Peter D. Meldrum
Analyst · Cantor
Thank you, Scott. To begin, I am pleased to provide highlights of our first quarter results. The revenues for the first quarter of our 2014 fiscal year increased 52% year-over-year to a record $202 million. As expected, we benefited from increased publicity during the quarter. However, even with that benefit, first quarter revenues rose 25% compared to the same period in the prior fiscal year, representing continued strong growth in our core markets. Every one of our products contributed to this excellent performance, and I am pleased to note that our international division made excellent progress, with revenues increasing 125% year-over-year. Our investments and efforts in Europe are paying dividends, and looking ahead, we see 2 potential major catalysts in this market. First is the European approval of AstraZeneca's PARP inhibitor, which represents a $100 million companion diagnostic market opportunity. The second catalyst is the European launch of Myriad myRisk Hereditary Cancer test, which will occur during the second half of this fiscal year. Net income for the first fiscal quarter was $55 million, compared to $30 million in the same quarter of the prior fiscal year, an increase of 84%. Finally, diluted earnings per share grew 89% to $0.68, compared to $0.37 in the first fiscal quarter of 2013. Given these strong results, I am pleased to increase our financial guidance for fiscal year 2014. We are now projecting revenues of $700 million to $715 million, representing 14% to 17% growth, and earnings per share of $1.92 to $1.97, representing 9% to 12% growth. These results speak to the dedication of the Myriad team, and I'm especially proud of the hard work and diligent efforts of each one of our employees for delivering this excellent performance in the face of new direct competition. The company has aggressively repurchased its stock and has recently exhausted the current board repurchase authorization. To date, we have repurchased $700 million worth of Myriad's stock, representing over 30% of the company. We are committed to this long-standing policy of returning cash to the shareholders. And so I am pleased to announce that the board has approved a new stock buyback authorization of $300 million. This brings our total share repurchase authorizations to $1 billion. We will continue to build on these strong results by executing on our 3 major strategic directives of growing our existing markets, expanding internationally and launching new innovative products. Underlying these strategic directives is our commitment to improving patient health care through the development of transformative molecular diagnostic tests across multiple medical specialties, which address pressing clinical needs. We are also committed to reducing cost in the health care system by providing patients and their physicians with critical information to assess risk of disease, accurately diagnose disease, guide treatment decisions and predict disease recurrence. Myriad is making substantial progress in the field of PARP inhibitors, and collaboration with our pharmaceutical partners are ramping up in terms of activity. Myriad recently expanded its companion diagnostic agreement with AstraZeneca on olaparib, a novel PARP inhibitor. On September 30, the European medicines agency, which is equivalent to our FDA, accepted AstraZeneca's market authorization application for olaparib as a treatment for BRCA positive patients on ovarian cancer. Olaparib has a potential of being the first commercially available PARP inhibitor, and may be on the market in Europe as early as January 2015. Additionally, in October, the FDA granted orphan drug status for olaparib. We also recently announced that BioMarin Pharmaceuticals will use our BRACAnalysis test for their pivotal Phase III clinical study for BMN 673, an orally active PARP inhibitor. The BioMarin PARP inhibitor has exhibited strong potency, possibly due to its ability of trapping PARP onto the DNA, which is lethal to cancer cells. As required by the FDA, Myriad has submitted an Investigational Device Exemption, or IDE, for BRACAnalysis that will allow it to be used as a companion diagnostic to stratify breast cancer patients for BioMarin's Phase III studies. Finally, one of Myriad's other partners, Tesaro, also announced last quarter the initiation of a Phase III clinical trial in ovarian cancer for its orally active PARP inhibitor. As with our other collaborators, Myriad is determining the BRAC status of all patients prior to their enrollment in Tesaro's Phase III clinical study. All in all, Myriad has PARP inhibitor collaborations with 6 pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies. We are excited to play an important role in the development of this novel class of drugs, since we believe PARP inhibitors may represent an exciting new treatment paradigm for ovarian cancer patients. If approved, these therapies have the potential to dramatically expand our core markets as the number of patients that qualify for our tests increases. While we believe the hereditary cancer market will rapidly shift to myRisk, we continue to believe that BRACAnalysis will enjoy strong demand as a companion diagnostic for PARP inhibitors and possibly DNA-damaging agents. During the past 3 years, Myriad has launched 3 novel molecular diagnostic tests. Interestingly, we will duplicate