Sean Ianchulev
Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. Your line is open
Thank you, Tram, and welcome everyone to Eyenovia's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Earnings Conference Call. Throughout 2018, we worked diligently to advance our late-stage pipeline comprised of MicroStat for mydriasis, MicroPine for progressive myopia, MicroProst for IOP lowering in glaucoma and MicroTears for red eye and itch relief and lubrication. We also continued to validate the efficacy of our high-precision microdosing platform technology which we call the Optejet. And we were very excited to announce positive results from our first Phase III program, MicroStat for pharmacologic mydriasis. The results from the MicroStat MIST-1 and MIST-2 trial confirmed that our fixed combination phenylephrine-tropicamide formulation met the primary efficacy outcome in both studies. We believe that these studies help to further validate our microdose platform technology as well as demonstrate the potential of our technology to improve office efficiency. In addition to our success with MicroStat, the FDA acceptance of our MicroPine IND application represents another milestone achievement allowing us to initiate the Phase III trial this year. We also expect to initiate a third Phase III program with MicroProst this year, which includes a single study with an expanded study population including patients with Chronic Angle Closure Glaucoma, Open Angle Glaucoma and ocular hypertension representing what we believe is one of the broadest patient population in glaucoma drug development today. Let me first highlight our MicroStat program and expand on our positive results from our Phase III MIST-1 and MIST-2 trials. As you may remember, MicroStat for pharmacologic mydriasis or pupil dilation is an important estimated 80 million plus office-based comprehensive and diabetic eye exams, as well as the estimated 4 million mydriatic application for ocular surgery in the United States alone this year. Currently, the majority of eye care practices use dual installation of both phenylephrine and tropicamide, which can lead to dual overdose of those agents, as well as increased downtime as those doses must be separated by several minutes in order to be effective. At this time, there is no FDA approved co-formulation of this drug and we aim to bring the first fixed dose phentrop combination in the market. The MIST-1 study was a U.S.-based randomized double-mask superiority trial that enrolled 64 subjects. In the study, both eyes of the subject were treated on separate days with our MicroStat fixed-combination formulation, phenylephrine 2.5% and tropicamide 1%. In MIST-1, Eyenovia’s own fixed-combination MicroStat was compared again each component formulations of tropicamide and phenylephrine respectively using the Optejet. The study met its primary efficacy outcome of mean pupil dilation of 35 minutes post administration and the MicroStat demonstrated statistically and clinically superior mydriatic effect as compared to either component formulation. Additional analysis demonstrated that 94% of the eyes achieved 6 millimeter or greater pupil dilation in 35 minutes post administration, compared with 78% and 1.6% for the tropicamide-only and phenylephrine-only groups respectively. We also found that at 20 minutes, 57% of the MicroStat treated eyes achieved 6 millimeter dilation or greater, compared to only 38% of the tropicamide treated eyes and 0% of the phenylephrine treated eyes. Our MIST-2 study was a second confirmatory Phase III trial designed with superiority of MicroStat versus controlled placebo solution and it enrolled 70 subjects. In the second trial, both eyes of the subject was treated on separate days with our MicroStat formulation compared against the placebo solution, both of which were administered using the Optejet dispenser. The study’s primary efficacy outcome was the same as the MIST-1 study and MicroStat demonstrated that it was clinically and statistically superior to placebo in terms of mydriatic effect. Additional analysis of the data demonstrated that in the MicroStat group 90% of the eyes achieved 6 millimeter or greater pupil dilation and 68% of the eyes achieved 7 millimeter or more pupil dilation in 35 minutes after administration. We are very pleased through the outcomes of both Phase III trials which not only demonstrated a robust mydriatic effect for MicroStat but also that MicroStat was well tolerated by all subjects. We believe that this is the first time in a Phase III FDA registration program that drugs have been delivered to the ocular surface using a microdose delivery system representing in our opinion a major step forward as we seek to transform the field of ophthalmology and provide physicians and patients with smarter and more precise technology to improve delivery efficacy and compliance. With the two required registrational studies complete, we have now turned our focus to preparing the registration and stability manufacturing lots for MicroStat which are required parts of our planned new drug application. While we complete this step, we expect to file a complete NDA package with the FDA in 2020. Turning now to our first-in-class back-of-the-eye program MicroPine. We were very excited to receive FDA acceptance of our investigational new drug application to initiate our Phase III CHAPERONE study to reduce the progression of myopia in children. Currently, there are no FDA approved therapies to treat myopic progression. A pathologic process of unchecked scleral retinal axial elongation which can lead to progressive nearsightedness, decreased vision and in advance cases, retinal detachment and retinal atrophy. We believe that our proprietary microdose formulation of atropine holds the potential to be the first FDA approved treatment for myopic progression. And our development of atropine is supported by a growing body of evidence generated from the ATOM 1; ATOM 2, more recently the last studies which were conducted by collaborative academic groups. These studies have successfully demonstrated that low-dose atropine has the potential to slow myopia progression by up to 60% to 70% with the acceptance of the IND and we plan to initiate our CHAPERONE study in 2019. The single study which confirmed through our discussions with the FDA will be a U.S.