Is European Update Overshadowing Amarin's Lackluster Earnings?

Health and Healthcare

Published: August 4, 2020 10:04 am

Amarin Corp. PLC (NASDAQ: AMRN) reported its latest quarterly results on Tuesday morning and gave an update on the most recent developments with its blockbuster drug Vascepa. Although results were mixed and the update was fairly positive, the stock still slid.

In terms of earnings, the firm said that it had a net loss of $0.04 per share and $135.3 million in revenue, while consensus estimates had called for a net loss of $0.07 per share and revenue of $149.48 million. The second quarter of last year reportedly had a per-share net loss of $0.01 on $100.79 million in revenue.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) review of Amarin’s application remains active. Based on the pace of the review, Amarin expects the timing of completion of EMA’s review to support early 2021 European Community approval of Vascepa for marketing and sale in Europe.

Currently, the company is rapidly preparing for the commercial launch of Vascepa in Europe with an emphasis on pursuing reasonable reimbursement for Vascepa on a country-by-country basis.

Amarin is currently dealing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit with two companies who filed abbreviated new drug applications to combat Vascepa. The oral hearing date for this is September 2, 2020.

Management believes that the lower court’s judgment was “seriously flawed” and that it has “strong arguments” that could win this appeal. As a result, Amarin is increasing promotion of Vascepa with the expectation that it will benefit from such promotion under these conditions with or without the launch of generic Vascepa.

On the books, cash and cash equivalents totaled $214.0 million at the end of the quarter, down from $644.6 million at the end of the previous fiscal year.

Amarin stock traded down less than 1% to $6.76 Tuesday morning (it was down as low as 4% in early trading indications), in a 52-week range of $3.95 to $26.12. The consensus price target is $16.80.