Bruce C. Cozadd - Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc
Analyst · Citi
Thanks, Kathy. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. To date, we've had a highly productive 2017, with significant progress on our development programs and global regulatory efforts. Most recently, we were pleased to receive FDA approval for Vyxeos on August 3. I want to acknowledge FDA's efforts in connection with this NDA, which was approved approximately two months earlier than FDA's action date. We're also very grateful to patients and investigators who participated in the Vyxeos studies and to all who made this approval possible. Also, in early June, we presented positive results from four recently completed Phase 3 studies at the 31st Associated Professional Sleep Societies, or APSS, annual SLEEP meeting: three studies evaluating JZP-110 in patients with excessive sleepiness or ES, in narcolepsy and in obstructive sleep apnea or OSA, and our Phase 3 study evaluating Xyrem in pediatric narcolepsy patients with cataplexy. I'll now provide an update on key commercial, legal, regulatory, and clinical development activities and highlight some key upcoming events. I'll then turn the call over to Matt to review our financial results for the quarter and full-year financial guidance. In our sleep therapeutic area, Xyrem delivered 6% sales growth during the second quarter. Second quarter bottle volume growth for Xyrem was 2% compared to the same period last year. The average number of active Xyrem patients increased to 13,025 in the second quarter. Volume growth for Xyrem was impacted by payer mix, as it was in the first quarter. The large majority of business for Xyrem is from commercial payers, where we continue to see high and steady approval rates. Pharmacy metrics remained strong during the first half of 2017. We continue to expect Xyrem volume growth to improve over the second half of the year and to achieve full-year volume growth in the low to mid-single digits. For 2017, our efforts to grow demand for Xyrem are focused on increasing narcolepsy disease awareness, accelerating diagnosis, targeting sales force efforts on physicians with high narcolepsy patient volume and low Xyrem share, and reducing the burden of payer requirements on physician offices through education by our expanded and now fully staffed field reimbursement team. Next, I'll highlight our R&D plans for Xyrem and other oxybate-related programs. We presented data from our Phase 3 Xyrem study evaluating cataplexy and excessive sleepiness in pediatric patients at APSS in June. We remain on track to respond to the FDA pediatric written request and complete a supplemental NDA submission in the fourth quarter for a label revision to include pediatric data. Now we'll turn to a brief progress report on JZP-507 and JZP-258. JZP-507 has a 50% reduction in sodium content compared to Xyrem and has demonstrated bioequivalence to Xyrem in a pilot study. We expect to be in a position to submit an NDA to FDA by the first quarter of 2018. JZP-258 has a 90% reduction in sodium content compared to Xyrem. Patient enrolment continues in our JZP-258 Phase 3 study in the U.S. and EU, and we expect to complete this study in the second half of 2018 to support a planned NDA submission in 2019. Turning to a brief legal and intellectual property update on Xyrem. Patent litigation continues against four companies that have filed ANDAs for generic sodium oxybate, Amneal, Par, Watson, and Lupin. Trial could be scheduled in this consolidated litigation as early as the first half of 2018. In June, we received a Paragraph IV certification from Ascent Pharmaceuticals indicating that it had submitted an ANDA to FDA requesting approval to market a generic version of Xyrem. In late July, we filed lawsuits against Ascent. Turning to JZP-110, we presented positive data from our Phase 3 studies, TONES 2, TONES 3, and TONES 4, at the APSS meeting in June. Preparations are underway for our JZP-110 NDA submission for excessive sleepiness in OSA and narcolepsy. We recently completed the interim data analysis on TONES 5, our open-label long-term safety trial, and believe that we now have all of the clinical data necessary to support our planned NDA submission late this year. Finally, three JZP-110 abstracts were accepted for presentation, including two oral presentations, at the CHEST 2017 annual meeting in Toronto beginning in late October. Now on to the hematology/oncology franchise. Erwinaze sales in the second quarter of 2017 were consistent with the same period last year. We continue to experience supply challenges on a global basis and expect continued temporary disruptions in our ability to supply certain markets for the remainder of the year. Porton Biopharma Limited or PBL, our manufacturer of Erwinaze, and Jazz expect to meet with FDA in the third quarter to discuss the warning letter issued to PBL earlier this year. PBL has made progress on addressing the issues in the warning letter and has increased staffing and resources with the goal of ultimately increasing capacity and improving the supply of Erwinaze. With PBL's continued execution, the benefits of these actions may be realized in 2018, which would improve our ability to supply the needs of the market and build inventory. Finally, we continue