Rich Lindahl
Analyst · JPMorgan
Thank you, Bob. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining the call. I'm pleased to report that Emergent is sustaining the operational and financial momentum we highlighted on our last earnings call in July. As you've just heard from Bob, our employees are meeting the challenges of this unprecedented year and deploying our products, services and capabilities to help our country face the global pandemic brought on by COVID-19. Our financial performance during the third quarter and year-to-date in 2020 reflects the strength and durability of our diversified business as evidenced by solid year-over-year increases in total revenues, adjusted profitability and operating cash flow. During the quarter, we strengthened our balance sheet by enhancing our liquidity and completing a highly successful inaugural bond offering. We have now refined our revenue guidance and raised our profitability outlook. As a result of all these factors, we are confidently moving forward and poised to extend our strong progress, as we approach 2021. With that, let's first look at the details of our third quarter performance. Highlights include total revenues of $385 million, an increase of $73 million or 24% versus the prior year; adjusted EBITDA of $168 million, an increase of $62 million or 58% versus the prior year; and adjusted net income of $119 million, a $54 million or 84% improvement versus the prior year. Breaking down quarterly revenue a bit further, let's review the elements of product sales. NARCAN Nasal Spray sales were $89 million, reflecting strong and durable demand for this critical drug-device combination product for opioid overdose reversal; anthrax vaccine sales were $74 million, reflecting the strong delivery volumes associated with the continued transition from BioThrax to AV7909 in the strategic national stockpile; ACAM2000 sales were substantially lower-than-expected due to a timing delay that will push deliveries into the fourth quarter of this year and possibly into 2021; and other product sales were $39 million, primarily reflecting sales of VIGIV and BAT. In addition to the increase in product sales, we also had significant growth in CDMO services as revenues increased to $157 million in the quarter. These results reflect the continuing contribution from the approximately $1.5 billion of contract value related to COVID-19 secured since March, most notably our landmark public-private CDMO partnership with BARDA in support of the U.S. government's operation work speed program, as well as the tech transfer and commercial supply agreements with Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. Looking beyond revenue, the quarterly results also include combined product and CDMO gross margin at 59%, reflecting the impact of overall product mix as well as improved contribution from CDMO services offset by certain nonrecurring charges which I will detail in a moment. Excluding these onetime items adjusted gross margin was 71%. Net R&D expense of $30 million or 8% of adjusted revenue, reflecting discretionary development investments primarily in our COVID-19 therapeutic product candidates. And SG&A spend of $76 million or 20% of total revenues, which increased 16% since last year driven by additional staffing to support our growth. As you will note on the reconciliation tables toward the end of our earnings press release, there are several onetime items that are included in our third quarter results. First, we increased our contingent consideration liability by $30 million to reflect our expectation that the second and final milestone related to the Adapt Pharma acquisition will likely be paid in full; second, we took a $29 million non-cash impairment charge related to our naloxone prefilled syringe development program that we are continuing to evaluate; and third, we incurred $17 million of exit and disposal costs associated with managing our Travel Health business during the pandemic, including $14 million of non-cash inventory write-down costs. Our financial performance for nine months of 2020 was also very strong, driven by all the factors just discussed for the third quarter. Key highlights include, total revenues of $972 million, an increase of $227 million or 30% compared to last year; total product sales of $649 million, up $56 million or 9%. This includes $258 million from anthrax vaccines, $234 million from NARCAN Nasal Spray, $71 million from ACAM2000 and other product sales of $86 million. It is worth highlighting that sales of anthrax vaccines are up significantly versus the prior year, reflecting continued deliveries of AV7909 as part of the SNS transition to this product which was first delivered in Q3, 2019. Additionally we realized a 10% increase in sales of NARCAN Nasal Spray, driven primarily by demand from public interest customers. CDMO services revenue of $251 million reflects the significant expansion of this business through the recently announced arrangements across development services drug substance manufacturing and drug product manufacturing, primarily in response to the COVID pandemic. As a reminder and as you will hear shortly from Syed, these new collaborations along with recent extensions of existing projects reflect continued penetration of the addressable $20 billion CDMO market opportunity with a balanced mix of clinical and commercial activities. And combined product and CDMO gross margin of 60% reflecting the impact of mix and the improved contribution from CDMO offset by onetime charges described earlier. Excluding these items year-to-date adjusted gross margin was 66%. The year-to-date financial results also include net R&D expense of $74 million or 8% of adjusted revenue reflecting investments in our chikungunya product candidate and COVID-19 therapeutic product candidates, offset by reduced spend related to our FLU-IGIV