What happened
Shares of TG Therapeutics (TGTX 1.23%) were up by 18% as of mid-afternoon Tuesday after reports that the biotech's multiple sclerosis therapy Briumvi would have better-than-expected sales in its first quarter. The stock set a 52-week high of $22.91 earlier in the afternoon.
So what
On Dec. 28, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Briumvi as a treatment for adults with relapsing multiple sclerosis. The company launched the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody on the market on Jan. 26. CD20 is a protein found in white blood cells. According to industry news site BioPharmaCatalyst, Cantor analyst Prakhar Agrawal said that Briumvi did $3.3 million in March sales after doing $500,000 in revenue in February.
Now what
This is a huge deal for TG Therapeutics: Briumvi is its second marketed product, and it's off to a great start. The company's pipeline includes four other programs, all to treat B cell malignancies. Briumvi will likely be approved in Europe soon as well. On March 31, the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use gave the injectable therapy a positive opinion.
The company reported only $2.6 million in product revenue last year, all from sales of Ukoniq, a marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) and follicular lymphoma (FL) therapy that was withdrawn by the company last April because of safety concerns, a little more than a 14 months after it was approved. The early sales for Briumvi are key for a company that only had $174.1 million in cash on its books as of Dec. 31 -- enough, it said at the time, to fund operations into mid-2024. Now that window has increased significantly. Sales of Briumvi should pick up further this summer once the drug receives a permanent code for insurance billing purposes.
