Bruce C. Cozadd
Analyst · Guggenheim
Thank you, Kathee. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. 2013 is off to a strong start. In the first quarter, we saw record sales for Xyrem and Erwinaze. Our total revenues increased 91% to $196 million compared with the first quarter of 2012. We realized adjusted net income of $84 million in the first quarter of 2013, reflecting the significant top line growth and attractive margins of our business. GAAP net income for the quarter was $43 million. We are focused on unlocking the growth potential of our key products through solid execution in all of our business units and by making selective investments in new initiatives. We'll also continue our focus on corporate development with a goal of adding specialty products to our portfolio. Today, we announced that our board has authorized a share repurchase program of up to $200 million. The timing and amount of repurchases will depend on a variety of factors, including stock price. We believe this presents an opportunity to increase shareholder value while maintaining significant financial flexibility to finance future corporate development opportunities. I'll now comment on the 3 products in our portfolio that we believe have the highest growth potential: Xyrem, Erwinaze and Prialt. Kate will then review our results for the first quarter and provide updates to our financial guidance. Xyrem remains a key driver of our growth. In the first quarter of 2013, we were pleased to achieve 15% volume growth compared with the same period of 2012. The average number of active Xyrem patients grew to approximately 10,550 compared to 9,500 in the same period of 2012. Our efforts in reaching an expanded prescriber universe have contributed to the growth that we saw this quarter and in 2012. We're making progress on growing prescriptions from the mid-decile physicians on our current call universe, and we continue to identify additional groups of physicians who are diagnosing and managing patients with narcolepsy. As part of our ongoing efforts to raise awareness of the diagnosis and treatment of narcolepsy patients, we have developed Narcolepsy Link as a disease state resource. We have launched the Narcolepsy Link website where health care providers can participate in key opinion leader-led meetings and symposia providing information related to the identification and diagnosis of narcolepsy, which we believe could lead to earlier patient diagnosis. During the American Academy of Neurology meeting in March, we presented the BOND, that's Burden of Narcolepsy Disease Study, describing health care utilization and costs associated with narcolepsy. This study evaluated the narcolepsy burden of illness in a U.S. database of over 7 million patients with approximately 9,300 diagnosed narcolepsy patients compared to a control matched group. It demonstrated that narcolepsy is associated with substantial personal and economic events such as significantly higher health care and drug utilization costs and significantly increased short-term disability compared to the control group. Next month, we will be presenting additional abstracts that build on our understanding of the burden of illness and the ability to diagnose and manage patients with narcolepsy at SLEEP 2013, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. As part of our life cycle management for Xyrem, preclinical efforts are underway on JZP-386, formerly referred to as C-10323, the deuterium-modified sodium oxybate that we licensed from Concert in February. We plan to submit an IND later this year. Now I'd like to provide a brief update on legal and regulatory matters related to Xyrem. As you know, we have numerous patents around Xyrem, including formulation, method used to treat narcolepsy and method of distribution and we've been in IP litigation with Roxane Laboratories for some time. The court recently ordered a consolidation of the multiple proceedings and set a schedule for the case. Based on the court's scheduling order, we anticipate the trial could occur as early as mid-2014. But of course, the actual schedule may ultimately vary substantially. We are also in very early stages of litigation with Amneal Pharmaceuticals. As we have mentioned previously, we are engaged in ongoing communications with the FDA with respect to finalizing our deemed REMS documents. While we can't predict the final outcome of these interactions, we expect that the FDA will require REMS documents that will result in or permit modifications to aspects of our current deemed REMS, which may include the ability to distribute Xyrem through more than 1 pharmacy. We also expect that the final REMS documents will include some new requirements. That said, we expect that we will continue to operate the Xyrem distribution system with the key features of the current system of single central pharmacy and a central database of prescription and patient information. We continue to believe that this is the safest and most appropriate approach to the distribution of this drug. There are numerous intersections between these regulatory matters: our intellectual property, the potential for FDA approval of and launch of generic versions of Xyrem and our ongoing ANDA litigation. We've