Bruce C. Cozadd - Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc
Analyst · Guggenheim. Your line is open
Thanks, Kathee. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We've had a strong 2016 thus far, as we continue to build the foundation for future growth by advancing and broadening our portfolio. This has been a successful year on the corporate development front. Last month, we acquired Celator, which brings a near-to-market product candidate, Vyxeos, to our portfolio as well as Celator's proprietary nanoscale combination drug delivery technology platform, CombiPlex. We completed additional transactions, with a license and option agreement with Pfenex and an investment with Arrivo Bioventures, that provide us with opportunities to access attractive product candidates on a worldwide basis to further expand our R&D portfolio. These transactions complement our R&D and commercial expertise in our key therapeutic areas and have the potential to bring innovative products to patients with unmet medical needs. We're also successfully executing on the early stages of the Defitelio U.S. launch, with product orders from accounts representing over half of the bone marrow transplantation volume in the U.S. We continue to drive toward the accomplishment of our 2016 corporate goals of delivering strong top and bottom-line growth, expanding and advancing our development pipeline and identifying further innovative assets through corporate development efforts. We remain well positioned to accomplish these goals, which are focused on generating increased shareholder value, while executing on our mission of improving patient's lives. I'll now update you on key commercial, legal, regulatory and clinical development activities, highlighting some upcoming key events and then turn the call over to Matt to review our financial results for the quarter and provide updated financial guidance. I'll start my comments with our sleep therapeutic area and our lead product, Xyrem. During the second quarter, we delivered strong Xyrem sales growth. The average number of active Xyrem patients grew to approximately 12,850 in 2Q 2016 from 12,475 in 2Q 2015. Xyrem bottle volume growth was 4% versus the same quarter in 2015. We believe Xyrem has further growth potential and note that both bottle volume and patient growth for Xyrem can vary from quarter-to-quarter. That said, we have observed some recent slowing of narcolepsy diagnosis growth in insurance claims databases. We also see managed care trends that apply increasingly stringent requirements for prior authorizations and reauthorizations for treatment. As we've mentioned, this trend is prevalent in the specialty pharmaceutical or orphan space and has necessitated increased physician office workload to obtain approval for patients to receive their prescriptions. We believe that our marketing plans, such as the unbranded web-based disease awareness programs, utilization of the Swiss Narcolepsy Scale and our overall focus on healthcare provider education remain effective tools to foster expansion of narcolepsy diagnosis, and we will be further increasing these efforts. Also this quarter, we've implemented a new Xyrem field reimbursement support team that will offer expertise to physician practices in navigating the prior authorization and reauthorization payer processes for both the diagnosis and treatment of narcolepsy. We believe this dedicated field support team, along with our clinically focused sales force, physician targeting program, branded advertising and our satellite symposia are the most effective approaches for driving Xyrem growth for the remainder of the year. Turning to a brief legal and intellectual property update on Xyrem. Patent litigation continues in the District Court in New Jersey. Recently, the District Court determined that it would try all of the patents at issue in the first and second Roxane Laboratories cases together, including patents that were previously bifurcated in state and set trial in this consolidated case for the second quarter of 2017. A separate consolidated case that includes the remaining and the litigants is also proceeding. No trial date has been set in that case. With respect to challenges to our patents through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board, or PTAB, we were disappointed that PTAB decided last month that all the claims contained in six patents directed to the Xyrem restricted distribution system were considered unpatentable. We are reviewing the decisions to determine whether a request for rehearing by PTAB is warranted, and we expect to appeal these decisions to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The appellate process typically takes 12 to 18 months. Recall that earlier this year, an IPR petition on the seventh Orange Book listed patent directed to the restricted distribution system for Xyrem, the '963 patent, was submitted to PTAB and PTAB instituted review on only 3 of its 28 claims. As a result, the remaining 25 claims of the '963 patent continue to be enforced. I'd like to remind you that the '963 patent is not yet at issue in litigation with Roxane. And finally, last month we received a decision from PTAB to deny institution of an IPR in our '306 patent covering a method to avoid drug-to-drug interaction between Xyrem and Valproate, removing the only remaining pending IPR challenge to the DDI family of patents. We were pleased with this outcome and remain confident in the strength of our Xyrem patent estate. Now turning to our development program for JZP-110. We have observed an increase in the enrollment rate in our Phase III OSA studies following the protocol amendments that we implemented earlier this year. We are now expecting preliminary data from the two Phase III OSA studies in first quarter 2017. The enrollment rate in the Phase III narcolepsy study