Pacira Pharmaceuticals (PCRX) stock fell over 5% on Friday, February 28th, following the release of the company's Q4 2024 earnings report and full-year 2025 financial guidance. The plummet occurred despite a continuation of strong revenue growth for the company's flagship products EXPAREL and ZILRETTA in Q4.
The decline appears to be driven by near-term concerns around increasing investments across R&D and commercial operations pressuring profitability in 2025. Specifically, Pacira raised R&D expense guidance by 11% versus Q4 2024 run rate to fund key pipeline programs like the Phase 2 study for osteoarthritis drug candidate PCRX-201, as well as regulatory efforts for ZILRETTA and iovera line extensions. SG&A expense guidance was also increased 8% to support new marketing initiatives including planned direct-to-consumer pilot programs for EXPAREL.
Additionally, while the new NOPAIN Act coverage and EXPAREL J-code are expected to drive sales growth beginning in the second half of 2025, management cautioned that customer integration could take time, creating potential volatility in near-term performance. There are also lingering uncertainties around the commercial potential of Pacira's newly acquired pipeline assets from the GQ Bio acquisition, as those programs are still in the early preclinical stages.
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