Geron Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Geron reported strong second-quarter performance, with revenue rising 17% year over year to $57.5 million and first-half revenue up approximately 24%. The company ended the quarter with $327 million in cash, equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities.
• RYTELO demand increased 5% sequentially, while prescribing accounts grew 8% to about 1,575. Geron now expects 2026 RYTELO revenue toward the mid-to-high end of its existing $220 million–$240 million guidance range.
• Geron continues advancing RYTELO’s real-world evidence and its Phase III IMpactMF myelofibrosis trial, while exploring European commercialization options. The company expects to update investors on its European strategy before the end of 2026.

Geron NASDAQ: GERN reported second-quarter net revenue of $57.5 million, up 17% from a year earlier and 11% sequentially, as the company continued to expand use of RYTELO among patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS.

Chief Executive Officer Harout Semerjian said first-half net revenue rose approximately 24% from the same period in 2025, while total operating expenses declined 4%. The company ended the quarter with $327 million in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities.

“We delivered another quarter of net revenue growth, expanding RYTELO's reach to more eligible patients,” Semerjian said. “We delivered another quarter of net revenue growth, expanding RYTELO's reach to more eligible patients, strengthened the clinical evidence supporting RYTELO, continued investing in future growth opportunities, all while remaining financially disciplined.”

RYTELO Demand and Commercial Execution

Geron said RYTELO demand increased 5% in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, marking its third consecutive quarter of demand growth. The number of prescribing accounts increased 8% to approximately 1,575 since the product's launch.

Ahmed ElNawawi, Geron’s chief commercial officer, said patient starts in the first- and second-line settings represented 34% on a rolling 12-month basis. The company is prioritizing high-volume community treatment centers, earlier identification of eligible patients, account management and targeted engagement with health-care professionals.

Geron estimates that approximately 8,000 patients in the United States may be eligible for RYTELO in the second-line, lower-risk MDS setting.

During the question-and-answer session, Semerjian said sales growth is coming from both new and existing prescribing accounts. ElNawawi added that the company expects expansion into new accounts, or breadth, to become a smaller contributor during the second half, while greater use within existing accounts, or depth, becomes a more important metric.

ElNawawi said Geron does not currently have a reliable metric for measuring duration of therapy and therefore cannot determine whether persistence is increasing or decreasing.

Guidance Points to Higher End of Revenue Range

Based on first-half performance, Geron expects 2026 RYTELO net product revenue to land at the mid-to-high end of its previously stated $220 million to $240 million guidance range. The company continues to expect total operating expenses of $230 million to $240 million for the year.

Chief Financial Officer Michelle Robertson said the company expects consistent quarter-over-quarter revenue growth through the remainder of 2026. Geron manages inventory within a two- to four-week range and does not expect significant inventory-related increases or decreases in the second half, she said.

Second-quarter gross-to-net deductions rose to 20.7%, compared with 15.3% in the year-earlier period. Geron continues to expect gross-to-net deductions in the low-to-mid-20% range for the remainder of the year.

• Research and development expense was $22 million, compared with $21.7 million a year earlier.
• Selling, general and administrative expense was $38.9 million, compared with $38.6 million in the prior-year quarter.
• Total operating expenses, excluding cost of goods sold, were $60.7 million, compared with $60.3 million a year earlier.

Robertson attributed higher research and development spending to investments in chemistry, manufacturing and controls, or CMC, and said higher marketing expenses affected selling, general and administrative costs. These increases were partially offset by lower personnel costs following the company’s workforce reduction in December 2025.

Real-World Evidence and Myelofibrosis Program

At the European Hematology Association congress, Geron presented retrospective results from an investigator-sponsored real-world study conducted with Moffitt Cancer Center. The two-part retrospective and prospective study is evaluating RYTELO’s safety and clinical efficacy in advanced, heavily transfusion-dependent lower-risk MDS patients, including patients with extensive prior therapies and prior luspatercept failure.

Semerjian said the retrospective findings were generally consistent with the Phase III IMerge trial and supported RYTELO’s safety, efficacy and tolerability profile in a broader patient population. The data also indicated a trend toward better management of cytopenias and improved responses when RYTELO was used in the first three lines of therapy.

Chief Medical Officer Joseph Eid said the company expects to present insights from the prospective portion of the study at a future scientific meeting.

Geron also discussed its Phase III IMpactMF trial of imetelstat in relapsed or refractory myelofibrosis. The company has engaged regulators and outside experts regarding the design of the trial’s interim analysis and is evaluating a modification to the event threshold that would support registration if the data monitoring committee recommends unblinding for positive efficacy.

Eid said the potential modification concerns the interim analysis and would not change the final overall-survival analysis, which remains the trial’s primary endpoint. Geron’s base-case expectation remains for the final overall-survival analysis in the second half of 2028, while a positive result at the interim analysis would be an earlier upside scenario.

European Commercial Plans Expected Before Year-End

Geron said it is exploring a “gated” commercialization strategy for RYTELO in Europe and other markets while seeking to preserve U.S. pricing integrity. The company expects to provide an update on its European commercialization plans before the end of 2026.

Semerjian said Geron sees a patient opportunity in Europe comparable in scale to the U.S. market and is engaging medical experts and payers. He said the company is monitoring evolving most-favored-nation dynamics and expects to assess potential approaches in major markets including Germany and France. Potential strategies could include partnership arrangements, he said.

Geron also announced that Chinmaya Rath joined the company as chief business officer. Semerjian said Rath’s appointment supports the company’s effort to identify strategic growth opportunities and build Geron into a leading hematology company.

About Geron (NASDAQ:GERN)

Geron Corporation NASDAQ: GERN is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to developing and commercializing novel treatments that target telomerase, an enzyme critical to cancer cell immortality. The company's research is focused on hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, with a pipeline designed to address diseases that have historically had limited therapeutic options.

The lead product candidate, imetelstat, is a first-in-class telomerase inhibitor currently in Phase II and Phase III clinical trials for myelofibrosis and myelodysplastic syndromes.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

Continue following MarketBeat

Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.

Add As Preferred Source