BioMarin (BMRN) Q3 2026 earnings review
Acquired drugs lift BioMarin sales, but the company cuts its outlook
BioMarin crossed $1 billion in quarterly sales for the first time, but the April purchase of Amicus did most of the work while the full-year plan came down. Chief executive Alexander Hardy highlighted 32% revenue growth, yet by our math sales from medicines the rare-disease drugmaker owned a year ago rose 6%. Two new research deals also brought $403 million in full-year charges, pulling the profit per share outlook down by more than a third.
| Sales from drugs owned a year ago | +6.2% by our math (+32% including Amicus) |
|---|---|
| VOXZOGO treated children | +17% from a year ago (>20% in Q2) |
| Full-year revenue outlook | Cut $50M middle of the range: $3.85B (+20%) |
| Full-year profit per share outlook, excluding one-offs | Cut $2.05 includes $1.87 of new research deal charges |
⚖️ Verdict: 🔴 Bearish
The story got worse because BioMarin cut its full-year sales outlook for VOXZOGO and its metabolic drugs while patient growth on VOXZOGO slowed. Settling the patent dispute with rival Ascendis brings a 18% to 20% royalty on the competing drug, but it leaves a weekly rival on the market as VOXZOGO patient growth eased to 17%. On the positive side, the newly acquired Amicus medicines had a strong first full quarter and cost cuts lifted the underlying margin.
The question now is whether the Amicus acquisition and cost cuts can make up for slower growth in the older medicines and a $4.2 billion debt load. One view is that new patients and hypochondroplasia approvals in 2027 will restart growth; the other is that deal making is masking a maturing core business. Fourth-quarter order deliveries and next year's outlook will settle it.
🐂 Bull Case
Amicus Drugs Grew Fast in First Full Quarter
BioMarin bought Amicus Therapeutics in April to add two rare-disease treatments: GALAFOLD for Fabry disease and POMBILITI + OPFOLDA for Pompe disease. In their first full quarter inside the biotech group, the two medicines brought in $201 million and lifted patient counts across the metabolic division.
- GALAFOLD revenue: $152 million, with treated patients up about 13% from a year ago
- POMBILITI + OPFOLDA revenue: $49 million, with treated patients up about 69% from a year ago
- Total metabolic division revenue: $744 million, up 44% from a year ago
Patient growth on GALAFOLD matches the company's long-term plan, and POMBILITI + OPFOLDA grew even faster. However, the release noted that the Pompe treatment "benefited from supply constraints for other Pompe therapies", so part of that 69% patient jump came from a rival's temporary shortage rather than normal demand.
What to watch: the quarterly filing's like-for-like revenue table for the third quarter. A growth rate near 10% for GALAFOLD would confirm the acquired business is on track for management's multi-year targets.
Cost Cuts Lifted Underlying Operating Margin
BioMarin plans to cut $220 million of yearly operating costs, excluding one-offs, from the Amicus business by 2028. In the third quarter, the rare-disease drugmaker said it was "realizing accelerated cost synergies to enable investments in initiatives to drive future growth of GALAFOLD and POMBILITI + OPFOLDA".
Operating margin excluding stock pay, asset write-downs and integration costs rose to 13.4% from 2.8% a year ago. Both quarters included large upfront research charges from buying smaller drug developers. Strip those out, and by our math the underlying operating margin rose to 41.5% from 31.3% a year ago because selling and administrative costs fell by 4.4 percentage points of revenue and research spending fell by 6.1 percentage points.
What to watch: fourth-quarter operating expenses excluding one-offs. Continued restraint in administrative spending would show the Amicus cost cuts are sticking ahead of 2027.
Regulators Set Dates for Next VOXZOGO Uses
VOXZOGO is BioMarin's daily injection for children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. Chief executive Alexander Hardy is counting on a second condition, hypochondroplasia, to drive the next phase of growth starting in 2027. Today the US regulator set a decision date of May 30, 2027 for that expansion, and European regulators accepted the application for review. A separate US decision on full approval in achondroplasia is due on February 28, 2027.
