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On April 18, 2018 Abbott reported financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2018. Key takeaways from this morning’s earnings call include (Press release, BioSpace, APR 18, 2018, View Source [SID1234525502]):

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First-quarter reported sales growth of 16.7 percent
First-quarter organic sales growth of 6.9 percent
First-quarter adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of 59 cents, at the upper end of the previous guidance range
Several recently launched products contributing to strong growth
"We’re off to a strong start to the year as we forecasted," said Miles D. White, chairman and chief executive officer. "We’re particularly pleased with the continued strong growth in medical devices and improving performance in our nutrition business."

The company’s adjusted income rose to 59 cents per share on $7.39 billion in sales for its first quarter, beating Zacks Investment Research estimates of 58 cents on $7.26 billion in sales. Last year at this time, Abbott shares were trading at 48 cents with $6.34 billion in sales.

An infographic from the company highlights an increase of 6.9 percent in worldwide organic sales led by successes in nutrition, diagnostics, established pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

"Back in January I commented that we were entering the year with strong momentum which has continued as we forecasted," White added during the earnings call. "The strong growth we are achieving is a direct result of the steps we have taken to position the company in the most attractive areas of health care as well as the outstanding productivity of our new product pipeline."

Despite the company’s upbeat attitude about its Q1 earnings, shares dipped 3.5 percent early Wednesday on pharmaceutical sales that lagged behind Wall Street’s expectations by nearly 4 percent.

Revenue from established pharmaceuticals fell short by $56 million, RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note to clients. Also, Evercore noted the $1.04 billion in sales for that unit missed the consensus by 3.6 percent.

Medical device sales had the best organic growth in Q1, rising 9.4 percent to $2.74 billion. That beat the consensus for $2.67 billion, Evercore noted. Diagnostics also performed well, rising 5.5 percent organically to $1.84 billion in sales to top the consensus by $69 million.

"For the full year 2018, we continue to forecast organic sales growth of 6 percent to 7 percent," said Chief Financial Officer Brian Yoor. "In addition, we continue to expect rapid diagnostics to contribute sales of a little more than $2 billion."

With a forecasted adjusted gross margin ratio of around 59 percent of sales, Yoor said that research and development investments will be adjusted to around 7.5 percent of sales, and selling, general and administrative expenses adjusted above 30.5 percent of sales."

Worldwide, nutrition sales were $1.76 billion, up 4.7 percent organically and topping guidance for low single-digit growth. Both adult and pediatric segments performed well, growing a respective 4.3 percent and 5.1 percent on an organic basis.

But, White cautioned, nutrition is a highly competitive business in a branded space. "I give our U.S. team a lot of credit for how well they’ve done in the pediatric and adult (nutrition) space. It’s extremely competitive and it’s competitive in both pediatric and adult. And we will see from time-to-time a competitor tries false advertising or other things to take momentary share. But I think overall, we’ve not only sustained our position, but steadily grown it, from a share standpoint."

For the year, Abbott reaffirmed its adjusted profit target of $2.80 to $2.90 a share. Analysts modeled adjusted earnings of $2.87 per share and $30.91 billion in sales. Abbott also sees second-quarter adjusted income coming in at 70 to 72 cents per share.

On April 18, 2018 Rgenix, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class small molecule and antibody cancer therapeutics, reported that it is presenting pre-clinical data from ongoing research of RGX-202, a small molecule compound in development designed to inhibit SLC6a8, a creatine transporter, integral to cancer cell energy metabolism (Press release, Rgenix, APR 18, 2018, View Source [SID1234525519]). In a poster presentation today at the 2018 American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting, "RGX-202, a first-in-class small-molecule inhibitor of the creatine transporter SLC6a8, is a robust suppressor of cancer growth and metastatic progression", the data showed RGX-202 to be a robust inhibitor of creatine uptake in cancer cells and to be active in several pre-clinical gastrointestinal cancer models both as a single agent and in combination with chemotherapy.

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RGX-202 is a small molecule that inhibits a novel cancer metabolism target, SLC6a8, which is involved in supplying energy to cancer cells. SLC6a8 is over-expressed in several prevalent cancer types, including gastrointestinal malignancies such as colorectal cancer.

