Gilead Maintains Optimistic Outlook For Yescarta Despite Slow Growth

Yescarta is supposed to lead a new therapeutic focus for Gilead Sciences Inc. as the company moves away from an emphasis on antiviral blockbusters, but the CAR-T therapy yielded only modest sequential growth of $6m between the third and fourth quarters of 2018, putting in question the company’s projection of roughly $200m in sales growth for the cancer drug in 2019.

After posting 10% sequential growth to $75m in the third quarter, Yescarta brought in $81m in the fourth quarter, about 8% sequential growth, and below consensus expectations of around $90m. (Also see "Gilead’s Yescarta Growth Continues, But Momentum Slowed" - Scrip, 25 October, 2018.) Analysts expect the CAR-T therapy to bloom into a blockbuster by 2021 or so and eventually post global sales above $2bn