As Horizon works to close its $28 billion sale to California biotech giant Amgen, the company’s first-quarter financial results show some weakness compared with a year ago.
Horizon posted $832 million in first-quarter sales, a 6% decline from the same period in 2022. The company posted $54.7 million in income, a whopping 73% decline from last year’s first quarter.
Sales for Tepezza, one of the crown jewels in Amgen’s $28 billion buyout of Horizon, declined by 19%, landing at $405 million for the first quarter. In an earnings release, the company attributed the decline to negative seasonality, which Horizon said is typical for the start of the year.
In brighter news for Tepezza, the drug in April scored an updated FDA label clearing it for use in all thyroid eye disease patients, regardless of disease activity or duration. At the time, Horizon CEO Tim Walbert said in a statement that the update “reinforces the idea of unrestricted access for all eligible patients across the full spectrum of thyroid eye disease.”
Elsewhere, Horizon’s gout drug Krystexxa delivered a 33% revenue increase to hit sales of $187 million for the period. Urea cycle disorder therapy Ravicti and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder med Uplinza also posted sales gains, while several of the company’s smaller medicines are on the decline.
Amgen is hoping to close the Horizon buyout in the first half of the year. In the meantime, the drugmaker recently said its own revenues slipped in the first quarter by 2%, landing at $6.1 billion.
Amgen’s much-anticipated biosimilar to Humira, Amjevita, has been a mixed bag for the company so far. After a launch in late January, it delivered $51 million in first-quarter sales. Amgen expects that number to decline in the second quarter as early inventory rush dies down.
Meanwhile, increased competition against Humira appears to be hurting pricing power for Amgen’s own Enbrel. That drug’s sales declined 33% year over year to $564 million, missing Wall Street estimates by 29%.