We knew it before the firm reports it, we mean the first-quarter profit surge of Genentech. We knew and others knew it too, but preferred to close their eyes so they can keep playing the negative game on the most positive accomplishing firms. Strong sales blockbuster cancer drugs and other drugs brought the firm an earning of $706 million, or 66 cents per share, compared with $421 million, or 39 cents a share, in 2006. With the exclusion of special expenses, the super achievers would have earned $792 million, or 74 cents a share. These figures has indeed, again, exceeded Wall Street analysts’ estimates by 7 cents, according to research firm Thomson Financial.

Revenues: $2.84 billion in the quarter, compared to $1.99 billion last year.

What else?

We wonder why analysts do not believe Genentech’s projections and we do not understand why investors still believe them and not the firm that never deceived, or disappointed anybody. Genentech reiterated that it expects 25 percent to 30 percent greater profit this year over last year. We believe in what they project and will try to act upon this faith.

Genentech has become the 2nd Amgen, then it is there, sitting alone on the summit of the biotech sector. Contrary to what some posting are stating, Genentech’s stock has lost more than 20% of its value in the past year. It only recuperated 2% out of this 20% during all attempts for rebounding.

Avastin is a phenomenal drug. It could be effective on all vascular cancers and is expected to be used to enhance the efficacy of other biological and chemotherapy cancer drugs. It has already been approved for lung, breast and colon cancers with more indications to come. The sales were around $533 million in the quarter, a 34% increase over the same period last year. Avastin is the only FDA approved anti-angiogenesis drug.

Sales of Rituxan, another long-term blockbuster drug for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, rose 12 percent to $535 million in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. Sales of Herceptin increased 7% to $311 million. Lucentis, the newly approved drug for macular degeneration added $211 million to the quarter’s revenues.

Genentech’s pipeline is rich, the investigational drugs are in all phase trials with some waiting for FDA action. We love this firm.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Genentech (DNA). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.