Bayer’s surprising growth in the second quarter was driven in large part by two pharma products: the prostate cancer drug Nubeqa and the chronic kidney disease treatment Kerendia.
Bayer released its second-quarter 2024 earnings results on Tuesday, posting a slight uptick in sales as the company undergoes a sweeping strategic and structural overhaul.
In Q2, Bayer reported revenues of $12.15 billion, beating the consensus analyst forecast of approximately $12.05 billion, according to analytics firm Vara Research. Compared with the same quarter in 2023, Bayer’s total group sales climbed 3.1% on a currency- and portfolio-adjusted basis.
Bayer’s pharmaceuticals business grew, improving 4.5% year-over-year to around $5.02 billion in Q2. The group’s consumer health division “returned to growth,” CEO Bill Anderson said in a statement, with sales increasing 5.3% and bringing in $1.59 billion. Bayer’s crop science unit also saw year-over-year growth and was its top-performing business.
Despite being outperformed by its agriculture arm, Bayer’s pharma unit is “one of our biggest levers for value creation,” Anderson said, highlighting the group’s new products Nubeqa (darolutamide) and Kerendia (finerenone). In Q2, Nubeqa grew 90% while Kerendia’s sales increased 72.9%.
Bayer’s blockbuster drug Eylea (aflibercept)—the revenues from which the group splits with Regeneron—remained a strong asset, growing 7.7% in the quarter.
First approved in 2021, Nubeqa is an androgen receptor inhibitor indicated for of non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. In March 2024, Bayer claimed that Nubeqa was the fastest-growing androgen receptor blocker in the U.S., and that the drug is on track to hit blockbuster status this year. The company is expecting a readout this year from the Phase III ARANOTE trial, which evaluated Nubeqa with androgen deprivation therapy in patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.
Kerendia is a first-in-class non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that was approved in July 2021 for the treatment of chronic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes. In August 2023, Bayer expanded the clinical development program of Kerendia to include heart failure and on Monday, the drug aced a Phase III study in this indication, significantly cutting the composite of cardiovascular death and total heart failure events versus placebo.
Bayer’s Q2 results come amid Anderson’s efforts to win back investor confidence after the group’s disastrous $66 billion acquisition of Monsanto. In January 2024, Anderson rolled out a new operating model, seeking to maximize efficiency and trim bureaucracy across Bayer’s operations—including job cuts through 2025.
In March 2024, Bayer reduced its executive leadership to eight members, down from a previous headcount of 14. Among the casualties were Anne-Grethe Mortensen, head of global marketing, Gerd Krüger, head of radiology and Heiko Schipper, president of the consumer health division. In May 2024, Bayer laid off an additional 1,500 employees, most of whom were in managerial posts.
