Bruce C. Cozadd - Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc
Analyst · Guggenheim. Please go ahead, Louise
Thanks, Kathee, and good afternoon, everyone. During the first quarter, we achieved revenues of $309 million, an increase of 25% compared to the first quarter of 2014, driven by strong sales of our key products Xyrem, Erwinaze and Defitelio. We realized adjusted net income of $125 million in the first quarter of 2015, reflecting the attractive margins in our business. GAAP net income for the quarter was $71 million. During the first quarter, we made progress toward our 2015 goals with submission to FDA of the CMC module of the Defibrotide rolling NDA and preparations for our planned initiation of three Phase 3 JZP-110 studies this month. We continue to invest in our key growth products and our R&D pipeline. In addition, we remain focused on our corporate development efforts as we evaluate potential transactions to further enhance and diversify our portfolio with the addition of differentiated products that provide value to patients, are meaningful in size to Jazz and have the potential to create additional shareholder value. I'll now update you on our sleep and hematology/oncology therapeutic areas after which Matt will review our financial results for the quarter and provide comments on our guidance. I'll start my comments with our sleep therapeutic area and our lead product, Xyrem. In the first quarter, demand for Xyrem remained strong and the average number of active Xyrem patients grew to approximately 12,375 patients from 11,400 patients in the same period of 2014. During the first quarter of 2015, we had bottle volume growth of 12% year-over-year. As you'll remember, during the first quarter of 2014, we had bottle volume growth of 5% compared to the same period in the prior year due to delays in the timing of prescription fills and refills by SDS, our central pharmacy. We worked closely with SDS during the first quarter of 2015 and are pleased that the improved processes and increased staffing resulted in more timely prescription fills and refills. Payer reimbursement coverage and approval rates for Xyrem continue to be strong despite a changing landscape in which specialty pharmaceutical space increased utilization control methods such as prior authorizations and reauthorizations. We're working closely with SDS and investing in services provided through our central pharmacy to help patients and providers navigate the increasingly complex and changing reimbursement environment. Now I'll briefly discuss a few of our Xyrem growth initiatives. The Xyrem sales force is focused on the opportunity to increase Xyrem prescriptions written by new and current prescribers with continued emphasis on increasing prescriptions by our low to mid-decile physicians. Another continuing growth initiative is aimed at increasing the diagnosed population of narcolepsy patients who may be candidates for Xyrem therapy. As part of our non-branded Disease Awareness strategy, we've added a new tool known as the Swiss Narcolepsy Scale to the morethanentired.com narcolepsy website. The Swiss Narcolepsy Scale is highly specific and sensitive for the diagnosis of narcolepsy with cataplexy and we believe that this tool may help patients in obtaining a more timely diagnosis of narcolepsy. Finally, we're looking forward to a strong presence at the Sleep 2015 annual meeting in Seattle from June 6 to 10. We're hosting a satellite symposium for healthcare professionals on June 8 titled Waking the Brain, An Update on the Neurobiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Narcolepsy. We also had 15 Jazz sponsored abstracts that have been accepted for poster or oral presentation. I'll take a moment to highlight two of the abstracts that provide new information on Xyrem. To date, data on the effect of Xyrem on quality of life and on narcolepsy patients without cataplexy had been limited. At APSS, previously unpublished Xyrem data from randomized placebo controlled trials will be presented including data on quality of life effects in patients with narcolepsy on Xyrem and data on efficacy in patients with excessive daytime sleepiness due to narcolepsy without cataplexy. Turning to a brief legal and intellectual property update on Xyrem. Patent litigation continues in the District Court in New Jersey. No trial dates have been set in any of the cases although we anticipate the trial of a portion of the case against the first filer, Roxane, could occur as early as the fourth quarter of 2015. The cases against the four other ANDA filers have been consolidated by the court and fact discovery in those cases is scheduled to end late in the first quarter of 2016. As mentioned in our last call, in January 2015 two of the Xyrem ANDA applicants filed petitions with the PTO's Patent Trial and Appeal Board, or PTAB, for Inter Partes Review, or IPR, of six patents covering our restricted distribution system for Xyrem. We recently filed preliminary responses to these IPR petitions asking the PTAB to deny institution of the IPR petitions. An additional IPR petition on one of the six patents covering our restricted distribution for Xyrem was filed in early April by an entity affiliated with a hedge fund. We expect to file a preliminary response to this IPR petition in the third quarter. We expect PTAB to rule on whether to accept the ANDA filers' IPR petitions in the third quarter and on whether to accept the IPR petition filed by the hedge fund affiliated entity in the fourth quarter. If review of one or more of the IPR petitions is instituted, a PTAB decision on validity would be expected approximately a year after institution of the applicable IPR proceeding. We view the recent hedge fund IPR petition as an abuse of the PTO post-grant review system, and we understand that potential legislative changes to address such abuses and broader issues related to IPR proceedings are being evaluated by members of Congress. We can't predict whether there will be legislative changes that are helpful to us and other innovator companies or how the PTAB will ultimately respond to these types of petitions. However, because the hedge fund IPR petition challenges a patent that was already subject to an IPR petition by the ANDA filers, the later petition has not meaningfully changed our perspective