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Leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. AI-powered earnings call analysis for Pharma & Biotech (PHARMA). Two AI hosts break down quarterly results, key metrics, and market implications in digestible podcast episodes.
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29 AUG 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
Groups: PHARMA (https://betafinch.com/groups/PHARMA)
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown, where we take the numbers and the noise from corporate earnings calls and turn them into something you can actually digest. I'm Alex.
JORDAN: And I'm Jordan. Today we're diving into Zoetis, ticker ZTS, the animal health giant. Q2 2026 results, and Alex, this one's a bit of a bumpy ride.
ALEX: It really is. But before we get into it — quick disclaimer. This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: Good to have that out front. So let's set the scene. Zoetis reported second quarter revenue of $2.5 billion — flat on a reported basis, actually down 1% organically. Adjusted net income came in at $781 million, down 2% organically. And here's the headline: they cut full-year guidance.
ALEX: Yeah, this wasn't a small tweak either. New revenue guidance is $9.12 to $9.32 billion, which works out to a decline of 3% to 1% for the year. Adjusted net income guidance dropped to a range implying a decline of 9% to 5%. That's a meaningful reset.
JORDAN: So what happened? Basically, the U.S. Companion Animal business — think dogs and cats, not cattle and chickens — got hit hard. Revenue there was down 11% in the U.S. Fewer vet visits, pet owners being more price-conscious, and a lot more competitors piling into categories Zoetis basically invented, like dermatology treatments.
ALEX: Right, and that's the key tension here. Their blockbuster drug Apoquel and the whole Key Dermatology franchise — U.S. dermatology revenue was down 18% in the quarter. New competitors are using aggressive discounting and rebates to steal share, and it's not growing the overall market, it's just splitting up a shrinking pie.
JORDAN: Even so, Zoetis still holds about 86% in-clinic share in U.S. dermatology, even after losing 10 points year-over-year. So they're still dominant, just under real pressure for the first time in a while.
ALEX: And parasiticides — flea, tick, heartworm meds like Simparica — were basically flat globally, with the U.S. side down 6%. Management said it's less about a specific competitor and more about a broader pullback in vet visits.
JORDAN: But here's the plot twist — it's not all bad news. Livestock had a phenomenal quarter, up 11% globally, and 23% in the U.S., partly boosted by demand for cattle parasiticides tied to that New World screwworm outbreak. And Diagnostics grew 12%, driven by point-of-care testing demand.
ALEX: So basically, the pet side is struggling, but the farm animal side and the diagnostics side are picking up a lot of the slack.
JORDAN: Exactly — that diversification is doing real work for them right now.
ALEX: Let's talk strategy, because CEO Kristin Peck was pretty clear about their playbook. Instead of cutting list prices — which she called a "permanent structural change" — they're doing what's called gross-to-net investment. Basically targeted rebates, promotions, and bundling deals to protect market share without blowing up their pricing structure long-term.
JORDAN: It's a defend-the-fort strategy. Protect volume and share now, keep the sticker price intact, and hope the competitive intensity eases once the market sorts itself out. CFO Wetteny Joseph said full-year price realization could land anywhere from flat to down 2%, depending on how aggressive they need to get.
ALEX: There's also a leadership shakeup worth mentioning. Wetteny Joseph, the CFO, is stepping down after five years — a new hire, Jay Saccaro, is coming in not just as CFO but in a newly created combined CFO and Chief Operating Officer role, overseeing manufacturing and supply chain too. That's a pretty significant restructuring of the C-suite, aimed at s This episode includes AI-generated content.
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29 AUG 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
Groups: PHARMA (https://betafinch.com/groups/PHARMA)
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're diving into Vertex Pharmaceuticals' second quarter 2026 results — and there's a lot going on: strong numbers, a major acquisition, and pipeline news across four disease areas. Before we get into it, quick disclaimer: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: Alright, Alex, let's start with the headline numbers because they're pretty solid.
ALEX: Yeah, Vertex posted $3.3 billion in total revenue for Q2, up 12% year-over-year. That's driven largely by the cystic fibrosis franchise, which grew 11%, but also some real acceleration from the newer products.
