What happened
Shares of TG Therapeutics (TGTX 0.07%) 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 Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency 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last year, all from sales of Ukoniq, a marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) and follicular lymphoma (FL) therapy that was withdrawn by the company last April because of safety concerns, a little more than a 14 months after it was approved.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.
