AIDS Drug Sales Lift Gilead’s Earnings

Gilead Sciences Inc.’s second-quarter revenue jumped 34% on strong sales of drugs for hepatitis and AIDS, the company said Thursday.

Net income rose 11% to $111.5 million, or 49 cents a share, from $100.4 million, or 46 cents, a year earlier. Revenue climbed to $319.7 million from $238.9 million.

The Foster City, Calif.-based company blew away Wall Street’s forecast of 35 cents a share, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.

“It was an exceptional quarter,� said analyst Gregory Wade of Pacific Growth Securities.

Gilead released its results after the market close. The company’s shares rose as high as $63.70 in early after-hours trading after closing on Nasdaq at $59.50, up $1.25.

Gilead’s flagship product, an AIDS drug called Viread, continued to gain on a rival pill from Bristol Myers-Squibb & Co. Many AIDS patients take Viread as part of their daily drug cocktail, a combination of pills to treat the disease.

Sales of Viread climbed 18% to $197.2 million from $167 million in last year’s second quarter. The increase came at the expense of Bristol Myers’ Zerit, whose sales dropped 20% in the second quarter to $78 million from $98 million, the company reported Thursday.

Viread’s advantage is that it is a once-daily pill. Zerit must be taken twice daily.

Sales of Gilead’s Emtriva, another once-daily pill for AIDS, rose 37% in the second quarter to $16.5 million from $12 million a year earlier. Despite the year-old drug’s strong gain, Gilead has failed to make inroads against its rival GlaxoSmithKline’s Epivir, which had sales of $138 million in the second quarter. Nearly 40% of the 126,000 patients on Viread also take Epivir as part of their daily regimen. Gilead would like to switch those patients to a cocktail of Viread and Emtriva.

Gilead is awaiting government approval in September of a once-daily pill that combines its two AIDS medications. Wade of Pacific Growth Equities said the new pill would cannibalize some of Gilead’s existing sales but would give it a better shot at Glaxo’s Epivir franchise.