JORDAN: Right, and this is the part I find genuinely interesting — CASGEVY, their gene therapy for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, brought in $76 million this quarter. That's roughly 75% sequential growth and over 150% year-over-year. They had more infusions in the first half of 2026 than in all of 2025 combined.
ALEX: That's a huge inflection point. And it's not slowing down either — they had over 100 patient initiations for a third straight quarter, plus a pediatric approval for ages two to eleven that came through in just 53 days post-filing.
JORDAN: Then there's JOURNAVX, their non-opioid pain drug, at $50 million in revenue — about 70% sequential growth. The prescription numbers are climbing fast too, roughly 535,000 scripts this quarter. But here's the nuance: gross-to-net is still messy because of a patient support program covering people whose insurance has restrictions like quantity limits.
ALEX: Management said that normalizes more toward branded-drug norms in the first half of 2027, so investors watching margins on JOURNAVX should expect some lumpiness for a few more quarters.
JORDAN: On profitability — non-GAAP EPS came in at $4.73, up 5% year-over-year. Gross margin was 85.6%, a slight step down from Q1, which they attributed to product mix as CASGEVY, which costs more to manufacture, becomes a bigger slice of revenue.
ALEX: And they raised full-year revenue guidance to $13.1 to $13.2 billion, reiterating that $500 million-plus target for non-CF revenue this year.
JORDAN: Now let's talk about the big strategic move — the Crinetics Pharmaceuticals acquisition. This is roughly an $8.8 billion deal, expected to close in Q3.
ALEX: This is Vertex adding a fifth commercial pillar — rare endocrine diseases like acromegaly, CAH, and Cushing's syndrome. The two lead assets from Crinetics, paltusotine and atumelnant, are pegged at a combined peak sales opportunity of about $5 billion.
JORDAN: It's being funded through cash on hand plus a $4.5 billion term loan, and management said it should become accretive to operating income in 2029 — so this is a multi-year bet, not an immediate earnings boost.
ALEX: Let's talk pipeline, because there's a lot moving. The renal franchise is arguably the most important near-term catalyst — povetacicept, or "Povi," for IgA nephropathy has an FDA decision date of November 30th after a really strong phase III interim analysis.
JORDAN: And on the call, Reshma Kewalramani, the CEO, made a pretty confident case for Povi's differentiation — she cited a 52% reduction in proteinuria, which she called numerically the best in class, plus once-monthly dosing via a small-volume auto-injector patients can use at home.
ALEX: There was also a great analyst question about how Vertex sees eGFR data compare against a competitor's recently published numbers. Reshma's answer was essentially: strong proteinuria reduction should translate to GFR stabilization, and Vertex believes Povi's numbers on proteinuria, hematuria, and other biomarkers This episode includes AI-generated content.
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29 AUG 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
Groups: PHARMA (https://betafinch.com/groups/PHARMA)
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're diving into Pfizer's second quarter 2026 results, and there's a lot to unpack — from a CFO transition to some really important pipeline news. Before we get into it, quick disclaimer: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: And there's plenty to research here, Alex. Let's start with the headline news that isn't even about the numbers — Pfizer's CFO Dave Denton is departing, and Cecile Guegan is stepping in as interim CFO. She's not new to the building though — she's been deeply involved in the Seagen, Metsera, and Biohaven deals and Pfizer's capital allocation strategy.
ALEX: Right, so this feels like a continuity move rather than a shake-up. Now let's get to the numbers. Q2 revenue came in at $15 billion, up just 1% operationally year-over-year — but here's the key detail: strip out COVID products, and the underlying business actually grew 5% operationally.
JORDAN: That's the story of this whole quarter — COVID is a drag, everything else is humming. Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.77, beating expectations. And get this — Pfizer has now beaten EPS expectations for ten straight quarters, and revenue expectations in nine of the last ten. That's a pretty remarkable execution streak.
ALEX: They also raised full-year revenue guidance to a range of $60.5 to $62.5 billion, up $500 million at the midpoint, even while cutting their COVID revenue forecast from $5 billion to $4 billion.
JORDAN: Which tells you how strong the non-COVID business is performing to more than offset that. EPS guidance was reaffirmed at $2.80 to $3, though that now absorbs a $0.10 hit from the Innovent Biologics deal that closed in Q3.
