enhanced patient benefits than Trikafta and become a new standard-of-care treatment in CF. It can potentially treat CF patients who have discontinued Trikafta or other Vertex CF medicines. It can also improve dosing (once daily) and lower the royalty burden.
The company remains focused on supporting the commercial launch of Journavx and Alyftrek as both products hold significant potential.
VRTX's Other Pipeline Update
Besides acute pain, Journavx is also being developed for the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy and painful lumbosacral radiculopathy (“LSR”).
In December 2024, the company announced data from a phase II study on Journavx for treating painful LSR, a form of peripheral neuropathic pain.
Data from the study showed that treatment with Journavx led to a statistically significant and clinically meaningful within-group reduction in pain from baseline with a mean change in numeric pain rating scale of -2.02 at week 12, thereby meeting the primary endpoint. The placebo arm demonstrated a reduction of -1.98 points, indicating not much difference between the two groups.
Overall, investors were not impressed with the data as it showed largely undifferentiated pain reduction on treatment with Journavx compared with the placebo arm.
Despite the unimpressive data in the phase II study, management decided to proceed with the phase III study in this indication, which was considered a risky decision.
Vertex has a rapidly advancing mid to late-stage pipeline in other disease areas, like APOL1-mediated kidney diseases, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and cell therapy for type I diabetes.
A phase II study is evaluating VRTX’s oral formulation of next-gen Nav1.8 inhibitor, VX-993, for the treatment of moderate-to-severe acute pain following bunionectomy surgery. The candidate is also in phase I development for the intravenous formulation.
The acquisition of Alpine in May 2024 added povetacicept to Vertex’s pipeline. Povetacicept is designed to target two proteins, namely BAFF and APRIL, which are jointly responsible for the cause of multiple serious autoimmune diseases.
The phase III RAINIER study is investigating povetacicept for the treatment of IgA nephropathy. Povetacicept is also being evaluated in two phase II basket studies, one in renal diseases and a second in B cell-mediated diseases.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
A better-ranked stock in the biotech sector is Harmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc. HRMY, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
In the past 60 days, estimates for Harmony Biosciences’ earnings per share have increased from $2.64 to $3.22 for 2025. In the past year, shares of HRMY have surged 10%.
HRMY’s earnings beat estimates in three of the trailing four quarters while missing the same on the remaining occasion, the average surprise being 147.24%.
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