Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Ionis Pharmaceuticals published the results on November 9, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison.

• Ionis's R&D revenue moves with partner milestones and license payments, so quarters are uneven. Q2 2025 included a $280 million upfront payment from Ono Pharmaceutical for sapablursen.
• Ionis's only non-GAAP adjustment is compensation expense related to equity awards. It reports a non-GAAP net loss ($67 million in Q3 2026) but no non-GAAP per-share figure.

Source: Ionis Pharmaceuticals Q3 2026 results, November 9, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Ionis Pharmaceuticals splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Ionis Pharmaceuticals's Total commercial revenue revenue was $136 million in Q3 2026, up 17% from $116 million in Q3 2025, 56% of total revenue.
• Ionis Pharmaceuticals's Total research and development revenue revenue was $107 million in Q3 2026, up 161% from $41.0 million in Q3 2025, 44% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

The second quote is Ionis's TRYNGOLZA guidance and the third its DAWNZERA guidance. The release's guidance table keeps total revenue at $875-900 million, the non-GAAP operating loss at $425-475 million and year-end cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments above $1.6 billion.

In its Q3 2026 release, Ionis Pharmaceuticals said:

“Ionis reaffirms its 2026 total revenue, including DAWNZERA product sales, operating loss and cash guidance based on its year-to-date results and fourth quarter outlook.”

“Full year 2026 product sales guidance lowered to approximately $50 million, reflecting a more gradual launch ramp than anticipated as Ionis establishes a new treatment paradigm for people with sHTG”

“On track to achieve full year 2026 product sales guidance of $110-120 million, representing a continuing driver of year-over-year revenue growth”

Source: Ionis Q3 2026 release, Nov 9, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Nov 9, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the IONS forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP total revenue (in millions, as Ionis's release rounds it) and basic and diluted net loss per share, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Ionis Pharmaceuticals's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Nov 9, 2026

Ionis Pharmaceuticals' total revenue was $243 million in Q3 2026, up from $157 million a year earlier. It comes in two kinds: commercial revenue of $136 million, which is sales of its own medicines plus royalties, and research and development revenue of $107 million, the license fees and milestone payments partners pay as programs advance. (Ionis Pharmaceuticals Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Nov 9, 2026)

Royalties are still the largest commercial line at $81 million. SPINRAZA, Biogen's medicine for spinal muscular atrophy, had global sales of $461 million in the quarter, up 23%, which gave Ionis $69 million of royalty revenue. WAINUA royalties were $7 million. Ionis sold part of its SPINRAZA royalties to Royalty Pharma, which receives 25 percent of those royalty payments from 2023 through 2027. (Ionis Pharmaceuticals Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Nov 9, 2026; Ionis Pharmaceuticals Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, Nov 9, 2026)

Ionis's own product sales were $48 million. DAWNZERA, for hereditary angioedema, sold $37 million in the U.S. and drove most of the 18% rise in commercial revenue. TRYNGOLZA, approved by the FDA for severe hypertriglyceridemia (sHTG) in June 2026, sold $9 million, against $32 million a year earlier, before the sHTG approval. ZANVASTRO, for Alexander disease, added $2 million in its first quarter. (Ionis Pharmaceuticals Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Nov 9, 2026; Ionis Pharmaceuticals Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, Nov 9, 2026)

R&D revenue rose to $107 million from $41 million on several partner payments. The 10-Q lists a $35 million milestone when Japan's MHLW approved HIBSAGO for chronic hepatitis B, a $23.5 million milestone from Roche as the Phase 3 IMAgINATION study of sefaxersen advanced, and a $7.5 million milestone from Biogen. (Ionis Pharmaceuticals Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Nov 9, 2026; Ionis Pharmaceuticals Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, Nov 9, 2026)

Ionis Pharmaceuticals lost $110 million in Q3 2026, or $0.66 per share, against a loss of $129 million, or $0.80, a year earlier. Revenue rose faster than costs: total operating expenses were $373 million, up from $317 million, with selling, general and administrative expenses rising to $154 million from $97 million as Ionis paid for its TRYNGOLZA, DAWNZERA and ZANVASTRO launches. (Ionis Pharmaceuticals Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Nov 9, 2026)

Ionis's non-GAAP figures exclude only compensation expense related to equity awards, $43 million in the quarter. On that basis the net loss was $67 million and the operating loss $87 million. Ionis does not publish a non-GAAP loss per share. Shares used in the per-share figure rose to 166 million from 160 million. (Ionis Pharmaceuticals Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Nov 9, 2026)

After Novartis said in September 2026 that the Phase 3 Lp(a)HORIZON study of pelacarsen missed its primary endpoint, Ionis cut its estimate of future pelacarsen royalties to zero and raised the SPINRAZA royalty payments it expects to pay Royalty Pharma from $475 million to $550 million, which changed the interest it records on that liability. (Ionis Pharmaceuticals Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, Nov 9, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals gives full-year guidance in its release. With Q3 2026 results it kept total revenue guidance at $875-900 million, the non-GAAP operating loss at $425-475 million and year-end cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments above $1.6 billion. It cut TRYNGOLZA product sales guidance to about $50 million from $100-110 million, saying the sHTG launch is ramping more gradually than expected, and kept DAWNZERA at $110-120 million. (Ionis Pharmaceuticals Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Nov 9, 2026)

Ionis ended the quarter with $1,884 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, down from $2,677 million at the end of 2025, mainly because it repaid its 0% convertible notes on April 1, 2026. It expects full-year operating expenses to grow by a low-teens percentage. (Ionis Pharmaceuticals Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Nov 9, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Ionis Pharmaceuticals, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Ionis Pharmaceuticals's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning IONS is on is IONS a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the IONS forecast, and what the company does is on the Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Ionis Pharmaceuticals published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.