GW Pharmaceuticals Sees 68% Q1 Revenue Growth Following Epidiolex Launch

Alex Oleinic - finance.yahoo.com Posted 5 years ago

GW Pharmaceuticals plc (NASDAQ: GWPH) reported its financial results Tuesday for the first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company reported revenue growth of  67.5 percent.

One highlight: the report includes sales of the company's Epidiolex drug, which last year became the first cannabis-based drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Sales began in November. 

What Happened

The company reported revenue of $6.7 million for the quarter, beating analyst expectations of $5.35 million. On the bottom line, GW Pharmaceuticals posted a net loss of 20 cents versus a consensus estimate of 23 cents. 

Sales of Epidiolex amounted to $4.7 million between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31. The company said it registered around 4,500 new patient enrollment forms in the first two-month sales period.

Epidiolex is under review by the European Medicines Agency, with a recommendation from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use expected in the second quarter of 2019. The company already has a commercial footprint in five European markets.

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Why It's Important

As the first and only FDA-approved cannabis-based drug, Epidiolex is expected to be a blockbuster. Bank of America analysts estimate that sales of Epidiolex will amount to $74 million this year, but could reach $2.2 billion by 2027. 

View more earnings on GWPH

Epidiolex is a CBD drug for the treatment of two rare and severe types of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.

What's Next

The company also provided some updates on its pipeline. GW is working on launching Sativex in the U.S. and plans to launch a Phase 3 pivotal study in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The British biopharma is also planning an open-label study in Rett syndrome and seizures for its CBDV drug candidate in the first half of 2019. 

For the current quarter, analysts expect GW Pharmaceuticals to record sales of $22 million and a net loss of $0.22 per share.

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