| Icos
Stock Drops on Mixed Report
August 06,
2003
By Luke Timmerman
Seattle Times business reporter
Icos wants to captivate the imaginations
of men around the world, but it appears to be
doing better in Europe than on Wall Street.
Icos, the Bothell biotech company that is teaming
with Eli Lilly to introduce the impotence
drug Cialis, reported mixed results yesterday
for its second quarter. On the bright side,
it said Cialis grabbed significant market share
from Viagra in its first full quarter on the
European market, but sales were weaker than
some expected. The company also said it expected
to lose more money next year, about $3 a share,
in the heat of the worldwide Cialis marketing
fight.
Icos stock dropped 9 percent after the news,
ending after-hours trading at $36.
For the second quarter, Cialis had $37 million
in sales in the 40 countries where it has been
approved. That figure was up from about $22
million in the first quarter. But in Europe,
where Icos splits Cialis
sales evenly with Lilly, the growth wasn't as
steep: Cialis had $22 million in European sales
in the second quarter, up from $17 million in
the first quarter.
In a conference call with analysts, Icos managers
tried to draw attention to numbers they think
bode well for the drug's future. They also said
they believe the company will win approval in
the world's biggest impotence market, the U.S.,
by year's end.
Although Cialis has been on the market in Europe
only a few months, Leonard Blum, Icos' vice
president of sales and marketing, said market
research firm IMS Health shows it is grabbing
market share there from Viagra.
Cialis first became available in Europe in February,
and a third competitor, Levitra, followed a
month later.
By May, Blum said Viagra had 57 percent of
the impotence-drug market in Germany; Cialis
had 29 percent; and Levitra had 14 percent.
For the same month in France, Viagra had 67
percent; Cialis, 25 percent; and Levitra, 8
percent.
In the United Kingdom, a market that typically
takes longer to switch to new drugs, Viagra
had 86 percent; Cialis, 12 percent; and Levitra,
2 percent.
Phil Nadeau, an analyst with SG Cowen Securities,
which has done investment banking with Icos,
said Wall Street will worry about the unpredictability
of a new drug that's in a three-way sales and
marketing fight and that some patients are experimenting
with.
It is also hard to measure how much of the
sales are attributable to pharmacy stocking,
and how much can be traced to direct demand
from patients, he said.
Financially, Icos reported a narrower-than-expected
quarterly loss, partly because it received a
$21 million payment from a research partnership.
But the red ink is expected to keep flowing.
Chief Financial Officer Mike Stein added the
company believes it will take at least two to
three years to turn a quarterly profit.
Luke Timmerman: 206-515-5644 or ltimmerman@seattletimes.com
Icos results
Figures in parentheses are losses
%
2nd qtr June 30, 2003 2002 Chg
Profit ($11,548,000) ($40,405,000) +71.4
Per share (0.19) (0.66) +71.2
Sales 26,707,000 21,975,000 +21.5
First half
Profit ($52,040,000) ($79,625,000) +34.6
Per share (0.84) (1.31) +35.8
Sales 33,788,000 44,511,000 -24.1
source:-http://seattletimes.nwsource.com
|
