Earnings Labs

Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (HALO)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Mon, Feb 29, 2016

$63.26

-0.94%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to Halozyme Therapeutics Fourth Quarter 2015 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jim Mazzola, Vice President of Investor Relations at Halozyme. Mr. Mazzola, you may begin your conference.

Jim Mazzola

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

Okay, thank you, Brandon, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Halozyme’s fourth quarter and full-year 2015 conference call. Following market close today, we issued a news release with the summary of our results and posted a short slide presentation to accompany this call. You will find both on the investor page at halozyme.com. Leading our call today is Halozyme’s President and Chief Executive Office, Dr. Helen Torley who will provide an overview and update on our business. Then Laurie Stelzer, our Chief Financial Officer will review financial results for the December quarter followed by a Q&A period. Also with us for today’s call is Dr. Athena Countouriotis, our Chief Medical Officer. Before we begin today, let me remind you that during this conference call, we will be making forward-looking statements. The company’s actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or indicated by such forward-looking statements. For a description of risks, please refer to our quarterly and annual filings with the SEC. Now, let me turn the call over to Helen.

Helen Torley

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Let me begin with what I think is a three key takeaways for today’s call. Firstly, regarding our financials, we finished 2015 in line with our guidance, well-financed for 2016 plans, and with strong momentum in both pillars of our strategy. Secondly, in our oncology pillar, where our lead product is our investigational new drug PEGPH20, we’re on schedule to initiate our pivotal Phase 3 study in pancreatic cancer patients next month, and it remains our goal to expand our ongoing clinical trials and additional tumor types in the second-half of this year, in support of our objective of demonstrating the pan-tumor potential for PEGPH20. We now have eight studies in process between the company, clinical collaborations, and investigator sponsored trials, and we’re making the appropriate investments we believe today to realize the two future potential value of PEGPH20. And thirdly, we’ve got strong momentum in the ENHANZE pillar of our strategy two with an enviable list of six global partners, four royalty generating product approvals with launches in 48 countries, and for new products entering the clinic just in the last four months. I think this may be the most underappreciated part of our story, as it continues to create value and serve as a key differentiator for our business. For additional details in our progress, I’ll start on Slide 2, with an overview of our strategy. We operate the business and make investment decisions in two strategic pillars. The first pillar is our oncology business, with our investigational drug PEGPH20 at the core. Our PEGPH20 temporarily degrades hyaluronan, which is a glycosaminoglycan or chain of natural sugars in the body that can accumulate around certain tumors and can constrict the tumor vasculature. In animal models, we’ve demonstrated that…

Laurie Stelzer

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead

Thank you, Helen. I will begin on Slide 9, where you’ll see that revenue for the fourth quarter was $52.2 million compared to $30.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, driven primarily by the $25 million upfront license fee booked when we signed the Lilly agreement, offset by the $15 million upfront license fee from Janssen in 2014, as well as another strong year-over-year increase in royalty revenue. Our revenue is primarily comprised of royalties, bulk sales of rHuPH20 for use in manufacturing collaboration products and Hylenex product sales. During the quarter, royalty revenue totaled $9.5 million, an increase of $1.3 million sequentially from last quarter and $5.5 million above the fourth quarter of last year. The year-over-year increase came largely from higher sales of Roche’s Herceptin SC during the third quarter. Bulk sales of rHUPH20 totaled $9.3 million, Hylenex product sales totaled $4.3 million, and other collaboration revenue totaled $29.1 million, which includes a $25 million license fee from Lilly. Turning to Slide 10 for a more detailed breakdown of our P&L. Cost of product sales was $8.4 million in the quarter compared to $6.1 million in the prior year. This increase in manufacturing costs, primarily reflects our increase in product sales to partners. Research and Development expenses for the fourth quarter were $27.7 million, compared to $19.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, a continuation of the planned increase we have discussed for several quarters to support our growing clinical and manufacturing activities for PEGPH20. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $10.6 million, compared to $8.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2014. The increase was primarily due to personnel expenses including stock based compensation for the period. Overall, our operating expenses increased by $12.5 million from the fourth quarter of 2014, which as we said…

