What happened
TG Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TGTX) is falling today in response to a disappointing Q2 earnings report. Investors, disappointed with lackluster sales of the company's new cancer drug, have beaten the biotech stock 21.5% lower as of 1:29 p.m. EDT on Monday.
So what
On Monday morning, TG Therapeutics reported a Q2 loss of $78.5 million. This was significantly more than Wall Street analysts following the company were expecting. The net loss worked out to $0.59 per share, which was $0.11 less than consensus expectations.
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Investment bank analysts following TG Therapeutics weren't expecting the company's first drug, Ukoniq, to fly off the shelves. Despite modest expectations, TG Therapeutics still managed to disappoint with Ukoniq sales reaching just $1.5 million during the period.
Now what
TG Therapeutics' first drug didn't earn approval to treat relapsed lymphoma patients until this February. It takes time for new sales teams to find their groove, but the sales figures the company has posted suggest a deeper problem.
TG Therapeutics finished June with just $456 million in cash after burning through $78 million during the second quarter. If Ukoniq can't help this drugmaker achieve profitability on its own, there's still a chance it can avoid another visit to the equity tap. In May, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started reviewing an application to treat the most commonly diagnosed form of leukemia with a combination of Ukoniq and ublituximab, an experimental anti-CD20 antibody also developed by TG Therapeutics.
The agency is expected to make an approval decision on or before March 25, 2022. It doesn't intend to hold an advisory committee meeting to discuss any shortcomings it may have found in the company's application. This can probably be taken as a good sign. During the pivotal trial supporting the application, treatment with the combination reduced leukemia patients' risk of disease progression or death by 45% compared to standard care.
