The Medicines Company MDCO incurred fourth-quarter 2018 adjusted loss of 62 cents per share, wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 53 cents. The same also deteriorated from the year-ago loss of 61 cents.
Shares of the Medicines Company have decreased 22.8% in the past year.
In fourth-quarter 2018, the Medicines Company did not generate any revenues. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the metric was pegged at $6.6 million. However, in the prior-year quarter, the company’s revenues grossed $8.6 million.
It divested all its marketed products, namely Angiomax, Vabomere, Orbactiv and Minocin in 2018 as part of its restructuring activities to focus solely on developing its late-stage candidate, inclisiran. This explains the absence of any revenue count in the fourth quarter.
Adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) were down 45% year over year to $11.4 million in the reported quarter.
The Medicines Company’s cash and cash equivalents as of Dec 31, 2018 totaled $238.3 million compared with $118.7 million on Sep 30, 2018. The company believes that this existing cash balance will enable it to fund operating expenses through 2020.
Last December, the Medicines Company appointed Mark Timney as its new chief executive officer (CEO) with immediate effect.
Pipeline Update
The Medicines Company has one promising candidate, inclisiran, (hypercholesterolemia) in its pipeline. The company along with partner Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALNY is evaluating inclisiran in several phase III ORION studies for treating patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and elevated bad cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol).
In January 2019, the Medicines Company announced that the Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC) recommended about the ongoing phase III ORION studies on inclisiran to continue as designed. The same in fact is being conducted without any modification.
The latest suggestion from IDMC came after the regulatory body’s fifth review of the unblinded safety and efficacy data from the ORION programs on the PCSK9 inhibitor, which the Medicines Company considers to have blockbuster potential.
Both companies expect to present top-line data from the ORION analyses early in the third quarter of 2019 and subsequently, file for a new drug application (NDA) in the United States as well as a marketing authorization application (MAA) in the EU.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
The Medicines Company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Two better-ranked stocks in the healthcare sector are Celgene Corporation CELG and ProQR Therapeutics N.V. PRQR, both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Celgene’s earnings estimates have been revised 5.3% upward for 2019 over the past 60 days.
ProQR Therapeutics’ loss per share estimates have been narrowed 5.9% for 2019 over the past 60 days.
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