What to watch: the February 28, 2027 US regulatory decision on full achondroplasia approval. Approval would cement VOXZOGO's long-term safety and height data on the official label as weekly rivals enter the market.
🐻 Bear Case
Acquired Drugs Did the Heavy Lifting
"BioMarin delivered a strong quarter, with revenue growth of 32%, driven by a more diversified portfolio following the acquisition of Amicus Therapeutics earlier this year," chief executive Alexander Hardy said. That headline number crossed $1 billion in a quarter for the first time, which is how Hardy framed the company's momentum.
Take out the $201 million from the two Amicus drugs bought in April, and sales from businesses BioMarin owned a year ago grew 6.2% by our math. That is up from 3.4% in the second quarter, helped by an 18% jump in VIMIZIM, an enzyme therapy for Morquio A syndrome, on international order timing. Meanwhile, PALYNZIQ, an enzyme treatment for phenylketonuria, slowed to 2% growth after expanding 9% over the first nine months.
What to watch: fourth-quarter revenue excluding GALAFOLD and POMBILITI + OPFOLDA. Another reading in the low-to-mid single digits would confirm that the original portfolio is growing slowly beneath the acquisition boost.
Pipeline Deals Cut Full-Year Profit Plan
BioMarin has made external dealmaking its main way to refill the drug pipeline, signing four deals in 2026 after last year's purchase of Inozyme failed in clinical trials. This quarter the California biotech closed the purchase of Alesta Therapeutics for an oral hypophosphatasia drug (BMN 440) and licensed a long-acting Fabry treatment (BMN 450).
- Alesta acquisition: $320 million in full-year pre-tax charges, cutting profit per share by $1.55
- BMN 450 license: $83 million in full-year pre-tax charges, cutting profit per share by $0.32
- Full-year profit per share outlook, excluding one-offs: cut to $2.80–$3.10 from $4.90–$5.10
Accounting rules require drugmakers to expense upfront payments for unproven research right away, even in profit measures that exclude other one-offs. Those two deals explain $1.87 of the $2.05 cut to the middle of the full-year profit plan. Even adding that $1.87 back, the clean profit forecast slipped by about $0.18 per share by our math to $4.82, because of lower revenue expectations.
What to watch: clinical data from BMN 440 and the Duchenne muscular dystrophy candidate BMN 351 over the next year. Early trial success is needed to show this spending creates value after the Inozyme write-off.
VOXZOGO Growth Slowed and Rivals Settled
VOXZOGO faces its first direct competition in achondroplasia from Ascendis Pharma's weekly injection Yuviwel, which launched in the US earlier this year. In the third quarter, the number of children treated with VOXZOGO rose 17% from a year ago, down from more than 20% in the first two quarters of 2026, while revenue grew 12% to $245 million.
In August, BioMarin announced "the global settlement of all outstanding claims with Ascendis Pharma A/S related to its product Yuviwel". Instead of blocking the rival drug from the market, BioMarin will collect a 20% royalty on US sales and 18% in Europe, Brazil and South Korea through May 2030. That royalty cushions the financial blow and lifted the company's "Other Revenues" outlook by $25 million, but it leaves the weekly rival on the market while VOXZOGO's own full-year outlook dropped by $25 million.
What to watch: VOXZOGO patient growth and royalty revenue in the fourth quarter. A further slowdown in patient additions below 17% would show the weekly competitor is taking a larger bite out of demand.
Order Swings Forced a Rare Outlook Cut
More than three-quarters of VOXZOGO sales and a large share of enzyme therapy sales come from outside the US, where governments often buy in bulk. That makes quarterly sales uneven: in the third quarter, VIMIZIM rose 18% on order timing while NAGLAZYME, a treatment for MPS VI, fell 11% for the same reason.
This time the lumpiness hit the full-year plan. After beating its full-year revenue forecast for two years running, BioMarin trimmed its 2026 revenue outlook by $50 million at the middle of the range because of "uncertainty in the timing of multiple orders from a single international customer". Even though the release noted that "a large international order previously expected in the third quarter is now anticipated in the fourth quarter" for VOXZOGO, the broader customer delay pushed the full-year target down.
