Dan Goldberger
Analyst · BTIG. Thank you, you may proceed
Thank you, Hans. Hello, everyone and thank you for joining us today. I'll begin with an update before turning the call over to Brian to review our financial results. You'll recall that electroCore is in the early stages of commercialization of our proprietary gammaCore therapy for various indications. I'd like to start with the review of our balance sheet. We ended the second quarter with cash and cash equivalent of $18.9 million, subsequent to the end of the quarter we raised an additional $10.3 million through an additional draw down on our existing stock purchase agreement with Lincoln Park Capital. As a result, our pro forma at June 30, cash balance is $29.2 million. At the same time we've made significant progress reducing our cash burn to $5.2 million in the second quarter of 2020 as compared to $8.4 million in the first quarter of 2020 and $11.2 million in the second quarter of 2019. Together, these actions provide us with a substantial cash run rate that I believe is sufficient to achieve meaningful commercial milestones both in our proved headache indication and existing revenue channels as well as the emerging opportunity in COVID-19. Turning now to COVID-19 on July 13, 2020 we announced that FDA has issued an emergency use authorization for non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation therapy, gammaCore Sapphire CV in known or suspected COVID patient who are experiencing an exacerbation of asthma related symptoms and proven currently available treatments cannot be tolerated or proved ineffective. Needless to say, we're thrilled that our EUA has been approved and we look forward to making nVNS therapy available to both the medical community and COVID patients. gammaCore Sapphire CV is now one of a very small group of therapeutics to have received the EUA designation. The utility of nVNS in COVID-19 patients was initially highlighted in April 2020 through a paper published in the highly regarded peer review journal Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface. The official journal of the International Neuromodulation Society. That paper was entitled Use of Non-Invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulations to Treat Respiratory Symptoms Associated With COVID-19: A Theoretical Hypothesis and Early Clinical Experience. This paper describes the mechanistic rationale for the use of nVNS in patients with COVID-19 and highlights two cases reports from patients who experience clinically, meaningful benefits from nVNS therapy. In case one, the patient used nVNS to expedite symptomatic recovery at home after hospital discharge due to COVID-19 and was able to discontinue use of opioid and cough suppressant medications more rapidly than anticipate. In case two, the patient experienced immediate and consistent relief from symptoms of chest tight, shortness of breath as well as and improved ability to clear his lungs and did not require hospitalization. Paper concludes that and I “preliminary observations and a strong scientific to get that nVNS might provide clinical benefits in patients COVID-19 via multiple mechanisms”. As a result of this evidence in combination with the early clinical trials that supported the issuance of our EUA. Two investigators initiated clinical trials are underway evaluating gammaCore Sapphire CV and hospitalized COVID-19 patients. In Spain, Dr. Carlos TORNERO, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia is conducting a study called SAVIOR I [ph], a study assessing vagus nerve stimulation in COVID-19 respiratory symptoms. This is randomized open label study that is targeting 90 hospitalized patients with a confirmed diagnosis of or presumed to be COVID-19 positive. In the United States, Dr. Tariq Cheema of Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh is conducting a study called SAVIORII targeting 60 hospitalized patients with a confirmed diagnosis of or presumed to be COVID-19 positive. Both studies follow the recommendations outline for clinical trials by the WHO in their COVID-19 R&D blueprint and will measure the safety and efficacy of gammaCore Sapphire CV plus standard of care versus standard of care alone in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 across a broad range of clinical and laboratory endpoints. We are grateful to doctors TORNERO and Cheema and their staff for taking the lead on these important studies and we look forward to their results. We should note that it is difficult to predict when the studies will achieve full enrollment as the number of hospitalized COVID patients tends to fluctuate from one country to the next and within different regions of a country. More recently, we've agreed to support a clinical trial within the Veterans Administration system of nVNS to treat COVID-19 patients in an outpatient setting prior to any hospital admission that will be coordinated by Hanson, Virginia, VA Medical Center. We will provide additional details on this study tentatively called VAnguard later in Q3. In terms of pricing and availability of gammaCore Sapphire CV, the list price of gammaCore Sapphire CV is $1,750. In light of the emerging pandemic we're making this therapy available to all customers for $1,250, a 29% discount until further notice. We've instituted what we believe to be a very simple process for hospitals, physicians, patients and VA Military treatment facilities to access gammaCore Sapphire CV and I refer you to the press release issued on July 30, 2020 for specific instructions. To further support these EUA distribution activities we're planning to launch a Telehealth option for gammaCore Sapphire CV that will facilitate the immediate processing and fulfilment of prescriptions. Note that our speciality pharmacy partner has expressed confidence that gammaCore Sapphire CV will be eligible for reimbursement. The Department of Veteran Affairs, COVID-19 National Summary available on the internet shows more than 4,000 active cases as of August 11. You may recall that we have a small team of sales executives calling on the VA system in military treatment facility, that team has been trained on gammaCore Sapphire CV and has started promoting our therapy for COVID patients in that channel. Since our July 30, 2020 announcement our team has reached out to almost 1,500 providers within the VA system in addition to all of our legacy headache [ph] relationships. Operationally, the health and safety protocols that we put in place upon the emergence of the pandemic to protect our employees, customers and suppliers remain in effect. We continue to manufacture and ship product on schedule and managed hour inventory and supply chain, with very few disruptions. Turning now to our results for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. We experienced softness in some of our key metrics particularly paid month of therapy as physicians and hospitals pivoted to fight the pandemic. Physician appointments were postponed and travel and other restriction made it difficult to conduct direct physician outreach. Total paid months of therapy in the second quarter of 