Helen Torley

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

Thank you, Laurie. And as you’ve just heard, we have strong progress across both pillars of our strategy. And we believe that in any market environment, our business model is an important differentiator and driver of value for our investors. During the quarter, we took significant steps forward in our pancreatic cancer program and continue the exploration of PEGPH20 in a wider array of tumor and therapy types, while at the same time we have yet another quarter of important milestones in our ENHANZE pillar with continued confirmation of commercial progress through the growing royalty revenues and four new products entering the clinic. I remain very optimistic about the investments we’re making in both pillars to deliver even greater value for the future. And I’d like to close as ever by thanking our growing employee team here at Halozyme for their continued hard work in advancing the programs and supporting our partners. We’re now ready to take questions. Operator, could you please open up the call.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question will come from Jessica Fye with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Timothy Ryan

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

Hey, guys, this is Ryan on for Jess, appreciate you taking my questions. So you gave a little bit of an update with where you’re at with PRIMAL and the KEYTRUDA combo study. But is it possible that we would be able to see any data from those two studies later this year?

Helen Torley

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

Thank you, Ryan. Let me just address that. As we mentioned in the prepared remarks, we’re really at this point in time in our dose escalation portion, but we do project being in the dose expansion portion in the second-half of this year. That’s going to be the key part of the study, where we’ll be looking at HA high only patients and we would be looking at the target dose we want to study for efficacy. And so really it’s going to depend on when we still have a robust number of patients in that dose expansion portion at the right dose only in high HA patients. So stay tuned, but that kind of the sequence of events that will occur and trigger us for when we are able to report efficacy.

Timothy Ryan

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

Great, thanks. And I guess the second question is, you talked about how you are not – you wouldn’t use the data from study 202 necessarily, as a basis for filing. But you could you kind of walk us through a scenario in which you would – that data would be potentially strong enough for you to consider taking that forward to the FDA?

Helen Torley

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

Yes, thanks Ryan. As I mentioned, we have not discussed this with the FDA. So any decision to do that would depend on the FDA. But I can say that what we’d be looking-forward be a very strong efficacy profile and that strong risk benefit in a targeted population. So we do think that it’s a low probability scenario. We do good questions on it, which is why we mentioned it today. But that would be the scenario, but we would want to talk to the FDA before we would even proceed with that path.

Timothy Ryan

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

Great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for the question. Next question will come from Andrew Peters with UBS. Please go ahead.

Andrew Peters

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead

Hi, thanks for taking the questions and good afternoon. I guess, a couple here. First, just on the Phase 3 data and kind of how you described overall survival if data is supportive. Just to help to frame that would you describe the state one data that we’ve seen so far as supportive, or would you expect me to see additional benefit given that in stage one of good junk of patients came off drug?

Helen Torley

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead

Yes, thanks, Andrew. And I’ll ask Athena to address that. But you’re absolutely right. The data that we’ve looked at in stage one about 40% of patients did get their therapy discontinued prematurely because of the clinical hold. But, Athena, would you address that question for Andrew?

Athena Countouriotis

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead

Hi, Andrew. I think the first ting I would start with is that the Phase 3 really was built off our strongest data set from the Phase 2, which was progression survival. Remember, the Phase 3 has two primary endpoints for both PFS and overall survival. And what we showed previously was an improvement in the PEGPH20 on in terms of the median overall survival and clearly the PFS difference. And that’s been repeated with an internal analysis. Clearly, the internal analysis still have the strong hazard ratio at 0.48 for progression free survival. However, I did mention at JPMorgan that we did discuss the overall survival just in her remarks. And that there is a continued benefit in the PEGPH20 on, that is a narrower difference than what we showed previously, but it is still supported.

Andrew Peters

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead

Okay. And then maybe a question just on guidance. Can you break out what are the contributors of the guidance this year and how the royalty revenue growth fits into that. Just trying to understand the split between new partnerships and milestone payments and things like that versus your expectation for the ENHANZE Royalties.

