Apellis stock toppled Tuesday after third-quarter sales of the company's eye drug, Syfovre, widely missed Wall Street's expectations.
During the September quarter, Syfovre generated $152 million in sales. But analysts called for $163 million to $167 million in sales, according to various reports. Sales fell 1.7% sequentially. This was Syfovre's first sequential decline since launching last year.
Apellis Pharmaceuticals delivered more than 84,500 commercial vials of Syfovre, which treats geographic atrophy, plus 4,000 samples. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, that's up 7%. Apellis blamed a higher gross-to-net adjustment during the quarter for the revenue miss.
"While many were expecting a miss on Syfovre revenue, this is worse than we believe they were expecting, and though obviously a disappointment, we see the volume growth as a bright spot indicating continued demand for Syfovre," William Blair analyst Lachlan Hanbury-Brown said in a report to clients.
Apellis stock fell 1.7% to 28.07, but pared much steeper losses.
Apellis Stock: Steep Discounting
Overall, sales surged 78% year over year to $196.8 million, including $176.6 million in sales from its two drugs, Syfovre and Empaveli. Empaveli treats paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a disease that causes fatigue and shortness of breath.
Empaveli generated $24.6 million in sales, in line with Apellis stock analysts' call for roughly $24 million to $26 million, RBC Capital Markets analyst Lisa Walter said in a report.
Walter noted the Syfovre miss comes amid steep discounting as Apellis' geographic atrophy injection faces off with Astellas Pharma's rival drug, Izervay. She has a sector perform rating on Apellis stock.
Similarly, Mizuho Securities analyst Graig Suvannavejh reiterated his neutral rating on Apellis shares.
"We suspect this will only further add fuel to the fire to current market concerns and scrutiny on Syfovre's prospects for growth," he said in a client note. "Given poor visibility around near-term and longer-term prospects for Syfovre (which dominates the current investor debates on Apellis), we remain cautious."
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