MorphoSys stock jumps: MorphoSys clearly limits loss in 2022

Analysts had expected a significantly worse result. The group, which specializes in new cancer therapies, benefited in 2022 from higher sales of its drug Monjuvi and increased license income. In return, Bayern incurred significantly fewer costs, as the SDAX company announced on Wednesday evening after the trading day in Planegg near Munich. In the new year, however, expenditure could pick up again somewhat. At the same time, the Management Board does not rule out falling revenues for Monjuvi in ​​2023, which has been known since the beginning of the year. The stock gained 3.5 percent in after-hours trading compared to the Xetra close.

Last year, group sales rose by 55 percent to EUR 278.3 million compared to the previous year. As already reported by the group, Monjuvi contributed 89.4 million US dollars (84.9 million euros) – the rest came largely from higher royalties and license fees. MorphoSys had signed license agreements with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis and the US company Human Immunology Biosciences.

MorphoSys was able to reduce its operating loss by 57 percent to almost EUR 221 million. The costs for research and development, which increased by almost a third, were offset by significantly lower administrative expenses. A year earlier, setting up the sales structures for the blood cancer drug Monjuvi after its market launch still cost a lot of money.

The bottom line is that there was still a deficit of a good EUR 151 million for 2022, but in 2021 MorphoSys had still reported a loss of almost EUR 515 million. At the time, high write-downs on discontinued research projects of the Constellation Pharmaceuticals acquisition had caused the deep red figures. In 2022, MorphoSys benefited from income from the reduction of financial liabilities from cooperations, so that contrary to market expectations, the final quarter posted a profit.

MorphoSys has been through tough times since the costly takeover of the US cancer specialist. The Bavarians are currently putting everything on one card and are hoping for a breakthrough in a cancer drug acquired from Constellation, which is still being researched. Groundbreaking study results on pelabresib in patients with the rare bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis are not expected until early 2024.

At the same time, the situation for the Monjuvi cancer therapy remains tense. For 2023, the Bavarians expect sales to drop to 80 million dollars at worst and increase to 95 million dollars at best. MorphoSys forecasts sales in dollars as most of the revenue will come from the US market.

In order to save costs, the company is now discontinuing its preclinical research programs. As a result, around 70 jobs will be lost at the company headquarters, as MorphoSys announced at the beginning of March. Nevertheless, the group expects costs for research and development as well as for administration and sales of up to 460 million euros for the year – in 2022 these items together had fallen by almost a third to 450 million euros.

Last year’s report is the last that outgoing CFO Sung Lee co-authored. The manager, who took office in 2019, is leaving the company at the end of this week for personal reasons. MorphoSys had announced the day before that its successor, Lucinda Crabtree, would take up her position at the SDAX company by the third quarter at the latest.

In Thursday trading on XETRA, the MorphoSys share temporarily gained 9.28 percent to EUR 14.90.

PLANEGG (dpa-AFX)

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