Genmab collected $742 million in royalties during the first quarter of 2026 — a 26% jump driven almost entirely by assets it does not sell itself. That structural dependency is the central tension in this earnings report: a company posting 25% top-line growth is still, fundamentally, a business that lives and dies by daratumumab and ofatumumab royalty checks signed by Johnson & Johnson and Novartis.
DARZALEX global net sales hit $3.96 billion in the quarter, up 22% year-over-year, and that single asset accounts for the overwhelming majority of Genmab’s revenue base. EPKINLY is growing, but its contribution is partially offset by profit-sharing obligations to AbbVie, which pushed cost of product sales up 55% versus the prior year period. The Merus acquisition closed in December 2025 and is already dragging: $45 million in severance and retention charges, plus a ninefold increase in intangible amortization, compressed reported operating profit to $180 million from $188 million despite the revenue surge. Strip out those one-time items and adjusted operating profit reaches $237 million — a more honest read of underlying momentum, but also a number that flatters Genmab’s own commercial execution more than it deserves.
The strategic bet Genmab is making is unmistakable. Operating expenses outside acquisition charges rose $121 million, with petosemtamab and rinatabart sesutecan absorbing the bulk of that investment as Genmab builds out its own global launch infrastructure. The FDA label update removing the 24-hour hospitalization recommendation for epcoritamab in third-line-plus DLBCL is a commercial accelerant — outpatient administration meaningfully expands the addressable treatment setting and reduces the institutional friction that has slowed bispecific antibody uptake in community oncology. That label change matters more for EPKINLY’s trajectory than any efficacy data refinement at this stage.
Full-year guidance is unchanged, which signals management confidence but also sets a high bar for the back half of 2026, when petosemtamab and Rina-S readouts are expected to land. The number to track is EPKINLY’s net product sales growth in Q2 — the first full quarter after the outpatient label change. If that line doesn’t accelerate materially, the case that Genmab can generate meaningful proprietary revenue independent of its royalty machine becomes harder to sustain.
Jon Napitupulu is Director of Media Relations at The Clinical Trial Vanguard. Jon, a computer data scientist, focuses on the latest clinical trial industry news and trends.
