Novocure: Steady Ahead of Key Milestones

Key Points

• Novocure topped analyst estimates for the quarter, posting 6% revenue growth and 9% total active patient growth year over year.

• The company is not yet profitable, and gross margin fell due to expenses tied to ongoing trials and product rollouts.

• Novocure intends to seek regulatory approval for two new products in the second half of the year.

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Here's our initial take on Novocure's (NASDAQ: NVCR) fiscal 2025 second-quarter financial report.

Key Metrics

Slow and Steady Progress for Novocure

Novocure reported no surprises in its latest quarter, with revenue up 6% for the year and both revenue and loss per share topping Wall Street expectations. The company, which is developing noninvasive methods to treat solid-tumor cancers, has added more than 300 active patients to its trials over the last year.

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Revenue from its Optune Lua lung cancer treatment, which was approved for use in the U.S. last fall, totaled $2.4 million.

Gross margin fell by 300 basis points in the quarter, which the company attributed to costs associated with the rollout of new products. Research, development, and clinical studies expenses in the quarter totaled $55.8 million, up 2% from the same period in 2024.

Although Novocure is not yet profitable, the company ended the quarter with $911.5 million in cash and equivalents on the books.

Immediate Market Reaction

The results were largely in line with expectations, and there hasn't been a strong market reaction on Thursday morning. Novocure stock was up about 2% in premarket trading.

What to Watch

CEO Ashley Cordova called it "a pivotal period for Novocure." Before year's end, the company plans to seek Food and Drug Administration (FDA) premarket approval for the treatment of certain types of pancreatic cancer and a separate treatment for brain cancers based on phase 3 trial data. Data from trials on treating metastatic pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma are expected in the first half of 2026.

Of course, Novocure investors know better than most that there are no "sure things" in biotech. The stock is trading down more than 92% from its 2021 high due to disappointing results from a once-promising lung cancer trial.

Novocure offers great potential but also significant risk. The latest results reinforce the potential and show the company remains on track, but the ultimate trajectory of this stock remains very much tied to how these trials and FDA applications progress.

Helpful Resources

• Full earnings report
• Investor relations page

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Lou Whiteman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends NovoCure. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.