to make strides toward our goal of developing an effective, well-tolerated, and long-acting recombinant crisantaspase through our expanded relationships with leaders in PASylation technology and expression technology. Through these collaborations, we look forward to potentially developing a new clinically meaningful therapeutic option for patients with ALL and other hematologic malignancies. Now I'll turn to Defitelio. We are a little more than one year into the launch of Defitelio in the U.S. We've made significant progress in our commercialization efforts, with 142 accounts having ordered product, representing approximately 85% of the total transplant volume in the U.S. We continue to see new accounts ordering Defitelio, with 11 new accounts in the second quarter, and good reorders, with 85% of accounts placing additional orders since launch. We expect continued variability in quarterly sales for products such as Defitelio, as veno-occlusive disease or VOD is an ultra-rare disease, and Defitelio is a product that is dosed according to weight, which varies considerably across pediatric and adult use. We expected that adoption in the adult setting would be slower than in the pediatric setting, and we're aware that some adult transplant physicians tend to watch and wait for spontaneous resolution of signs of VOD, while others will turn to Defitelio only when patients start to deteriorate rapidly. We continue to prioritize our U.S. sales initiatives to focus on educating healthcare providers for adult patients about the seriousness of VOD, the clinical benefits of initiating Defitelio treatment in VOD patients with renal or pulmonary dysfunction, and importantly the urgency to treat patients in a timely manner once diagnosed. In the EU and rest-of-world markets, our team remains focused on ensuring that physicians, key hospital administrators, and pharmacists are aware of the clinical and health-economic benefits associated with Defitelio. As we continue our global expansion efforts, we received approval to market Defitelio in Canada in July. We look forward to having Defitelio commercially available in Canada later this year. We believe Defitelio remains an important growth opportunity for us on a global basis. Finally, a brief pipeline update for Defitelio. Our Phase 3 study for the prevention of VOD in high-risk patients is enrolling well, and we are working on the study protocol for the Phase 2 proof-of-concept study for the prevention of acute graft versus host disease that we expect to initiate late this year. Now to Vyxeos. We're excited to be in the process of launching Vyxeos in the U.S., as we believe this is an important new therapeutic option for adults with newly diagnosed therapy-related AML and AML with myelodysplasia-related changes. If you missed the Vyxeos investor update webcast yesterday, please go to the Jazz website under Investor Events to hear a replay of the event and download the slides. Our key U.S. launch efforts are focused on 75 targeted accounts, representing accounts in accounts in deciles 7 to 10 by volume of treated AML patients. These accounts are in large medical centers, such as teaching hospitals, high-volume community hospitals, and some smaller private practices with multiple hematologist-oncologists. The U.S. launch initiatives include building awareness and establishing Vyxeos for the treatment of adults with newly diagnosed t-AML or AML-MRC, ensuring that Vyxeos is available to patients throughout their course of therapy, whether inpatient or outpatient, communicating the health-economic benefits of Vyxeos to payers and institutions through our field reimbursement team, and providing patient assistance programs to ensure that patients are able to receive Vyxeos when appropriate. As mentioned yesterday on our Vyxeos investor update webcast, we are planning to ship Vyxeos to hospitals and institutions this month. We also are looking forward to our planned submission of our Vyxeos EU Marketing Authorization Application, or MAA, in the fourth quarter following required pre-submission regulatory meetings. We look forward to the rest of 2017, as we prepare for multiple upcoming regulatory milestones and other events, including submission of the JZP-110 NDA to FDA by year-end; response to FDA's pediatric written request and completion of the sNDA submission for Xyrem for a label revision to include pediatric data in the fourth quarter; submission of the MAA for Vyxeos in the EU, also in the fourth quarter; preparation of regulatory filing for JZP-507; and continued enrollment in the JZP-258 Phase 3 trial and further potential corporate development transactions. In summary, we remain focused on our sustainable growth strategy. We continue to invest in our key products, future product launches, and R&D pipeline and remain committed to bringing additional meaningful products into our portfolio through corporate development activities, with the goal of further diversifying and expanding our product portfolio to fuel future growth and create long-term value. We believe that our strong balance sheet, development pipeline, approach to global molecule development, and growth prospects provide significant opportunities for Jazz to deliver value to our shareholders. Matt, let me now turn the call over to you.