Christopher Clement
Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. Please proceed with your question
Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. I’m very pleased to welcome you to our fourth quarter and full-year 2014 earnings call. As always, we appreciate your time, interest, and participation in this event. As you likely saw in our press release aftermarket close last night, we closed 2014 on a positive note, with another solid quarter of commercial progress for DARA. DARA reported record net revenues of $717.8 thousand for the fourth quarter based on gross product sales in excess of $900,000 as compared to net revenues of $182.3 thousand for the year-ago period, a year-over-year increase of nearly 394%. For the full-year, DARA reported net revenues of $1.89 million, an increase over $419.3 thousand generated in all of fiscal 2013. Returning specifically to the fourth quarter results, our sales team continues to strengthen and enhance the relationships to establish throughout the year with their target offices and institutions. In line with what we have reported on previous calls, we continue to be pleased with the ongoing to access to the top prescribing oncology and radiology offices across the country, as evidenced by over 80% reach for these physicians, and their support staff, with an average of twice monthly in-person calls. Our sales team also exceeded our quarterly targets with respect to in-service programs and local regional and national speaker programs. Given their strategic positioning in oncology supportive care, which highlights the market need for supportive care oncology products, DARA's investment in awareness and educational initiatives, implemented by our sales and marketing team, continues to have a positive impact on each product in the portfolio, as well as establishing DARA as a leader in this important area of oncology. This positioning certainly differentiates DARA from other companies and facilitates the ongoing office access we enjoy, allowing for us to keep our range of product offerings current and top of minds with caregivers. We believe that our access to these offices is in stark contrast to companies, for example, that have only one product which limits their ability to enjoy the frequency DARA has established simply because it is difficult to have something new to discuss with healthcare providers when you have a more limited product portfolio. I believe that our portfolio approach also helps facilitate our ability to license or acquire other synergistic products and use our existing based on relationships to successfully establish those products. Part of establishing the identity of DARA and our portfolio of products and supportive care means an ongoing commitment to support national and regional oncology meetings, nursing society meetings, and other educational programs. The entire DARA family of employees is passionate about helping cancer patients navigate the difficulties experienced by the side effects of various treatments or of the disease itself. Our sales team works hard to support and participate in their local community-based programs. Beyond community outreach, we've invested in educational materials and videos to raise awareness of the importance of supportive care, particularly with respect to oral mucositis. In fact, we’ve developed specific patient oriented material, including oral care videos, and an Oral Mucositis app for iPhone and Android devices. As we finish in report on 2014, we remain committed to the area of oncology supportive care, and will continue to broadly support awareness in educational programs as part of our ongoing commercial execution. We are finding a level of enthusiasm for our products individually, as well as for our entire portfolio within our target offices, and believe ongoing access and call frequency on these offices will continue to drive strong growth. Speaking of strong growth, we are very pleased with continued sales performance for Gelclair, maintaining its position as the number one choice in gel barriers in the retail segment. The latest data as reported by Symphony Health, as of December 2014 indicates that Gelclair is the only product in the oral gel barrier class to show continued month-over-month retail prescription share growth since February of 2014. Furthermore Gelclair has remained the market leader for prescribed gel barrier products in the retail segment since June of 2014. We continue to increase the number of prescribers using Gelclair as well as expanding usage among current prescribers. In an effort to help ensure that each prescription results in the appropriate fulfillment size, we have also launched the retail prescription notification program for Gelclair. The national PAP or Patient Assistance Program was launched with a specialty pharmacy provider to service Medicare patients for Gelclair. As you may know, products likes Gelclair are not reimbursed by Federal insurance programs, and so it was extremely important for us to create a program that would help these patients access Gelclair. Not only is this program important from a patient access perspective, but it also helps to alleviate obstructions at the provider level, which comes from a hesitancy for prescribers to write a product if they are unsure that a patient will be able to