Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) was trading about 3% higher this morning as the US pharmaceutical group reported higher than expected earnings in the second quarter.
Gilead earned US$4.49 billion ($3.15 per share) against US$3.66 billion ($2.36 per share) a year ago on 26% higher revenues of US$8.24 billion. Analysts had expected US$2.71 a share on revenues of US$7.6 billion.
For 2015, the group is now targeting sales of between 29 and 30 billion dollars, against a previous range of $ 28-29 billion.
One of the biggest drivers of the higher revenues was Gilead’s drug to treat hepatitis C, Harvoni and Sovaldi, which combined generated US$4.9 billion dollars in the second quarter, higher than Wall Street expectations of about US$3.47 billion for Harvoni and US$928 million for Sovaldi, according to StreetAccount.
Gilead now enjoys an over 90 percent market share for all hepatitis C patients, according to Gilead's executive vice president of commercial operations, Paul Carter:
"We see encouraging trends, and remain highly confident," said Carter during an earnings call about the US and European market potential for its hepatitis C treatments.
Gilead is also known for its HIV treatment Truvada, which also saw a notable 5% increase in sales compared to Q2 of 2014, reaching US$849 million, higher also than analysts’ estimates of US$795.8 million.