Tallahassee, FL 10/26/11 (PennyPayDay) -- Human Genome Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) is currently trading down 19.56% at $10.24 per share. Shares of the biotech drugmaker fell 12 percent Tuesday in afterhours trading after the company reported disappointing sales for its highly anticipated lupus drug Benlysta.The company's loss for the third quarter widened to $88.4 million, or 45 cents per share, from $40.9 million, or 22 cents in the prior-year period. Revenue fell to $34 million from $50.8 million. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a loss of 41 cents per share on sales of $36.8 million.
The company said net sales of Benlysta in the last quarter totaled $18.8 million. Benlysta is the first new treatment approved in the U.S. for lupus in 50 years. The disease is a little-understood and potentially fatal ailment in which the body attacks its own tissue and organs. When Benlysta was first launched in March, analysts speculated that the drug could grow into a billion-dollar-per-year blockbuster within five years.
Human Genome Science's results for third-quarter 2010 benefited from milestone payments for the investigational drug Zalbin, which the company is co-developing with Novartis. The company did not receive any payments from the agreement in the most recent quarter.
The company lowered its full-year cash and investments guidance to between $440 million and $470 million for 2011, down from between $550 million and $650 million. Furthermore, its shares were down $1.53 to $11.20 in extended trading following the release of the earnings report.
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