Bruce C. Cozadd - Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc
Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open
Thanks, Kathee. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We had a highly productive second quarter, with strong execution across the business. We're excited about the significant progress we've made this year toward meeting our 2018 corporate objectives and advancing our long-term growth strategy. A few highlights since we last reported include: double-digit top and bottom line growth on an adjusted basis; a positive opinion from CHMP recommending market authorization of Vyxeos; acceptance of our sNDA for Xyrem for pediatric narcolepsy patients with Priority Review and an October 27 PDUFA date; settlement with two additional Xyrem ANDA filers, leaving only one remaining ANDA filer in our Xyrem patent litigation; announcement of a collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center to evaluate potential treatment options for hematological malignancies, with an initial focus on Vyxeos; the grant of a New Technology Add-on Payment [NTAP] by CMS for Vyxeos; execution of an agreement to sell our rights related to Prialt; and presentation of key results at SLEEP 2018 regarding the long-term efficacy and safety of solriamfetol for adult patients with narcolepsy or obstructive sleep apnea and Xyrem for pediatric patients with narcolepsy. Now I'll provide updates on some of our key commercial, regulatory, and R&D activities, and then turn the call over to Matt to update you on our financials. Vyxeos is in the early stages of launch in the U.S., and we have confidence in our efforts to reinforce Vyxeos's differentiated product profile and the value it can offer patients with AML. We believe there is significant upside opportunity as we expand globally and advance our multi-pronged data generation strategy to establish Vyxeos as the chemotherapy backbone for AML. In the second quarter, we saw community hospital demand continue to grow relative to previous quarters, due in part to some academic centers transferring patients to community oncologists for the consolidation courses of therapy. Academic centers continue to represent the majority of volume, although growth this quarter was relatively soft. We believe the unprecedented introduction of multiple new agents has led to a more complex AML treatment environment, with multiple decisions and therapeutic options based on patient mutation status, phase of therapy, and treatment setting. While these changes have not directly impacted the overall Vyxeos market opportunity, they have added some near-term complexity and confusion. We recognize that for some physicians, changing decades-long clinical management behaviors and treatment practices and understanding how to incorporate new agents into the care of AML patients can take time. Additionally, recent market research indicates that some physicians are not treating in a manner consistent with the Phase 3 study protocol, and we see this as an opportunity to emphasize the Phase 3 study design, our product label, and the value that Vyxeos can bring to improving patients' outcomes, including importantly, overall survival. The recently published Phase 3 data in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and the NCCN [National Comprehensive Cancer Network] promotional materials will be important tools for conveying these key messages and expanding our penetration in the AML market. To amplify our outreach, we increased the Vyxeos dedicated field team by 20% in July. On the reimbursement side, we continue to see strong formulary uptake for on-label use and strong commercial payer support. Importantly, our New Technology Add-on Payment application for Vyxeos was approved by CMS last week. This will support Medicare beneficiaries' access to Vyxeos and validates Vyxeos as a substantial clinical improvement over existing technologies. Our EU team is preparing for potential European Commission approval by early September. Hiring and training of our sales and medical teams to support the launch of Vyxeos are essentially complete. Our rolling launch of Vyxeos in the EU will begin with select markets such as the Netherlands, Germany, France, UK, and the Nordics. We're looking forward to making Vyxeos available to AML patients in the EU, although we recognize it will take time to secure pricing and reimbursement across the individual markets. We have submitted our dossier for the UK NICE [National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] technology assessment and anticipate a final NICE appraisal decision in the fourth quarter. We're excited by the enthusiasm of key opinion leaders to study Vyxeos in a variety of settings, and we believe that working with key oncology groups and leaders in leukemia, such as our recently announced collaboration with MD Anderson, will allow us to accelerate the development and generation of key data for Vyxeos. We remain confident in the value that Vyxeos offers to patients and our ability to expand the use of Vyxeos over time. Turning to Defitelio, we're pleased that our global VOD-related educational efforts are resonating with physicians. We believe these efforts as well as the recent approvals of oncology medications with black-box VOD warnings have created greater physician awareness and vigilance for earlier recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of VOD. We've made strong progress in the U.S., and our adult transplant team remains committed to ensuring the benefits of Defitelio treatment are well understood to support improved patient outcomes. On the development side, patient enrollment in both our Phase 3 study for the prevention of VOD and our Phase 2 study for the prevention of acute graft-versus-host disease is ongoing. We are actively collaborating with regulatory authorities on optimal protocol development for our upcoming pivotal study for the treatment of TA-TMA. For Erwinase, while we unfortunately continue to have supply challenges, we are actively working with the manufacturer, PBL [Porton Biopharma], to do everything that we can to improve future reliability of supply. Now on to our sleep therapeutic area, starting with Xyrem and JZP-258, our low-sodium oxybate program. Xyrem performance was strong in the second quarter of 2018, with bottle volume growth of 9% compared to the same period last year. The average number of active Xyrem patients increased to 13,900 in the second quarter, up 7% compared to the same period last year. During the second quarter, we observed consistent and high payer reimbursement approval rates. We are pleased that our unbranded disease awareness education program, which will run throughout 2018, has already led to increased diagnosis of new narcolepsy patients, and we expect that there is an opportunity for future diagnosis growth. Our supplemental NDA for Xyrem for pediatric narcolepsy was accepted for Priority Review, and our PDUFA goal date is October 27. We expect to launch in this indication in the first half of 2019 following FDA approval and the implementation of a REMS [Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy] modification to include information specific to the pediatric and caregiver populations. On the development front, patient enrollment in our Phase 3 randomized withdrawal study of JZP-258 is ongoing. We plan to complete enrollment in adult narcolepsy patients with cataplexy and excessive sleepiness near year end, with a planned NDA submission next year assuming positive safety and efficacy data. We expect to share top line results from the JZP-258 Phase 3 narcolepsy study in the spring of 2019. We're also preparing to initiate our Phase 3 study evaluating JZP-258 in patients with idiopathic hypersomnia. We plan to enroll approximately 140 patients in this double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized withdrawal study. Primary endpoints will evaluate excessive sleepiness, activities of daily living, sleep inertia, and safety. We expect to begin patient enrollment this fall. Now on to solriamfetol. At the SLEEP meeting in June, we had multiple important data presentations from our Phase 3 studies, TONES 2, TONES 3, and TONES 5. TONES 5 demonstrated the maintenance of efficacy after one year of treatment, with a safety profile consistent with prior placebo-controlled studies, and importantly, a lack of rebound sleepiness or withdrawal-related effects after abrupt discontinuation of solriamfetol during the randomized withdrawal phase of the study after at least six months of treatment. Additionally, maintenance of wakefulness test results across the day from the TONES 2 and TONES 3 studies were presented. And at all efficacious doses, solriamfetol demonstrated sustained improvement in wakefulness one hour to nine hours post-dosing in both OSA and narcolepsy. Our U.S. prelaunch activities are well underway, including the hiring of our marketing team, developing and launching unbranded awareness programs, completing health economics research, conducting sales force sizing work, and developing our market access strategy. Our launch strategy will initially focus on establishing a strong foothold with physicians who are part of our current Xyrem call universe, some of whom currently manage both narcolepsy and OSA patients. As market access develops, we plan to expand into OSA by targeting additional healthcare providers and launching patient initiatives. The FDA PDUFA date is December 20, with anticipated DEA scheduling by late first quarter. We are planning for a U.S. launch following the DEA scheduling decision. We expect our sales force expansion to take place in the first quarter next year. Our team is also progressing toward a planned regulatory submission for solriamfetol in the EU late this year. On the development side, we completed enrollment in our Phase 2 proof-of-concept study evaluating solriamfetol for excessive sleepiness in Parkinson's disease. We expect to share top line results early next year. The data from this study will help inform our decisions for future development programs. We are proud of the progress we've made this year toward identifying, developing, and commercializing innovative and meaningful new products to address the critical needs of patients globally. We are heading into the second half of the year with multiple near-term milestones in sight, including: the approval and rolling launch of Vyxeos in the EU; FDA approval of solriamfetol for excessive sleepiness in patients with OSA and narcolepsy; the approval of Xyrem for pediatric patients with narcolepsy in the U.S.; submission of an MAA for solriamfetol in the EU; initiation of the Phase 3 study of JZP-258 for excessive sleepiness in idiopathic hypersomnia; and activation of study sites for a pivotal Phase 2 study of Defitelio for the treatment of TA-TMA. We also remain focused on further growing and diversifying our development portfolio through the commencement of new studies and corporate development opportunities. Matt, now I'll turn the call over to you.