What to watch: fourth-quarter revenue against the implied $1.07 billion target. Landing near the top of the new range would show the delayed international orders arrived before year-end.
Risks this quarter didn't answer
Three standing items could not be read from the third-quarter earnings release because the details live in the conference call remarks or the quarterly filing.
- Like-for-like combined revenue growth: the release gives no combined year-ago baseline for the Amicus drugs; Note 2 of the quarterly filing will show it.
- US VOXZOGO patient switching: the release did not update the roughly 10% switch rate to the weekly rival disclosed last quarter.
- Department of Justice subpoena: the release has no update on the investigation into sponsored testing programs for VIMIZIM and NAGLAZYME; the filing's legal footnote will cover it.
💲 Other KPIs
Down slightly from $4,186 million last quarter after $15 million in loan repayments, but up from $597 million at year-end 2025 after borrowing to buy Amicus. About $659 million is now due within a year, and net interest expense took $51 million in the third quarter against $15 million of net interest income a year ago.
Fell 53% from a year ago by our math, bringing nine-month free cash flow — operating cash left after factory spending — to $499 million, down 25% from the first nine months of 2025. Higher interest payments and integration payouts weighed on cash generation.
Bills owed by customers rose 18.5% from $908 million at the end of 2025, alongside an 18.5% rise in nine-month revenue. The increase reflects the addition of Amicus sales and the timing of large international orders.
🔮 Guidance
Cut. The middle of the range dropped by $50 million, to $3,850 million or about 20% growth, after two raises earlier in the year (+$500 million for Amicus in Q1, +$25 million in Q2). By our math, that leaves $1,069 million for the fourth quarter, or 22.3% growth from a year ago, because an international customer's orders may slip.
Cut. The drugmaker lowered the middle of the range by $37.5 million to $2,712.5 million, or 29% growth. By our math, that implies $758.5 million in the fourth quarter, up 38.2% from a year ago on a full quarter of GALAFOLD and POMBILITI + OPFOLDA.
Cut. Management reversed last quarter's $25 million raise, bringing the range back to where it started the year at $1,000 million in the middle, or 8% growth. By our math, that leaves $283 million for the fourth quarter, up 3.7% against a high year-ago comparison that included a large government order.
Raised. The outlook for KUVAN, ROCTAVIAN and royalties moved up by $25 million across the range. Having generated $110 million in the first nine months, the new middle of $137.5 million leaves about $27.5 million for the fourth quarter, helped by the new Yuviwel settlement royalties.
Cut. The middle of the range fell by $2.05 to $2.95, a 6% decline from 2025. Upfront research charges from the Alesta and BMN 450 deals account for $1.87 of the drop, and the lower revenue plan accounts for the other $0.18 by our math. That leaves $0.77 per share for the fourth quarter, up 67% from $0.46 a year ago.
❓ Key Questions
What was combined like-for-like revenue growth in Q3?
Reported revenue rose 32%, but excluding the Amicus drugs bought in April, sales grew 6.2% by our math. Without the combined like-for-like table from the quarterly filing, investors cannot tell whether the combined business accelerated from the 6.0% rate in Q2.
Did US patient switching from VOXZOGO level off?
Global VOXZOGO patient growth slowed to 17% from over 20% in the first half, and the company settled its patent dispute with Ascendis for a royalty. Management did not say in the release whether US switching stayed near 10% or climbed.
How much did rival shortages lift POMBILITI + OPFOLDA?
Patients on POMBILITI + OPFOLDA jumped 69% from a year ago, and the release noted a benefit from supply constraints on competing Pompe treatments. Investors need to know how much of that gain is permanent once rival supply returns.
Will BioMarin pay the May 2027 debt in cash?
About $659 million of debt now sits in current liabilities ahead of the May 2027 convertible bond maturity, while cash stood at $736 million after buying Alesta. Management has not detailed how much cash it wants to keep on hand.