Coherus Oncology Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• LOQTORZI remains the centerpiece of Coherus Oncology’s strategy, with management expecting revenue to accelerate through 2026 and eventually reach about $15 million per quarter this year, rising to $30 million–$35 million per quarter in 2027 and roughly $175 million annually at peak.
• First-quarter LOQTORZI sales were $11.8 million, down slightly from the prior quarter but up 61% year over year, while new starts hit an all-time high and the company said demand growth should average 10% to 15% per quarter across 2026.
• Coherus expects a series of midyear and second-half 2026 clinical data readouts from its pipeline, including casdozokitug in first-line hepatocellular carcinoma and tagmokitug across several tumor types, while the company ended the quarter with $167 million in cash and said it is funded through key data milestones.

Coherus Oncology NASDAQ: CHRS said it expects revenue growth for its nasopharyngeal cancer drug LOQTORZI to build through the rest of 2026, while the company prepares for multiple clinical data readouts across its oncology pipeline later this year.

On the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Lanfear said Coherus is pursuing a strategy centered on LOQTORZI, its PD-1 inhibitor, both as a commercial product in nasopharyngeal cancer and as a potential combination therapy with pipeline assets in other cancers.

Lanfear said the company continues to project LOQTORZI revenue reaching about $15 million per quarter sometime in 2026, $30 million to $35 million per quarter sometime in 2027 and a peak share of about $44 million per quarter in 2028, or roughly $175 million annually.

LOQTORZI Sales Dip Sequentially but Rise From Prior Year

Chief Commercial Officer Sameer Goregaoker said LOQTORZI net sales were $11.8 million in the first quarter, compared with $12.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. He said first-quarter sales were up 61% compared with the first quarter of 2025.

Goregaoker attributed the sequential decline to normal first-quarter seasonality and severe weather across large parts of the country. Coherus analyzed a basket of 85 oncology products and found an average 5% decline from the fourth quarter to the first quarter over the past four years, but a 10% decline in 2026, which he said was likely tied to winter storms.

Despite the sequential sales decline, Goregaoker said LOQTORZI new starts reached an all-time high in the quarter, driven by broader prescribing in new accounts and deeper use in existing accounts. He said breadth and depth of ordering accounts increased 21%, while treatment duration continued to rise quarter over quarter.

In response to analyst questions, Goregaoker said about 75% to 80% of LOQTORZI patients currently come from the metastatic setting, including front-line and second-line metastatic use, with a smaller percentage from the locally advanced recurrent setting. He said the company expects more use in locally advanced recurrent patients as the launch matures.

Company Targets Chemo-Only and Off-Label PD-1 Use

Goregaoker said Coherus sees two main levers to drive demand growth: reducing chemotherapy-only use, especially in community settings, and curbing off-label PD-1 use in nasopharyngeal cancer that he said is driven by guideline and indication misperceptions.

He said new claims data purchases have expanded the company’s visibility into chemotherapy-only and off-label immunotherapy use across up to 70% of addressable patients. Coherus is using that data for patient alerts, field targeting and multichannel execution. Goregaoker also said the company’s inside sales team is now fully operational, expanding its reach into community oncology.

Coherus continues to expect 10% to 15% demand growth per quarter on average across 2026 quarters, Goregaoker said.

Pipeline Readouts Expected Around Midyear

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Rosh Dias said Coherus completed target accrual in its CATALYST-202 randomized study in first-line hepatocellular carcinoma. The 72-patient study is evaluating two active doses of casdozokitug in combination with toripalimab and bevacizumab versus toripalimab and bevacizumab.

Dias said the company expects initial data around midyear, with response data likely to mature over time. He said the study builds on prior data presented at ASCO GI, where casdozokitug added to atezolizumab and bevacizumab showed a 38% overall response rate and a 17% complete response rate, compared with historical atezolizumab and bevacizumab data of 30% and 7.7%, respectively.

Coherus is also advancing tagmokitug, its CCR8 cytolytic antibody, in several tumor types. Dias said the company expects midyear data from a 40-patient second-line head and neck squamous cell carcinoma expansion and an upper gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma cohort. Additional cohorts in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and microsatellite stable colorectal cancer are expected to produce initial data in the second half of 2026.

Dias said the company also continues to expect the first patient this fall in a prostate cancer cohort combining tagmokitug with Johnson & Johnson’s pasritamig T-cell engager.

Executives Discuss CCR8 Field and Biomarkers

Chief Scientific and Development Officer Dr. Theresa LaVallee said the competitive CCR8 field is evolving, with some companies pausing programs and others moving into later-stage development. She said successful CCR8 drug development depends on having the “right drug” and “right target,” citing factors such as pharmacokinetics, potency, dose-dependent target effects and safety.

LaVallee said tagmokitug has shown “excellent linear dose and dose-dependent PK,” potency in binding and killing the target, dose-dependent immune effects and an acceptable safety profile both alone and with toripalimab.

For the CATALYST-202 casdozokitug study, LaVallee said Coherus plans to analyze biomarkers associated with response and pharmacodynamic markers supporting casdozokitug’s contribution of effect. She highlighted IL-27 expression in tumor samples and circulating tumor DNA as areas of focus.

LaVallee said a prior small hepatocellular carcinoma dataset suggested higher IL-27 expression in tumors was associated with response, though only seven tumor samples were available. In the current study, she said pretreatment tumor samples were obtained for nearly all patients.

Expenses Decline, Cash Position Strengthened

Chief Financial Officer Bryan McMichael said Coherus generated $54 million in net proceeds from a follow-on equity offering, including full exercise of the underwriters’ overallotment option. He said the proceeds are supporting new colorectal cancer and prostate studies, added LOQTORZI commercialization investments and general corporate purposes.

Research and development expenses from continuing operations were $21.5 million in the first quarter, down from $24.4 million a year earlier. Selling, general and administrative expenses from continuing operations were $23.1 million, down from $26 million in the first quarter of 2025.

McMichael said the expense declines reflected reduced headcount and infrastructure costs, tight spending discipline and savings from the company’s completed exit from the biosimilar business, partly offset by increased pipeline investments.

Coherus ended the quarter with $167 million in cash, equivalents and investments, compared with $172.1 million at year-end. McMichael said the company believes it is funded through key data readouts in 2026 and 2027.

About Coherus Oncology NASDAQ: CHRS

Coherus Oncology, Inc is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of biologic therapies for oncology support and immuno-oncology. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, Coherus specializes in biosimilar versions of established oncology agents as well as novel immunotherapy candidates.

The company's lead marketed products include Udenyca (pegfilgrastim-cbqv) and Fulphila (pegfilgrastim-jmdb), biosimilars to Amgen's Neulasta, which are designed to reduce the incidence of infection in patients undergoing myelosuppressive chemotherapy.

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