ALEX: Let's talk about those big acquisitions, because this is really the crux of Pfizer's growth story. The Seagen, Metsera, and Biohaven deals — revenue from acquired products grew 25% operationally. PADCEV, the bladder cancer drug from Seagen, just got FDA approval expanded to muscle-invasive bladder cancer regardless of cisplatin eligibility, and it grew over 20% this quarter.
JORDAN: And on the Metsera side, that's the obesity bet — nirubenatide, their monthly GLP-1 candidate. They're targeting a $150 billion obesity market and aiming for first approval in 2028. They shared data suggesting it could be competitive with — maybe even better than — some existing weekly therapies like Wegovy, though as always, cross-trial comparisons come with caveats.
ALEX: Biohaven's NURTEC is also doing well, still leading the oral CGRP migraine class, with new trials underway for chronic and menstrual migraine.
JORDAN: Now, it wasn't all good news. There was a real setback in oncology — the phase III trial for sigvotatug vedotin, or SV, missed its primary overall survival endpoint in second-line-plus non-small cell lung cancer. That contributed to a $4.3 billion non-cash impairment charge, which is why Pfizer actually posted a GAAP loss per share of $0.04 this quarter.
ALEX: But management pushed back on writing off SV entirely — they highlighted a subgroup of patients on just one prior therapy that showed a 2.5-month survival benefit, and they're leaning into earlier-line lung cancer combos with pembrolizumab, where phase I data showed an 82% response rate.
JORDAN: There's also encouraging news on mevrometostat, their prostate cancer drug being developed alongside XTANDI. Phase I data showed it roughly doubled progression-free survival, and the market really zeroed in on this during Q&A — analysts are watching the MEV-Pro1 readout expected in Q4.
ALEX: Speaking of Q&A, one exchange I found telling was about the dividend. An analyst This episode includes AI-generated content.
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29 AUG 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
Groups: PHARMA (https://betafinch.com/groups/PHARMA)
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Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown for the news that's moving your portfolio.
ALEX: Hey everyone, welcome back to Beta Finch! I'm Alex, here with Jordan as always, and today we're digging into Merck's second quarter 2026 numbers. Before we get into it — quick disclaimer. This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: Good disclaimer to lead with, because there's a lot to unpack here — this was a noisy quarter on paper but honestly a pretty exciting one underneath the hood.
ALEX: Right, let's start with the headline numbers. Merck posted revenue of $16.6 billion, up 5%, or 4% if you strip out currency effects. Oncology and animal health carried a lot of that weight, plus growing contributions from newer launches.
JORDAN: But here's where it gets interesting — on the bottom line, Merck actually reported a loss of $0.13 per share. That sounds alarming until you realize it's almost entirely a one-time accounting quirk.
ALEX: Exactly. They completed the acquisition of Terns Pharmaceuticals this quarter, picking up a promising CML — chronic myeloid leukemia — drug candidate. That came with a $5.7 billion charge, and because it wasn't tax-deductible, their tax rate for the quarter ballooned to over 160%.
JORDAN: Which tanked EPS by $2.31 a share. Take that out, and the underlying business is actually performing quite well. It's a classic case of "read past the GAAP headline number."
ALEX: They also raised and narrowed full-year guidance — now expecting revenue between $66.3 and $67.3 billion, 2-4% growth, and full-year EPS of $2.66 to $2.76.
JORDAN: Let's talk product performance, because this is really a story of "old reliable" versus "new and exciting." KEYTRUDA, the flagship cancer immunotherapy, grew 4% to $8.4 billion — still the workhorse, but management flagged that U.S. growth is moderating as it approaches peak penetration in a lot of indications.
ALEX: Meanwhile the newer stuff is popping. WINREVAIR, their pulmonary hypertension drug, was up 75% to $588 million. WELIREG jumped 67%. CAPVAXIVE, their pneumococcal vaccine, up 40%.
JORDAN: Those growth rates matter a lot for the bigger narrative here, which is what happens when KEYTRUDA eventually loses patent exclusivity around the end of the decade. CEO Rob Davis addressed this directly in the Q&A — he called it "more of a hill than a cliff," with a shallow dip and a fast return to growth, backed by more than $70 billion in commercial opportunity from over 20 new products.
