Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ:SGEN) saw salesof its only approved drug Adcetris jump substantially in the second quarter, thanks to the Food and Drug Administration approval for the frontline treatment of stage III and IV Hodgkin lymphoma, which was granted in the first quarter.

Metric

Q2 2018

Q2 2017

Year-Over-Year Change

Revenue

$170.2 million

$108.2 million

57%

Income from operations

($30.3 million)

($59.3 million)

N/A

Earnings per share

$0.47

($0.39)

N/A

Data source: Seattle Genetics.

Image source: Getty Images.

"This is the highest sequential quarter-to-quarter growth rate since the product was launched," said Darren Cline, Seattle Genetics' executive vice president of commercial, which shows how big the approval for frontline Hodgkin lymphoma was for the company.

Nevertheless, CEO Clay Siegall cautioned investors that the initial increase in usage might not continue at the same rate:

It takes time to build market share in a setting where the standard of care hasn't changed in 40 years. I mean, it just takes time, and we are off to a good start. Our commercial team was ready. They were ready. They jumped on this, and we got the rapid adopters in. But the rest of the time, we're going to be making stepwise moves up there.

Management is guiding for third-quarter Adcetris sales in the range of $130million to $135million, a 6.2% to 10.3% quarter-over-quarter increase.

The next growth opportunity for Adcetris will come from mature T-cell lymphoma in a clinical trial called Echelon-2, which is scheduled to read out early in the fourth quarter. The number of potential patients with mature T-cell lymphoma is about the same as frontline Hodgkin lymphoma, but the current treatment isn't particularly good. So it may be easier to get rapid adoption in mature T-cell lymphoma if the Echelon-2 results show Adcetris is substantially better than the current standard of care.

Brian Orelli has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Seattle Genetics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Seattle Genetics' Latest Approval Is the Best Yet -- The ...