Bruce C. Cozadd - Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc
Analyst · Guggenheim. Please proceed
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. During the second quarter, we achieved revenues of $334 million, an increase of 15% compared to the second quarter of 2014, driven by strong sales of Xyrem. We realized adjusted net income of $152 million in the second quarter, reflecting the attractive margins in our business. GAAP net income for the quarter was $88 million. We have made significant progress on the R&D front. We're very pleased to announce today that we completed the submission of the defibrotide rolling NDA last week. We have also begin enrollment in JZP-110 Phase 3 trials evaluating excessive daytime sleepiness in narcolepsy or obstructive sleep apnea. 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. I'll now update you on our sleep and hematology and oncology therapeutic areas, including information on key commercial, legal, regulatory and clinical development activity during the quarter, 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 second quarter, demand for Xyrem remained strong and the average number of active Xyrem patients grew to approximately 12,475 from 11,750 in the same period of 2014. During the second quarter, we had bottle volume growth of 7% compared to the same quarter last year and we remain on track for high-single digit volume growth this year. I'll briefly discuss our key Xyrem growth initiatives that align with our goals of broadening the market opportunity by increasing penetration within the currently diagnosed narcolepsy population and expanding the overall number of diagnosed narcolepsy patients in the U.S. One new initiative employs a more targeted or predictive approach to engaging with our physician call universe, which we believe will increase the efficiency of our sales force. Through extensive claims resources collected over the years, we have identified key characteristics that correlate with the highest diagnosing physicians and use these criteria, such as overall volume of sleep patients, patient mix and complexity of diagnoses, among others, to identify a group of physicians for our salesforce to target. We believe this initiative and predictive approach can further drive Xyrem penetration in the currently diagnosed narcolepsy population, similar to the success we've had in increasing prescriptions with the low to mid-decile prescribing physicians. Our second growth initiative is aimed at expanding the diagnosed population of narcolepsy patients who may be candidates for Xyrem therapy. By increasing our emphasis on the diagnosis and treatment of cataplexy through the use of the Swiss Narcolepsy Scale. While the prevalence of narcolepsy with cataplexy represents approximately 70% of the narcolepsy population, we are aware that cataplexy is often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. The Swiss Narcolepsy Scale was incorporated into the morethantired.com website last fall and there have been over 60,000 completions of this scale. Importantly, approximately 14,000 of the individuals who completed the Swiss Narcolepsy Scale had scores less than zero, which are highly specific and sensitive for the diagnosis of narcolepsy with cataplexy. The tool is available to physician offices through our salesforce and we are also integrating the SNS into our broader medical education programs, as we believe this can provide increased awareness and diagnosis of narcolepsy patients with cataplexy, where Xyrem is the only FDA-approved medication. Finally, as part of our broader disease awareness and education efforts, we hosted a very well attended National Satellite Symposium during the second quarter titled, Practical Considerations in the Clinical Understanding of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and/or Cataplexy in Narcolepsy, with more than 800 healthcare practitioners in attendance. Following the strong response to these educational efforts, we plan to conduct another satellite broadcast during the second half of the year. Turning to a brief legal and intellectual property update on Xyrem. Patent litigation continues in the District Court of 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 first quarter of 2016. The expert discovery phase of this case is now scheduled to complete in November, with a status conference scheduled to follow. Finally, we have received additional Paragraph IV certifications by Wockhardt Bio AG and Lupin, Inc. We have recently initiated litigation against Wockhardt and are evaluating initiation of litigation against Lupin. As mentioned in our last call, in January 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 received decisions from PTAB to institute review under these IPR petitions and the parties will now present their evidence and arguments on the prior art in the petitions. We expect the final decision from PTAB on the validity of the patents in approximately 12 months. The final decisions will be appealable to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. As previously disclosed, an additional IPR petition on one of the six patents covering our restricted distribution system for Xyrem was filed in early April by an entity affiliated with a hedge fund. We filed our preliminary response to this IPR petition in the third quarter and expect PTAB to rule on whether to accept this petition in the fourth quarter. If review is instituted, the PTAB decision on validity would be expected approximately a year after that. With respect to the Xyrem REMS, we are on track to implement the final approved Xyrem REMS and begin the submission of ongoing assessments later this month. The REMS includes new forms and requires one-time reenrollment of all prescribers and patients. Our goal is to provide uninterrupted pharmacy service to our patients and providers. To do this, we've prepared the field salesforce and our specialty certified central pharmacy in an effort to provide a smooth transition to the new Xyrem REMS. We are also educating Xyrem prescribers on the new Xyrem REMS program enrollment and process as a component of our upcoming satellite broadcast. Now turning to our development program for JZP-110. We're excited to have advanced this unique wake promoting product candidate into Phase 3 studies. During the second quarter, we began enrollment of the three Phase 3 studies evaluating the safety and efficacy of JZP-110 in the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness in narcolepsy or obstructive sleep apnea. We also began enrollment in the long-term safety study. We anticipate that the studies will finish enrollment during the second half of 2016. Now on to the hematology/oncology franchise. Our efforts with Erwinaze remain focused on educating 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 treatment regimens and on the importance of maintaining appropriate asparaginase levels for optimal outcomes. Although we believe that we are well penetrated in the pediatric ALL population, we believe that the adolescent and young adult population with ALL provides us with a further growth opportunity, as more adult oncology centers have begun using the pediatric-inspired asparaginase protocols in their ALL patients. Now to Defitelio. The European launch of Defitelio has progressed well and we're pleased with our success in obtaining a narrow pricing range for Defitelio in the EU of approximately €426 per vial. We've made good progress on driving centralized Defitelio pricing and reimbursement since launch. While we have experienced some pressure on net sales from foreign exchange and reduced use of Defitelio in the prevention of VOD, we continue to see an opportunity to grow Defitelio by working with the healthcare systems to establish appropriate reimbursement mechanisms and providing them with the most appropriate information on outcomes for VOD patients treated with Defitelio. We also believe medical education around VOD pathophysiology and treatment, appropriate diagnosis and other attributes of Defitelio as well as expanding the base of experienced physicians will allow us to drive volume growth. Now a brief U.S. regulatory update on defibrotide. We completed our NDA submission on July 31. My sincere thanks to our entire submission team for their dedication to achieving this milestone. Defibrotide has Fast Track Designation in the U.S., and we have requested a Priority Review, which could reduce the timing for FDA review from 10 months to six months. We anticipate hearing from the FDA as to whether the NDA has been accepted for filing and whether we have received Priority Review by the end of September. In the meantime, we're focused on educating U.S. healthcare providers in the recognition and treatment of VOD through an unbranded disease awareness program. We've also begun preparing for a potential launch of defibrotide in the U.S., including a health outcome and reimbursement assessment and a field force sizing analysis that includes planning for a joint Erwinaze/defibrotide salesforce. Finally, our defibrotide development team continues to work with FDA on clinical trial design for the evaluation of defibrotide in prevention of VOD in high-risk patients or in earlier VOD before it has progressed to multi-organ failure. We expect to provide more details on clinical trial design during the second half of 2015. We are also evaluating potential development of defibrotide in other diseases. The first half of 2015 has been quite active. Year-to-date we refinanced our existing loans and credit revolver to add flexibility to the business on our capital structure, sold non-core assets to focus on our key therapeutic areas and delivered on key corporate objectives, including completion of the submission of the NDA for defibrotide and the initiation of the Phase 3 JZP-110 program, all while continuing to deliver continued growth in Xyrem sales and strong margins. We believe we are well positioned to execute on a wide range of business development transactions and look forward to further execution of our corporate growth strategy. Matt, let me now turn the call over to you.