ALEX: And a big one this quarter was LIPFENDRA — the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor approved by the FDA, for lowering LDL cholesterol. It got fast-tracked through a national priority voucher process.
JORDAN: This is a big deal because current injectable PCSK9 drugs only reach about 5% of the eligible market — mostly because doctors and patients don't love needles for a chronic condition. An oral pill could meaningfully expand that market. Davis was clear they're not trying to steal share from injectables, they're trying to grow the whole pie — 30 million Americans are on lipid therapy but not hitting their LDL targets.
ALEX: There's also real pipeline momentum beyond LIPFENDRA. Sac-TMT, their Trop-2 antibody-drug conjugate for cancer, put up positive Phase III results in endometrial cancer — ahead of schedule. Same with tulisokibart, their ulcerative colitis drug, which hit positive Phase III results faster than expected too.
JORDAN: Dr. Dean Li, their research chief, made a point of saying their confidence is actually higher now than it was back in January, because so many of these pipeline bets are reading out early and positive. That's not something yo This episode includes AI-generated content.
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29 AUG 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
Groups: PHARMA (https://betafinch.com/groups/PHARMA)
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're digging into Eli Lilly's Q2 2026 results, and Jordan, I'll just say it up front — this was a big one.
JORDAN: Big is an understatement. But before we get into the numbers, our standard reminder: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
ALEX: Right, with that said — let's talk numbers. Lilly's revenue grew 48% year-over-year in Q2. Their key products alone added almost $6.8 billion, and get this — oncology, immunology, and neuroscience combined grew 121% versus last year.
JORDAN: That's a company firing on basically every cylinder. And the incretin franchise — Zepbound and Mounjaro — is still the engine room. Combined, those two brought in $14.9 billion in the quarter, contributing $6.3 billion of the total growth.
ALEX: Gross margin ticked up to 86.3%, non-GAAP EPS came in at $8.38 — though that includes a $3.03 hit from acquired R&D charges, so the underlying number is even stronger. And naturally, they raised full-year guidance: revenue now expected between $85 and $87 billion.
JORDAN: Which, by the way, is up $3 billion at the low end and $2 billion at the high end from prior guidance. That's not a small tweak — that's a company that's genuinely outperforming its own expectations.
ALEX: Let's talk geography for a second, because the international story here is wild. China revenue grew 93% in constant currency. Rest of world — think Latin America, Asia — grew 136%. Lilly's international incretin market share is now around 55% globally.
JORDAN: And this is the piece I think investors sometimes underweight — Mounjaro's global rollout is still in relatively early innings in a lot of these markets. Management basically said future growth outside the U.S. is going to come from market penetration, not just new country launches, since most of the big launch wave already happened last year.
ALEX: Which actually ties into one of the more interesting analyst questions on the call — someone pushed back on guidance, basically asking "wait, doesn't this guide imply deceleration versus Q2?" And CFO Lucas Montarce had a pretty candid answer.
JORDAN: Yeah, he pointed to a few real factors — there were some one-time favorable adjustments to rebate and discount estimates this quarter that won't repeat, last year's back half had a huge bolus of new-market Mounjaro launches that's now lapped, and there's normal seasonality — European summer holidays hit Q3, and diabetes has its own seasonal pattern in Q4. So it's less "conservative sandbagging" and more "the comp gets harder."
ALEX: Fair enough. Now let's talk about the newer story here — Foundayo, their oral GLP-1. The U.S. launch has been a bit of a slow burn, but management said they're now seeing real inflection. Prescriber count went from 8,000 last quarter to 36,000 now, and the last week of July nearly doubled monthly volume.
JORDAN: The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge Program is a big deal too — it launched July 1st and gives 20 million eligible Americans coverage for obesity GLP-1s at just $50 a month out-of-pocket. That's a 35% expansion in coverage overnight. Early signs are heavily skewed toward injectables — about 80% — but they're seeing real new-patient uptake on both fronts.
ALEX: And internationally, the UAE numbers turned heads — $31 million in Foundayo sales in a single quarter, which is nearly half of total U.S. sales. One analyst flagged that as a signal of "explosive potential" once Foundayo rolls out more broadly, which management confirmed is coming mostly in 2027.
