Peter Maag
Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please proceed with your question
Thanks, David and good afternoon, everyone. We had another exciting quarter at CareDx as we continue to accelerate our leadership position in transplantation diagnostics. Our first mover advantage gives CareDx a considerable speed and we are strengthening our platform every day. In March, we announced a partnership with Cedars-Sinai to study the use of AlloSure to characterize the response to therapy with an Interleukin 6 agent tocilizumab as a treatment for patients with antibody mediated rejection. Also in March we announced a clinical validation of AlloSure use in heart transplantation, which was published in the American Journal of Transplantation. This study is the first large prospective multi-center clinical validation showing the ability of our AlloSure heart testing service to detect acute cell mediated and antibody mediated rejection in heart transplant recipients. In late April, we announced an agreement to acquire OTTR Complete Transplant Management; the leading provider of transplant patient tracking software which is currently used in over 60 of the leading solid organ transplant centers in the U.S. Importantly OTTR software will simplify the transplant center workflow for ordering AlloSure and AlloMap. The addition of the OTTR increases the CareDx value proposition to transplant centers enables the EMR integration of our surveillance solution and the ability to manage patients longitudinally. It also provides the backbone to build artificial intelligence tools for providing care pathways. I am pleased to confirm that the transaction closed yesterday and that we are excited to welcome the OTTR team to CareDx and we expect a seamless integration. Just last week we announced an exclusive in-licensing agreement with Alex Loopik [ph] and his Paris based team from Cibiltech. Alex is a leading transplant pathologist in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. We have built a strong relationship over the years with Cibiltech and we are excited by his group's work. Cibiltech Predigraft data analysis tool represent the start of being able to use data to stratify transplant patients based on the risk for long-term outcomes. Besides the Predigraft tool, we are equally excited to be able to closely collaborate with the brain power of this team. We see this as only the beginning. Let me stop here and provide some context on how this all fits together. Over the last 20 years, we have been dedicated to transplantation. We have been a trailblazer developing proprietary clinical biomarkers and successfully navigating the reimbursement landscape. We are now setting the ball for multimodality testing combining our knowhow of gene expression and next-generation sequencing based technologies. Our goal is to add smart analytics and machine learning to provide Artificial Intelligence Solutions in transplantation. You will hear us talk about [indiscernible] which stands for artificial intelligence in transplant care. Our large clinical datasets collected through our registry study will provide caregivers with point-of-care decision making support tools that allow them to stratify their patient population. Our strategy to provide precision medicine tools with high value diagnostics to a highly complex and costly patient population is coming to life. The first example of multi-modality testing was our HeartCare solution, HeartCare combines both AlloSure-Heart and AlloMap rendering a higher precision assessment of the heart allograft then either test alone. In early April the reception to HeartCare was strong at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and we remain excited about the benefits of combining these tests for the heart transplant patient community. The logical second example of our multi-modality testing is KidneyCare, KidneyCare combines not only AlloSure and AlloMap kidney but also [indiscernible] data analysis tools really matter. We will launch KidneyCare at the American Transplant Congress in Boston in a few weeks time, we are very excited as this marks the next step in providing insight into organ injury immune [ph] and also provide the prognostic element of allograft survival at three years, five years and 10 years. Now turning back to execution and our performance another aspect of maintaining our substantial lead in the industry is to ensure that the race is a fair contest along these lines we will vigorously defend our intellectual property and our good name from inappropriate conduct from potential competitors. We are the leader in heart and kidney transplant surveillance and we continue to fortify our competitive market. We are on our away in lung transplant surveillance and we don't intend to stop there as we have a global presence with our transplant product. For the first quarter of 2019, total revenues grew 85% to $26 million compared to the year ago quarter. AlloSure, AlloMap and our product business all contributed to this growth. Growth in the quarter was broad based of testing service, revenue up 103% and