More than 140,000 patients are diagnosed with colorectal cancer annually in the U.S. With approximately 50,000 deaths in the U.S. attributed to the condition annually, it is a leading cause of cancer deaths. Creatine metabolism has been shown to spur the growth of colon cancer. This pathway is activated by colon cancer cells to allow uptake of phosphorylated creatine that can be converted to ATP to fuel survival of cancer cells as they proliferate and spread. RGX-202 inhibits this pathway by blocking the ability of SLC6a8 to import phosphocreatine into cancer cells.

In the pre-clinical research presented today, the impact of RGX-202 was studied alone, and in combination with standard of care chemotherapy agents such as 5-FU.

On its own, RGX-202 induced cancer cell death in vivo and demonstrated anti-tumor activity in both KRAS mutant and KRAS wild-type models of gastrointestinal cancer. RGX-202 also suppressed colon cancer and pancreatic cancer liver metastatic colonization, a model of metastatic cancer progression. Importantly, RGX-202 significantly extended survival of tumor-bearing mice as a single agent.

Studies combining RGX-202 with 5-FU resulted in additive anti-tumor activity, with complete tumor regressions among 50% of treated mice and significantly prolonged survival versus 5-FU treatment alone.

Masoud Tavazoie, MD, PhD, and Chief Executive Officer of Rgenix, said, "The data presented today is just a snapshot of our pre-clinical progress on our research of RGX-202. These data show the strong potential for RGX-202 and support further research of the compound. With these data, we are building a strong foundation for future clinical development of RGX-202, which, with regulatory approval, would diversify our clinical pipeline."

On APril 18, 2018 MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX; OTC: MPSYY) reported the pricing of its initial public offering (IPO) in the United States. The offering produced gross proceeds of USD 207,832,000 from the sale of 2,075,000 new ordinary shares in the form of 8,300,000 American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") at a price of USD 25.04 per ADS. Each ADS will represent 1/4 of a MorphoSys ordinary share (Press release, MorphoSys, APR 18, 2018, View Source [SID1234525575]).

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Furthermore, MorphoSys has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to 1,245,000 additional ADSs, representing 15% of the total number of ADSs placed in the offering. This option can be exercised during the 30-day period commencing April 18, 2018.

The new ordinary shares underlying the ADSs and, if the option will be exercised, the additional ADSs will be issued from MorphoSys’s authorized capital 2017-II, excluding pre-emptive rights of existing shareholders and representing up to 8.1% (including the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ADSs) of the registered share capital of MorphoSys prior to the consummation of the offering.

MorphoSys’s ordinary shares are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "MOR".

The ADSs are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Market on April 19, 2018, under the symbol "MOR".

The closing of the offering is expected to occur on April 23, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Leerink Partners LLC, are acting as lead book-running managers, and Berenberg Capital Markets, LLC and JMP Securities LLC are acting as co-managers for the ADS offering.

A Registration Statement relating to these securities has been declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on April 18, 2018.

Within the United States of America, the securities referred to in this release are offered only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the prospectus can be obtained from Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, telephone: 1-866-471-2526, facsimile: 1-212-902-9316 or by e-mailing [email protected]; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, telephone: 1-866-803-9204; Leerink Partners LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, by telephone at 1-800-808-7525, ext. 6132, or by e-mailing [email protected].

On April 18, 2018 Kymab Group Limited ("Kymab"), a biopharmaceutical company developing fully human monoclonal antibody therapeutics, reported data on KY1044 (a novel anti-ICOS antibody) and KY1055 (a novel ICOS/PD-L1 bispecific antibody), at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) ("AACR") Annual meeting held April 14-18, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois, USA (Press release, Kymab, APR 18, 2018, View Source [SID1234537006]).

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The AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting covers the latest basic, translational, clinical, and prevention-focused research in the field, including important areas such as early detection, cancer interception, and survivorship in all populations.

Notes to Editors
About Kymab’s AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Posters
KY1044 poster

Title: The combination of immune checkpoint blockers with the anti-ICOS KY1044 antibody results in a strong tumour response (#2792)

Session Title: Therapeutic Antibodies, Including Engineered Antibodies 2

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Link to the Poster (1.4 Mb PDF)

KY1055 poster

Title: KY1055, a novel ICOS/PD-L1 bispecific antibody, efficiently enhances T cell activation and delivers a potent anti-tumour response in vivo. (#LB-153)

Session Title: Late-Breaking Research: Clinical Research 1

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM