Tom McCourt
Analyst · Raghuram Selvaraju
Thanks, Mark and good afternoon to everyone. LINZESS prescription demand grew 11% year-over-year in the first quarter, an impressive growth rate in our eighth year since launch and especially consider some of the headwinds that we typically face during the first quarter during each year as high deductible plans get reset. There was an increase in LINZESS demand during the first 2 weeks of the quarter, which we believe to be the result of patient stocking due to COVID-19.We also saw a meaningful increase in the number of 90-day prescriptions filled during the quarter, which we believe will help support patient compliance during this time. While it's early and uncertainties regarding the impact of COVID-19 remains, we are encouraged by the continued growth that we're seeing in the second quarter, reinforcing our confidence in the brand.LINZESS has established clear prescription market leadership within the category and remains a trusted brand amongst physicians. Studies indicate that a sick patient with chronic symptomatic disorder such as IBS-C are more likely to refill their prescriptions during this time because of the symptomatic nature, which serves as a regular reminder for patients to take their medication.For many patients, refilling this LINZESS prescription is often as easy as just calling the health care professional. Approximately half of total LINZESS prescriptions are refilled, meaning they are being filled by patients that are currently taking LINZESS and the majority of new prescriptions are patients who have had some experience with LINZESS. Estimates suggest approximately 10% to 14% of LINZESS patients are new to the LINZESS brand entirely.It is with this subset of patients we are seeing the largest negative impact due to the COVID-19 to date. There has been a sharp decline in patient visits to doctors' offices since mid-March due to the pandemic. And new patients are more likely to need to see their physicians to get a prescription. We expect growth in new patient starts to increase over time once local markets begin to open, patient visits increase and our field resumes in-person promotion.Overall, the brand has continued to see growth in market share even in the face of these challenging market impacts. Between mid-March and mid-April, LINZESS outperformed its competitors within the prescription IBS-C and chronic constipation category across key demand metrics, including total volume growth, the size of LINZESS prescriptions and market share is now close to 40%.All of this further strengthens LINZESS prescription market leadership. We and Allergan have implemented several initiatives to enable continued engagement with both health care practitioners and with patients during this time. We believe these changes will be important today and into the future given the evolution of how to best communicate with our customer.First, we've implemented a broad telemedicine initiative following a successful pilot program in 2019. We believe that LINZESS is a fitting brand for telemedicine due to the prescription market leadership in the category, its demonstrated efficacy and safety profile, broad payer access and physicians' confidence to diagnose and treat virtually.Second, our DTC campaign, [Get Real] was launched in early April.We are leveraging both TV and radio with a strong call to action for patients to recognize that they may be suffering from IBS-C, a chronic disorder, not just occasional constipation. In doing so, we believe we can activate more patients to seek care and request LINZESS.And third, we provided multiple new tools to the field force, so they can conduct details virtually. While these activities cannot replace in-person interaction, I've been impressed by the level and depth of engagement on many of these virtual details.Turning to LINZESS supply. We and Allergan remain focused on maintaining the availability of LINZESS for patients. We have not seen any significant impact on our ability to manufacture and supply LINZESS to the U.S. to date and we're closely monitoring the situation. We currently believe we have sufficient LINZESS supply on hand to meet the U.S. demand at this time.Lastly and importantly, we just announced last week that the U.S. PTO issued notices of allowance for 2 patent applications covering the 72-microgram dose of LINZESS. If these patent applications proceed to grant, they expect to be issued in 2020 and expire in 2031. We believe these actions further speak to the strength of the innovation surrounding LINZESS.Turning to our partnership with Alnylam and GIVLAARI, which was approved in November of last year for the treatment of acute hepatic porphyria, or AHP. Early results from our GI-focused efforts regarding physician identification of AHP patients and recognition of GIVLAARI as an effective treatment option is encouraging. Even during these uncertain times, we continue to work closely with Alnylam to identify opportunities to support AHP patient identification and treatment with GIVLAARI for porphyria patients.Moving to our GI pipeline. 3718 and 7246 are key to driving the long-term value for our business. We believe that each of these product opportunities has the potential to help meet the unmet need of millions of patients.Starting with 3718, our gastric retentive bile acid sequestrant, currently in Phase III trials for potential treatment of refractory GERD. As of today, we have enrolled approximately 70% of patients into 2 trials, the majority of whom have completed the study. However, over 90% of the 3718 clinical sites has suspended patient screening due to COVID-19.And so our ability to enroll new patients has been substantially impacted. The sites are continuing to monitor the patients who are already enrolled in the trials, which the sites can do remotely. The safety of those patients is our highest priority. Despite the current challenges, we are committed to complete the Phase III program. We no longer expect to report top line data in the second half of 2020 and are now working to achieve top line data as soon as possible in 2021. We plan to share more information as we gain certainty.The unmet net medical need in refractory GERD remains high. We believe that 3718 has the potential to improve both heartburn and regurgitation symptoms, both of which are not completely resolved with PPIs and other treatment options.Turning now to 7246, our delayed release formulation of linaclotide, currently in a Phase II trial for the treatment of patients with abdominal pain associated with IBS-D. We now expect to deliver top line results in the second quarter of 2020, earlier than our previous guidance of mid- 2020. We believe 7246 has the potential to be a non-opioid pain-relieving agent for patients suffering from abdominal pain associated with certain GI diseases.Our positive Phase II IBS-D results with 7246 support this hypothesis, as the data demonstrated that 7246 reduced abdominal pain similar to 290 micrograms of LINZESS with limited effect on bowel function. Additionally, a Phase I dose escalating study showed that 7246 did not affect wall function in healthy volunteers when taking up to 3,000 micrograms once a day. If the Phase II IBS-D data are positive, we plan to conduct an end of Phase II meeting with the FDA with the goal of initiating a Phase III program in IBS-D in early 2021.With that, I'll turn it over to Gina.