Halozyme Therapeutics said second-quarter revenue reached a record $308 million, a 50% increase from a year earlier, at the Morgan Stanley 24th Annual Global Healthcare Conference. CEO Helen Torley and CFO Darren Snellgrove described the growth as the result of an expanding stack of royalty streams rather than the timing of partnership deals.
Upfront payments contributed $35.5 million to the quarter. Halozyme reported that revenue growth was driven primarily by royalties.
Sales of VYVGART HYTRULO, the subcutaneous version of argenx’s Vyvgart, grew 60% year-over-year to $1.5 billion in quarterly sales. An expansion of the drug’s seronegative indication increased Halozyme’s addressable market by about 20%. Newer launches — OCREVUS subcutaneous, OPDIVO subcutaneous, and RYBREVANT — collectively grew 80% quarter-on-quarter.
The company signed five business-development deals year-to-date, exceeding its full-year target of three. Partners include Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Oruka Therapeutics, GSK, Incyte, and an undisclosed nucleic-acid partner. The GSK arrangement marks Halozyme’s first antibody-drug conjugate partnership.
Halozyme has expanded from its original ENHANZE platform into three distinct subcutaneous-delivery technologies. Hypercon enables hyperconcentrated delivery in volumes of 2 ml or less at concentrations of 500 mg/ml or higher, using a small-volume auto-injector. Surf Bio, a second hyperconcentration approach with a similar concentration target, trails Hypercon by roughly 18 months.
Two Hypercon partners are expected to begin clinical testing in 2025. Hypercon itself is targeting first-in-human dosing in early 2027, with product launches projected for 2030 to 2031. Surf Bio is expected to enter the clinic in 2028, supporting launches in the early 2030s. Hypercon is targeted to generate $1 billion in royalties by the mid-2030s.
At year-end 2024, 13 ENHANZE products remained in development, with future launches anticipated across multiple years from 2027 through 2032 and at least one additional launch expected in 2025. Pfizer advanced its trispecific antibody tilracimab for a skin-disease indication on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Halozyme repurchased approximately 3 million shares during the quarter at an average price of $69, completing more than $300 million in buybacks. Total debt stood at about $2.15 billion, with leverage expected to fall to roughly 1.2x or lower by end of 2024.
Shares traded at $107.94, near a 52-week high of $111.15, giving the stock a 70% return over the preceding six months. The company’s market capitalization was $12.25 billion, with a P/E ratio of 31.81.
On policy, management concluded that Medicare price-negotiation rules under the Inflation Reduction Act will have little to no impact on royalty economics through 2035. Tariffs were assessed as having no impact given existing contract structures and U.S. distribution models.
Litigation involving Merck over MDASE was characterized as "pure upside" that does not affect the ENHANZE platform. A preliminary injunction in Germany halted Merck’s KEYTRUDA QLEX launch there. A Netherlands court decision was expected in early October 2024 and could block launches across several European countries. Proceedings are also ongoing in Denmark, Sweden, and Italy. In the United States, patent validity challenges remain active at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, with expected appeals and no near-term resolution projected in district court.
Halozyme reported that artificial intelligence tools cut scientific publication timelines two to threefold, saving approximately $50,000 per publication. Process mapping for early-stage technology was reduced from weeks to days using paired operational video capture and AI-generated process maps. Business-development landscape analysis ran about 30% faster. An employee off-site meeting generated 70 new AI ideas, with all implementations maintaining human oversight.
