Earnings call transcript: Amphastar Q3 2025 sees steady revenue, stock dips

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals reported its Q3 2025 earnings with net revenues of $191.8 million, slightly above the forecast of $185.23 million. The company’s non-GAAP adjusted net income was $44.6 million, or $0.93 per diluted share, surpassing the EPS forecast of $0.8277. Despite the earnings beat, Amphastar’s stock fell by 4.33% during regular trading hours, closing at $25.31. However, in aftermarket trading, the stock saw a 1.5% uptick, reaching $25.69.

Key Takeaways

• Amphastar’s Q3 revenue slightly exceeded expectations, driven by strong sales of Vaccimi and Primatene Mist.
• The company reported an adjusted EPS of $0.93, beating the forecast.
• Stock price declined by 4.33% during the day but recovered slightly in aftermarket trading.
• Amphastar is focusing on expanding its proprietary product line and increasing production capacity.

Company Performance

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals demonstrated consistent revenue growth in Q3 2025, recording $191.8 million compared to $191.2 million in the previous year. The company attributed its performance to robust sales of key products like Vaccimi and Primatene Mist, which saw year-over-year increases of 14% and 11%, respectively. However, sales of the glucagon injection fell by 49%, highlighting challenges in that segment.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $191.8 million, up from $191.2 million YoY
• GAAP net income: $17.3 million, or $0.37 per diluted share
• Non-GAAP adjusted net income: $44.6 million, or $0.93 per diluted share
• Cash flow from operations: $52.6 million
• Share buyback: $4.9 million

Earnings vs. Forecast

Amphastar’s Q3 2025 adjusted EPS of $0.93 exceeded the forecast of $0.8277, marking a positive surprise of approximately 12%. This performance continues the company’s trend of surpassing earnings expectations, although the magnitude of the beat was consistent with previous quarters.

Market Reaction

Despite the positive earnings results, Amphastar’s stock experienced a 4.33% decline during regular trading hours. The stock price closed at $25.31, down from its previous close. However, in aftermarket trading, the stock rebounded by 1.5%, reaching $25.69. The stock remains within its 52-week range, with a high of $49.53 and a low of $20.39.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Amphastar expects flat revenue for 2025 but anticipates high single-digit to low double-digit growth in 2026. The company is preparing for several product launches, including AMP007 inhalation and a generic teriparatide in 2026, with further launches planned for 2027.

Executive Commentary

"We demonstrated enduring commercial momentum with strong performance from our leading proprietary products, Vaccimi and Primatene Mist," said Dan Dischner, SVP of Corporate Communications. Bill Peters, CFO, added, "Our intent was always to get our pipeline to be 50% proprietary."

Risks and Challenges

• Potential generic competition due to patent expirations, particularly for Primatene Mist.
• Market saturation in the obesity and diabetes sectors, which are attracting significant competition.
• Supply chain disruptions that could impact manufacturing expansion efforts.
• Regulatory hurdles for new product approvals, despite encouraging early data.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about Amphastar’s entry strategy into the iron sucrose market and the implications of Primatene Mist’s patent expiration. The company also addressed plans for newly licensed peptide candidates and the competitive landscape for upcoming product launches.

Full transcript - Amphastar P (AMPH) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Greetings and welcome to the Amphastar Pharmaceuticals third quarter earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star then zero on your telephone keypad. Please note that certain statements made during this call regarding matters that are not historical facts, including, but not limited to, management’s outlook or predictions for the future periods, are forward-looking statements. These statements are based solely on information that is now available to us. We encourage you to review the session entitled "Forward-Looking Statements" in the press release issued today and the presentation on the company’s websites. Also, please refer to our SEC filings, which can be found on our websites and the SEC’s website, for a discussion of numerous factors that may impact our future performance.

We will also discuss certain non-GAAP measures. Important information on our use of these measures and reconciliations to the US GAAP may be found in our earnings release. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Our speakers today are Mr. Bill Peters, CFO, Mr. Dan Dischner, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, and Mr. Tony Mars, Executive Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Operations. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Dan Dischner, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications. Please go ahead, sir.

Dan Dischner, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Amphastar’s third quarter 2025 earnings call. I’m pleased to share that the company delivered another strong quarter, underscoring the continued success of our vertically integrated strategy and steadfast commitment to science-driven innovation. Our performance this quarter was anchored by three core pillars: strong commercial execution, the strategic expansion of our pipeline, and focused regulatory progress, all reinforcing our long-term growth trajectory. For the third quarter, Amphastar achieved net revenues of $191.8 million, with GAAP net income of $17.3 million, or $0.37 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP basis, adjusted net income was $44.6 million, or $0.93 per diluted share. This performance was primarily driven by sustained momentum in our core products, Vaccimi and Primatene Mist. Vaccimi delivered $53.6 million in total sales, up 14% year-over-year.

This growth was driven by seasonal demand and expanded sales execution through our partnership with Mankind’s salesforce. Additionally, total revenue from Primatene Mist increased by 11% year-over-year, validating persistent consumer engagement in the OTC respiratory space as the product consistently sees a positive growth trend. Turning to our proprietary pipeline, I’m excited to highlight a significant expansion this quarter, fueled by an exclusive in-licensing agreement with Nanjing Anji Biotechnology, securing US and Canadian rights to three early-stage novel peptide candidates targeting high-growth markets across oncology and ophthalmology. The first candidate, AMP105, is a first-in-class oncology peptide targeting tumor proliferation and metastasis, representing a novel mechanism of action with broad clinical potential. Early studies have shown anti-tumor activity across multiple cancer types. The second candidate, AMP109, is a peptide-coupled doxycycline with improved selectivity and bioavailability, targeting lung, colorectal, gastric, and pancreatic cancers.

It is designed to reduce doxycycline-induced toxicity and has the potential to improve the efficacy and safety of current taxane therapies. Lastly, the third candidate is AMP107, which is a non-invasive eye drop therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema, offering a patient-friendly alternative to injectable treatments and the potential to improve treatment adherence and quality of life. AMP107 has the potential to be the first non-injectable anti-VEGFR eye drop in a $9.4 billion market. These newly added assets broaden our pipeline beyond diabetes and complex generics, unlocking a combined market opportunity of over $60 billion. To capitalize on this growth, our US manufacturing expansion will quadruple production capacity at our Rancho Cucamonga headquarters, strengthening operational agility and positioning us to capture greater value across our portfolio.

Our investment in domestic capacity reflects a strategic commitment to resilience and scalability as we navigate an increasingly dynamic landscape. We are delighted to share that we are well-positioned to reach our target of proprietary products comprising 50% of our pipeline by 2026. Shifting our discussion to our regulatory initiatives, we made meaningful progress this quarter, highlighted by FDA approval of iron sucrose injection, or AMP-002, which is now commercially available as one of the generic options in the U.S. This milestone expands patient access to affordable therapies while contributing to our revenue growth. During this quarter, iron sucrose injection generated total sales of $2.4 million. Beyond these launches, we continue to advance several high-impact regulatory programs across our portfolio.

For our AMP007 inhalation filing, we are on track for a launch in mid-2026, with the potential to be the first to market generic in a $1.5 billion addressable market. We’re also pleased to report that our generic teriparatide product, AMP015, is also on track for a launch in the first half of 2026. Additionally, our GLP-1 AMDA, AMP018, is on schedule for a 2027 launch. The obesity and diabetes markets continue to attract significant competition, and as a result, we expect the commercial opportunity to be limited, and we will focus on maintaining cost and quality leadership in this space. Finally, our insulin aspart BLA, or AMP004, is moving steadily towards a launch in 2027. The recent approval of biosimilars in this space helps de-risk the opportunity by establishing a proven pathway for market acceptance and adoption.

Collectively, these programs position us to expand patient access and deliver sustainable growth across multiple high-demand therapeutic areas in the coming years. I will now turn the call over to Bill Peters, our CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, for a more detailed financial review of the third quarter.

Bill Peters, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: Thank you, Dan. Revenues for the third quarter increased slightly to $191.8 million from $191.2 million in the previous year’s period. Vaccimi recorded its highest quarterly sales ever, growing to $53.6 million compared to the prior year period of $40.4 million. Amphastar assumed full commercialization responsibility globally at the beginning of 2025. Keep in mind that during the same period last year, Lilly had Vaccimi sales of $6.4 million. Therefore, total Vaccimi sales for the period grew by 14%. Primatene Mist sales grew 11% to $28.8 million in the third quarter compared to $26.1 million in the prior year period, primarily due to our increased marketing efforts. Glucagon injection sales declined 49% to $13.6 million from $26.8 million, primarily due to a decrease in unit volumes and increased competition and a shift to ready-to-use glucagon products such as Vaccimi.

