Shares in Novocure (NSDQ:NVCR) fell today after the oncology company missed expectations on Wall Street with its second quarter results.
The St. Helier, N.J.-based company reeled in its losses to -$21.2 million on sales of $38.4 million for the 3 months ended June 30, for bottom-line growth of 48% on sales growth of 114% compared with the same period last year.
Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were -24¢, behind consensus on The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $40.4 million.
“The second quarter of 2017 was a period of steady growth across all key commercial metrics in all key markets. At the end of the quarter, we had 1,460 active patients on therapy,” CEO Asaf Danziger said in prepared remarks. “We believe second quarter growth benefitted from our ongoing emphasis on building prescriber confidence in Optune for the treatment of GBM, including the presentation of our EF-14 five-year survival data at AACR.”
“With 204 million U.S. lives under positive coverage polices as of June 30, 2017, more than 93% of Americans with private insurance now have access to Optune,” Danziger added. “We continue to be reimbursed on a case-by-case basis in Germany and are in a constructive dialogue with government payers in the United States, Switzerland and Japan. Our second quarter 2017 revenues of $38.4 million represent 114 percent growth versus the second quarter 2016.”
NVCR shares were trading at $18.10 apiece today in morning activity, down -5.9%.
Earlier this week, the company announced it would collaborate with Celgene (NSDQ:CELG) to study an investigational drug in combination with its Optune “tumor-treating fields” device. The Phase Ib trial is slated to evaluate the drug-device combination in patients with newly-diagnosed glioblastoma.
