Mesoblast shares soar as Ryoncil launch sees sales hit $20m
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Mesoblast shares rocketed in morning trade after the biotech company announced unaudited gross revenue of USD13.2 million ($20.3 million) in the June quarter, following the US launch of its cell therapy product Ryoncil in March.
The numbers: Shares in Mesoblast were leading the ASX 200 at 11:20am AEST, lifting 28.2% to $2.30.
The reported revenue comes entirely from sales of Ryoncil post-launch between 28 March and 30 June.
Mesoblast also posted USD1.6 million in revenue from royalties on sales of TEMCELL – a stem cell therapy for treating a complication that arises from bone marrow transplants – sold in Japan.
Net operating cash spend for the quarter was USD16.6 million and cash on hand as at 30 June was USD162 million.
The context: Mesoblast said it has onboarded more than 25 transplant centres since the commercial launch of Ryoncil and expects to complete onboarding across all 45 priority transplant centres – which perform about 80% of US pediatric transplants – this quarter.
US federal Medicaid coverage by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Ryoncil is in place and mandatory fee-for-service Medicaid coverage in all US states became effective from 1 July.
Mesoblast also received several exclusivity arrangements over the June quarter to protect the intellectual property of Ryoncil.
What they said: “We are pleased with the commercial launch activities of Ryoncil in the first quarter post-launch and look forward to updating on the current quarter’s progress now that mandatory state CMS coverage has become effective as of 1 July, and we complete onboarding of the remaining major US transplant centres,” Mesoblast chief executive Silviu Itescu said.
The source: ASX
