Amarin (AMRN 6.45%) announced its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results on Tuesday afternoon. The company managed to beat both the revenue and earnings targets set by Wall Street analysts, thanks in no small part to sales of its fish-oil derived drug, Vascepa.
The pharmaceutical company reported $143.3 million in revenue for Q4 2019, an 85% increase from the $77.3 million reported in Q4 2018. Amarin just barely made a profit in this quarter, with $7.1 million in net income in comparison with the $33.7 net loss reported last year.
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In addition, the company reaffirmed its 2020 guidance that expects net total revenue of somewhere between $650 million and $700 million for the year, with almost all of that coming from Vascepa sales. Wall Street was expecting an earnings-per-share (EPS) loss of $0.02, a figure that Amarin beat, reporting a positive $0.02 EPS. Amarin also beat analysts' expected $136 million revenue target quite handily.
Details about Vascepa
Vascepa is Amarin's only drug, having first received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval back in 2012 to lower triglyceride levels in patients. Back in December, the treatment also received expanded approval as a secondary therapy for patients with high triglyceride levels of 150 mg per deciliter or more.
"FDA approval of Vascepa represents the introduction of an important new treatment option for patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia," said Joseph Zakrzewski, Amarin's chairman and CEO. Vascepa had demonstrated strong clinical results in lowering levels of LDL cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol) in patients.
