With the approval of GILD's 3-drug HCV salvage therapy Vosevi and the growing success of Epclusa, GILD has the upper hand in HCV treatment. Presumably ABBV has had enough of price wars, but we shall have to wait and see.
There was one positive bit of information on the pipeline that helped tip me to like GILD stock more. This is on filgotinib, from Galapagos (GLPG), a Janus kinase, or JAK, inhibitor.
Filgotinib may be looking better
This was a deal I liked from the start, a derisked, truly Phase 3-ready molecule that ABBV let go to focus on a similar drug that it had developed internally. The whole field was thrown into some turmoil when a major pipeline product for Lilly (LLY), baricitinib, developed by Incyte (INCY), was not approved by the FDA. Apparently, the grounds for non-approval revolved around dosage and side effect issues.
GILD's filgotinib was suggested by Dr. Bischofberger in the conference call to have a better chance of success for two reasons. One was that the company was using two doses as suggested by the FDA. The other was that baricitinib had blood clotting as a side effect. However, that drug raised platelet levels in the blood, while filgotinib lowers platelets.
That's a bit of encouraging news. Filgotinib has some strong pharmacologic characteristics. It is in Phase 3 for three major autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and both major inflammatory bowel diseases. It is also in Phase 2 for two other autoimmune diseases. There will be an interim analysis by mid-year next year in the ulcerative colitis study.
While GILD shares revenues with GLPG, GILD also owns some equity in GLPG, which has appreciated since the deal was struck.
This is the sort of deal that I like and would like to see more of, but I agree with GILD that until it knows where it is going with filgotinib, in NASH and its other, less-promising R&D ventures (my opinion), it just does not make sense to pay today's high prices for pharma assets. Rather, GILD's stock is a good enough investment based on current trends.