JORDAN: On the pipeline side, retatrutide is the one to watch. Three positive Phase III trials — TRIUMPH-1, 2, This episode includes AI-generated content.
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29 AUG 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
Groups: PHARMA (https://betafinch.com/groups/PHARMA)
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're diving into Gilead Sciences' second quarter 2026 results — and Jordan, this is a big one.
JORDAN: It really is. Big numbers, big acquisitions, big pipeline news.
ALEX: Before we get into it, quick disclaimer: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: Good to have that out there. Okay, let's talk numbers. Gilead's base business — that's total product sales excluding the COVID drug Veklury — came in at $7.6 billion, up 10% year-over-year. That's their strongest second-quarter growth in three years.
ALEX: And it's broad-based too. HIV sales were up 12% to $5.7 billion, Trodelvy in oncology up 26%, and Livdelzi in liver disease more than doubled. On the back of that, management raised full-year HIV growth guidance to 9-10%, up from 8%.
JORDAN: The headline stat for me was PrEP — that's HIV prevention. Quarterly PrEP sales topped $1 billion for the first time, doubling year-over-year, putting that business on a $4 billion annual run rate. Yeztugo, their twice-yearly injectable, is now the leading option for new PrEP starts and even leads the switch market after just four quarters on the market.
ALEX: And they shared something pretty striking — more than 70% of Yeztugo patients are coming back for their second injection at six months, meaning they get a full year of protection. That persistency rate is apparently well above anything else in the category.
JORDAN: Now, EPS is where things get messy — but for a good reason. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was actually negative $6.75 for the quarter.
ALEX: Wait, negative? That sounds alarming.
JORDAN: It sounds alarming, but it's really an accounting story. Gilead closed three acquisitions this quarter — Arcellx, Tubulis, and Ouro Medicines — totaling about $11.2 billion in acquired R&D expense, which under accounting rules gets taken as a hit all at once. Strip that out, along with a one-time non-cash revenue item, and EPS was actually $2.27 for the quarter — up about 13% year-over-year on an apples-to-apples basis. That's outpacing revenue growth, which tells you there's real operating leverage in this business.
ALEX: Right, and full-year guidance reflects that same split — they're now guiding to $30.1 to $30.4 billion in total product sales, raised from prior guidance, but full-year EPS on a GAAP-ish basis is guided negative because of those acquisition costs. Excluding the deal noise, full-year EPS guidance is $8.50 to $8.85, actually raised slightly on the low end.
JORDAN: So the deals are the real story of the quarter, strategically speaking. Let's unpack them. Arcellx gives Gilead full ownership of anito-cel, their multiple myeloma cell therapy — that's five months from its PDUFA date, so a launch is coming. Tubulis brings an antibody-drug-conjugate platform, and there's already exciting early data on GS-8824 in ovarian cancer — 61% response rate in a tough, pretreated population.
ALEX: And on the existing portfolio side, it wasn't just an acquisitions quarter. Trodelvy got approved for first-line metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, roughly doubling its addressable patient population. Livdelzi, the liver disease drug, posted positive phase III data that could expand its use. And they launched Hepcludex, the first-ever approved treatment for chronic hepatitis D.
JORDAN: One thing that jumped out in the Q&A — an analyst pushed CEO Dan O'Day on whether Gilead still cares about diversifying away from HIV, since HIV remains such a dominant chunk of revenue. His answer was basically "yes, but we're doing it two ways" — diversifying within HIV itself with new dosing options, dai This episode includes AI-generated content.
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31 JUL 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
Groups: PHARMA (https://betafinch.com/groups/PHARMA)
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. Today we're digging into AbbVie's second quarter 2026 results, and this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: And Alex, this was another really strong quarter for AbbVie. Let's just get right into the numbers.
ALEX: Yeah, so adjusted EPS came in at $3.65, which beat guidance by six cents. Total revenue was nearly $17 billion, up 10.2% year over year, and that beat expectations by $300 million. On the back of that, they raised full-year revenue guidance to about $67.6 billion — that's the second raise this year, $600 million total.
JORDAN: What jumps out to me is the breadth of the growth. It's not just one drug carrying the load. SKYRIZI, RINVOQ, and the entire neuroscience portfolio all grew north of 20%. SKYRIZI alone did $5.5 billion in the quarter, up 24%. RINVOQ crossed $2.5 billion, up almost 24%.
