Genfit: Iqirvo royalties up 188% over nine months, revenue down
Genfit published its third-quarter financial results on November 5, 2026, which show two movements in opposite directions.
Over the first nine months, royalties received on sales of Iqirvo (elafibranor) by Ipsen rose 188% to €36.3 million, while total revenue declined to €36.4 million, compared with €39.2 million a year earlier.
The gap is explained by the absence of milestone payment revenue recognized in the first nine months of 2026, whereas the comparable 2025 period included €26.6 million of revenue of this type. Cash fell to €95.6 million at September 30, compared with €113.8 million at the end of June, a level that the Lille-based biotech considers sufficient to finance its activities beyond the end of 2028.
The revenue decline is due to the absence of a milestone payment
Royalties rose from €12.6 million in the first nine months of 2025 to €36.3 million over the same period of 2026. They come almost entirely from worldwide sales of Iqirvo by Ipsen, and the company attributes their increase to “the acceleration of sales in the United States and solid performance in Europe and other markets.”
However, these royalties do not remain with Genfit: they are used to repay the royalty-backed financing concluded by the group. They were not enough to offset the 2025 comparison base, which included a milestone payment triggered by the reimbursement and price approval of Iqirvo in Italy, the third largest European market after the United Kingdom and Germany.
Genfit itself notes that annual comparisons must take into account the timing of these payments, and indicates that new milestone revenue could be recognized in future periods.
Ipsen's Iqirvo sales up 170.8% over nine months
The main driver of royalties remains the commercial momentum of Iqirvo in primary biliary cholangitis. Net sales reached €109.4 million in the third quarter of 2026, compared with €48.6 million a year earlier, an increase of 125.4% at constant exchange rates.
Over nine months, net sales amounted to €282.6 million, compared with €107.4 million, an increase of 170.8% at constant exchange rates. The pace of the third quarter alone is therefore lower than that of the cumulative figure, on higher quarterly amounts.
Based on sales for fiscal year 2026, Genfit anticipates that a new commercial milestone payment could be reached. In July, Ipsen raised its estimate of peak sales in this indication from €500 million to €1 billion. This revision followed the results of the ELSPIRE phase 3 study, published on July 13, 2026.
In this study, normalization of alkaline phosphatase was achieved in 85% of treated patients, compared with 23% under placebo at week 52. A regulatory request to update the labeling is under way. In primary sclerosing cholangitis, the ELASCOPE phase 3 study is ongoing, with results expected around 2031.
Cash of €95.6 million deemed sufficient beyond the end of 2028
Cash stood at €101.1 million at the end of 2025 and €113.8 million at June 30, 2026. In the first half, cash consumption, mainly linked to research in acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) and to the GNS561 program in cholangiocarcinoma, was partly offset by two receipts.
The first corresponds to the second tranche of €30.0 million from the royalty-backed financing. The second is Ipsen's first commercial milestone payment, of €17.0 million, recognized in 2025 and collected in 2026.
The financing horizon beyond the end of 2028 rests on several explicit assumptions: the continued commercial performance of Iqirvo, the receipt of significant milestone payments provided for under the agreement with Ipsen, control of expenses, the development of diagnostic revenues, and the possibility of drawing, if necessary, the third and final tranche of the financing.
On the diagnostics side, Medicare reimbursement of Labcorp's NASHnext test, based on Genfit's NIS technology, has been in effect since August 2026. Genfit must present its industrial strategy for an in vitro diagnostic kit by the end of the year, with a commercial launch envisaged from 2028, subject to authorization.
In the clinic, three phase 2 studies in ACLF and cholangiocarcinoma aim for results in 2027, including that of nangibotide, a program acquired in summer 2026. This horizon thus partly relies on milestone payments, the very ones whose absence explains the nine-month revenue decline.
