Tom Staab
Analyst · Brian Abrahams from Jefferies. Your line is open
Thank you, Bill. I am pleased report the details of our third quarter 2016 and nine months financial results. We closed the third quarter with $69 million in cash and investments, reflecting proceeds from the recent completion of a $23 million senior credit facility with Midcap Financial. We entered into this non-dilutive financing to provide additional cash runway into 2018, which provides us sufficient cash runway beyond the projected reporting of APeX-1 results, and does so without leveraging our stock. This facility is anticipated to be repaid with the proceeds from U.S. and other government peramivir stockpiling orders, as well as milestone receipts under our Seqirus out-licensing arrangement. On slide 4, you see revenue for the third quarter of 2016 decreased to $7.8 million from $11 million in the third quarter of 2015. The decrease as compared to the third quarter of 2015 was related to lower product sales associated with the transition of RAPIVAB commercialization to Seqirus, as well as lower collaborative revenue associated with galidesivir development under U.S. government development contracts. The decrease in aggregate third quarter revenue was partially offset by higher RAPIACTA royalty revenue associated with $3.5 million in royalties from a Japanese government stockpiling order in advance of the 2016-2017 flu season. Importantly, royalty proceeds from government sales are available to us for general corporate use, and are not dedicated to repayment of obligations under our non-recourse pharma notes. Research and development expenses for the third quarter of 2016 decreased to $14.1 million from $20.1 million in the third quarter of 2015, primarily due to the discontinuation of avoralstat development activities subsequent to OPuS-2 results. The progression of the galidesivir program remains dependent on BARDA and NIAID’s authorization and approval process, as this program continues to be predominantly funded by these two U.S. government agencies. General and administrative expenses for the third quarter of 2016 were $2.8 million, and consistent with the $2.7 million reported in the third quarter of 2015. Moving below the operating line, we incurred $1.5 million of interest expense in the third quarter of 2016, and $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2015. We also recorded a mark-to-market hedge loss of $931,000 in the third quarter of 2016 as compared to a hedge loss of $460,000 in 2015. During the third quarter of 2015, we also realized a currency hedge gain of $108,000 from the exercise of a U.S. dollar/Japanese yen currency option within our foreign currency hedge. This amount reflects a real gain on the exercise of options within our currency hedge that was put in place with the RAPIACTA monetization, as compared to mark-to-market adjustments at the end of each respective quarter, which reflect quarterly changes in the yen/dollar exchange rate. The net loss for the third quarter of 2016 was $11.5 million or $0.16 net loss per share compared to a net loss of $14.6 million or a $0.20 net loss per share for the third quarter of 2015. Slide 5 summarizes our nine-month financial results. For the nine months ended September 30, 2016, total revenues decreased to $17.4 million from $43.7 million in the first nine months of 2015. The decrease in revenue resulted from the recognition of approximately $21.7 million of collaborative revenue associated with the RAPIVAB out-licensing to Seqirus in June 2015; no longer recording product revenue in 2016, due to the Seqirus transaction; and a decrease in collaborative revenue associated with lower galidesivir development. Nine-month 2016 R&D expense decreased to $48.9 million from $53.7 million in the first nine months of 2015. The decrease reflected discontinuation of avoralstat development as well as reduced spending on our galidesivir program. General and administrative expenses for the nine months of 2016 decreased to $8.7 million compared to $10.3 million in 2015. This decrease was primarily due to a reduction in unrestricted grants awarded to HAE patient advocacy groups and an overall reduction in administrative expenses. Moving below the operating line, through nine months of 2016, we incurred $4.4 million of interest expense compared to $3.9 million in the nine months of 2015. We also reported a mark-to-market hedge loss of $7.4 million in the nine months of 2016, as compared to a loss of $793,000 in 2015. In addition, we also realized currency gains of $811,000 and $1.7 million in the first nine months of 2016 and 2015, respectively, associated with hedge option exercises in those periods. Moving on to slide 6, I will spend some time on our cash balance and cash usage. We ended the third quarter of 2016 with cash and investments of $68.7 million, a decrease from the $101 million at the end of 2015, but a $4.4 million increase from the amount at June 30, 2016. The increase was the result of closing our $23 million senior credit facility in late September, which I mentioned in my opening remarks, less cash usage from the normal operations in the third quarter. The senior credit facility bears a variable coupon rate based on the one-month LIBOR, currently at approximately 8.5%, an interest-only period through 2017, and then 40 monthly principal and interest payments, beginning in January 2018, to satisfy the obligation. We anticipate this facility to be repaid from RAPIVAB proceeds associated with our future government stockpiling and milestone proceeds. And we are able to repay the facility at any time in its 4.5 year term. Importantly, proceeds from this facility are projected to extend our cash runway into 2018. Also, the facility bears a reasonable cost of capital of approximately 10.5%. Our operating cash usage for the third quarter of 2016 was $15 million, and was slightly higher than the $12.3 million utilized in the third quarter of 2015. In regards to our 2016 forecasted results, we continue to expect to be within our previous cash guidance of $55 million to $75 million, and have lowered our operating expense guidance range from $78 million to $98 million previously to the new range of $68 million to $80 million. As a reminder, equity-based compensation expense is excluded from our operating expense guidance. That completes my review of the third quarter. We would now like to open the call up to your questions. Andrew?