2020 were 2,407 representing a sequential decline of approximately 8.5% from 2,633 in the first quarter. However by the end of the second quarter more than 2,890 physicians have written at least one gammaCore prescription as compared to 2,850 at the end of the first quarter. Total revenue for the quarter was $753,000 a modest increase from $734,000 in the first quarter, a result that we're pleased with given the logistical challenges posed by the pandemic. As with prior quarters, the federal supply schedule and the United Kingdom's National Health Service contributed most of the revenue and we recognized revenue in the commercial channel for the first time this year. I'll now discuss each of our revenue channels in more detail some of which we previewed in our business update press release for July 14, 2020. During the second quarter 67 departments of Veterans Affairs, the VA and Department of Defense, DoD; military treatment facilities purchased gammaCore product as compared to 64 during the first quarter of 2020 and 54 during the fourth quarter of 2019. Also during the second quarter, the company shipped approximately 988 paid months of therapy pursuant to the VA and DoD originating prescriptions, compared to 1,084 paid months of therapy during the first quarter of 2020 and 829 during the fourth quarter of 2019. Revenue from the VA and DoD in the second quarter was $415,000 as compared to $454,000 in the first quarter and $378,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019. As we indicated during our first quarter conference call in light of the ongoing pandemic our ability to visit hospitals and doctors has been limited and according to VA officials some 5.7 million appointments with VA providers were cancelled between February and April partly offsetting this the VA's advanced Telehealth capabilities which have increased almost 10 fold from 2,500 daily sessions in early March to nearly 25,000 current daily session according to the Federal News Network. As we said before but bears repeating, gammaCore can be prescribed easily during a Telehealth console and deliver directly to the patients' home and this has allowed us to navigate through the crisis with only a modest sequential reduction in pain therapy. We continue to see encouraging signs of certain VA hospitals are planning to host in-person meetings with our field staff and are starting to see patients in clinic. While the VA system is long way from opening up, the current quarter is off to a good start. We shipped 435 paid months of therapy in July, 2020 compared to an average of 329 per month in the second quarter. Outside the US, turning now to the United Kingdom and other OUS territories. The UK was particularly hard hit during the pandemic and as a result paid months of therapy decreased about 7% to 938 from 1,008 during the first quarter of 2020 and 961 during the fourth quarter of 2019. The modest sequential decline was also affected by discontinuation of operations in Germany. Barring a second wave, COVID-related restrictions are loosening in the United Kingdom and as a reminder; gammaCore is reimbursed through the Innovation Technology Payment program. During the second quarter of 2020, total revenue generated outside of the US was $247,000 as compared to $277,000 in the first quarter of 2020 and $294,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019. New patient starts have been impacted by the COVID pandemic but we're optimistic that we can return to growth in both revenue and months of therapy in the back half of the year. July was off to a good start with 368 paid months of therapy as compared to an average of 313 per month during the second quarter. Turning now to the US commercial and pharmacy benefit managers. As previously said, that I did not expect to recognize any revenue from the commercial pharmacy benefit manager channel during 2020 because there appear to be adequate inventory in that channel. It now appears that I was too conservative. Commercial pharmacies have been filling 300 to 500 paid months of therapy per quarter during the first two quarters of 2020. Those prescriptions have been delivered from inventory, purchased by a distributor in 2019. During the second quarter of 2020 we successfully transitioned our business model in the commercial space worked directly with the speciality pharmacy. We exited our remaining distributor relationship as of May 31, 2020 and that distributor was able to dispense all of the inventory that they had originally purchased last year. We shipped a small replenishment order to pharmacies in June 2020 and we expect to ship at least 200 paid months of therapy per quarter going forward for the rest of the year. Now that we've streamlined our commercial channel, we will start to look at making selective investments to grow that business more aggressively once the COVID-related headwinds receive. Turning to our clinical programs, beyond the COVID trials discussed earlier the Premium 2 trial in migraine prevention was closed due to the pandemic in March 2020 and we expect to have more than 225 patients in the intent-to-treat group and more than 110 patients in the modified intent-to-treat group. We look forward to analyzing the data from the study and the data will be subsequently reported at upcoming medical meetings. I look forward to sharing that data with you. The company is aware of several other investigator-initiated trials in variety of indications. Many of these are having difficulty recruiting patients in the short-term as the world manages through the pandemic. We'll share updates as they become available. On July 28, 2020 we announced the publication of a clinical update paper in a peer reviewed journal Cephalalgia, the official journal of the International Headache Society. The paper is a narrative review of recent scientific and clinical research into the non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation for headache including findings from mechanistic studies and their possible relationships through the clinical effect of nVNS. The review concludes the scientific and clinical study supports the emergence of nVNS as an effective, safe, well tolerated and practical treatment for primary headache disorders and supports the consideration of nVNS as number one, a first line treatment for both acute and preventative treatment of cluster headache and number two, an effective option for acute treatment of migraine and number three, a highly relevant, practical option for migraine preventative therapy. The primary author of the paper is Dr. Stephen Silberstein, past President of the American Headache Society and Director of Jefferson Headache Center at the Thomas Jefferson University and Medical Center. Its publications such as this together with support from influential opinion leaders including all of the authors of that paper that are core to our ongoing marketing efforts and represent a very powerful tool as we work to drive adoption of gammaCore therapy in all of our channels. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Brian for a review of our financials and other guidance items.