BioMarin slashes net loss by third year over year with milestone payments and increase in sales

BioMarin Pharmaceutical’s net loss for 2018 decreased $39.8 million or 34%, to $77.2 million, compared to $117.0 million in 2017, in part due to increase in gross profit of $104 million.

The company said in the press release on Thursday that it’s net loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2018 decreased to $3.6 million, compared to net loss of $51.4 million, for same period in 2017.

The increase in profit was mostly driven by increased sales volume across all of the products, the company said, a $4.1 million quarter over quarter decrease in gross profits driven by a decrease in Aldurazyme sales volume. BioMarin also reported netting $50 million during the third and fourth quarters of 2018, from milestone payments.

Commenting expectations on getting approval for Palynziq in Europe, after it got the USFDA’s green light in the fisrt quarter 2018 to help adults with phenylketonuria (PKU), Jean-Jacques Bienaimé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BioMarin, said: “Looking forward, we expect to hear the status of our European marketing authorization application in the first quarter of 2019. We are hopeful that PKU patients in the European Union will have the opportunity to benefit from Palynziq should we receive approval in that region later this year.”

He also said that the company will decide if it would chase an accelerated approval path for hemophilia gene therapy products published in 2018 for valoctocogene roxaparvovec.