product revenue up 34%, reflecting continued traction in this market segment of transplantation. Turning to numbers on AlloSure, during the first quarter 101 centers provided AlloSure results to their transplant patients. We estimate these 101 centers account for approximately 60% of the transplant volume in the United States. CareDx provided 5,710 AlloSure results in the first quarter to approximately 4,300 kidney transplant patients. Since launching AlloSure in October 2017, we have provided results to over 8,000 patients which equates to approximately 4% of the total number of living kidney transplant patients. Demand for AlloSure remains broad and includes both patients who recently received a kidney transplant, as well as patients that receive their kidney allograft in previous years. Overall reimbursement in the first quarter was consistent with previous quarters, with 70% to 80% of our AlloSure volume attributed to Medicare patients. We finished the first quarter of 2019 with 3,644 surveillance patients. We define surveillance patients as patients that are managed by CareDx on a predefined transplant center testing protocol. These 3,644 surveillance patients helped build the recurring revenue effect of AlloSure. We continue to make progress enrolling centers and patients in K-OAR, our Kidney Outcome AlloSure Registry, having surpassed our initial 1,000 patient enrollment goal. As of the end of March 2019, 50 centers had been initiated as K-OAR study sites and a 1,006 patients had been enrolled. We call that in the K-OAR study, we target 75% adherence to our AlloSure surveillance protocol. Multi-center studies like K-OAR widen our mode in transplantation, as these studies provide us with additional touch points with transplant centers and keep us in direct dialog with the key innovation hub and opinion leaders. These studies also drive compliance and adherence through standard protocols, which is a crucial element to our work in the transplant community. I would like to take this moment to mention Dr. Jim Yee; our Chief Medical Officer. After an extremely successful career at CareDx, Jim has decided to retire from his full time role as a physician to an advisor for CareDx at the end of the quarter. During his 13-year tenure at CareDx Jim was instrumental in developing and executing our immense CARGO II, DART, D-OAR and K-OAR has launched AlloSure in heart care, participated in hundreds of conferences and speaker events and joined thousands of clinician conversation all of which has led to tens of thousands of patients results. I'm extremely sad to see Jim move on but honored to have shared this transplant patient journey together. With the success of Jim and the team on our K-OAR an unrivalled peer reviewed publications together with our transplant center partnerships which account for over 60% of the kidney transplants performed in the U.S. Our EMR integration initiative and our new multi-modality solutions, we are adding to our Formidable Moat around kidney transplant patient care. Now shifting to our heart transplant surveillance solution AlloMap. First quarter 2019 test volume increased 11% year-over-year translating into 4,280 patient results with the adoption of heart care accelerating volumes in the quarter. This novel heart transplant surveillance solution combining both AlloMap and AlloSure-Heart, it’s resonating with the transplant community with both decisions and patients appreciating the comprehensive view of the health of the heart Allograft enables by heart care. Enabled by HeartCare. Our Surveillance HeartCare Outcomes Registry or SHORE study continues to be well-received by transplant cardiologists and we have recruited 9 centers to-date. I'm also very pleased to report from April, AlloMap is in network for all of Anthem’s network of plans across the U.S. Anthem is one of the nation's largest payers with approximately $40 million members and AlloMap is now a covered test for approximately 80% of all insured lives in the U.S. now turning to our transplant-led products, our HLA typing products are used in labs throughout the world to help determine which organs or bone marrow a transplant patient match between the donor and the recipient. Our first quarter product revenue growth was 34% contributing $4.4 million to our revenue in the quarter. Growth was driven by continued traction of TruSight HLA and QTYPE. We remain on track to fortify our product offerings with the introduction of new AlloSeq next-generation sequencing products in 2019. AlloSeq TX for HLA typing, AlloSeq cell-free DNA kit and AlloSeq BMT for bone marrow transplant testing, with the addition of order our patient engagement model is expanding, cardiac remains the leading provider of high value transplant surveillance solution and have added capabilities to manage patients longitudinally and further impact long-term patient outcome. Today we care for approximately 4% of the U.S. kidney transplant patient population this is a great start as the need for organ transplantation is ever increasing. Mike I'll hand the call over to you to discuss financial.