Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges attributes the recent strength in the biotech sector to a lessening of the perceived fears of pricing regulations and a favorable tone from the FDA. However, he believes the sector could advance at least 15% more, as he foresees more positive operating results and still expects more industry consolidation. Among large cap biotech names, Porges maintains Outperform ratings on Regeneron (REGN), Celgene (CELG), Vertex (VRTX) and Alexion(ALXN) and keeps Market Perform ratings on AbbVie (ABBV), Amgen (AMGN), Gilead (GILD) and Biogen (BIIB).

Consensus $3.67. Sees FY24 product sales $27.1B-$27.5B.

Reports Q1 revenue $6.7B, consensus $5.92B. "Gilead delivered another strong quarter of revenue growth in the first quarter with 6% year-over-year growth in our base business driven by HIV, Oncology and Liver Disease," said Daniel O'Day, Gilead's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "The acquisition of CymaBay brings us another potentially transformative therapy for people with liver disease, and a regulatory decision on seladelpar is expected in August. New HIV data demonstrates the continued progress in our long-acting HIV pipeline, and we look forward to providing updates on this and our broad Oncology portfolio throughout the rest of 2024."

Notable companies reporting before tomorrow's open, with earnings consensus, include Exxon Mobil (XOM), consensus $2.20... Chevron (CVX), consensus $2.87... AbbVie (ABBV), consensus $2.23... HCA Healthcare (HCA), consensus $5.01... Colgate-Palmolive (CL), consensus 81c... Charter (CHTR), consensus $7.92... AutoNation (AN), consensus $4.27.

Wedbush analyst Laura Chico raised the firm's price target on Biogen to $215 from $213 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. It remains early days for newly launching products like Skyclarys, Leqembi and Zurzuvae, the firm notes. That being said, it is encouraging to start to see revenue growth for Leqembi and continued growth for Skyclarys. Wedbush continues to see a gap between the newly launching products and earlier-stage development programs that will need to be addressed. However, larger-scale BD deals are likely easier to complete in 2025.

AbbVie announced positive topline results from LEVEL UP, an open-label, efficacy assessor-blinded head-to-head Phase 3b/4 study that evaluated the efficacy and safety of upadacitinib versus dupilumab in adults and adolescents with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis who had an inadequate response to systemic therapy or when use of those therapies was inadvisable. In the LEVEL UP study, upadacitinib showed superior efficacy versus dupilumab in the primary endpoint, demonstrating that a significantly higher proportion of patients simultaneously achieved both a 90% or greater reduction in Eczema Area and Severity Index and a Worst Pruritus Numerical Rating Scale of 0 or 1 at Week 16.

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