-based, multi-center, randomized double-mask trial that would enroll more than 400 children and adolescents. Participants in the study will be equally randomized to receive treatment of either two MicroPine treatment concentrations or a placebo arm. The third Phase III program we are preparing an IND application for is MicroProst for the lowering of the intraocular pressure or IOP. Last year we published positive results from our ancillary Phase II Eyenovia PG 21 study which examined the effect of microdose latanoprost on IOP lowering. This study demonstrated that a single administration of the microdose latanoprost using our Optejet technology achieved 29% IOP lowering from baseline which is consistent with the 26% seen in other studies using conventional eye drop latanoprost. After presenting these results at recent medical meetings, and further discussions with the FDA, we recently announced that we would expand the MicroProst study population to include not only patients with Chronic Angle Closure Glaucoma, but also Open Angle Glaucoma and ocular hypertension patients. These expansions could allow MicroProst to additional access approximately 4 million people in the United States currently being treated for elevated IOP. In addition to broadening the patient population, we have also streamlined the clinical program to just a single Phase III registration study of approximately 250 patients. We believe that this trial will include one of the broadest patient populations in glaucoma drug development today with the potential to have one of the widest indications of any commercially available IOP lowering therapies including chronic Angle Closure Glaucoma, which currently has no FDA approved therapy. Finally, we have also refined our fourth program MicroTears. After conducting further research, we believe that developing MicroTears is an ocular decongestant and anti- pruritic to address red eye itching and ocular lubrication will enable us to differentiate it as an OTC product. We believe that this updated formulation of MicroTears will be able to address the issues facing current OTC tear products by reducing the medication rebound effect, lowering preservative exposure, and being significantly easier to administer by consumers. As we continue to develop the program there is an OTC Monograph registration with the FDA this year we are considering commercializing MicroTears through a direct sales to optometrists using a Specialty Pharmacy Network or SPN. An SPN can simplify the traditional prescribing process by allowing a single specialty pharmacy to handle the sale and distribution of products to consumers and optometric practices. From our research – in the recent market research, we currently believe that this will be the best commercialization path as a reconversion of the optometry business is very important and a majority of doctors we surveyed indicated an interest in selling MicroTears. We are also considering commercializing MicroStat and potentially other products in the same way. Now, before I hand the call over to John to review the financials, I would like to briefly discuss future opportunities in the ophthalmology space that our technology platform maybe well suited for. One such ocular disorder is Presbyopia, which is a non-preventable age-related hardening of the lens that causes the gradual loss of the eye’s ability to focus actively on nearby objects. It is prevalent this correction issue affecting nearly 130 million Americans, most people experience some degree of presbyopia after the age of 40 and currently we estimate that one-third of presbyopia sufferers are unmanaged. Interestingly, between the onset of presbyopia around 40 years of age and the age of 50 to 55, patients are most likely to respond to treatment. This subset represents approximately 20 million people in the United States who could potentially benefit from a prescription drug treatment. To our knowledge, current treatment option for presbyopia are exclusively device-based ranging from reading glasses to refractive lens exchange. However, Eyenovia has the potential to offer a highly differentiated value proposition in presbyopia. Our high precision microdosing technology combined with pilocarpine could provide a short-term improvement in vision in patients lasting approximately three to four hours while addressing the issue of brow ache normally associated with microdose pilocarpine. While this would not be a permanent replacement for device-based modalities such as reading glasses or contact, our microdosing technology could allow patients to forego such devices for several hours. We believe that this could be an interesting development opportunity for us going forward. With that, I would like to turn the call over to John to discuss our financial results.