Dan Goldberger
Analyst · BTIG. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Rich. Hello, everybody and thank you for joining us today. I am thrilled to report that Q1 2021 revenue was a record $1.2 million. Furthermore, net cash used for the quarter decreased over 50% to $4.1 million for the first quarter of 2021 from $8.4 million for the first quarter of 2020. For first quarter of 2021, total revenue of $1.2 million increased approximately 30% sequentially from $928,000 in the fourth quarter of 2020 and approximately 64% from $734,000 in the first quarter of 2020. We believe that our revenue growth is driven by the various initiatives we put in place during 2020 and the gradual relaxation of pandemic restrictions. When Brian and I joined the company in 2019, we focused on reporting paid months of therapy as a metric to illustrate progress and as a lead indicator of net revenue growth. Over the last few months, the business has become more diverse through the addition of stocking distributors in a few international territories and the soft launch of gammaCore Sapphire D provisioned with 36 months of therapy to meet the CMS definition of durable medical equipment. As such paid months of therapy no longer tells the whole story and you'll see increased variability in average selling price per month, as different product and revenue streams are combined. We will continue to report paid months of therapy where it is an appropriate metric. The Federal Supply Schedule or FSS which encompasses the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense and other government and military agencies continues to be our most important revenue channel. During the first quarter of 2021, clinician meetings with our staff began to increase within the VA as the number of COVID-19 cases decreased within the system. A total of 79 VA and DOD military treatment facilities have purchased gammaCore products through Q1 2021 as compared to 71 through the fourth quarter of 2020 and 64 through the first quarter of 2020. Revenue from the government channel increased 33% sequentially to $679,000 in the first quarter of 2021 from $509,000 in the fourth quarter of 2020 and increased 49% as compared to $454,000 in the first quarter of 2020. Also, during the first quarter of 2021, the company shipped approximately 1,768 paid months of therapy pursuant to VA and DOD originating prescriptions compared to 1,232 during the fourth quarter of 2020 and 1,084 during the first quarter of 2020. Our sales and marketing function continues to leverage our clinical differentiation along with telehealth and other virtual capabilities, and management believes the company remains well positioned to resume normalized sales activities, as the pandemic subsides. Turning to our international business, you may have seen recent announcements about new distributor relationships around the world, which are structured as stocking distributors. We therefore have two business models driving growth outside the United States; direct sales through our subsidiary in the United Kingdom and a few legacy Western European countries and distributor sales elsewhere. All our international business is capably managed by Iain Strickland, PhD, Vice President of Global Sales and Strategy based in the United Kingdom. During the first quarter of 2021, electroCore shipped approximately 1,156 paid months of therapy outside of the United States directly to patients as compared to 1,143 during the fourth quarter of 2020 and 1,008 during the first quarter of 2020. Revenue generated outside the US was $380,000 in the first quarter of 2021 as compared to $311,000 in the fourth quarter of 2020 and $276,000 in the first quarter of 2020. We're pleased to see steady improvement, driven mostly by the United Kingdom, which has been and continues to be hit very hard by the pandemic. We're enthusiastic about the continued interest we are receiving for non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation or nVNS in other territories around the world. In the first quarter of 2021, international revenue included initial orders totaling approximately $45,000 from our new distributors in Eastern Europe and Australia. We're expecting initial orders from our new distributors in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Qatar as the year progresses. Our team in the United Kingdom has been quietly managing the transition from the NHS Innovation and Technology Payment Program, ITPP, to the recently announced NHS improvement MedTech Funding Mandate policy 2021/22. We do not anticipate any material short-term impact and we continue to expect that our UK business will grow under the broader coverage provided by the MedTech Funding Mandate. We announced in January that Health Improvement Scotland, HIS, published a Scottish Health Technology Group, SHTG, adaptation for NHS Scotland on the use of gammaCore for cluster headache. The SHTG adaptation is now being disseminated across NHS Scotland health boards to inform the use of gammaCore for cluster headache. We're working towards similar approvals in Wales and Northern Ireland. In February 2021, we also learned the gammaCore's listing in the NHS supply chain catalog was extended for an additional two years through Q3 2023. The NHS supply chain helps NHS deliver clinically assured quality products at the best value to its patients and the inclusion of gammaCore in the catalog allows hospitals to purchase gammaCore Sapphire to their primary headache patients taking into account their own budgetary restrictions. The listing of gammaCore Sapphire is an eDirect product marks an important milestone in the company's provision of its medical technologies to United Kingdom patients in an easy cost-effective way. In recent months, we took meaningful steps to expand gammaCore's global availability. In December 2020, we announced an exclusive distribution agreement with Pro Medical Baltic to distribute gammaCore in Eastern Europe, including Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and more recently Romania. In January 2021, we entered into a similar agreement with our SK Medical in Canada. And in February 2021, we announced an agreement with Medistar, who will serve as the exclusive distributor for nVNS in Australia. We also announced an exclusive distribution agreement with Silvert Medical in March 2021 who will make nVNS therapy available in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and France. Most recently, in April 2021, we announced a distribution agreement with East Agency for distribution in Qatar. We look forward to further expanding our global network with leading medical technology distribution partners to make gammaCore more broadly available outside the USA. We continue to make measured investments in our commercial channel inside the United States, most notably, through negotiations with national and regional insurers and pharmacy benefit managers for the purpose of expanding the population of gammaCore covered lives. During the first quarter of 2021, the company shipped approximately 185 paid months of therapy pursuant to commercially originating prescriptions compared to 184 during the fourth quarter of 2020. Net revenue from the commercial channel was $121,000 for the first quarter of 2021, as compared to $54,000 for the previous quarter. Net revenue from the commercial channel during the first quarter of 2020, was not material. In January 2021, we announced that CMS published its most recent Level II Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System, commonly known as HCPCS, establishing a unique code K1020 for non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator. All final coding decisions for the second biannual 2020 coding cycle for non-drug and non-biological items and services went into effect on April 1, 2021. We view the establishment of a unique HCPCS code for nVNS as an important differentiator and a potentially significant driver of additional coverage within the medical benefit pathway. At least one regional payer has published a positive benefits determination for K1020 and we've entered into fee schedule negotiations with that organization. Several national payers continue to list nVNS as experimental and we're providing additional clinical and economic data in an effort to overcome those determinations. Premier Specialty Pharmacy continues to be our largest distribution partner in the commercial channel and their gammaCore business has been relatively flat for the past few quarters. You'll recall that Premier purchases inventory from electroCore and fills prescriptions from their inventory, as they are adjudicated by the pharmacy benefit managers. Therefore, the paid months of therapy metric that we report in the commercial channel does not map directly to revenue. On the topic of COVID-19 pandemic, our employees in Rockaway, New Jersey and in the fields continue to implement best practices for preserving the safety and health of all of our stakeholders. The FDA emergency use authorization or EUA was granted to us in July 2020 for the use of gammaCore Sapphire CV at home or in a healthcare setting for the acute treatment of adult patients with known or suspected COVID-19. gammaCore Sapphire CV is available throughout our VA DOD channels to hospitals directly from the company through Premier Specialty Pharmacy by obtaining a prescription through a patient's healthcare provider or through a telehealth console powered by our telehealth partner of Upscript LLC. We have also set up an online portal for patients to use www.getgammacore.com. While unit sales in the first quarter 2021 increased over fourth quarter of 2020, prescriptions generated through the EUA were not a meaningful source of revenue during the quarter. At this point, I'm going to ask our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Peter Staats, to provide an update on our various clinical initiatives.