Epinephrine sales decreased 12% to $18.8 million from $21.3 million in the prior year period due to increased competition on our multi-dose vial product. This decrease was partially offset by an increase in unit volume for our epinephrine prefilled syringe as a result of increased demand caused by shortages from other suppliers during the quarter. Sales of lidocaine decreased 19% to $12.9 million from $15.9 million in the prior year period, primarily due to a decrease in unit volumes as a result of other suppliers returning to historical distribution levels. Other pharmaceutical product sales increased to $64.1 million from $58.3 million, primarily due to a $4.7 million increase in sales of albuterol during the period, as well as $2.4 million in sales of iron sucrose injection, which we launched in August 2025.

This increase was partially offset by a decrease in unit volumes of enoxaparin and dextrose, primarily due to increased competition. Cost of revenues increased to $93.2 million from $89.3 million, with gross margins declining to 51.4% from 53.3% in the previous year’s period. Vaccimi sales made by Lilly in the prior year were recorded under the transition service agreement with Lilly and were booked at 100% gross margin. With the completion of the transition to Amphastar, cost of revenue for all products shipped are included in this line, which negatively impacts margin rates. Additionally, pricing declines, as well as a decrease in unit volumes due to competition for both our glucagon kit and epinephrine multi-dose vial product, negatively impacted margins. Because of these trends, management implemented cost control measures across the business, mitigating the impact of pricing pressures.

Selling, distribution, and marketing expenses increased 28% to $11.5 million from $9 million in the previous year’s period due to the sales and marketing efforts related to Vaccimi, including the co-promotion agreement with MannKind, as well as sales and marketing efforts related to Primatene Mist. General and administrative spending increased to $39.5 million from $14.8 million, primarily driven by a litigation provision related to a recent jury verdict in a civil case against the company. While we plan to appeal the decision, accounting standards require us to book provision for the full amount, net of applicable insurance coverage. Research and development expenditures increased 6% to $22.4 million from $21.1 million in the prior year period due to the $5.25 million upfront payment we made to Nanjing Anji Biotechnology to license three peptide products for our proprietary product portfolio.

This increase was partially offset by a decrease in material and supply expenses. Non-operating expenses decreased to $3.8 million from $9.4 million, primarily due to currency fluctuations. Net income decreased to $17.3 million, or $0.37 per share in the third quarter, from $40.4 million, or $0.78 per share in the third quarter of 2024. Adjusted net income decreased to $44.6 million, or $0.93 per share, compared to an adjusted net income of $49.6 million, or $0.96 per share in the third quarter of last year. Adjusted earnings exclude amortization, equity compensation, impairments of long-lived assets, and certain one-time events, including the aforementioned litigation provision that was recorded this quarter. In the third quarter, we had cash flow from operations of approximately $52.6 million. We used a portion of our cash on hand to buy back $4.9 million worth of shares.

I will now turn the call back over to Dan. Thank you, Bill, for the update. In summary, Amphastar’s performance this quarter reflects the power of our integrated strategy and our commitment to long-term transformative growth. We demonstrated enduring commercial momentum with strong performance from our leading proprietary products, Vaccimi and Primatene Mist. We advanced our regulatory pipeline with the approval and launch of iron sucrose injection, alongside steady progress on our interchangeable insulin aspart BLA. Furthermore, we strategically enriched our proprietary portfolio with novel peptide candidates in high-growth indications across oncology and ophthalmology. These achievements underscore our unique combination of scientific innovation, U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities, and deep commercial expertise. With a disciplined focus on proprietary product development and a robust R&D engine powered by our advanced technology, we believe we are positioned to accelerate into the next phase of sustainable growth and value creation.

Thank you for your continued support and for joining us today. With that, we will now take your questions. Operator.

Conference Operator: Thank you, sir. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star and then two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Please note participants are limited to one question and one follow-up. The first question we have comes from Serge Belanger of Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Serge Belanger, Analyst, Needham & Company: Hi, good afternoon. First one for Bill. Now that we’re three quarters in for this year, any updated thoughts on your informal guide for a flat year-over-year top line and maybe more importantly, a double-digit growth for a return to double-digit growth for next year? Secondly, on iron sucrose, you’ve now been in the market for a couple of months, so maybe just highlight or give us an idea of how big the opportunity can be for you, given the competition and your manufacturing capacity for the product. Thank you.

Bill Peters, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: Yeah, so we still believe that we can get to flat this year based on some outperformance by Vaccimi and Primatene Mist and some other factors. Next year, what we’re looking at is probably either a high single-digit to low double-digit growth rates. We’ll talk a little bit more about that in the next call-up. On iron sucrose, I think the best way to look at that is that we had $2.4 million this quarter, which is about half a quarter, and that’s probably a good run rate for the time being on a go-forward basis.

