Gilead rises on higher than expected revenues and earning in second quarter

(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) was trading about 3% higher this morning as the US pharmaceutical group reported higher than expected earnings in the second quarter.

Gilead earned US$4.49 billion ($3.15 per share) against US$3.66 billion ($2.36 per share) a year ago on 26% higher revenues of US$8.24 billion. Analysts had expected US$2.71 a share on revenues of US$7.6 billion.

For 2015 the group is now targeting sales of between 29 and 30 billion dollars against a previous range of $ 28-29 billion.

One of the biggest drivers of the higher revenues was Gilead’s drug to treat hepatitis C Harvoni and Sovaldi which combined generated US$4.9 billion dollars in the second quarter higher than Wall Street expectations of about US$3.47 billion for Harvoni and US$928 million for Sovaldi according to StreetAccount.

Gilead now enjoys an over 90 percent market share for all hepatitis C patients according to Gilead's executive vice president of commercial operations Paul Carter:

"We see encouraging trends and remain highly confident" said Carter during an earnings call about the US and European market potential for its hepatitis C treatments.

Gilead is also known for its HIV treatment Truvada which also saw a notable 5% increase in sales  compared to Q2 of 2014 reaching US$849 million higher also than analysts’ estimates of US$795.8 million.