Earnings Labs

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS)

Q1 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, May 7, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Emergent BioSolutions First Quarter 2015 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time all participants are in listen-only mode. Later we will be conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Emergent BioSolutions. Please go ahead.

Robert Burrows

Analyst

Thank you, Mally. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Robert Burrows, Vice President of Investor Relations for Emergent. Thank you for joining us today as we discuss our financial results for the first quarter of 2015 and our outlook for the second quarter and full year of 2015. As is customary, our call today is open to all participants. In addition, the call is being recorded and is copyrighted by Emergent BioSolutions. Participating on the call with prepared comments will be Dan Abdun-Nabi, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Bob Kramer, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following Dan and Bob’s prepared comments we will conduct a Q&A session at which time other members of senior management will be available to participate, specifically Adam Havey, Executive Vice President and President of our BioDefense Division; and Barry Labinger, Executive Vice President and President of our BioSciences Division. Before we begin I will remind everyone that during today’s call, either in our prepared comments or the Q&A session, management may make projections and other forward-looking statements related to our business, future events, our prospects for future performance. These forward-looking statements reflect Emergent’s current perspective on existing trends and information. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. Please review our filings with the SEC on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K for more information on the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. During our prepared comments or the Q&A session we also may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that involve adjustments to GAAP figures in order to provide greater transparency regarding Emergent’s operating performance. Please refer to the tables found in today’s press release, regarding our use of adjusted net loss, adjusted net income, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation between these non-GAAP financial measures and our GAAP financial measures. For the benefit of those who may be listening to the replay of the webcast this call was held and recorded on 7 May, 2015. Since then Emergent may have made announcements relating to topics discussed during today’s call. So again please reference our most recent press releases and SEC filings. Emergent BioSolutions assumes no obligation to update the information in today's press release or as presented on this call except as may be required by applicable laws or regulations. Today's press release may be found on the Investors home page of our website. With that introduction, I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Abdun-Nabi, Emergent BioSolutions' President and CEO. Dan?

Daniel Abdun-Nabi

Analyst

Thank you Bob. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining our call. During the call today I’ll highlight some of our recent business achievements, and then Bob Kramer will finish with a discussion on our financial performance. I’ll start with the discussion of our BioDefense division. As you might recall on January 28 during standard quality inspections performed in accordance with customary procedures the company discovered foreign particles in a limited number of vials in two manufactured lots of BioThrax. In order to determine the source of these particles, the company began an investigation into its operations as well as those of its suppliers and contract manufacturers. On April 22nd we announced the completion of this internal investigation. Following a comprehensive assessment we identified a supplier component as a most probable root cause. As a result we are implementing certain targeted corrective and preventive actions in the operations of our suppliers and contract manufacturers as well as in our own operations. The investigation concluded that there was no impact to any BioThrax loss in distribution or to any of our other products or manufacturing operations including Building 55 operations and plans for licensure. With the conclusion of this investigation we reaffirmed our financial outlook for full year 2015 which includes the full impact of all decisions on BioThrax lot disposition. Now that we have resume full manufacturing operations BioThrax lots are being released and scheduled for delivery this quarter. The downtime that occurred during our internal investigation has resulted in an approximate 90 day lag in delivery and we expect deliveries to be caught up by the end of the third quarter. Now let me give you an update on Building 55, our large scale BioThrax manufacturing facility. During our last call I mentioned that we would be meeting…

Robert G. Kramer

Analyst

Thank you, Dan and good afternoon to everyone on the call. I would first like to make some general comments our financial results for the first quarter of 2015 compared to last year. I will also comment on the balance sheet focusing on our cash position then I will finish up with details related to our 2015 forecast, including our thoughts on Q2 revenue guidance as well as the implications for revenues and net income for the second-half of 2015. For the first quarter total revenues were $63.6 million or $9.7 million above Q1 of last year, representing an 18% improvement. The increase in revenue is primarily due to modest organic growth in sources of revenue other than BioThrax as well as the impact of having the former Cangene operations consolidated with the Emergent for the full quarter of this year. As you know during the quarter we made no shipments of BioThrax to the CDC due to the investigation, which had a significant impact on our overall financial results for the period. As a point of comparison in Q1 of 2014 we recorded $24.5 million of BioThrax revenues. As expected the gross margin on consolidated product and CMO revenue for the quarter of 39% is below the normal range of 60% to 70%, again to due to the lack of BioThrax shipments during the period. As we progress through the remainder of the year and as we return to normal shipment schedules for BioThrax we anticipate gross margin in future periods to be well within the normal range, reflecting the significant profit contribution of BioThrax. Gross, research and development spend for the quarter was $38.7 million, $8.4 million higher than prior year, taking into account the offsetting effects of our contracts, grants and collaborations revenue our net R&D spend…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from the line of Jim Alloy with Levon Company [ph]. Your line is open please go ahead. Jim please check your mute button.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi, thanks for taking the question. I was on mute. Thanks for - well done again on the manufacturing these results so quickly Adam, I think and everyone there deserves a well done on that. Could you walk a little bit through how you can ensure it won’t happen again obviously and is there a way to, I know that when you made the Cangene acquisition you brought in a fill/finish capacity at that point, would you move BioThrax into that fill/finish to try to avoid this issues going forward?