Conference Operator: Thank you. The next question we have comes from Dennis Ding of Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Dennis Ding, Analyst, Jefferies: Hi, thanks for taking the question. This is a wee one for Dennis Ding. We would like to ask if there’s any updates on 007 and what about the communication with FDA? Has the shutdown impacted that process at all? Also, would you like to comment on the FDA bandwidth to handle these applications, especially given the shutdown situation?

Bill Peters, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: Sure. This is Tony for our AMP007. We continue to have engagement with the agency on it. Given the nature of the combination and complex products like this, this is kind of the due course for these types of products. As a result, we’ve aligned our guidance more precisely around the anticipated launch date, as you’ll see there. We’ve done this because we believe it offers a more meaningful and actionable reference point for the analyst. As far as the bandwidth from the agency, we have seen just slight delays in interaction, not necessarily directly related to any delays in products, just maybe taking a little bit longer to respond to questions. This hasn’t resulted directly to anything that we’ve seen as far as missed dates.

Conference Operator: Thank you. The next question we have comes from Jason Gerberry of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Bob Lynd Patel, Analyst, Bank of America: Hey, guys. This is Bob Lynd Patel on for Jason Gerberry. Thanks for taking your questions. The first on generic Venofer, maybe can you just speak to the competitive dynamics? Just wondering why it seems like the competitor, generic Venofer that’s launched, seems to have garnered a little bit more market share since the start of the launch. What are the key pushes and pulls in working with these dialysis centers? I’m just trying to think through if there are any levers such as contracting or anything else that you can pull in order to increase the run rate headed into 2026. Maybe as you look towards 2026, it sounds like high single-digit to double-digit growth is the new sort of commentary there. I’m just wondering, is that baking in.

All of the pipeline aspects that you’ve talked about in terms of AMP007, generic Forteo, generic GLP-1, and maybe not the insulin aspart since that’s 2027, but is that all on a nominal basis, or is there any risk adjusting that’s going on there? Thank you.

Bill Peters, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: Yeah, so for the iron sucrose question, our goal is to launch it with a profitable price portfolio and hit it at hit points where we can have a nice margin on this. We may not have gone as aggressively in some areas where there’s some lower margin. Also, I think while we had some supply initially, I think that we were not, we didn’t have enough supply at the beginning of the quarter, but we were by the end of the quarter. I still think the initial guidance I gave a little while ago, which was we were in for half a quarter, that’s probably the run rate to look at on a going forward basis. I think that’s the best way to look at that. As far as the guidance for next year, we do risk adjust our guidance.

I will say that the insulin product and also the GLP-1. We’ve assumed that those do not launch until 2027, so they’re not in the guidance for next year.

Conference Operator: Thank you. The next question we have comes from Ekaterina Knyazkova of J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Ekaterina Knyazkova, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Thank you so much. Just on the licensing you did with Nanjing Anji, just elaborate a bit more on what brought you to that portfolio of assets initially and just your level of excitement, both about the science and the potential commercial opportunity. Kind of a related question, but just on business development more broadly, just level of appetite of doing more deals going forward, and maybe your preference between doing something with more clinical risk like you just did or something closer to Vaccimi that’s more commercial stage. Thank you.

Bill Peters, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: Yeah, when we looked at this opportunity in working with Anji and these products, this is something that’s been a long part of our long-term plan. That is to get more into branded products. As we’ve gone along over the years, we’ve had that toolbox has been very effective for us. Immunogenicity, preclinical. Animal studies, doing a lot of work in these early development, has helped us considerably. When we looked at this opportunity, it seemed like a very good fit. All of the pieces were in place for us to be able to actually do the development of these types of products.

As far as business development on a going forward basis, I would say that now that we have some early-stage assets and some commercial assets, I think what we would be looking for primarily is either assets that are already commercialized or very late-stage R&D assets. One other thing too, level of excitement about these products. We’re very, very excited about them. We’ve seen some early data for us on some of these animal models. It looks very encouraging for, as Dan had mentioned, some potentially broad applications for some of these cancer treatments. It seems very exciting for us to have this opportunity.

Conference Operator: Thank you. The next question we have comes from David Amsellem of Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Serge Belanger, Analyst, Needham & Company: Thanks. Two for me. One on insulin aspart. What’s the competitive landscape going to look like in your view once you’re in a position to launch in 2027? And how are you thinking about just the size of that opportunity and how impactful that could be to your portfolio? So that’s number one. And then secondly, on Primatene Mist, noticed that your one R&D patent expires in 2026. Are you expecting competition there? How are you thinking about exclusivity for that product? Thank you.

