Actelion's fourth-quarter sales, profit rise, buoyed by Opsumit, Uptravi

Actelion announced Tuesday that fourth-quarter sales reached 626.9 million Swiss francs ($622 million), up from 511.8 million francs ($507.7 million) in the year-ago period, boosted by revenue from the pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) treatments Opsumit and Uptravi. Net income in the three-month period was 115 million francs ($114.1 million), higher than 99.7 million francs ($98.9 million) in the corresponding quarter of 2015.

Last month, Johnson & Johnson agreed to acquire Actelion for $280 per share in cash, or $30 billion, under a deal that will include the spin out of the Swiss drugmaker's R&D unit into a standalone company. Actelion CEO Jean-Paul Clozel remarked Tuesday "our current PAH portfolio and our late-stage pipeline will have expanded potential as part of Johnson & Johnson."

In the quarter, revenue from Opsumit climbed by 45 percent year-over-year to 235 million francs ($233 million), while sales of Uptravi, which was approved by the FDA in December 2015, totalled 85 million francs ($84 million). Meanwhile, sales of Tracleer declined by 17 percent to 229 million francs ($227 million) due to generic competition.

For the full year, Actelion's sales climbed 18 percent to 2.4 billion francs ($2.4 billion), in line with analyst estimates, while net income jumped 26 percent to 696 million francs ($690 million). The company added that annual sales of Opsumit climbed 61 percent to 831 million francs ($824 million), while revenue from Uptravi reached 245 million francs ($243 million), offsetting the 16-percent decrease in Tracleer revenue to about 1 billion francs ($992 million).

"The significant clinical utility of Opsumit resulted in continued strong patient uptake with more than 21 000 patients currently receiving therapy," remarked Actelion chief operating officer Otto Schwarz, continuing "moreover, after just one year on the US market, we can say that the Uptravi launch has been very successful by any standards, proving the high unmet medical need for oral prostacyclin therapy and validating our commercial strategy."

For related analysis, read Spotlight On: A new biotech is born - what Actelion's CEO did next.