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IONIS PHARMACEUTICALS INC

For the period ended Mar 31, 2025. Filed Apr 30, 2025.

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About this filing

A company's report for each of its first three quarters. The financial statements are not audited. It shows how the business has moved since the last annual report, and what management says changed.

Mar 31, 2025 · Filed Apr 30, 2025

IONS$31.00-21.4%Stored close · as of Nov 9, 2026

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Item 2. Results of Operations

Results of Operations

The following is a summary of our financial results (in millions):

20252024
Total revenue$131.6$119.5
Total operating expenses$278.5$269.0
Loss from operations$(146.9)$(149.5)
Net loss$(146.9)$(142.8)

Revenue

Total revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $131.6 million compared to $119.5 million for the same period in 2024 and was comprised of the following (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Revenue:
Commercial revenue:
Product sales, net:
TRYNGOLZA sales, net$6.3$—
Total product sales, net6.3—
Royalty revenue:
SPINRAZA royalties48.038.5
WAINUA royalties9.41.1
Other royalties6.89.8
Total royalty revenue64.249.4
Other commercial revenue:
TEGSEDI and WAYLIVRA revenue, net5.78.6
Other revenue—1.6
Total other commercial revenue5.710.2
Total commercial revenue76.259.6
Research and development revenue:
Collaborative agreement revenue45.049.3
WAINUA joint development revenue10.410.6
Total research and development revenue55.459.9
Total revenue$131.6$119.5

Commercial revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2025 increased 28% compared to the same period in 2024, driven in part by revenue from U.S. product sales from the launch of TRYNGOLZA. Higher royalty revenues from SPINRAZA, WAINUA and QALSODY also contributed to the year over year increase.

The remainder of our revenue came from programs under our research and development, or R&D, collaborations, reflecting the value that our pipeline and technology continue to generate.

WAINUA (Eplontersen) Collaboration with AstraZeneca

Our financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 reflected the cost-sharing provisions related to our collaboration with AstraZeneca to develop and commercialize WAINUA for the treatment of ATTR. Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, AstraZeneca is currently paying 55 percent of the costs associated with the ongoing global Phase 3 development program. Because we are leading and conducting the Phase 3 development program, we are recognizing as R&D revenue the 55 percent of cost-share funding AstraZeneca is responsible for, net of our share of AstraZeneca's development expenses, in the same period we incur the related development expenses.

Index

As AstraZeneca is responsible for the majority of the medical affairs and commercial costs in the U.S. and all costs associated with bringing WAINUA to market outside the U.S., we are recognizing cost-share funding we receive from AstraZeneca related to these activities as a reduction of our medical affairs and commercialization expenses, which we classify as R&D and selling, general and administrative, or SG&A expenses, respectively. We expect our medical affairs and commercialization expenses to increase as WAINUA advances toward the market for ATTR-CM under our collaboration with AstraZeneca.

The following table sets forth information on revenue and expenses under this collaboration (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
WAINUA joint development revenue$10.4$10.6
Research and development expenses related to Phase 3 development of WAINUA21.522.7
Medical affairs expenses for WAINUA1.61.3
Commercialization expenses for WAINUA7.76.0

Operating Expenses

The following table sets forth information on operating expenses (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Operating expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards$248.8$237.7
Non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards29.731.3
Total operating expenses$278.5$269.0

Operating expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards, for the three months ended March 31, 2025 increased slightly compared to the same period in 2024. SG&A expenses increased year over year primarily due to the launches of WAINUA and TRYNGOLZA, and advancing launch preparation activities for donidalorsen. R&D expenses decreased year over year as several late-stage studies ended. We expect our operating expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards, to continue to increase during the remainder of 2025 as we advance our commercialization activities.

To analyze and compare our results of operations to other similar companies, we believe it is important to exclude non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards from our operating expenses. We believe non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards is not indicative of our operating results or cash flows from our operations. Further, we internally evaluate the performance of our operations excluding it.

Cost of Sales

Our cost of sales is comprised of costs related to our commercial revenue, which consisted of manufacturing costs, including certain fixed costs, transportation and freight, indirect overhead costs associated with the manufacturing and distribution of TRYNGOLZA, TEGSEDI and WAYLIVRA and certain associated period costs.

