Viela Bio (VIE) Tops Q3 EPS by 7c, Revenues Miss

Viela Bio (NASDAQ: VIE) reported Q3 EPS of ($0.69), $0.07 better than the analyst estimate of ($0.76). Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.32 million versus the consensus estimate of $3.68 million.

FINANCIAL RESULTS

• Total net product sales for the third quarter of 2020 were $2.3 million, resulting from sales of UPLIZNA®. The company did not generate product sales in the third quarter of 2019.
• For the third quarter of 2020, Viela reported a net loss of $37.6 million, compared to a net loss of $48.4 million for the third quarter of 2019. As of September 30, 2020, Viela had $387.5 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments and no outstanding debt. Research and development expenses were $26.0 million for the third quarter of 2020, which include $1.4 million of non-cash stock-based compensation expenses.
• Selling, general and administrative expenses were $14.0 million for the third quarter of 2020, which include $2.0 million of non-cash stock-based compensation expenses.
• Total operating expenses for the third quarter of 2020 totaled $38.2 million, compared to $48.9 million for the third quarter of 2019. Non-cash share-based compensation expenses totaled $3.4 million for the third quarter of 2020, compared to $0.9 million for the third quarter of 2019.

“Several months into UPLIZNA’s launch, we have gained valuable insights into how to meet our customer’s needs, which continue to evolve during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are encouraged by the increasing product uptake and our commercial team remains nimble in how we engage with individual practitioners and centers of excellence across the U.S.,” said Bing Yao, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer at Viela Bio. “As we and our partners await the potential approval of UPLIZNA in several Asian countries, we continue to expand its development in the U.S. in various diseases, including myasthenia gravis and IgG4-related disease, where we believe it could have a significant clinical benefit over existing therapies.”

Added Dr. Yao: “While we pursue the potential expansion of UPLIZNA to additional patient populations, we continue to make solid progress across our entire pipeline. Recently, we presented data from our Phase 1b study of VIB7734 in an oral presentation at ACR Convergence 2020, confirming its potential to reduce lesions in lupus patients and have selected systemic lupus erythematosus for our planned Phase 2 trial. Additionally, we continue to enroll new patients into our ongoing trials with VIB4920, which include mid-stage studies in Sjögren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and kidney transplant rejection and are planning to submit an IND for a new preclinical candidate by the end of this year.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Viela Bio (VIE) click here.

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