Daniel Abdun-Nabi

Analyst

Okay thanks Jim, thanks for participating on the call today and thanks for the recognition of the team’s effort. It really was a very significant effort and I am very proud of what they have accomplished over the past two to three months, so I appreciate your commentary there. So as you might appreciate the team took a very detailed approach to the investigation. We evaluated numerous potential vectors for how this contaminant or particulate got into the system. We looked at our own operation, we looked at contract manufacturers, we looked at suppliers and we identified, I think various ways that we can improve the controls around the system, not only at the suppliers and CMOs but also within our own operations. And I think I said in the prepared comments we are now instituting some corrective and preventive actions, which we think are quite robust and very broad in scope but overall I think will improve the operation. So we have a high degree confidence that this truly is behind us. Of course we have to continue the operations to validate that what we have done demonstrates what our belief is but we do remain highly confident in terms of the actions that we’re putting in place. In terms of the fill/finish Adam do you want to talk about our plans for migrating fill/finish?

Adam Havey

Analyst

Yeah, certainly. So I think as a result of the investigation Jim as Dan mentioned it was kind of a tiered approach and a very detailed approach. So we’ve always since the acquisition of Cangene planned to and it was one of synergies that we evaluated as we purchased Cangene to move BioThrax fill/finish into the Cangene facility. So that’s something that we are actively working on and are pursuing and something you are going to see and we’ll probably about as we get closer to approval, but we’re actively pursuing that and we think that’s a real important step in our kind of vertical integration, if you will, of our supply chain.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay, great. Maybe a quick follow-up and then I will go back in the queue, congrats on certainly getting into - sitting on a pile of cash. Obviously is there a better acquisition than having it sit in the bank or additional acquisitions happening, any new products to slot into the Cangene hospital sales force, any comment you can make on timing of something like that?

Daniel Abdun-Nabi

Analyst

Thanks, Jim. As you know we have a very robust business development process here evaluating any number of candidates both on the BioDefense and the BioSciences side and the cash is a critical component of our ability to execute on accretive and meaningful acquisition targets. And those targets are in various stages of evaluation, some are early some got a bit more advanced. Our expectation and our goal for the year, as I mentioned, is to complete an acquisition that can be consisted with our growth plan in terms of revenue generator, provide value to the organization whereby we can exercise some of our core competencies and create value which is greater in our hands than in the hands of the seller. So we remain targeted for doing an acquisition at least one, BioSciences and/or BioD and the target is sometime during the course of this year so stay tuned on that.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great, thank you for taking the questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Marc Frahm with Cowen & Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Marc Frahm

Analyst · Cowen & Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions and reiterate congratulations on quickly putting the production issues behind you. When you did go through this investigation what were the communications with the FDA and has the FDA signed off on whatever changes you are making?

Daniel Abdun-Nabi

Analyst · Cowen & Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for participating on the call and thank you also for recognizing the team’s efforts. Yes, we were in close contract with the FDA we advise them of the identification of the particles and what we were doing as a result of it. We also communicated with the FDA on completion of the investigation. We did show a copy of our investigation report to them in order to release product. As you know the FDA releases every lot that we produce. So we are now in standard release mode with them where they are evaluating lots that we produce and going through their lot release protocol and so lots are being released and we are now expecting to deliver as you heard with respect to our Q2 forecast BioThrax slots beginning this quarter.

Marc Frahm

Analyst · Cowen & Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Okay, thanks. And then you have kind of alluded to this in talk of the acquisition, you have the long-term goals and at one point you talked about having a new long-term goals being announced maybe in the middle of the year and I guess maybe that took a back seat to the investigation but is there a timeline for that and then along the same line now that you are starting to having some BioDefense sales outside of the U.S. do you have a little better of a feel for what’s Building 55 comes online what is the demand out there for BioThrax is?

