WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Shares of Seattle Genetics, Inc. (SGEN) dropped nearly 6 percent in extended trading on Wednesday after the biotechnology company's revenues for the second quarter tripled, but missed analysts' expectations.
The company also reported a sharply smaller loss for the quarter that also came in narrower than Street estimates, reflecting strong sales of its flagship Hodgkin Lymphoma drug Adcetris approved a year ago.
The Bothell, Washington-based company reported a net loss of $17.24 million or $0.15 per share for the second quarter, sharply narrower than $51.51 million or $0.45 per share in the prior-year quarter.
On average, 11 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of $0.15 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenues for the quarter more than tripled to $48.82 million from $13.05 million in the same quarter last year, but missed twelve Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $50.33 million by a whisker.
'As the leader in developing antibody-drug conjugate therapies, we along with our many collaborators are using our technology to change the way cancer is treated,' President and CEO Clay Siegall said in a statement.
Adcetris product sales for the quarter totaled $34.7 million. Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) was approved by the FDA in August 2011 for the treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) or after failure of at least two prior multi-agent chemotherapy regimens in patients who are not ASCT candidates.
The drug has been also approved for the treatment of patients with systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma after failure of at least one prior multi-agent chemotherapy regimen. Adcetris is the first drug approved by the FDA for Hodgkin lymphoma in more than 30 years.
'We remain focused on making ADCETRIS available to patients, and we are delivering on this priority both through continued commercial initiatives for patients in the labeled indications, as well as through our robust clinical development of ADCETRIS in earlier lines of therapy and other CD30-positive malignancies,' Siegall added.
Total expenses for the quarter rose to $66.1 million from $64.8 million last year, reflecting higher selling expenses related to the commercialization of Adcetris, and increased research expenses.
SGEN closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $23.87, down $0.46 or 1.91% on a volume of 1.62 million shares. The stock plunged a further $1.37 or 5.74% in after-hours trading.
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