Helen Torley

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead

Great Andrew, I’ll ask Laurie to address that.

Laurie Stelzer

Analyst · UBS. Please go ahead

Hi Andrew. On our guidance we guided to $110 million to $125 million on revenue for 2016. And as a reminder that does not include any new ENHANZE partnership. And so for year-over-year comparisons, we did receive $48 million in upfront payments between AbbVie and Lily in 2015. And so when you kind of strip that out and look at the underlying growth rate, our guidance is growing between 25% and 40% year-over-year. We haven’t historically broken out royalties, specifically, so to that specific question, but we do expect to see royalties continue to increase year-over-year.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for the question. The next question will come from Charles Duncan with Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead.

Charles Duncan

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

Hi, guys, first of all, congrats on a great year of progress.

Helen Torley

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

Well, thank you, Charles.

Charles Duncan

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

You’re welcome, it’s notable. So let me first ask you about PEGPH20, I’m intrigued with the idea of very capital efficient route to the market, but not counting on it. Relative to enrollment in 301 by year-end or say roughly early next year, approximately how much of that trial will be enrolled when you be making a decision on the results of 202?

Helen Torley

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

Thanks for the question, Charles. As I mentioned, we’re just at a stage now having had a very successful U.S. investigator meeting. And as I speak sites are in the U.S. are getting the site initiation business to start screening. In the second quarter, we will start the European site. And so what we don’t have specific data I can project off the moment to know what the enrollment is going to be by year end. But what I can say is that down. Our focus is on getting all of these sites up and running and screening just as quickly as possible. And so once I have a little bit more detail on having the sites and the screening and the enrollment rate, I’m going to be in a better position to give an estimate of how many patients are likely to be enrolled by the end of the year, it’s a little premature to be able to do that.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The question will come from Arlinda Lee with Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Arlinda Lee

Analyst · Canaccord. Please go ahead

Hi, guys, thanks for taking my questions. I guess, maybe on the PRIMAL and pembrolizumab combination trialsa. You guys, I’m glad that you guys are still on track to go into those Phase 2 portion of the clinical trial. Can you maybe clarify what kind of precipitated the dosing amendment?

Helen Torley

Analyst · Canaccord. Please go ahead

Thanks, Arlinda, And just to say that we’re still in the Phase 1/1B portion of the study on, where they contained both dose escalation and then dose expansion at the selected dose before in PRIMAL, in particular, moving into the Phase 2 portions. I just wanted to clarify that. The amendment that we’d like you do for PRIMAL is really just focused on the fact that there was a big jump between the 1.6 microgram per kilogram dose and the 3 microgram per kilogram dose. And having experienced with those limiting toxicity of the 3 microgram per kilogram dose, we felt it was appropriate to amend the protocol to look at some interim doses between 1.6 and 3 micrograms per kilogram, because from our animal models we know there’s dose response based on the dose of PEGPH20 with docetaxel and we feel we feel we haven’t adequately explored it by just looking only at 1.6 and 3 micrograms per kilogram.

Arlinda Lee

Analyst · Canaccord. Please go ahead

Okay, great, thanks very much. And then I guess maybe and I’m intrigued by the idea and I know you indicated that it’s a low probability. But can you please clarify on the suggestion that you could potentially file it on study 202, as it was – I assume extremely positive. Is this for only the part 2 portion, about 133 patients that you’ve, I mean, enrolled subsequent to the clinical hold? And are these only each a high patient by the Ventana definition? Thanks.

Helen Torley

Analyst · Canaccord. Please go ahead

Right. So for the stage 2, it actually is still on all-comer study. But our plan is to analyze the data and we’re blinded to efficacy at this point in time using their prospectively defined at Ventana cutpoint. The database of the FDA would want to look at if this data was seem to be supportive would include all of the patients in study 202, as the FDA will want to understand the overall risk benefit. But if there is, I think, any potential path here, it would be based on these stage 2 patients, the high HA patients in stage 2. And the other data, however, would all have to be supported towards the risk-benefit profile of a PEGPH20. But I’ll just say again we get questions on this. We will be ready for it, but as you said at the start of the question it still remains a very remote possibility that this data would support an accelerated approval, but we’ll be ready for it in the event down that the data does turn out to be supportive and the FDA filters a fastforward.

