Innoviva (INVA) used the 12th Annual Cantor Fitzgerald Global Healthcare Conference on Thursday to lay out growth strategies extending well beyond its COPD royalty income, detailing commercial traction in infectious-disease drugs, an oral drug-delivery platform, and a series of international partnerships.
Innoviva reported trailing 12-month revenue of $440 million with near-19 percent growth and a 73 percent gross profit margin. Its P/E ratio stood at 4.91. The company also announced a $125 million share repurchase authorization, while analyst price targets reference levels as high as $46.
Chief Executive Officer Pavel Raifeld emphasized the strategic role of the firm’s COPD royalty stream. The projected royalty revenue from ANORO and BREO, sold under partnership with GSK, exceeds $1 billion over the next five years. "We value that royalty stream because it provides predictable long-dated cash flows that we can then deploy to support and advance other parts of our business," Raifeld said.
Beyond those royalties, Innoviva’s Specialty Therapeutics (IST) division generated more than $200 million in trailing 12-month revenue across the four quarters through Q2. The IST business has grown 40 to 50 percent year-over-year over the past two years. XACDURO, the division’s flagship treatment for carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter (CRAB), posted $37 million in U.S. sales in Q2. It remains the only approved therapy for CRAB infections, which carry mortality rates of approximately 50 percent even with supportive care and resistance rates of roughly 40 percent in the U.S. and 70 to 80 percent in some international markets.
XACDURO is marketed in China by Zai Lab, which has said peak sales in China alone could exceed $500 million. A newly announced deal with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories will cover Latin American and select emerging European markets, including the CIS region. The company also has early-stage commercial products GIAPREZA and ZEVTERA in the IST portfolio, and expects zoliflodacin — a novel oral treatment for gonorrhea — to launch later in 2024. In some countries, more than one-third of gonorrhea cases already show cephalosporin resistance.
Historically about two-thirds of Innoviva’s revenue has come from the U.S., with one-third from ex-U.S. markets. That pattern is shifting for the COPD business, where more than two-thirds of ANORO and BREO sales now originate outside the United States.
Innovation outside therapeutics centers on Nortiva, a wholly owned subsidiary built around the LYNX oral drug-delivery platform, acquired via asset purchase from Lyndra Therapeutics. Lyndra had invested more than $200 million in the platform’s development. The technology transforms daily oral medications into once-weekly or once-monthly formulations using a pill that unfolds in the stomach, remains resident to release drug over time, and breaks apart for safe passage through the GI tract. The platform has been tested in hundreds of human subjects and thousands of animal studies, including a successful Phase III trial for once-weekly risperidone.
Nortiva’s lead program is a once-monthly oral contraceptive supported by Gates Foundation funding, with human studies expected in 2025. The company is pursuing the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway to shorten development timelines for reformulated drugs. About 10 million women in the U.S. and more than 100 million globally currently use daily oral contraceptives.
