Justin Renz
Analyst · Cantor. Please go ahead. Hi, congratulations on the quarter and thank you for taking my questions
Thank you, Mike. I'm very pleased to be ready to discuss the second quarter performance we reported earlier today, which included significant growth for both of our commercial products and thoughtful management of our finances, while maintaining a strong balance sheet. Let's start with revenue. We reported significant year-over-year revenue growth during the second quarter, totaling $73.2 million. That is compared to $22.3 million of total revenue during the same period in 2023. This growth reflects incredibly strong performances from both IBSRELA and XPHOZAH, which together totaled $72.6 million in net product sales revenue in the second quarter of 2024 compared to $18.3 million in net product sales revenue coming from IBSRELA alone in the second quarter of 2023. Before I jump in, I'd like to take a moment to share our perspective on the publicly available prescription data for IBSRELA and XPHOZAH, as many of you ask how to best consider those data in relation to our revenue. First, as you know, our net sales revenue was based upon bottle shipments to our distributors and is not directly linked to prescription-level data available from Symphony or IQVIA. As we've discussed, our distributors and pharmacies keep winded amounts of product in the channel, essentially just-in-time inventory management. I encourage you to use some caution as information from prescription data providers can be incomplete and inconsistent, especially for medicines like IBSRELA and XPHOZAH as a result of our market access and distribution strategy that relies on the critical relationship between HCPs, specialty pharmacies and ArdelyxAssist. Remember, too, that not all prescriptions are a 30-day supply, some are 60-day and some are 90-day supply. We understand the desire to use those data, but we want you to consider these dynamics moving forward. With IBSRELA, we began providing with revenue guidance when we were comfortable and we were able to provide a solid expectation of the future performance of the product. We will provide similar guidance even for XPHOZAH when we have a solid perspective of our future expectations. For the second quarter of 2024, net product sales revenue for IBSRELA was $35.4 million, nearly doubling the $18.3 million in revenue we reported during the same period last year and 25% quarter-over-quarter growth compared to the first quarter of 2024. IBSRELA's performance was due to strong volume growth resulting from demand driven by our commercial focus and increasing both depth and breadth of writing. That focus continues to translate into growth in new and refill prescriptions as well as expansion of new and repeat writers. We also benefited from the expected improvement in our gross to net deduction for IBSRELA, which decreased from 33.5% in the first quarter this year to 29.7% in the second quarter. As we have seen over the past two years, we expect to gradually improve over the remainder of the year. We are in the final stages of completing the expansion of the IBSRELA sales team. The IBS-C market has responded very favorably to IBSRELA product and clinical profile and our marketing efforts. It is also clear that increasing exposure and frequency of messaging to our target healthcare providers generates new writers and expands the number of patients treated by existing writers. We expect the expanded sales team to begin having an impact later this quarter. As we consider the second half of the year, the fundamentals driving IBSRELA performance remain. We anticipate continued strong quarter-over-quarter growth for the remainder of this year, and we reiterate our guidance. We expect full year 2024 IBSRELA U.S. net product sales revenue will be between $140 million and $150 million. Now turning to XPHOZAH. XPHOZAH continued its exceptional performance, reporting $37.1 million in second quarter net product sales revenue, up from $15.2 million we reported in the first quarter of the year. Growth continues to be driven by strong demand from healthcare providers who have a clear need for a new and different option for dialysis patients to help them achieve target phosphorus levels. In addition to strong demand for XPHOZAH, our gross to net deduction improved from 23.8% in the first quarter to 21.4% for the second quarter period. As is the case for IBSRELA, the primary deduction is reflected in our gross to net for XPHOZAH, on the standard fees to our distributors, rebates and discounts to government payers and costs associated with our commercial co-pay program. And consistent with our distribution and market access strategy, we do not contract to provide rebates to payers and pharmacy benefit managers. Commercial patients who have an out-of-pocket co-pay cost may have their co-pay requirements covered. Thus, the impact on our gross to net is highly dependent on our payer mix and utilization of our commercial co-pay program. We are very pleased with these results to date. As we continue to learn more about the patient and payer mix that impacts the calculation, we will provide our expectations for the gross to net deduction as we do with IBSRELA. We are very pleased with our top line results during the quarter. Our commercial approach is working, and our teams are executing the highest level to build and maintain the growth momentum we've established with both IBSRELA and XPHOZAH. Now for the expense and cash side. Throughout the second quarter, we continue to be thoughtful on how we manage our expenses. Research and development expenses were $12.8 million compared to $8.3 million during the second quarter of 2023. This increase reflected expanded field-based medical affairs teams focused on the gastroenterology and nephrology communities. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $64.7 million for the second quarter compared to $27.2 million for the same period of 2023. The increase was related to commercial launch activities for XPHOZAH, investments to grow IBSRELA throughout last year as well as the extension of the IBSRELA sales team that I just spoke to and which occurred primarily during the second quarter of this year. As I previously communicated, we expect our SG&A run rate once the expansion is complete to be approximately $80 million per quarter. Substantial top line growth, combined with thoughtful cost management, resulted in a net loss of approximately $16.5 million or $0.07 per share compared to a net loss of $17.1 million or $0.08 per share in the same period of 2023. Our $16.5 million net loss for the second quarter of 2024 included $12.3 million in combined noncash expenses from share-based compensation and noncash interest expense related to the sale of future royalties. We finished the second quarter in a strong cash position. As of June 30, 2024, we had total cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $186 million as compared to $184.3 million at the end of 2023. We did not engage in any fundraising activities during Q2. However, as a reminder, we drew the $50 million tranche proceeds from our debt agreement with SLR Capital back in March. We are pleased with our performance during the second quarter, driving continued substantial top line growth across our product lines, managing our operating expenses and maintaining a strong balance sheet. We will continue to be thoughtful with how we deploy capital while focusing on maximizing shareholder value. With that, I'll hand it back to Mike.