Arlinda Lee

Analyst · Canaccord. Please go ahead

Okay, great. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your question. The next question will come from Charles Duncan with Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead.

Charles Duncan

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

Thanks, guys, for taking the follow-up. It’s probably a question for Laurie. On the guidance, I understand it doesn’t include any new ENHANZE partnerships. That said, could it include additional milestones from current partnerships? And secondarily, is it possible that you could sign additional ENHANZE partnerships this year, is that one of your goals?

Helen Torley

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

Well, I’ll answer the question on additional ENHANZE partnership, Charles. It continues to be something that we explore. We believe there are other molecules out there that may benefit form the ENHANZE platform. It’s always hard to predict if and when. But I can tell your business development team continues to work hard at that. Laurie, do you want to answer what’s in the guidance with regard to milestone?

Laurie Stelzer

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

Sure. Charles, thanks for the question. So our current guidance certainly does include our estimate for milestones with our current partner that they progress products to the clinic. Again, I can’t be specific about what those are again respecting that our partners haven’t given any public information as to when they would achieve certain milestones. But to the extent, we foresee that. We would have included those in the guidance.

Helen Torley

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

Thanks, Laurie.

Charles Duncan

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

That’s helpful. I appreciate it.

Jim Mazzola

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead

Thanks, Charles. Next question.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question will come from Jon Eckard with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

Hi, guys, this is Brian on for Jon. Just two questions. Curious about whether you guys have mentioned this, I may have missed it. But the lung cancer data that you plan to present for PEGPH20. How do we expect to see the data to be presented with regards to the HA cutoff. Are there certain pre-specified thresholds in that trial?

Helen Torley

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

Let me ask Athena to address that and just to say that at the movement in the study and the dose escalation portion, it’s all-comers. But when we move into the dose expansion, we do plan to use an HA cutoff. Athena, do you want to talk about the approach we are taking?

Athena Countouriotis

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

Yes. Hi, Brian. Maybe let me just backup as Helen was just saying remember the dose escalation phase is all-comers, they were not looking for HA stats at this point. We’re projecting…

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

Yes, sorry for that.

Athena Countouriotis

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

That’s okay. We are projecting that we’ll move into dose expansion through second-half of this year. And that’s really the cohort where we believe we could put present potentially more data in regards to one, patients would be selected for HA, but two, we’ll also be at the maximum tolerated dose of PEGPH20. So it really is a more appropriate dataset to discuss a bigger efficacy and safety data set. Now having said to address your HA cutoff question, we are working with Ventana. We are looking at available commercial tissue in the lung cancer space. Remember, this is also a relevant for our other programs the pan-tumor potential also explores gastric cancer and breast cancer. So we are looking at not only commercially available tissue with outcomes data, as well tissue micro arrays to further optimize the cutoff that we’ll be using in all three of those indications based on our pancreatic cutoff.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

Great, thanks a lot. And with regards to the recent growth in Herceptin SC and MabThera. I’m just curious about what markets are still waiting for reimbursement especially with regards to MabThera?

Helen Torley

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

Yes, Brian, that really is information you would have to get from Roche. We’re limited to what they’ve stated publicly and when they gave their last updates that we didn’t provide a list of specific countries that they were reimbursed and so I’m not in a position to be able to answer that.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

Okay. Thank you very much.

Helen Torley

Analyst · Barclays. Please go ahead

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your question. [Operator Instructions] Dr. Torley, there are no further questions at this time. I will turn the floor back to you for closing comments.

Helen Torley

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead

All right. Well, thank you everyone. I think as you’ve heard, we had a very strong year end 2015. We are very pleased with the momentum with which we have entered 2016, and we look to providing you with further updates, as we make continued progress in our PEGPH20 program, as well as our ENHANZE platform. Thank you so much for joining us today. Goodbye.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s call. You may now disconnect your lines.