product candidate. SG&A expense of $221 million or 23% of total revenues compared to 27% in the prior year reflecting continued scaling of our business, even with an increase in share-based compensation and continued investment in staffing to support our growth. And in terms of year-to-date profitability, adjusted EBITDA of $340 million or 35% of total revenues and adjusted net income of $225 million or 23% of total revenues. Turning to our balance sheet. We ended the quarter in the strongest liquidity position in the company's history with combined cash, accounts receivable and available borrowing capacity exceeding $1 billion. Our liquidity position was significantly enhanced during the quarter, as a result of our issuance in August of $450 million of senior unsecured notes due in 2028 which enabled us to fully refresh the borrowing capacity under our $600 million revolving credit facility. We ended the quarter with $415 million in cash and accounts receivable of $196 million bringing current liquid assets to over $600 million. And our net debt position at September 30 was $476 million, a reduction of 27% from December 31. As a result and based on the midpoint of our updated full year guidance, we are on track to achieve a ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA of less than 1x for the full year of 2020. Our cash flow highlights include year-to-date operating cash flow of $291 million which is also the strongest in our history and reflects the substantial cash generation capability of our current product and services mix. In addition, year-to-date capital expenditures of $105 million, reflects a variety of capacity and capability expansions that we have previously discussed, principally our ongoing projects to scale the CDMO business sites in Maryland and Massachusetts. And free cash flow which we define as operating cash flow less CapEx was $186 million in the first nine months of the year or 12x the level realized in the first nine months of 2019. In sum, our accelerating operating momentum creates favorable conditions for us to execute on our growth strategy and deliver solutions to address global public health threats. I'll now move on to our updated guidance. Taking into consideration the performance for the first nine months of the year, our outlook for the remainder of the year across all of our business units and the expectation that challenges in some parts of our business will be offset by expansion in other parts, we are updating our 2020 full year forecast. This forecast consists of the following elements. Total revenues narrowed to a range of $1.52 billion to $1.58 billion maintaining the midpoint of $1.55 billion. In terms of product-specific detail, anthrax vaccine sales in the range of $350 million to $370 million, an increase of $25 million versus the midpoint of the prior range reflecting our improved visibility into this year's anticipated deliveries of AV7909 as we continue to gain more experience with this development stage product candidate. NARCAN Nasal Spray sales in the range of $295 million to $315 million, an increase of $5 million at the midpoint reflecting greater visibility into this year's shipments to both retail and public interest channels, and ACAM2000 sales in the range of $160 million to $200 million, a decrease of $10 million at the midpoint reflecting the possibility of fewer ACAM doses available for shipments this year than previously anticipated due to a timing issue. For the CDMO business revenues in the range of $450 million to $470 million, an increase of $10 million at the midpoint reflecting the timing of certain activities and additional business acquisition and project extensions to be realized this year. Our profitability guidance includes: adjusted net income of $375 million to $405 million an increase of $25 million at the midpoint versus the midpoint of the prior range; and adjusted EBITDA of $575 million to $615 million, an increase of $28 million at the midpoint and a further clear indication of the earnings potential of our overall diversified operations. Importantly, our revised 2020 guidance takes into account the following operational considerations, which have not changed since July when we last spoke to guidance. Improvement of full year gross margin by 400 basis points to 600 basis points driven by product mix and increased contribution from our CDMO business; the previously announced delay into 2021 of the launch of the Phase 3 clinical study for the CHIKV VLP program due to the timing of certain operational factors; the continued deferral into 2021 of a follow-on procurement contract with the U.S. government for raxibacumab due to the impact of the prioritization of the operation work speed program on our efforts to tech transfer the raxi process to the BayView Baltimore site; continued significant disruption of global travel for the entirety of 2020 which greatly reduces Vaxchora and Vivotif revenues; and finally an assumption of no generic competition in 2020 for NARCAN Nasal Spray. In conclusion, we at Emergent are committed to building a strong and resilient business with the capabilities, capacities and financial strength needed to deliver preparedness and response solutions to public health threats. Our current outlook and recent accomplishments for tangible evidence of the durability and viability of our unique business model and the role that we play in protecting and enhancing lives across the globe. We are executing on our mission and sustaining solid operating and financial performance as we approach the end of 2020 and move confidently into 2021. That completes my prepared remarks. And I'll now turn the call over to my colleague Syed Husain, who will take us through an overview and update on the CDMO business, including for the first time certain key metrics regarding the health of this business unit. Syed?