Daniel Abdun-Nabi

Analyst · Cowen & Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Yeah, so in terms of our next growth plan strategy and getting that out to the market for people to understand where we are headed going forward we are planning to announce that in the second-half of the year. It is pretty advanced in this development we are iterating with the Board but our target remains getting something out to the shareholders and the investment community in the second-half of the year, so stay tuned on that. In terms of international markets and B 55 and all of that our first priority as you might expect is addressing the unmet need but the U.S. government there is a 75 million dose stockpile deployment we estimated somewhere around 30 million doses right now that is our estimate official estimate. So our first priority is to complete intervention with the CBC to address that stock deployment and to the extent that there is additional capacity within 55 after meeting the U.S. government needs and we will start to address the international market. So I am going to say it is too early to give any assessment on that but suffice to say that we are keenly focused on being in position to supply at 55 and provide all customers with product that we can produce there.

Marc Frahm

Analyst · Cowen & Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

Robert G. Kramer

Analyst · Cowen & Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

I think the other comment that your question raises is the other BioDefense products from international markets on overseeing is a growing recognition the value of the portfolio that we have the hyper immunes the device et cetera and I think an acceptation of the importance and the international markets have having stockpiles and the JPM the joint procurement mechanism that we saw in Europe I think is a clear manifestation of that desire and intend and collective resources of the European union, allow them to advance together to establish those counter stockpiles and we are seeing some real momentum in not only governments coming together but also a recognition of the importance of the products that we have to offer and addressing the CBR in threats. So we are quite excited about that development. We have been working hard with government agencies to push that along and move that along and we see some real benefit over the coming years with that mechanism being in place.

Marc Frahm

Analyst · Cowen & Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Okay, great.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our next question comes from Jessica Fye from JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hey, guys this is Ryan on for Jessica. And I guess I wanted to add my congratulations as well for the quick resolution of the manufacturing investigation. I guess continuing with the discussion on international sales do you sense this to like what the timelines could be and long the review process takes?

Daniel Abdun-Nabi

Analyst

So I think the timeline for sales really depend on every individual government agency that we deliver, they have their own unique processes. The benefit of having engage with these agencies over the years as we have a pretty good understanding of how they work and what the process requirements might be and how we might be able to interface with key decision makers, ensure that the procurement dollars are there and available. That’s one of our, I think core competencies really understanding that procurement process particularly in the European and some of the far-east countries. So there is no single answer to that question it does depend on what agencies involve and what countries involved. Until the drug procurement mechanism that is brand new so we are going to have to get some experience there in understanding exactly how that is going to work. What’s encouraging for me is that member are in fact talking to each other and have bought to the notion of combining their demands so that they can through a single mechanism procure and get delivers on these medical kind of measures that is really an exciting development from our prospective.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Got it and maybe changing subject just a little bit with the recent approval of IXINITY, could you maybe talk about your thoughts on a commercial strategy for that product?

Daniel Abdun-Nabi

Analyst

Yeah, thanks for the question. I am really thrilled that product across the goal when you might recall it came with the Cangene acquisition all the work had been completed and application was submitted. The team did respond to the FDA’s request for additional information last year, didn’t cost anything to really get this product across the goal line and I am really please we are now in a position to start address patient requirement. I am going to ask Barry to talk about more about the specific with respect to the strategy but it is a little milestone and attribute to the teams effort to get us to where we are there. Barry?

Barry Labinger

Analyst

Thanks, Dan. Yeah, we have got really excited of commercial operations folks and sales people ready to hit the ground running now that we have approval of IXINITY. No doubt the factor 9 market is a competitive market but we have a product that every bid is good as any of the other standard acting factor 9 products and we intend to differentiate our offering by differentially partnering with the community. So it not just about the product it is about the product, the people that we have got presenting it and all the programs that are wrapped around it. One of the specific differences is that Emergent is the only company in the industry that exclusively focused and the Hemophilia B community so those factor 9 deficiency all of the other factor 9 products are in the hands of companies that also have factor 8 product for Hemophilia A which is the vast majority of the market and the part of the market that the Hemophilia B patients feel gets all the attention. So when you are trying to partner with a community and you have got a meaningful and sincere commitment to the segment of the market that you are serving it tends to resonate much better with the patients. So all of our programs are wrapped around these Hemophilia B patients and the specific segments of the market where our product matches best. And we have been able to team of sales people who for the most part have been living in the Hemophilia community for many years, if not decades in some cases. So that’s going to - they come to us bringing their relationships with the providers and the patient advocates in the field and all of that, I think is really going to help us earn our share of competitive market even though we are late entrant with a product that is not all that well differentiated. It is really not just about the product it is about how we are approaching the market and all the things we got wrapped around it.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great, thank you so much for taking my questions.

Daniel Abdun-Nabi

Analyst

You bet.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. I am showing no further questions at this time, I would now like to turn the call back to Emergent BioSolutions for any further remarks.

Robert Burrows

Analyst

Thank you, - and with that ladies and gentlemen, we now conclude the call. Thank you for your participation. Please note an archived version of the webcast of today's call will be available later today and accessible through the company website. Thanks again and we look forward to speaking to all of you in the future. Good bye.