Rich Glickman
Analyst · H.C. Wainwright and Company. Please state your question
Well, thank you, Celia. And thank you to everyone for joining us today as we review our third quarter financial results and provide a general business update. Once again, this has been an extraordinary quarter for our company and tremendous progress has been made on a number of fronts. Our largest milestone was the completion of the enrollment ahead of schedule of the AURORA Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of lupus nephritis. The target enrollment of 324 patients were surpassed due to high patients demand with 358 lupus nephritis patients randomized in sites across 27 countries. We would like to thank our trial patients, physician, our trial staff, and our staff and advocacy groups for their extraordinary efforts which led to this result. We are related by the significant interest in this trial that has garnered so much interest around the globe. It reinforces the need for new treatment options for patients living with lupus nephritis. I continue to be impressed by the level of dedication exhibited by our team to execute this trial with great diligence and expediency, but without compromising quality. As you will recall, the AURORA clinical trial is a global double-blinded placebo-controlled study to evaluate whether voclosporin when added to background therapy of mycophenolate mofetil or CellCept, can increase speed and overall renal response rates in the presence of low dose steroids. The primary endpoint of the study is complete renal response at 52 weeks after which patients can choose to enroll in 104-week blinded extension study. We expect top line data from this trial towards the end of 2019. As of today, approximately 80% of the total patients enrolled in the study had been in the trial for more than three months. We believe the enhanced safety monitoring for this trial has been effective. The clinical team continues to review all safety data in a blinded manner, while the Data and Safety Monitoring Board review safety in an unblinded fashion. We remained pleased with the trials’ progress. During Q3, we also saw more patients roll over to the AURORA 2 blinded extension study from AURA. The purpose of AURORA is to assess the long-term benefit and risk of voclosporin patients with lupus nephritis. However, this study is not requirement for potential regulatory approval of voclosporin. Long-term safety and efficacy data for our novel CNI should prove to be a great value to the medical and patient community as we are committed to providing the relevant data that support treatment decisions. To that end, I'm also pleased to announce that the AURORA Phase II trial data has been accepted for publication in a high impact nephrology journal which will be published this month. This is a true testament to the importance of this study, it's both scientific and medical community, and I'm very proud of the clinical team for this accomplishment. As you know, LN is a debilitating disease and our team is extremely motivated and working diligently to potentially provide the first FDA approved therapy for patients who are in desperate need of new treatment options. We believe the totality of data from both the AURORA and AURA clinical studies will serve as a basis for a new drug application submission with the FDA following a successful completion of the AURORA clinical trial. Under voclosporin, fast track destination, we intend to utilize a rolling NDA process, which will allow us to begin the submission process following a positive pre-NDA meeting with the FDA, which we anticipate to occur in the first quarter of 2020. To that end, we are actively preparing the nonclinical and CMC modules required for the NDA submission. Our current plan is to complete the NDA submission, including clinical module in the second quarter of 2020, and therefore we do not expect any delay in our originally planned regulatory timelines. Lastly, you will recall that we are now conducting our drug-drug interaction study in lupus patients rather than healthy volunteers in order to generate more meaningful data. I am pleased to say that we are currently initiating sites and enrolling patients in the DDI study. In this study, patients will be monitored for a period of two weeks. We believe the results of this study will add to our knowledge of voclosporin in a multi targeted therapeutic approach that should have no impact on our submission timeline or potential approval of voclosporin. That brings us to an update on new indications we are pursuing for voclosporin; the first being Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis or FSGS. According to NephCure, approximately 6,400 new patients are diagnosed with FSGS each year accounting for the largest segment of almost 30% of patients with Nephrotic Syndrome. FSGS is a rare disease that attacks the kidneys, filtering units, the glomeruli, causing serious scarring which leads to permanent kidney damage and even failure. Similarly to lupus nephritis, an early clinical response can be measured by