Cost of sales for a newly launched product, such as TRYNGOLZA, does not include the full cost of manufacturing until we manufacture and sell additional inventory after exhausting pre-launch inventory, which we previously recorded as R&D expense.

The following table sets forth information on cost of sales (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Cost of sales, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards$1.4$2.0
Non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards0.10.2
Total cost of sales$1.5$2.2

Index

Research, Development and Patent Expenses

Our research, development and patent expenses consist of expenses for drug discovery, drug development, medical affairs, manufacturing and development chemistry and R&D support expenses.

The following table sets forth information on research, development and patent expenses (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Research, development and patent expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards$180.4$192.0
Non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards20.422.2
Total research, development and patent expenses$200.8$214.2

Drug Discovery

We use our proprietary technologies to generate information about the function of genes and to determine the value of genes as drug discovery targets. We use this information to direct our own drug discovery research, and that of our partners. Drug discovery is also the function that is responsible for advancing our core technology. This function is also responsible for making investments in complementary technologies to expand the reach of our technologies.

The following table sets forth information on drug discovery expenses (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Drug discovery expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards$27.0$28.2
Non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards4.14.3
Total drug discovery expenses$31.1$32.5

Drug discovery expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards, were essentially flat in thethree months ended March 31, 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.

Drug Development

The following table sets forth drug development expenses, including expenses for our marketed medicines and those in Phase 3 development for which we have incurred significant costs (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Eplontersen$21.1$21.7
Olezarsen24.939.5
Donidalorsen5.14.8
Zilganersen5.22.1
Ulefnersen3.03.5
Other development projects22.225.1
Development overhead expenses31.429.1
Total drug development expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards112.9125.8
Non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards9.510.4
Total drug development expenses$122.4$136.2

Our development expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards, decreased for thethree months ended March 31, 2025 compared to the same period in 2024 as several late-stage studies ended. We expect our development expenses will continue to stabilize as several late-stage studies end and we reallocate resources toward earlier stage programs.

Index

We may conduct multiple clinical trials on a drug candidate, including multiple clinical trials for the various indications we may be studying. Furthermore, as we obtain results from trials, we may elect to discontinue clinical trials for certain drug candidates in certain indications in order to focus our resources on more promising drug candidates or indications. Our Phase 1 and Phase 2 programs are clinical research programs that fuel our Phase 3 pipeline. When our medicines are in Phase 1 or Phase 2 clinical trials, they are in a dynamic state in which we may adjust the development strategy for each medicine. Although we may characterize a medicine as “in Phase 1” or “in Phase 2,” it does not mean that we are conducting a single, well-defined study with dedicated resources. Instead, we allocate our internal resources on a shared basis across numerous medicines based on each medicine’s particular needs at that time. This means we are constantly shifting resources among medicines. Therefore, what we spend on each medicine during a particular period is usually a function of what is required to keep the medicines progressing in clinical development, not what medicines we think are most important. For example, the number of people required to start a new study is large, the number of people required to keep a study going is modest and the number of people required to finish a study is large. However, such fluctuations are not indicative of a shift in our emphasis from one medicine to another and cannot be used to accurately predict future costs for each medicine. Because we always have numerous medicines in preclinical and varying stages of clinical research, the fluctuations in expenses from medicine to medicine, in large part, offset one another. If we partner a medicine, it may affect the size of a trial, its timing, its total cost and the timing of the related costs.

Medical Affairs

Our medical affairs function is responsible for funding and coordinating investigator-sponsored trials, communicating scientific and clinical information to healthcare providers, medical professionals and patients, and managing publications.

The following table sets forth information on medical affairs expenses (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Medical affairs expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards$5.6$4.7
Non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards0.30.9
Total medical affairs expenses$5.9$5.6

Medical affairs expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards, increased in the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to the same period in 2024 as we continued advancing our late-stage pipeline.