have their prescription filled. By creating a Patient Assistance Program, we believe that prescribers can be confident that when they write a prescription for Gelclair, the patient will receive the product whether they have private or public insurance. Turning to Soltamox. Although the product continues to perform below our expectations, we continue to see progress with the highest quarterly prescription increase to-date. Our market research continues to indicate a market need for a subset of patients taking Tamoxifen, who either cannot tolerate oral tablet therapy, or for whom an alternative formulation is easier to take. A key market issue has always been how best to reach that subset of patients. Recently, we partnered with a leading provider of patients portal services, which have the ability to communicate directly to the patients currently taking Tamoxifen, who may have a need for or an interest in oral liquid formulation. We believe this direct targeted patient outreach approach, coupled with our focused sales efforts of our known Soltamox prescribes, represents a good opportunity to continue to increase Soltamox utilization. In addition to these product specific initiatives, we have implemented a multimedia digital outreach program with physicians interactive. And PI is a leader in providing fully integrated multimedia tactics, with multiple touch points across multiple channels, the high prescribing physicians to increase both Gelclair and Soltamox share of voice with these important and busy physicians. We also continue to support our "No Coupon, No Co-pay, No Hassles" program designed to mitigate out-of-pocket cost for qualified patients, which could otherwise be an impediment to fulfillment of prescriptions. This program helps to ensure that patients who could benefit from either Gelclair or Soltamox therapy will have access to them. Now we are also pleased with the quarterly growth seen with the other products in the portfolio, and view these results as a positive indicator that a synergistic portfolio of products is necessary in building a strong presence in the oncology supportive care market. We believe that this growth indicates ongoing opportunity and upside for these products moving forward. There are a couple of other initiatives, I want to take a moment and update you on. First, we petition the FDA to amend the label for tamoxifen citrate and Soltamox, which is the only FDA approved oral liquid and it’s bioequivalent to Tamoxifen, by increasing the recommended duration of adjuvant therapy for women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer from 5 to 10 years. Tamoxifen citrate is a critical treatment option for breast cancer patients and DARA is leading the effort to petition the FDA to ensure the label for tamoxifen citrate and Soltamox accurately reflects the latest clinical evidence which supports improved outcomes. Having current clinical guidelines included on a newly updated label is an important avenue to educate clinicians, pharmacists, and patients, and we believe that it will improve the care of patients with breast cancer. Typically the FDA will provide a response within six-months of submission of the petition and we are pleased to lead this important initiative and expect to receive some feedback in the first half of this year. DARA was also granted a barrier-to-innovation waiver for certain product and establishment fees related to Soltamox. The FDA notified us that they had granted DARA’s request for a barrier-to-innovation waiver for fiscal 2012 through 2014 product and establishment fees for Soltamox oral solution totaling approximately $1.1 million. DARA has requested a similar waiver for 2015. As we move forward and execute on our commercial strategy, we will continue to support and introduce novel programs that we believe will benefit our entire portfolio. I've mentioned on previous calls, our goal to add additional products to our portfolio. As alluded to earlier, we believe the synergy with our existing portfolio helps sell all of our products our reps are currently promoting. Bringing in a complementary product will help strengthen our commitment to the supportive care field, ideally providing products to satisfy unmet medical need, and generate additional incremental revenue for DARA. We have been very active in looking for appropriate additions to our product line and continue to make significant progress in this regard. So in summary, we are extremely encouraged with the positive traction in 2014 and an increasing sales trends for products in the portfolio that are focused on significantly driving revenues and firmly establishing DARA as the oncology supportive care company. We are confident in the strategic plan we have in place, as well as the right team to execute that plan. Not only do we have a solid portfolio of commercial products, we believe, we now have the momentum, the right sales strategy, and the resources to drive and exploit the demand that we believe exists in the marketplace. When coupled with what we believe to be a high potential development asset in KRN5500, we think DARA is uniquely positioned in the oncology supportive care market, and have the opportunity to create significant value for our shareholders. I will now turn the call over to David Drutz for an update on KRN5500. David?