the reduction of proteinuria. In addition to maintaining podocyte structural and functional integrity is thought to be critical for long-term kidney health. While guidelines exist for treatment of this disease, there are no currently approved therapies for FSGS in the United States or the European Union. After productive consultation with regulators in the first quarter, we successfully initiated this study in June. This is an open-label, proof-of-concept study of 20 treatment naive patients with FSGS. As very essentially enrolling newly diagnosed patients and this is a rare disease, we expect a 12-month enrollment period, but we intend to have planned interim data results throughout the course of this trial. As a company, we've been focused on lupus nephritis since our inception. Expanding our scope to include other proteinuric renal diseases is synergistic with our current strategy and long-term vision of the company. What's exciting about this trial is that we are assessing the potential of voclosporin as a first-line therapy for these patients in the complete absence of steroids. Massive steroid doses are often given to these patients that have many well-established side effects and an approved treatment can be a tremendous value to both patients and of course to our shareholders. In July, we initiated yet another exciting program with the new and patented topical formulation of voclosporin, the Voclosporin Ophthalmic Solution or VOS for the treatment of Dry Eye. This is a novel formulation of voclosporin, which is a unique patented aqueous, preservative-free, nanomicellar solution containing 0.2% of voclosporin. And as you know from previous disclosures, voclosporin has been shown to be 3x or 4x more potent than cyclosporine A. VOS has its own separate formulation patents with exclusivity through 2031. Dry Eye is a chronic syndrome – is a chronic disease in which a lack of moisture and lubrication on the eye’s surface results irritation and inflammation of the eyes. Dry Eye is a multifactorial heterogeneous disease estimated to affect greater than 20 million people in the United States alone. While the FDA approved products do exist for treatment of Dry Eye, two of which are CNIs. There's an opportunity for a potential improvement in the efficacy and enhanced tolerability including onset of action and alleviating the need potentially for repetitive dosing. We believe the calcineurin inhibitors will remain a mainstay for treatment of Dry Eye and VOS has the potential to be a best-in-class calcineurin inhibitor within this billion dollar market. A Phase I trial has previously been completed in 35 healthy volunteers and in patients with Dry Eye Syndrome. Our Phase II head-to-head tolerability study of VOS versus RESTASIS is well underway and we close screening today – have to be completed in the next couple of days. We expect the trial to complete before year end and we plan to report top line data before the end of January. This is a four-week study in approximately 90 patients. The goal of this program is to develop a best-in-class treatment option and I believe there’s tremendous potential value in this asset. So that's it for our clinical programs. Now Aurinia is in a substantial growth phase. And it has transitioned from an early stage clinical company with one indication to a late stage clinical company with multiple indications and preparing for commercialization. To that end, I feel that is an appropriate juncture for me to return to my retirement and begin the transition to a new CEO, who will build on our clinical success and lead the company to its next chapter. Nearly two years ago, which was a critical time in our Company's growth, I came out of my retirement to join arena as a CEO. My decision was fueled by my absolute conviction and the potential of voclosporin to transform the LN treatment landscape. I'm incredibly proud of Aurinia's progress over the last 21 months. And I know this is an awful time to bring on a new CEO. I had several goals when I returned from my retirement nearly two years ago and I feel these have all been successfully completed, the most important being the diligent execution of our Phase III clinical trial in voclosporin and LN, advancing new indications for – voclosporin and providing a financial runway for the company. I intend to step away from my role as CEO sometime next year when an appropriate successor is identified. I'm in no rush to do that. We will look very diligently to find that replacement. While this is a very challenging decision for me as I work with an extraordinary team of people and particularly enjoy my interactions with the physicians, patients, and our investors who have supported the development of voclosporin, I believe this is the right step forward for the company. My commitment to the company and these patients remain steadfast. And I plan to remain a resource for the Board and for the management team as we enter this next chapter. With that, I will turn the call over to Dennis Bourgeault, our CFO, to review the Q3three financials with you. Dennis?