Incyte Corporation reported a narrower loss in the first quarter as the company continues its work in building a pipeline of new drugs.
Incyte is based near Wilmington.
“Jakafi continues to grow with significant momentum as we bring the benefits of this first-in-class treatment to an increasing number of patients,” stated Hervé Hoppenot, Incyte’s CEO. “We expect to be able to provide important updates from our development portfolio over the coming months — including the results of the first pivotal trial of Jakafi in graft-versus-host disease and initial data from our FGFR program in cholangiocarcinoma–as we continue to work on developing innovative therapies for patients in need.”
Jakafi is a blood cancer drug. Incyte is researching the use of the drug in treating other conditions.
For the quarter ended March 31, 2018, GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net product revenues of Jakafi were $314 million as compared to $251 million for the same period in 2017, representing 25 percent growth.
The company posed a GAAP loss for the quarter of $41 million, compared to a loss of $187 million for the same period a year earlier.
Incyte suffered a setback earlier this year when a trial for a combination of drugs it was researching with pharma giant Merck was abruptly halted after no significant benefit was found for patients.
The announcement sent drug stocks downward as it called into question the effectiveness of work in cancer drug combinations.
Incyte’s stock price has dropped from nearly $138 a share to $62, a drop of nearly $18 billion in stock market value during the past year.