ALEX: And that's the story that matters most for AbbVie long-term — how well they've replaced the HUMIRA revenue. Speaking of which, HUMIRA sales were down 36% due to biosimilar competition, but that's expected and honestly just noise at this point given how much SKYRIZI and RINVOQ have scaled up.
JORDAN: Right, HUMIRA is basically a rounding error now compared to where the immunology franchise is headed. Immunology overall did $8.8 billion, up nearly 15%.
ALEX: Let's talk strategy, because the big headline this quarter was the announced acquisition of Apogee Therapeutics. This adds assets in dermatology, respiratory, and other inflammatory diseases — basically deepening that immunology pipeline for the 2030s and beyond.
JORDAN: It's a dilutive deal in the near term — CFO Scott Reents said it's adding about 14 cents of dilution to full-year EPS guidance, which actually more than offset the underlying business over-performance in the updated guidance. But management framed it as setting up growth well past SKYRIZI and RINVOQ's patent cliffs.
ALEX: Which, by the way, got some clarity on this call too. SKYRIZI's composition patent expires in 2033, but CEO Rob Michael pointed out regulatory data protection runs through 2031, and they don't expect biosimilar filings until the end of the decade. So that runway is longer than some investors might assume.
JORDAN: The other big strategic thread was dermatology — RINVOQ picked up European approvals in vitiligo and alopecia areata, and management now sees combined peak sales for those two indications approaching $2 billion, which is well above what they'd previously guided.
ALEX: There was a great exchange in the Q&A about that too — an analyst pushed on how crowded the vitiligo landscape is getting with other mechanisms coming in. Jeff Stewart's response was basically: these immunology markets keep proving to be way more expansive than people expect once a real systemic treatment shows up, and RINVOQ has the head start plus a decade of safety data behind it.
JORDAN: I also want to flag the SKYRIZI subcutaneous induction story in Crohn's disease — that's got an FDA decision expected this fall. Jeff said they expect a "meaningful acceleration" in SKYRIZI's growth once that's approved, partly because it lets physicians avoid juggling two different reimbursement channels. Management expects that benefit to really show up in early 2027.
ALEX: On the pipeline side, there's a lot cooking beyond immunology too. Parkinson's is shaping up as a real growth story — tavapadone has an FDA decision expected in Q3, and Vyalev is on track for blockbuster status this year. Management still sees the Parkinson's franchise collectively hitting more than $5 billion in peak sales.
JORDAN: Oncology got some att This episode includes AI-generated content.
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31 JUL 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
Groups: PHARMA (https://betafinch.com/groups/PHARMA)
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're digging into Bristol Myers Squibb's second quarter 2026 results, reported Thursday morning. Before we get into it, quick disclaimer: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: And BMY shares were up nearly 2.8% on the news, so investors clearly liked what they heard. Let's get into the numbers.
ALEX: Total revenue for Q2 came in around $13 billion, up 5% year-over-year. The headline story here is what they call the "growth portfolio" — that's their newer drugs — now making up almost 60% of total revenue, growing 14%. Ten different products posted double-digit growth.
JORDAN: That's the story management really wants you to hear — they're successfully transitioning away from legacy products losing patent protection, toward newer assets. And the standouts were impressive: Reblozyl up 29%, Breyanzi up 41%, Camzyos up 59%, and Qvantig — the newer version of their big cancer drug Opdivo — now annualizing over $1 billion.
ALEX: Meanwhile, on the "legacy" side, Eliquis, their blood thinner, actually grew 21% on strong demand, which helped offset declines elsewhere from generic competition, especially as Revlimid keeps facing generics.
JORDAN: Diluted EPS was $2.04 for the quarter, and gross margin held at 71.4%. And because of this strength, management raised full-year guidance for both revenue and adjusted EPS.
ALEX: They also raised their Eliquis growth expectation for the year to 20-25%, and said the overall legacy portfolio decline will be less severe than previously thought — now 4-6% instead of worse.
JORDAN: Balance sheet's solid too — $11.5 billion in cash, $3.4 billion in operating cash flow for the quarter, and they paid down $1.2 billion in debt. So they've got room to keep investing.
