Gilead Sciences Drops Jaws With a 209% Increase in Q1 Net Income

Infectious disease-focused biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences did nothing short of dazzle Wall Street after the closing bell by reporting impressive top- and bottom-line growth in the first quarter.

Total revenue for the quarter increased by 98%, to $5 billion, with product sales more than doubling, to $4.87 billion, with U.S. product sales up 159%. The primary reason for the boost was recently approved hepatitis C therapy Sovaldi -- the first oral hepatitis C medication that can be given to genotype 2 and 3 patients without the need for interferon -- which was launched in December. Most Wall Street expectations had called for sales of around $1 billion. Sovaldi, in its first quarter, rocketed to $2.27 billion in sales, becoming the quickest drug in history to reach blockbuster status (greater than $1 billion in annual sales)... by a mile!

The remainder of Gilead's infectious disease pipeline was also strong with four-in-one HIV-1 therapy Stribild seeing sales rise 134%, to $215.3 million, as well as a 69% improvement in Complera/Eviplera sales to $250.7 million. The only disappointment was an 11% reduction in Atripla sales, but this is merely because physicians are switching patients to Stribild instead; so this is a win-win for Gilead, which supplies all four compounds in Stribild as opposed to splitting revenue three ways with Atripla.

Gilead's significantly smaller cardiovascular products segment also demonstrated improvement, with sales up 9%, to $234.5 million.

Profit for the quarter absolutely skyrocketed 209%, to $2.23 billion from $722.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Ultimately, this translated into $1.48 in adjusted EPS, light years ahead of Wall Street's expectations, which had called for a $0.90 profit.

Looking ahead, Gilead Sciences reaffirmed its full-year guidance, calling for $11.3 billion-$11.5 billion in revenue, and product gross margin of 75%-77%.