Manufacturing and Development Chemistry

Expenditures in our manufacturing and development chemistry function consist primarily of personnel costs, specialized chemicals for oligonucleotide manufacturing, validation batches to support regulatory approvals, laboratory supplies and outside services. Our manufacturing and development chemistry function is responsible for providing drug supplies to drug development and our collaboration partners. Our manufacturing procedures include testing to satisfy good laboratory and good manufacturing practice requirements.

The following table sets forth information on manufacturing and development chemistry expenses (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Manufacturing and development chemistry expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards$14.3$11.4
Non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards2.12.3
Total manufacturing and development chemistry expenses$16.4$13.7

Manufacturing and development chemistry expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards, increased inthe three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to the same period in 2024 due to the timing of manufacturing performed by our contract manufacturing organizations for drug product related to several late-stage programs.

Index

R&D Support

In our research, development and patent expenses, we include support costs such as rent, repair and maintenance for buildings and equipment, utilities, depreciation of laboratory equipment and facilities, amortization of our intellectual property, information technology costs, procurement costs and waste disposal costs. We call these costs R&D support expenses.

The following table sets forth information on R&D support expenses (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Occupancy$7.3$7.1
Personnel costs6.87.8
Computer software and licenses3.21.6
Insurance1.00.9
Patent expenses0.60.7
Consulting expenses0.10.6
Other1.63.2
Total R&D support expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards20.621.9
Non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards4.44.3
Total R&D support expenses$25.0$26.2

R&D support expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards, were essentially flat in thethree months ended March 31, 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

SG&A expenses include personnel, information technology systems and outside costs associated with the commercialization and pre-commercialization activities for our medicines and costs to support our company, our employees and our stockholders including, legal, human resources, investor relations and finance. Additionally, we include in SG&A expenses such costs as rent, repair and maintenance of buildings and equipment, depreciation and utilities costs that we need to support the corporate functions listed above. We also include fees we owe under our in-licensing agreements related to SPINRAZA and QALSODY and cost sharing payments associated with co-commercialization activities under our WAINUA collaboration with AstraZeneca.

The following table sets forth information on SG&A expenses (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Selling, general and administrative expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards$67.0$43.7
Non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards9.38.9
Total selling, general and administrative expenses$76.3$52.6

SG&A expenses, excluding non-cash compensation expense related to equity awards, increased in thethree months ended March 31, 2025 compared to the same period in 2024 due to the launches of WAINUA and TRYNGOLZA and advancing launch preparation activities for donidalorsen. We expect SG&A expenses to increase as we continue to invest in our independent commercial launches.

Investment Income

Investment income for the three months ended March 31, 2025 was $24.7 million compared to $26.3 million for the same period in 2024. Our investment income decreased primarily due to a decrease in interest rates associated with our investments during the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.

Index

Interest Expense

The following table sets forth information on interest expense (in millions):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20252024
Convertible notes:
Non-cash amortization of debt issuance costs$1.5$1.6
Interest expense payable in cash2.52.5
Interest on mortgage for manufacturing facility0.10.1
Total interest expense$4.1$4.2

Interest Expense Related to Sale of Future Royalties

We recorded $18.8 million and $18.0 million of interest expense related to the sale of future royalties in thethree months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024. respectively. These amounts are related to the Royalty Pharma Investments, or Royalty Pharma, transaction, in which we sold a minority interest in our future SPINRAZA and pelacarsen royalties to Royalty Pharma for a $500 million upfront payment and $625 million of potential future payments. Refer to Part I, Item 1, Note 11, Liability Related to Sale of Future Royalties, in the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for further details.

Gain (Loss) on Investments

We recorded a net loss on investments of $2.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to a net gain on investments of $2.3 million for the same period in 2024 primarily due to changes in the fair value of our investments in publicly traded biotechnology companies.

Income Tax Expense

We recorded income tax expense of $0.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to $0.1 million for the same period in 2024.

We continue to maintain a full valuation allowance on all of our net deferred tax assets.

Net Loss and Net Loss per Share

We had a net loss of $146.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 compared to a net loss of $142.8 million for the same period in 2024, which reflects the fluctuations discussed above. Our basic and diluted net loss per share for thethree months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 was $0.93 and $0.98, respectively.

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The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.