Oct. 28 Quick Takes: Gilead returns to $100B market cap on strong earnings

Shares of Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) rose $9.07 (13%) to $79.27 to bring the company’s market cap to nearly $100 billion after the company handily beat 3Q consensus estimates for EPS and revenue and raised its 2022 guidance. The company reported non-GAAP EPS of $1.90, compared with the Street’s $1.43, on revenues of $7 billion, which beat the consensus of $6.1 billion. Sales of the biotech’s cell therapies increased 79% to $398 million, and sales of Biktarvy bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide rose 22% to $2.8 billion. The company is now expecting non-GAAP EPS of $6.95-$7.15, up from $6.35-$6.75, and product sales $25.9-$26.2 billion vs prior guidance $24.5-$25 billion. The company also announced the receipt of a complete response letter for a BLA for bulevirtide to treat adults with hepatitis delta virus infection and compensated liver disease; it gained the therapy through its 2021 acquisition of MYR GmbH for nearly €1.2 billion ($1.17 billion).

Vaccines were the highlight of the third quarter earnings for Sanofi (Euronext:SAN; NASDAQ:SNY), with sales driven by strong influenza revenues and travel vaccinations leading to an increase of 23.5% over the same quarter last year. Sanofi reported €12.5 billion in net sales for the third quarter and €32.3 billion for the first nine months of 2022. The pharma also recorded an impairment of €1.7 billion for the quarter, €1.6 million of which was related to SAR444245, the company’s non-alpha IL-2 gained through the acquisition of Synthorx Inc. The IL-2 field has faced several setbacks over the last year, including the Phase III miss of bempegaldesleukin that led to the reorganization of Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR)...