Matt Korenberg
Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead
Thanks Matt. 2015 was our third consecutive full-year of profitability as we continue to see growing total revenues coupled with relatively flat cash operating expenses providing us tremendous earnings leverage to our P&L. As highlighted in our press release, we look for 2016 to continue this trend. We expect continued strong growth from Promacta and Kyprolis royalties, higher demand for Captisol sales, robust milestone achievement by partners and the additional contribution to revenue and earnings from our newly acquired OMT business. Turning to the Q4 financials, I'll review few of the metrics from our earnings release issued earlier today. Total revenues for the quarter were $21.2 million and included royalty revenue of $11.5 million, which was an increase of 23% versus the year ago period and largely reflected higher Promacta and Kyprolis royalties, despite the currency headwinds we discussed previously. Captisol material sales for Q4 were $7.2 million, which was about $3 million less than expectations for the quarter. As John mentioned, we view this as largely reflecting the timing of orders and not indicative of any underlying trend in the Captisol business. As we said in the past, the business is lumpy and the timing of commercial launches and trial starts which the Captisol business is based on our estimates. Collaborative R&D revenues were $2.4 million versus $615,000 for the year ago period with this increase due to the timing of achievement of milestones. Beyond the mix of revenue, we’re very pleased with the earnings performance for the quarter and the year coming in at the high end of our projected estimates due to lower expenses across the rest of the P&L. Cost of goods, R&D and G&A were all better than expected even after considering some larger one-off items like expenses associated with the OMT transaction. Regarding gross margins, similar to Q3 we saw higher gross margins as compared to the prior period. Q4 was driven by a favorable mix of clinical versus commercial Captisol sales and continued realization of the benefits of the volume of Captisol we purchased in 2015 as discussed at our Analyst Day in November. As we look forward to 2016 on this particular topic, I’d like to remind you that our volume and mix shift can significantly -- volume and mix can shift significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year and we do not expect Q1 2016 margins to be as high we experienced in Q4. On the cash expense side, our Q4 R&D and G&A expenses, cash operating expenses were better than expected and flat compared to the year ago period. For the quarter, we reported adjusted earnings from continued operations of $14.3 million or $0.66 per diluted share compared to $12.5 million or $0.60 per diluted share for the same period last year. As previously mentioned, primary driver of the increase was higher royalties from Promacta and Kyprolis milestones and then combined that with a decrease in expenses. On the balance sheet, we generated operating cash flow of $13.7 million during the quarter, an increase from the $10.3 million of operating cash flow in the year-ago period. We ended the quarter with just over $200 million of cash and investments. However, after closing OMT and making the related cash payments, our current cash balance was approximately $100 million. As detailed in our press release, we’re increasing our full-year 2016 guidance slightly. We now expect full year 2016 total revenues to be between $114 million and $118 million. And adjusted earnings per diluted share to be between $3.37 and $3.42. This compares with our previous 2016 guidance for total revenues to be between $113 million and $117 million and adjusted earnings per diluted share to be between $3.33 and $3.38. As we look forward to 2016, I wanted to provide some bit more detail on the P&L and financial projections. We estimated approximately 40% of year’s revenue and adjusted earnings will be booked in the first half of 2016. And our 2016 estimates result in a revenue breakdown for the year that includes about 50% of revenue coming from royalties, 25% from Captisol and 25% coming from license and milestone payments. Of the license and milestone revenue, I wanted to note that about $10 million is tied to product approvals that we expect in 2016. Gross margins are currently expected to be at the higher end of our previously disclosed 60% to 65% range. And cash operating expenses for the year should be between $26 million and $28 million. Lastly, just a reminder that our adjusted earnings per diluted share guidance excludes stock-based compensation expense, non-cash debt related costs, non-cash tax expense, changes in contingent liabilities, OMT purchase price amortization, non-cash pro-rata net losses of Viking Therapeutics, fair value adjustments related to Viking Therapeutics convertible note receivable, mark-to-market adjustments for amounts owed to licensors and excess convert shares covered by bond hedge. We believe that our adjusted earnings more closely aligns to cash earnings per share. With that, I’ll turn the call back over to the operator and open it up for questions.