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Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) Beats on Q1 Earnings

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Carlsbad, CA-based Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (IONS - Free Report) is a drug discovery and development company that focuses on the development of products using ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based technologies. The company discovers new drugs and out-licenses them to partners for license fees, milestone payments, and royalties. Ionis has partnership agreements with several leading health care companies like Biogen and GlaxoSmithKline among others.

In this quarter, the company received $290 million in cash from its partners on achieving various milestones. Also, during the quarter and subsequent to it, the company has announced positive data from various studies related to expansion of label of Spinraza and has received positive opinion from CHMP for the drug.

Ionis’ earnings track record has been mixed so far. Over the four trailing quarters, the company posted an average positive earnings surprise of 62.20%, having beaten estimates in two quarters and missed the same twice.

Currently, Ionis has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) but that could definitely change following the company’s earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings: Ionis reported earnings of 3 cents including stock based compensation which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of loss of 4 cents. Moreover, excluding stock based compensation the company reported earnings of 20 cents.

Revenues: Ionis posted revenues of $110.3 million, missing the consensus estimate of $137.78 million.

Key Stats:Research, development and patent expenses amounted to $82.6 million, up 2% year over year. General and administrative expenses increased 29.5% year over year to $13.7 million. Spinraza saw strong uptake with $47 million in sales in this quarter.

Share Market Activity: Share price are up 1.55% in pre-market trading.

Check back for our full write up on earnings report later!

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