Bruce C. Cozadd - Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc
Analyst · Piper Jaffray
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Our solid progress as a company in 2015 has positioned us well for 2016 and beyond. In 2015, we grew both our top and bottom line consistent with guidance and also made important progress on a number of fronts. We've implemented our approved REMS [Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy] for Xyrem, realigned our European team to focus exclusively in hematology and oncology, launched our Phase 3 program for JZP-110, and completed our NDA submission for defibrotide. With our guidance today, you can see that we plan to grow our top and bottom line nicely again in 2016 while advancing our development pipeline in meaningful ways. Our PDUFA date on our defibrotide NDA is next month. And this year, we plan to start a clinical trial of defibrotide in prevention of VOD in high-risk patients, complete enrollment in our study of Xyrem in pediatric patients, and complete enrollment in and see top line data from our JZP-110 program. And we are well positioned to broaden our business through corporate development, with a strong balance sheet, significant cash, and overall market valuations that are more conducive to transactions as we generate strong returns. Current market conditions are also allowing us to repurchase stock under our existing $300 million stock repurchase program at extremely attractive prices. In short, we're well positioned to deliver results in 2016 that we believe will generate increased shareholder value. I'll now update you on key commercial, legal, regulatory, and clinical development activities during the fourth quarter, highlight some key events that we expect in 2016, and then turn the call over to Matt to review our financial results for the quarter and full year and provide 2016 financial guidance. Let me start my comments with our sleep therapeutic area and our lead product, Xyrem. In 2015 we continued to see strong underlying organic demand for Xyrem. In the fourth quarter, the average number of active Xyrem patients grew to a record 12,550. During the fourth quarter of 2015, Xyrem bottle growth was negatively impacted by the operational disruptions at the central pharmacy, resulting in approximately 1% growth compared to the strong fourth quarter of 2014. Volume growth during the first half of 2015 prior to the REMS implementation in late August was approximately 10% compared to the same period of 2014, while our full-year 2015 volume growth was 6%. By the end of 2015, our operational metrics at the central pharmacy had returned to normal, and we expect high single-digit volume growth this year. As expected, in the increasingly complex managed care environment for the specialty pharmaceuticals category, we observed further increases in the rate of Xyrem prior authorizations and reauthorizations during 2015 and are seeing further increases in reauthorizations in early 2016. These prior auths and reauths lead to an increased workload for physician offices and the central pharmacy. However, we are pleased that higher reimbursement approval rates for patients remain steady. We believe that the central pharmacy is prepared to handle the increased prior authorizations and reauthorizations, including typical first quarter payer churn, as a result of significant improvements in central pharmacy processes and increased staffing put in place during the second half of 2015. Turning now to key Xyrem growth opportunities, we believe that we have an opportunity to further penetrate our physician base by: targeting healthcare providers with high narcolepsy diagnoses and low utilization of Xyrem; educate healthcare providers on the early recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of narcolepsy, including use of tools like the Swiss Narcolepsy Scale to help diagnose narcolepsy with cataplexy; enhance patient and healthcare provider office services in this increasingly complex reimbursement environment; and continue to provide unbranded web-based disease awareness to increase the diagnosis of narcolepsy in the U.S. 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. We anticipate the trial of a portion of the case against the first filer, Roxane Laboratories, would not occur any earlier than the second quarter of 2016. Activity on challenges to our patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent, Trial and Appeal Board, or PTAB, is continuing. In July 2015, PTAB instituted proceedings for inter-partes review, or IPR, on six of our distribution patents listed in the Orange Book for Xyrem, and we expect a decision from PTAB on those petitions in mid-July 2016. Additional IPR petitions challenging certain of our distribution, method-of-use, and formulation patents covering Xyrem have also been filed, but PTAB has not yet ruled on institution of those proceedings. For further details, please see our 2015 Form 10-K, which we will file shortly. Now turning to our development programs for JZP-110, we are enrolling patients in the Phase 3 safety and efficacy studies, and we expect that preliminary efficacy results from three of our Phase 3 studies in narcolepsy and in obstructive sleep apnea [OSA] will be available at the end of 2016. Subject to these results, we anticipate submitting an NDA next year. We plan to enroll other studies to support the NDA during 2016, including a planned study of driving performance in narcolepsy and OSA that we expect to begin this quarter. Studying the effects of JZP-110 on driving performance will allow for assessment of potential impairments and improvement in patient populations where there are known increases in accident risk relative to people of the same age and gender who do not have a sleep disorder. We also expect to present our human abuse liability results midyear and will provide more detail once the relevant meetings are confirmed. Now on to Erwinaze, we continue to believe that Erwinaze has the potential to help more patients in the adolescent and young adult population with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, as more adult oncology centers are using pediatric-inspired asparaginase protocols for the treatment of some of their ALL patients. We also saw additional adult accounts order Erwinaze for the first time in 2015. In 2016, the sales force will focus on educating new physicians who are treating adolescents and young adult patients with ALL to reinforce the impact of asparaginase-based protocols on patient outcomes. We continued our support in medical education through CME symposia at the American Society of Hematology in December, where the session focused on adult ALL. As part of our preparation for a potential defibrotide U.S launch, we completed hiring and training our hematology and oncology sales force, increasing from 25 to 35 representatives, and adding to the depth of our experience in the transplant setting. The 10 new sales representatives entered their Erwinaze territories as of January 1. The hematology/oncology sales force is prepared to sell both Erwinaze and defibrotide following FDA approval of defibrotide in the U.S. We continue to observe strong Defitelio volume growth in the EU, and are pleased to see better than expected usage of Defitelio in countries such as France and Italy, where we do not currently have centralized reimbursement. Our efforts in the EU are focused on providing medical education on early identification of the warning of signs of Veno-Occlusive Disease, or VOD, VOD path of physiology, appropriate diagnosis, and the importance of prompt treatment with Defitelio. Our PDUFA date is March 31, and we are well prepared for our planned launch of defibrotide in the U.S. after FDA approval of our NDA. Our initiatives are focused on increasing the timely recognition of VOD and educating healthcare providers on the importance of treatment with defibrotide. In preparation for our planned U.S. launch, we had a strong presence at the American Society of Hematology meeting in December with multiple abstract presentations, have medical science liaisons available to address defibrotide questions upon request, submitted the new technology add-on payment application for defibrotide to CMS, published pivotal data in Blood last month, provided training to our hematology and oncology sales representatives, and had a strong presence at the American Society of Bone Marrow Transplant meeting this past weekend. Our reimbursement account managers will focus on ensuring that key hospital decision makers, such as P&T committees, have an understanding of defibrotide's clinical value and understand the importance of rapid formulary approval to ensure patients have access to defibrotide when needed. And importantly, they will also provide disease education to payers. In summary, in 2016, we look forward to delivering on key financial, commercial, and R&D goals that have the potential to drive significant value creation moving forward. In 2016 and beyond, we will continue to invest in our key products, Xyrem, Erwinaze, and Defitelio and product candidate JZP-110, as we pursue lifecycle management and line extensions that have the potential to generate important new therapeutic options for patients and expand our business. And we remain enthusiastic about opportunities to further enhance and diversify our portfolio through corporate development activities. Matt, let me now turn the call over to you.