is improving, but progressing slower than our earlier projections. We now anticipate preliminary data in this trial mid-year 2017. Subject to the results of these Phase III trials, we anticipate an NDA submission for narcolepsy and OSA in late 2017. Now on to the hematology oncology franchise. Erwinaze. Although the demand for Erwinaze remains strong, I'll remind you that because of constrained manufacturing capacity, we have not been able to build sufficient inventory levels to absorb potential supply disruptions. During the second quarter, we continued to experience supply challenges, although we were able to meet patient demand. We expect that we will continue to experience inventory and supply challenges, which may result in temporary disruptions in our abilities to supply certain markets, including the U.S., from time to time. Now I'll turn to Defitelio. Our sales force was well prepared for the U.S. launch, and stocking and initial demand in the second quarter was strong. We received positive responses from healthcare providers, payers, and institutions following the launch as they recognize the value that Defitelio brings to patients diagnosed with veno-occlusive disease, or VOD, with multi-organ dysfunction, or MOD. We had 83 accounts order product. These accounts represent approximately 55% of the total transplant volume in the U.S. 75% of these accounts reordered in the second quarter, an indication of patient on drug versus initial stocking. While we don't have patient-level data, based on the institutions ordering, we believe that the majority of patients receiving Defitelio are pediatric, as expected. While nearly 80% of the accounts were part of the Treatment IND study, it is a positive sign to see early adoption in multiple sites that did not have previous experience in the TIND. This quarter, U.S. sales initiatives were focused on educating healthcare providers on the recognition of the signs and symptoms of VOD, diagnosis and treatment of VOD with MOD and the clinical benefits of Defitelio. Our market access group also focused on educating payers and institutional stakeholders on the health economics and value of Defitelio. Last week, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved a new technology add-on payment, or NTAP, for Defitelio after determining that the product met the NTAP criteria for newness, substantial clinical improvement relative to existing therapies and specific cost thresholds. Beginning October 1, NTAP will provide incremental reimbursement to the standard diagnosis related group-based reimbursement, which should support Medicare beneficiaries' access to Defitelio. We believe that the NTAP approval reinforces the benefit of Defitelio across the payer landscape. Our efforts in the EU remain focused on providing medical education, on early identification of the warning signs of VOD, VOD pathophysiology, appropriate diagnosis and the importance of prompt treatment of severe VOD with Defitelio. We observed strong EU/Rest of World growth in the second quarter and increased use of Defitelio in line with the labeled indication for the treatment of severe VOD. We observed strong growth in EU/Rest of World sales for first half 2016 versus first half 2015. In May, the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation released revised diagnostic and severity guidelines for VOD. We believe these guidelines will be helpful to healthcare providers in the EU as they define one standard diagnostic set of criteria for adult patients and, importantly, provide physicians with objective criteria for defining the severity of VOD. Finally, we are in the process of start-up activities for the global Defitelio study and prevention of VOD in high-risk patients following HSCT and we anticipate that the first patient will be enrolled into the study in the fourth quarter. Now some comments on Vyxeos. We've welcomed over 20 new employees from Celator to Jazz. At this point our primary goal as a combined company is to remain focused on bringing Vyxeos to patients as quickly as possible. Therefore, we are working together towards the completion of a high-quality NDA submission packet for Vyxeos for the treatment of AML. We are planning to initiate a rolling NDA submission later this quarter, and anticipate completing the submission in late 2016 or early 2017. Vyxeos has Fast Track designation in the U.S. and we plan to request Priority Review. I'll remind you that Vyxeos was granted Breakthrough Therapy designation by the FDA for the treatment of adults with therapy-related AML or AML with myelodysplasia-related changes. We are currently evaluating the timing for our European submission and we'll provide an update on expected timing later this year. Additionally, we will be conducting a full assessment of the multiple development opportunities in our integrated development portfolio to make thoughtful decisions on future development of the Celator product candidates and the use of the CombiPlex technology platform. We'll provide updates after we work through this process. Now a brief manufacturing update. In June, we received FDA approval for our manufacturing facility in Athlone, Ireland, where we plan to manufacture Xyrem and materials for development activities. This facility provides a secondary source for Xyrem manufacturing, and we expect that shipments of Xyrem from this facility to the U.S. will begin this quarter. We look forward to the rest of 2016 as we continue to execute on key financial, commercial and R&D goals that have the potential to create significant value. We continue to invest in our key products, Xyrem, Erwinaze, Defitelio and Prialt, our product candidates JZP-110 and Vyxeos, and other focused development programs that have the potential to generate important new therapeutic options for patients. Matt, let me now turn the call over to you.