Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) reported a surprising earnings beat and profit in its second quarter, with EPS of $0.03, $0.14 better than Wall Street analysts who called for a $0.11 loss. Unfortunately, the earnings surprise was driven primarily by the sale of $33.3 million in securities related to Arena’s investment in TaiGen, an outlier event. ARNA jumped in early trading before sliding into the red at mid-day.
Arena reported revenue of $12.8 million in the quarter, $3.1 million from Eisai’s net Belviq sales, and $8.6 million from collaborative revenue. Eisai recorded Belviq sales of $9.9 million in the second quarter; this, despite increasing the sales force behind the weight loss drug by 50% in the last few months, to approximately 600 reps.
Belviq sales grew 18% from the first quarter. 110,000 prescriptions were filled in the second quarter, growth of about 43% from 77,000 in 1Q14.
Arena ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of about $219.1 million.
