Blueprint Medicines Corporation BPMC incurred a loss of $2.28 per share in the second quarter of 2020, wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $2.08and the year-ago quarter’s loss of $2.04.

Total revenues of $8.3 million grew 63.3% year over year and surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $8 million. The top line includes $5.7 million of net product revenues from sales of Ayvakit and $2.6 million in collaboration revenues under the agreements with CStone, Roche RHHBY and Clementia. Blueprint Medicines recorded $5.1 million in collaboration revenues for the second quarter of 2019.

In January 2020, the company’s lead product, Ayvakit (avapritinib), was approved by the FDA for treating unresectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), harboring a PDGFRA exon 18 mutation, including PDGFRA D842V mutations in adults.

Shares of Blueprint Medicines have declined 7.7% so far this year against the industry’s growth of 5.3%.

Quarter in Detail

Research and development expenses were $91.1 million, up 4.6% from the year-ago quarter’s figure, mainly due to increased personnel costs.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $42.2 million, up 92.4% year over year on account of higher personnel fees, infrastructure costs and other commercial costs.

Blueprint Medicines had cash, cash equivalents and investments worth $650.3 million as of Jun 30, 2020, higher than $548 million as of Dec 31, 2019.

Ayvakit& Other Pipeline Updates

During the second quarter, the company received a positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), recommending the conditional marketing authorization of avapritinib for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic GIST harboring the PDGFRA D842V mutation. A final decision on the marketing authorization application is anticipated by the end of September.

The company announced a global collaboration with Roche and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to develop and commercialize pralsetinib. Under the collaboration, Blueprint Medicines and Genentech will co-commercialize pralsetinib in the United Statesand Roche will obtain exclusive commercialization rights for pralsetinib outside the country, excluding Greater China. Blueprint Medicines and Roche will co-develop pralsetinib globally in RET-altered solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC)and other thyroid cancers and solid tumors.

The company also submitted a new drug application (NDA) to the FDA for pralsetinib for the treatment of advanced RET mutant and RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer under the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) pilot program.

Zacks Rank & Key Pick

Blueprint Medicines currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the biotech sector are Emergent BioSolutions Inc. EBS and BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. BMRN, both carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Emergent’s earnings per share estimates have increased from $3.14 to $4.23 for 2020 and from $3.35 to $4.63 for 2021 in the past 60 days.

BioMarin’s earnings per share estimates have increased from $1.51 to $1.57 for 2020 and from $2.46 to $2.80 for 2021 in the past 60 days.

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