Biotech Earnings Review: Celgene, Biogen

Sales of cancer drug Avastin came in at $600 million, missing analyst estimates of between $614 million and $621 million. The company won U.S. regulatory approval for the drug in the breast cancer indication in February, marking a rare occurrence of the FDA going against the recommendation of one of its advisory panels.

Sales of Rituxan increased 13% year over year to $605 million, just beating the consensus target of $603 million, and Herceptin sales increased 9% to $339 million, surpassing expectations for $329 million. Lucentis sales came in at $198 million, short of the $202 million expectation.

Genentech maintained prior full-year earnings guidance of $3.35 to $3.45 a share.

For more on Genentech, check out these recent headlines from TheStreet.com:

• Genentech Beats Profit Expectations
• DNA's Rituxan Flunks MS Trial
• Biogen, Genentech's Rituxan Fails New Study

Gilead GILD: April 16

Gilead presented higher-than-expected sales in its HIV franchise and managed a 3-cent per-share profit beat on roughly in-line total revenue.

The company reported earning $522.1 million, or 54 cents a share, before items. Revenue rose 22% to $1.26 billion. Results beat the Thomson Reuters consensus target of 48 cents a share on $1.2 billion in revenue.

Sales totaled $1.14 billion for the quarter, with $946.7 million of that from the HIV franchise. Some highlights in the HIV franchise: Truvada brought in $479.4 million, beating the Wall Street consensus target of $468 million. Atripla sales totaled $324.2 million, beating the consensus target of $311 million. Viread sales decreased 5% to $152.7 million, but still beat Wall Street's target of $146 million.