that feat in the first 6 months of this year. In addition to myRisk Hereditary Cancer, which was launched on September 3, and myPlan Lung Cancer, which was launched on October 29, we will be launching myPath Melanoma before the end of the calendar year. As you may remember, myPath Melanoma is a gene expression test that analyzes skin biopsy tissue for the purpose of aiding a dermatopathologist in the accurate diagnosis of melanoma. Each year in the United States, there are approximately 2 million skin biopsies performed specifically for the diagnosis of melanoma. Approximately 14% or 280,000 biopsies are classified as indeterminate. In other words, the dermatopathologist cannot accurately determine whether the cells are benign or malignant. This is critical information since the outcome for patients is poor if melanoma is not caught at an early stage. 5-year survival rates drop from 95% in stage 1 to less than 20% in stage 4. During the quarter, we presented outstanding data from our verification study for myPath Melanoma. In this study, Myriad evaluated 450 skin biopsy samples, including 258 melanomas, representing all major subtypes of the disease. The ability to accurately distinguish melanoma from benign lesions across all subtypes has been a major shortcoming of other assays. Utilizing MyPath, we are able to differentiate melanoma from benign skin lesions with an accuracy rate of greater than 90%. We believe this level of accuracy is remarkable, and rarely seen among molecular diagnostics for cancer. MyPath Melanoma represents a global market of over $800 million annually, and Myriad will have an average selling price of $150 -- sorry, $1,500 for myPath Melanoma. As I mentioned, we recently launched myPlan Lung Cancer, a novel gene expression test designed to assist physicians in predicting the aggressiveness of a patient's lung cancer. Many early-stage lung cancer patients do not see an added benefit from postsurgical chemotherapy, which not only reduces the patient's quality of life, but represents an unnecessary cost burden to the health care system. However, early-stage lung cancer patients may also die of their disease if not treated with chemotherapy. myPlan is the only test on the market today that can accurately predict which early-stage lung cancer patients may benefit from added chemotherapy, thus filling a pressing medical need. In October, at the international Association for the Study of Lung Cancer meeting in Sydney, Australia, we presented data from 2 clinical studies in 1,145 patients with stage 1 or stage 2 lung cancer. Both studies were highly statistically significant in predicting the postsurgical risk of lung cancer death. Lung cancer patients with a high risk myPlan score, indicative of an aggressive form of the disease, had a 5-year disease-specific mortality rate of twice that of patients with a low risk myPlan score. The studies demonstrated that Myriad's myPlan Lung Cancer test is the strongest independent predictor of 5-year survival in early-stage lung cancer patients. As you may remember, Myriad entered into an agreement with Crescendo biosciences several years ago. Crescendo is a molecular diagnostic company focused on autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Under the agreement, Myriad was granted an exclusive option to acquire Crescendo for a predetermined price based on Crescendo's revenues and growth rate. Crescendo launched their first product, Vectra DA, in 2011 to help guide treatment decisions for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Vectra DA is the only multi-biomarker blood test on the market that measures disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. They have also developed a mobile app called myRA that enables patients to regularly track multiple aspects of their disease, and easily share the information with their physicians. Crescendo announced this spring that their Medicare contractor Palmetto established national coverage for their Vectra DA test at a price of $587. So Vectra DA is now covered for all Medicare patients throughout the United States. Additionally, in August, Inc. Magazine ranked Crescendo as the fifth fastest growing private health care company in the United States. Crescendo continues to make excellent progress, and the company received 22,000 patient samples in the quarter ended September 30, 2013. Myriad anticipates making a decision on the possible acquisition of Crescendo during this fiscal year. I think it is evident by the number of clinical studies we have published or presented in the last 6 months, the outstanding data surrounding myRisk, myPlan and myPath and the recent seamless multiple product launches that Myriad has significantly increased its product development capabilities. The decision to focus solely on molecular diagnostics in 2009, followed by meaningful investments in research and development, is now paying dividends. Myriad has developed a significant pipeline of highly validated diagnostic tests that fill critical unmet needs. It is truly an exciting time at Myriad as we are on the cusp of becoming a much more diversified and much larger player in the diagnostic industry. I'm confident in our ability to continue to deliver strong growth, and in the Myriad team's ability to excel. Now it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Mark Capone, who will provide an operational update.