Gilead Watchers Looking for Commentary on New Drug's Launch -- Earnings Preview

By Jonathan D. Rockoff

Gilead Sciences Inc. is scheduled to report earnings Tuesday afternoon. Here's what you need to know.

EARNINGS FORECAST: Net income of $1.92 is the consensus of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, compared with 52 cents reported in the same period a year earlier. Gilead didn't give guidance for the third quarter or for the full year.

REVENUE FORECAST: The consensus among analysts is Gilead will report $6 billion in revenue, compared with $2.8 billion reported in the same quarter a year earlier.

WHAT TO WATCH:

--HOW WELL IS HARVONI LAUNCHING: Gilead won approval on Oct. 10 to sell a new hepatitis C drug, dubbed Harvoni, which many doctors and patients were waiting for. Analysts have strong expectations for the pill, partly based on the success of its older brother Sovaldi. Although the pill wasn't on sale during the third quarter, Gilead executives will likely face questions about how its launch is going.

--HOW HIGH DID SOVALDI GO: No drug has ever had a bigger launch than Gilead's hepatitis C pill Sovaldi, which rang up $5.75 billion in sales during the first half of this year, its first two full quarters on sale. But doctors and patients were expected to limit use as Harvoni's approval neared. How did Sovaldi do?

--HOW ARE THE HIV PRODUCTS DOING: Gilead made its bones selling therapies for HIV, and products including Atripla, Truvada and Viread remain key to the company's performance. One of its newest HIV treatments, Stribild, was approved two years ago, and prescriptions for the drug suggest it might score $267 million in quarterly sales, $16 million above consensus, according to Leerink Swann.

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