discussed these complexities and related risks in detail in our SEC filings, including the 10-Q that we are filing today. So I won't attempt to discuss all the variables on this call. We continue to believe in the strength of our overall intellectual property position around Xyrem and in the value of our over 10 years of experience in using the Xyrem restricted distribution system to provide Xyrem to patients who need this important therapy while maintaining patient and public safety. We will continue to seek to enforce and enhance our broad intellectual property position and ensure the continued safe distribution of this drug. Now let's turn to Erwinaze, which also had very strong performance this quarter. We are pleased with the growth of this product as we continue to add new accounts and see consistent reordering. We believe that our efforts to educate health care providers on identifying hypersensitivity reactions to E. coli-derived asparaginase in acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients and reinforcing the importance of continued asparaginase therapy may be leading to greater utilization of Erwinaze. We believe that continued growth for Erwinaze may come from ongoing efforts to educate health care professionals about identifying hypersensitivity reactions, the evaluation and adoption of an asparaginase activity assay into ALL protocols and increased utilization in the adolescent and young adult or AYA population. In part due to the robust demand we are seeing in the U.S., uncertainty about our ability to use a recent product batch could result in a temporary out-of-stock situation later this year. This possibility is reflected in our updated guidance. We are working with our supplier to evaluate the potential steps that could -- can be taken to avoid or minimize a disruption in the availability of Erwinaze and we'll make every effort to meet patient demand. We continue to pursue research and development initiatives to support our oncology franchise. Our ongoing trial evaluating the intravenous mode of administration for Erwinaze has nearly completed enrollment and we anticipate results later this year. We believe that IV administration would be well-received by both patients and health care providers. We are working with hematologists and oncologists to plan and start the study in adolescent and young adult patients and are also looking forward to presenting additional safety data from a compassionate use trial in patients over 16 years of age in an abstract at ASCO 2013. There is an important unmet medical need in the AYA population where there is a dramatic decline in ALL survival beginning in adolescents. Data suggest that the use of an asparaginase-based protocol in the AYA population improves patient outcomes. Finally, as part of our life cycle management, we are evaluating Asparec, a PEGylated recombinant Erwinaze-derived asparaginase, in a Phase I PK trial in Europe, and we're currently in discussions with key pediatric ALL leaders in the U.S. in preparation for initiating a second study evaluating Asparec. Let me comment briefly on Prialt, our non-opioid intrathecally administered drug. We believe there are several growth opportunities for Prialt as the primary alternative therapy to morphine for patients with intrathecal pumps and severe chronic pain. We're excited to announce a collaboration with Medtronic, the market leader in IT pumps. Together, we will develop and implement joint speaker, physician education and training programs. We've made progress on our long-term growth strategy for Prialt, including continuing our launch of the NAVIGATOR program that has enrolled over 65% of our accounts to date. As a reminder, perceived reimbursement difficulties were identified in our market research as the top reason that physicians do not use Prialt more broadly. Our NAVIGATOR system provides physicians and patients with increased reimbursement options and reimbursement assistance. Another core area of focus for Prialt has been planning for the launch of our Prialt registry, known as PRIZM, Patient Registry of Intrathecal Ziconotide Management. The first patient is anticipated to be enrolled midyear. This registry will evaluate the effectiveness of Prialt therapy for the management of severe chronic pain through the reporting of patient outcomes. PRIZM will provide data that may help physicians optimize the management of patients on Prialt. Taken together, we believe that these approaches will support our long-term growth strategy for Prialt. On the corporate development front, we continue to work to acquire or in-license additional marketed specialty products or products that are close to regulatory approval. We believe that our strong balance sheet, efficient corporate structure, demonstrated expertise in specialty markets and track record in successful execution of business development transactions position us well. I'm also pleased to note that Matt Young has joined us as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, reporting to Kate. Matt has extensive experience as a health care investment banker, including involvement in many, many corporate development licensing and financial transactions. Kate, with that, let me now turn the call over to you.