ALEX: Now let's talk strategy, because there's a lot happening on the pipeline side. CEO Chris Boerner talked about the company potentially launching more than 10 new medicines by the end of the decade, plus over 30 lifecycle management opportunities.
JORDAN: The near-term catalyst everyone's watching is iberdomide — that's their CELMoD, a new class of oral drug for multiple myeloma. It has an FDA decision date of August 17th, so basically two weeks after this call. If approved, it'd be the first commercialized CELMoD ever.
ALEX: And there's a second one right behind it — mezigdomide — which just got its FDA application accepted with a target decision date of May 2027. Management's pretty bullish these two drugs, along with a third one called golcadomide, could eventually replace older myeloma standards like Revlimid and Pomalyst.
JORDAN: But here's the more nuanced part of the call — two of their biggest pipeline bets just got delayed. Milvexian, a next-generation blood thinner they're developing with Johnson & Johnson... wait, actually it's with partners on the anticoagulant side, competing against their own Eliquis franchise — its atrial fibrillation trial readout got pushed from late 2026 to Q1 2027.
ALEX: And separately, Cobenfy — their schizophrenia drug that they're also testing in Alzheimer's-related psychosis — those readouts are now expected to start in early 2027 instead of this year.
JORDAN: Now, management was pretty insistent both delays are actually good news in disguise. For milvexian, it's an event-driven trial — meaning they need a certain number of stroke and bleeding events to occur before they can read the data. Fewer events happening means the drug might be working better than expected. Chief Medical Officer Cristian Massacesi even pointed out that a competitor's similar trial got stopped early for going the w This episode includes AI-generated content.
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31 JUL 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
Groups: PHARMA (https://betafinch.com/groups/PHARMA)
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're digging into Regeneron's second quarter 2026 results, and Jordan, this was a big one.
JORDAN: A really strong quarter across the board. But first, the standard note — this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
ALEX: Right. So let's set the scene — before diving into numbers, the call opened with a tribute to longtime board member Art Ryan, who passed away this week. He'd been on Regeneron's board for over two decades, previously ran Prudential. A nice moment of the human side of these calls.
JORDAN: Definitely worth noting. Now, onto the business — total revenue was up 17% year-over-year to $4.3 billion, and non-GAAP EPS grew 11% to $14.29. That's their second straight quarter of double-digit growth on both lines.
ALEX: And the headline here is really the trio of record quarters — Dupixent, EYLEA HD, and Libtayo all hit all-time highs for quarterly sales.
JORDAN: Let's start with Dupixent since it's the big one. Global net sales hit $6 billion, up 38% on a constant currency basis. U.S. sales alone grew 42% to $4.6 billion. That's a drug now serving over 1.5 million patients across nine approved indications.
ALEX: Nine! That's dermatology, asthma, nasal polyps, COPD, eosinophilic esophagitis — it just keeps expanding. And here's something investors should watch: Regeneron fully repaid its $3.1 billion development balance owed to Sanofi. That balance had been suppressing collaboration revenue — about $930 million lower in 2025 and $530 million in the first half of this year.
JORDAN: So starting in Q3, Regeneron gets to keep its full share of collaboration profits. That's a real step-up to the bottom line going forward, not tied to any new sales growth — just an accounting unlock.
ALEX: Exactly. Now let's talk EYLEA HD — this one's on fire. U.S. net sales just under $600 million, up 52% year-over-year. And notably, this was the first quarter EYLEA HD sales actually exceeded the original EYLEA.
JORDAN: That's the conversion story playing out. EYLEA HD now makes up about 60% of the franchise, up from 34% a year ago. Meanwhile legacy EYLEA sales fell 45% as patients and doctors shift over — plus there's now biosimilar competition entering that older product's market.
ALEX: They're also awaiting FDA approval on an EYLEA HD prefilled syringe, which could drive even more adoption. Management sounded confident that could land by year-end.
JORDAN: And rounding out the trio, Libtayo — their oncology drug — hit $489 million globally, up 29%. It's gaining real traction in non-small cell lung cancer, now capturing 20% of new prescriptions, double what it was just last year.
ALEX: Let's talk pipeline for a second, because Regeneron's whole philosophy here is "don't bet on one horse." They've got roughly 50 active clinical programs.
