UCB's Q2 2025 Performance

Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, we're looking at UCB's Q2 and first half performance for 2025. Yes. And the goal here is really to pull out the key strategic insights from their latest earnings call for you. Exactly. Cut through the noise. And honestly, the picture that emerges is, well, pretty strong, robust performance, really. It absolutely is. You can see a clear narrative building strong execution, real financial momentum. We'll focus on the numbers that truly matter and what they suggest going forward. Okay, so let's get into those headline figures then. Overall revenue, first half of 2025, $3.49 billion. That's right. A significant jump, 25% year over year. And net sales climbed even a bit faster, 26%, reaching $3.32 billion. Wow. And immunology seems to be a huge part of that story. Oh, definitely. 1.82 billion just from immunology. That's up a massive 45 percent compared to last year. OK, so that strength obviously feeds into their outlook. It does. They've updated their 2025 financial guidance because of it. Revenue is now expected to hit at least 7 billion. Which is up quite a bit from the earlier 6.5, 6.7 billion range they gave. Exactly. And adjusted EBITDA projected now at 30 percent of revenue minimum. It shows real confidence, you know, and it's mainly powered by those key growth drivers. Right. And speaking of drivers, let's talk BIMX. It seems to be, well, the star of the show right now. Good question. Stuller performance is the right word. Worldwide sales in the first half hit 799 million. 799 million compared to what was it, 215 million in H1 2024? Precisely. A monumental leap. Yeah. And the U.S. market is really fueling that 545 million in net sales there. Compared to just 85 million the year before, what's driving that incredible acceleration? Well, a couple of things. Fundamentally, there's just strong demand across all its indications. Psoriasis, or PSO, is still the biggest chunk, about 61% of global sales. Okay. But Hydrodonitis supertiva, HS, is really coming on strong. It's now the second largest, accounting for 21% of those H1 sales. Interesting. And crucially, in the U.S., they're converting that demand very efficiently into paid prescriptions. That's helped by really broad formulary access. Right. The insurance coverage. Exactly. They've secured coverage for over 70 percent of commercial lives, plus good Medicare and Medicaid access. That makes a huge difference. And you see that reflected in the market adoption figures. You do. In the US PSO market, Bimzels grabbed a 35% dynamic share within the IL-17 class in under two years. That's fast. Very fast in a competitive field like IL-17s. And for HS. For HS, dynamic patient share hit around 40% by May. We're talking about 4,000 prescribers already using it. Impressive uptake. And the peak sales forecast. They're holding firm on expecting peak sales to go north of $4 billion for Bimzels. OK, so BIMS ALCS is clearly the growth engine, but let's not forget SIMSIA. Good point. SIMSIA is, well, it's the steady contributor. Worldwide sales were 959 million. Now that's actually down 4% year over year. Down 4%, but I thought you said steady. Ah, but that decrease is mainly due to net price erosion. The important part is that the underlying volume grew by 7%. OK, so more people are using it, but the price per unit is lower. Precisely. Which leads to the key question. How is it still doing reasonably well, even though the U.S. patent expired back in February 2024? That's the critical point, isn't it? Usually patent expiry means a cliff. But not here. The crucial factor is that there's no biosimilar competition expected before 2030. That gives it runway. I see. And they're focusing it strategically. Yes. They continue to focus on specific groups, like women of childbearing age. And in rheumatoid arthritis, it's actually growing faster than the overall RA market itself. So it still has its niche. So strong positioning there. Now, connecting this back to the bigger picture, how does this shape their strategy, particularly for Benzox in HS? Well, the strategy seems to be shifting. It's moving beyond just switching patients from other treatments. Now it's about actually expanding the market for biologics in HS. Because many patients aren't on biologics yet. Exactly. They highlighted that 4 out of 10 HS patients starting BIMFELX are bio-naive, new to this type of treatment. That's a huge pool of potential growth. Makes sense. They must be anticipating more competition in HS, though. Oh, for sure. Competition is coming. But UCB seems confident that BIMS' LXM mechanism hitting both IL-17A and F, plus the strong real-world data they're gathering, will keep it competitive. And beyond the current portfolio, what about the pipeline? Anything looking promising? Yes, definitely worth mentioning. They have dapirolazumab paygol for lupus, SLE, which showed positive phase 3 results. That's quite significant. Okay. And they're making progress in atopic dermatitis, too, with a couple of assets, UCB9741 and UCB1381, now in phase 2 trials. So building for the future beyond the current blockbusters. Right. It signals a commitment to diversifying, looking at other areas with unmet needs. That's key for long term sustainability and, you know, de-risking the business. So wrapping this up then, what's the key takeaway for you? UCB presented a genuinely strong first half for 2025. Bimselsk is clearly breaking out. Simsia are mainstable for now. And that's led to this confident boost in their financial outlook. Absolutely. The performance is solid, especially that rapid uptake of Bimsolex. So the final thought we want to leave you with is this. Considering the success, and particularly that strategic shift for Bimsolex from just capturing existing market share to actively expanding the overall HS market, how might this influence UCB's long-term R&D investment choices and their approach to portfolio diversification, especially as competition inevitably heats up in these key areas?