on the IP protections for Xyrem. With respect to the Xyrem REMS, in late February, the FDA notified us of the approval of the REMS that we submitted in November including provisions requiring distribution through a single pharmacy. We expect to implement the final approved Xyrem REMS by late August and to submit ongoing assessments required under our REMS approval. Turning to our development program for JZP-110, we are preparing to initiate three Phase 3 studies evaluating the safety and efficacy of JZP-110 this month: one, in patients with excessive day time sleepiness associated with narcolepsy with a planned enrollment of approximately 240 patients and the other two in patients with excessive daytime sleepiness associated with obstructive sleep apnea with a planned combined enrollment of approximately 640 patients. We also plan to initiate an open label extension study to evaluate long-term safety. The clinical trial materials for the Phase 3 studies have been manufactured, and we plan to make the materials available to sites shortly. Finally, we announced today that clinical trials from the recently completed Phase 1 study demonstrated that JZP-386 provided favorable deuterium-related effects including higher serum concentrations and correspondingly increased PD effects at clinically relevant time points compared with Xyrem with a safety profile that was similar to that observed with Xyrem. While the companies have determined that the deuterium-related effects observed in the Phase 1 studies do not support advancing into a later stage clinical trial of JZP-386 at this time, the results indicate that further evaluation of JZP-386 is warranted. Therefore, the companies intend to explore formulation options to enhance the positive effects observed in the studies to achieve an improved product profile for patients with narcolepsy. We are committed to finding new therapeutic options for patients with narcolepsy, and JZP-386 is just one element of our R&D efforts that are focused on exploring and developing new options for narcolepsy patients that may provide clinically meaningful improvements compared to Xyrem. We're pursuing multiple potential approaches that include once nightly dosing as well as other areas where we have identified unmet need in narcolepsy patients. Our R&D activities include both mid and longer-term projects that are underway or in the planning stages. Now let me turn to the hematology/oncology franchise. We're pleased with the continued growth of Erwinaze this quarter. We remain focused on our efforts to educate healthcare providers on the importance of identifying hypersensitivity reactions to E. coli-derived asparaginase in acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL, in both pediatric and adult oncology centers using asparaginase therapy in their chemotherapy regimens and of maintaining appropriate asparaginase levels. We also continue to educate healthcare providers on the administration of Erwinaze through intravenous infusion. Now turning to an update on our study of Erwinaze in young adults, or YA study. Our study was designed as a PK study to evaluate whether Erwinaze maintains adequate asparaginase activity levels in YA patients with ALL who developed hypersensitivity to E. coli-derived asparaginase. YA patients constitute approximately 20% of the ALL population in the U.S., representing an annual incidence of approximately 1,000 patients. In addition to the low incidence of ALL in YA patients, treatment centers are widely dispersed with approximately 300 treatment centers across the U.S. As such, many sites may only see one patient with hypersensitivity to E. coli asparaginase over the course of a year. With these factors in mind, we've made the difficult decision to close this study and instead will focus our efforts on working with key oncology centers to support the treatment of the YA population. We will continue to build upon our investments in medical education and clinical investigations to better understand this patient population. The Defitelio launch in Europe continues to progress well. Our key focus in Europe is to establish solid pricing and reimbursement in order to maximize access for patients in need and we continue to engage in pricing and reimbursement submissions and discussions in the EU. We are continuing our efforts to provide disease awareness education on VOD, or veno-occlusive disease, for healthcare providers in Europe and had a strong presence at the European Bone Marrow Transplantation Meeting held in Istanbul in March. We hosted two symposia, one for physicians and one for nurses, as well as other smaller events with approximately 900 total attendees. Now a brief U.S. regulatory update on Defibrotide. We are pleased that we've completed remediation activities related to the existing Defibrotide clinical data and are proceeding on schedule to complete the rolling NDA submission by mid-year. Defibrotide has Fast Track designation in the U.S. and we look forward to working with FDA to gain regulatory approval as quickly as possible. We've also begun pre-launch activities in the U.S. and are continuing our Disease Awareness program that includes a website, progressivevod.com, and other resources designed to educate healthcare professionals on the unpredictability, signs of progression and potentially life-threatening consequences of VOD as well as the need for timely diagnosis. We are also pleased that we have observed an increase in the number of U.S. sites participating in the treatment IND for Defibrotide. Our Defibrotide development team continues to work with FDA on clinical trial design for the evaluation of Defibrotide in patients with earlier VOD which is VOD before it has progressed to multi-organ failure and in prevention of VOD in high-risk patients. We plan to provide an update on our development plans during the second half of 2015. Finally, as mentioned in our earnings press release, we're excited that Dr. Karen Smith recently joined us as our Global Head of R&D and our CMO. Karen was most recently the Senior Vice President of Global Medical Affairs and Therapeutic Area Head of Dermatology for Allergan. Karen brings significant global R&D experience and we look forward to her contributions as part of our executive leadership team. Matt, let me now turn the call over to you.