JORDAN: A few near-term catalysts stood out to me. There's cemdisiran, their siRNA therapy for myasthenia gravis, with an FDA decision expected in November — that could be the first siRNA approved for that disease. There's also garetosmab for a rare bone disease called FOP, with an FDA decision expected as soon as August.
ALEX: And on the bigger picture front, they're moving into Phase III trials later this year for both their obesity program — a GLP-GIP combo called olatorepatide — and their anticoagulation program targeting Factor XI, which is a different approach than the traditional blood thinners on the market.
JORDAN: One thing that came up repeatedly in Q&A was the Sanofi relationship. CEO Leonard Schleifer confirmed they're in "productive early discussions" with Sanofi about expanding the collaboratio This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 JUL 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. Today we're digging into Johnson & Johnson's second quarter 2026 results, and Jordan, there's a lot to unpack here.
JORDAN: There really is. But first, the fine print — this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
ALEX: Right, so let's get into it. J&J posted $25.3 billion in quarterly sales, up 5.6% operationally. That doesn't sound huge until you realize they absorbed a 460 basis point headwind from STELARA losing patent protection to biosimilars.
JORDAN: Yeah, strip out STELARA and the rest of the business grew double digits. That's the real story. Net earnings came in at $5.5 billion, diluted EPS of $2.27, and on an adjusted basis, EPS was $2.90, up nearly 5% year-over-year. And here's the kicker — they raised full-year guidance. Operational sales growth now expected at 6.5% to 7.1%, and adjusted EPS guidance moved up to $11.50-$11.65.
ALEX: They're also closing in on a milestone — more than $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time in the company's 140-year history.
JORDAN: Which is wild to say out loud. This is a company with 28 different products or platforms each doing over a billion dollars a year. That's not a one-hit-wonder portfolio, that's just breadth everywhere.
ALEX: Let's talk oncology, because that's really where J&J flexed this quarter. DARZALEX, their multiple myeloma drug, did over $4 billion, up almost 18%. But the newer combo therapies are what caught my eye — CARVYKTI up 47.7%, TECVAYLI up 56%, TALVEY up 62.6%.
JORDAN: Those growth rates on top of an already-dominant multiple myeloma franchise are pretty remarkable. And they're not resting — new data showed the TALVEY-DARZALEX combo keeping over 80% of patients progression-free at two years, with overall survival up to 89%. That's the kind of data that extends a franchise's life for years.
ALEX: Then there's the newer launches — ICOTYDE in psoriasis, INLEXZO in bladder cancer, RYBREVANT in lung and now head-and-neck cancer. ICOTYDE in particular is getting a lot of attention. Over 11,000 patients started therapy, 6,000 unique prescribers, and more than half of commercial payers already covering it within 90 days.
JORDAN: What's interesting is how they're positioning it alongside TREMFYA, which by the way had a monster quarter — 71% growth, its first $2 billion quarter. Instead of cannibalizing each other, management's framing ICOTYDE as the go-to first systemic treatment and TREMFYA as the first-choice biologic, especially for patients trending toward psoriatic arthritis. It's a two-pronged attack on the same disease area.
ALEX: Now, MedTech was the softer spot this quarter — only 3.6% growth. Cardiovascular was the drag, mainly Abiomed's heart pump business.
JORDAN: Right, and this is worth unpacking because it wasn't a demand problem. A neutral clinical trial out of the U.K. made physicians more cautious about patient selection for Impella devices, so usage slowed. Management was pretty direct about it — they called it a "behavioral" issue, not structural. They're leaning on their own much larger evidence base, over 40,000 patients studied versus the UK trial's 300, while they wait for their own PROTECT IV trial data, which won't read out until 2027.
ALEX: Meanwhile, three of MedTech's four businesses — surgery, vision, and orthopedics — actually accelerated and beat expectations. So it's really one segment, heart recovery, dragging on an otherwise solid MedTech story.
JORDAN: And there's real excitement building around the robotics pipeline — the OTTAVA surgical robot and MONARCH for urology are both awaiti This episode includes AI-generated content.
Leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. AI-powered earnings call analysis for Pharma & Biotech (PHARMA). Two AI hosts break down quarterly results, key metrics, and market implications in digestible podcast episodes.
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