Bill Peters, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: As far as the insulin aspart goes, we do know we originally hoped that we’d be there first or second, but it’s likely to be three or more competitors in that market. It’s a large market and a lot of volume. There are a couple of things going for us there, which are we make the API ourselves, and we also make the finished product ourselves. With a large volume market like that, it’s going to really help our cost structure to get another high-volume product like that out here will affect our overall cost structure. We still see that as being a good market that we can have strong sales, and it would be something that will move the needle for our company. It’s not just another launch. On Primatene Mist, yeah, the patent for the current product does expire next year.

Two things on that. One, we do not know of any competition, but generic competition, but not that there will not be because there always could be. We also have been saying all along that we think it is unlikely that we get competition early on. Because of this product being, because it is an OTC product, a lot of the sales would stay with the brand. If there is a generic come in, we assume that the brand gets half the market anyway. Of the other half of the market, if there was generic, we would also launch our own generic version of it and probably capture half the generic market. Any competitor would be limited to one quarter of the market, and they would have to cut the price at half or more to get any of that market share.

We’re talking maybe it’s a $10-$12 million sales market, and it’s also now not a high-margin product. It’s a low-margin product. Spending $10 plus million to get to that low-sales, low-margin product, we don’t think is a great idea for most players. We don’t see that as being a big opportunity for generics. We think it’s not the most likely target for generics to go after. Secondly, we’ve also discussed how we are working on a follow-on product that has an even lower global warming propellant. We’re working with EFDA right now. We’ve already filed one patent on that and are working on some others as we plan to get that product moving forward. We’ll probably give some more information about timing of that next year.

Conference Operator: Thank you, Tom. The final question we have comes from Ben Burnett of Stifel. Please go ahead.

Ben Burnett, Analyst, Stifel: Hey, thank you very much. I want to go back and ask a follow-up question around the in-license products that you just got. I wonder if you can maybe just kind of map out for us sort of the market or the regulatory and development path. Is there one of these? Could one maybe be developed before the other or have a shorter path to market? How do you see sort of the timing there?

Bill Peters, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: Yeah, what I could say about these, these would be new chemical products. So these would be going through the routine new product, new chemical entity pathway from the agency. From a prioritization, we have some that we think might be a little bit easier than others. It’s kind of early for us to give any kind of prioritization guidance on that. Other than it’s going to be some animal studies that we’ll have to do and followed by some human studies, obviously, kind of the normal pathway that you would expect. How much prioritization the agency gives in that remains to be seen. We’re very encouraged by some of the early data, and we think perhaps the agency will too, which will help expedite the approval process of that. We’re still early in it, and we’re still kind of evaluating some of the.

Pre-clinical data that we’re getting, although we’re very encouraged by it. One thing I’d like to add to that is that this has been a plan of ours for a while. As we’ve illustrated in our presentation, our intent was always to get our pipeline to be 50% proprietary. We’ve staffed up. We have the resources to work on all of these independently at the same time. As we start hitting our stride with them, we’ll have a better outlook on how we’ll report it and when we’ll report it and what we’ll report going forward.

Ben Burnett, Analyst, Stifel: Okay. Great. Thank you very much for that. If I could just maybe follow up with a Vaccimi question, I guess, what is your estimate for kind of the share of the ready-to-use market that you have? I feel like in the past, you’ve talked about the glucagon market as potentially expanding. Curious if you’re still seeing that, and if so, kind of what are sort of the drivers of that? Thank you.

Bill Peters, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: Yeah. Right now, depending on the month, we usually have between 55-60% of the ready-to-use market, and that’s how we’re defining that segment of the market. We have said that the glucagon market is expanding. Going back to the data on that, which was when we purchased Vaccimi, only 10% of people who are on insulin were getting a glucagon script filled. At that time, the Diabetes Association recommended that every person who is on insulin get a glucagon script filled. We’ve seen that increase pretty steadily, and we’re now up to 12% of people getting a glucagon script filled. It has increased pretty significantly, but we think that there’s a lot of opportunity for that number to keep increasing. Therefore, we’re very excited about the long-term cash flows from this product and the long-term growth of that product.

We still have our forecast of peak sales of $250 million-$275 million. We think that that’s very achievable. We’re still excited about this, and Vaccimi is our number one growth product for next year.

Conference Operator: Thank you, Sam. There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Dan Dischner for closing comments. Please go ahead, Sam.

Bill Peters, CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals: Thank you, operator. Thank you all for joining us today. We remain excited about closing 2025 on a positive trajectory and remain focused on delivering innovation and value as we enter 2026. I look forward to sharing updates next year. Have a great day.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that then concludes today’s conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

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