14. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q2 2024: 33
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) is an American biotechnology company that primarily sells a drug to help patients manage swelling or angioedema. As of H1 2024, 98.6% of its sales came from this treatment which is called ORLADEYO. Consequently, and especially since BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) is an unprofitable firm, its hypothesis is dependent on the ability to develop new drugs. On this front, the firm had been developing two drugs to treat a blood disorder and Netherton syndrome. Among these, the former drug called BCX10013 was discontinued earlier this year after weak data, and the latter, called BCX17725 is currently under Phase 1 enrollment. Consequently, any additional tailwinds to BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) from these drugs generating revenue appear to be far off in the future. This also means that all the pressure is now on ORLADEYO to perform and for BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX) to improve margins through manufacturing efficiencies to turn a profit.
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX)’s management is quite optimistic about its flagship and only drug. Here’s what it shared during the Q2 2024 earnings call:
“This increasing enthusiasm from physicians matches well with the considerable opportunity that remains for ORLADEYO. For example, the market research on Slide 12 shows that three out of four patients currently on injectable prophy are willing to switch. We also have updated administrative claims-based studies to size the market that you can see on Slide 9. Since we first did these studies prior to the ORLADEYO launch, the number of treated HAE patients in the US has grown to 8,500, and the total number of patients — of HAE patients has increased to over 11,000. As I described earlier, patients from all segments are benefiting from ORLADEYO with comparable success in treatment outcomes, patient retention, and rate of paid therapy. Even with the strong first three years of the launch and the 2,500 prescriptions through the end of 2023, fewer than one in four US HAE patients has tried ORLADEYO.
With a high patient desire for oral therapy and the growing physician intent to prescribe, there is way more opportunity in front of us than behind us. Finally, it is also increasingly clear that our global expansion is working. Ex-US sales in the second quarter were $12.4 million, up 51% year-over-year. We recently exceeded 500 patients in Europe and we are already selling ORLADEYO in over 20 countries globally, with many more actively preparing for market authorization, access, and launch. To summarize, the operational improvements we saw in Q2 on top of what we saw in Q1 mean that the increasing paid rates and high patient compliance are sustainable, and we are on track toward our long-term goal of 85% paid treatment in the US. In addition, patient and prescriber confidence are growing stronger because both groups are experiencing not just the convenience but also the efficacy of ORLADEYO.
We’ve been describing $1 billion in peak global revenue for ORLADEYO for a few years now. The path to that sustainable peak is increasingly clear. Now, I’ll hand the call over to Anthony to describe our financial performance.”
