Dendreon, in its first two months on the market, sold a lot less of its groundbreaking drug for prostate cancer than analysts were expecting.
The Seattle-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) said it generated $2.81 million in sales of its first FDA-approved product, sipuleucel-T (Provenge) for prostate cancer. That’s less than the $4.4 million average estimate that analysts had been forecasting, according to Christopher Raymond, an analyst with Robert W. Baird. It’s also a far cry from where estimates had been a couple of months ago, in the $10 million to $12 million range, according to David Miller, the president of Biotech Stock Research in Seattle.
Dendreon said it generated $340,000 in sales of the prostate cancer drug in May, its first month on the U.S. market. Sales ramped up to $2.45 million in June, and then doubled to about $5.2 million in July—although those preliminary figures aren’t included in the second quarter financial report that was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We have established a strong foundation for the launch of Provenge, based on the month-over-month revenue growth and positive coverage guidelines published by local Medicare carriers and private payers,” said Hans Bishop, Dendreon’s chief operating officer, in a statement. “Demand for Provenge is strong, as we have already received prescriptions for more than 500 patients during the first three months.”
Shares of always-volatile Dendreon fell 33 cents in after-hours trading to $33.50 at 4:31 pm Eastern Time.
Dendreon is hosting a conference call at 4:30 pm Eastern/1:30 pm Pacific to update investors on the market rollout of its new treatment. I’ll update this space when I have more information.
