Jan Mikkelsen
Analyst · Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Today, we are reporting our full year 2018 financial results, and I will review some of our major achievements and milestones during the past year. In 2018, we continue to make progress toward our strategic goal to create sustainable growth by building a diversified pipeline of three independent product opportunities in rare disease endocrinology. For TransCon Growth Hormone, we successfully advanced our Phase 3 program, including the pivotal heiGHt Trial, fliGHt or Switch trial, and the enliGHten [ph] long-term extension trial. For TransCon PTH, we completed our Phase 1 program. Our data reinforced the target product profile of this product candidate as a true replacement therapy for patients living with hyperparathyroidism. For TransCon CNP, we completed and reported positive Phase 1 results. The clinical results support our target product profile to provide continuous and therapeutic levels of CNP for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without increasing cardiovascular risk and with a weekly demonstration. 2018 was the best year ever for Ascendis Pharma, and this trend has continued into 2019. First, we introduced our next strategic roadmap through 2025, Vision 3x3. The strategic goal of Vision 3x3 is to achieve sustainable growth through multiple approaches. We also established oncology as our second therapeutic area. Next, we reported for TransCon PTH, the initiation of a global Phase 2 trial. And finally, for TransCon Growth Hormone, we reported top line results from our first Phase 3 clinical trial, the heiGHt trial. Not only did the trial achieve its primary objective of non-inferiority compared to daily growth hormone, in pediatric growth hormone deficiency. But it also demonstrated superior efficacy by maintaining comparable safety and tolerability to a daily growth hormone therapy. In addition, we also demonstrated a three-fold lower incidence of poor-responders in the TransCon Growth Hormone part versus daily growth hormone, which contribute to the higher observed annual growth velocity for the TransCon Growth Hormone target. As I reflect on our successes, and the recent Phase 3 heiGHt data, I'm inspired by the possibility of shifting the way our industry thinks about drug development, to prove that it's possible to develop highly differentiated products, addressing significant unmet medical needs, without high development risk. The traditional paradigm for research and development assumes that the development of novel therapies addressing significant unmet medical needs comes with high development risk. Now we are sharing in this traditional paradigm with a positive clinical results for all observed rare disease endocrinology product candidates in a row, and with the successful TransCon Growth Hormone Phase 3 data. With the TransCon technology, we are able to leverage the validated biology of existing drugs, to create highly differentiated product candidates. By identifying significant unmet medical need, studying the science underlying the disease, and applying our TransCon technologies to an existing clinical validated parental, we are able to create new product candidates designed to solve unmet medical needs. We are able to provide simple, to design highly differentiated product candidates with an expected higher success rate compared to traditional drug development and with advanced commercial potential. This unique approach to product innovation, one that incorporates our scientific focus, analytical mindset and development expertise gives us a holistic look at important product opportunities. The recent announcement of our Phase 3 heiGHt trial result is an excellent example. For TransCon Growth Hormone, we started with somatropin, the same compound as daily growth hormone, a hormone that has been the standard of care for the treatment of pediatric growth hormone deficiency for more than 30 days. We know that a long acting growth hormone was needed, because of the limitation of once daily therapeutics. We applied our TransCon technology to somatropin and created a once-weekly product candidate, providing continued levels of unmodified growth hormone at the same therapeutic level as daily growth hormone but over one week. We first had promising results in Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials. It was exciting to see that the Phase 3 heiGHt trial not only confirmed those results, but demonstrated superior efficacy on the primary endpoint and a lower incidence of poor-responders with comparable safety and tolerability to a daily growth hormone. This is an achievement that despite many earlier attempt in past decades has not been done until now. Our Phase 3 result for TransCon growth hormone have the potential to status a new treatment paradigm for patients who need growth hormone therapy. With TransCon Growth Hormone program, it's a validation of the TransCon technology as well as our actual reason [ph] for product innovation. And it is a clear example of how we can take a product idea and apply our lower risk approach to drug development, to create a new product candidate with a potential to make a meaningful difference in patients' lives. We are continuing this approach with our two other endocrinology programs. We have already translated our product approach for TransCon PTH and TransCon CNP into clinical results that reinforcing their respected target product profile. We are now expanding into another high potential new therapeutic area. As we apply, our approach for product innovation to a second therapeutic area, oncology. We are looking forward to share more about this interesting high value oncology pipeline with you in the coming months. Now, let me turn the call over to Scott, before we open up to questions.