BeiGene reported its Q1 2022 results on Thursday. The company report included total product revenue of $261 million, a 146% increase from its 2021 reporting.
However, despite a growing product revenue, Beigene reported a net loss of $434.4 million for the quarter, driven in part by a loss of collaborations. This time last year, BeiGene reported a net income of $66.5 million for the same period. Additionally, the company’s revenue from this quarter was down 50% from a year ago, from $605 million to $306 million.
Beigene CEO John Oyler also received a substantial salary increase of $16.75 million in 2021, compared to $14.41 million in 2020.
Among its revenue troubles, BeiGene is also facing an audit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In March 2022, the company was identified as failing to comply, although the issue was likely out of the company’s hands, as the city of Beijing has blocked Chinese companies from complying with these requirements by only allowing domestic firms access to audit paperwork.
Regulators and officials from the SEC are now traveling to China to discuss a compromise that would stop BeiGene and 270 other Chinese companies from being delisted. Recently, officials from the China Securities Regulatory Commission discussed whether to permit U.S. regulators to conduct on-site inspections of some Chinese companies, which could hinder the process.
BeiGene has chosen to replace its auditor with one based in the U.S. to comply with audit access rules, a move that will hopefully mitigate the company’s troubles and prevent it from being delisted.
Despite financial troubles, BeiGene is remaining optimistic.
“I have never been more confident in BeiGene. We made terrific progress in the first quarter with our global commercial performance in the U.S., Europe, and in Asia, and we continue to build on our strategic competitive advantages, including breaking ground on our flagship U.S. manufacturing and clinical R&D campus at Princeton Innovation West in Hopewell, N.J.,” said John V. Oyler, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of BeiGene.
To that end, the company broke ground last month on its new manufacturing and clinical center, a 400,000 square foot project that is planned to be dedicated to commercial-stage biologic pharmaceutical manufacturing, with a capacity for up to 16,000 liters of biologics formula. The property was acquired by BeiGene in November 2021, and the space has more than one million square feet of developable real estate for future expansions. The facility is anticipated to help the growth and development of the company’s oncology portfolio.
BeiGene’s product revenue was primarily driven by its oncological therapeutics Brukinsa and Tislelizumab, bringing in $104.3 million and $87.6 million, respectively. BeiGene also highlighted that some revenue was attributed to its cancer therapeutic Blyncyto.
Within its earnings release, BeiGene also provided updates to its development programs, which include the Phase III trial studying Brukinsa, along with a study evaluating its superiority over another cancer therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small cell lymphocytic lymphoma. Tiselizumab is being evaluated in a Phase III clinical trial to evaluate its efficacy in overall survival in patients with previously untreated advanced or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
