William Doyle
Analyst · Loop Capital
Thank you, Ingrid. And good morning, everyone. At Novocure, our mission is to extend survival in some of the most aggressive forms of cancer through the development and commercialization of our life-extending therapy Tumor Treating Fields. In the third quarter, we consistently executed across our business in service of our mission. Our team is diligently working to reach additional patients in our current markets, expand into new markets, enhance our Tumor Treating Fields delivery systems and treat patients in new indications throughout the body. We made significant advancements in our clinical and product development programs and we are eagerly awaiting data readouts from multiple pivotal trials starting in the first quarter of 2023. Our GBM business remains the core driver of our financial stability and enables us to invest aggressively in a variety of clinical and product development initiatives as well as commercial programs designed to increase adoption. In the third quarter, we generated $131 million in net revenues and $22 million in cash flow from operations. The U.S. market is our largest revenue contributor, in which currently approximately 40% of newly diagnosed GBM patients receive a prescription for Optune. We believe there is room to drive greater adoption of Optune in newly diagnosed GBM given the best-in-class outcomes demonstrated by our EF-14 randomized clinical study, a growing body of basic and translational science from leading academic research centers and ongoing confirmation from real-world evidence analyses throughout the globe. There are 3 key publications that we would like to highlight this quarter. First, a manuscript by Dr. Chirag Patel of MD Anderson Cancer Center which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, reviews the multiple distinct mechanisms of action of TTFields. This paper is a comprehensive review of TTFields in a high-impact journal and highlights the fast-growing body of scientific research converging to demonstrate the effects of TTFields on cancer growth. The paper validates the multiple ways that TTFields can disrupt critical cellular processes, supports TTFields as a potential backbone therapy for other modalities and adds to our arsenal of independent support to be used for broader education and awareness. Second, Doctor published real-world evidence from one of the most reputable hospitals in Shanghai, hospital, in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. Dr. analysis reproduce the results of the pivotal EF-14 study and confirms Optune's efficacy in the largest group of patients treated with TTFields in China to date. Dr. reports a statistically significant 45% improvement in median overall survival, with a p-value of less than 0.001, when comparing TTFields plus temozolomide to temozolomide alone. Third, real-world evidence from Dr. Matt Ballo at the West Cancer Center was published in neuro-oncology advances, underlining the benefits of TTFields and demonstrating that greater TTFields exposure correlates to improved overall survival regardless of subgroup or treatment factors. Publications like these serve to strengthen the underpinnings of research supporting the use of our therapy and provide additional educational resources for practitioners as they learn more about TTFields. Next, I would like to highlight the leadership changes we announced last month and the creation of a new U.S. central nervous system cancers franchise. Frank Leonard, who most recently served as our Chief Development Officer, will lead this new organization as franchise President. Frank has succeeded in a number of leadership roles during his 12-year tenure at Novocure and we believe Frank will drive impactful results in this new role. The new U.S. central nervous systems cancers franchise combines sales, marketing and medical leadership under one umbrella; and strengthens our focus on driving adoption of TTFields for newly diagnosed GBM and our largest and most important market. It is important to remember that Optune is still a new therapy to many physicians. The onus is on Novocure to provide the educational resources needed for prescribing physicians to fully understand the many benefits of TTFields therapy for their patients. With the creation of the U.S. CNS franchise, we have streamlined decision-making and improved coordination across our U.S. teams, with the ultimate goal of increased Optune adoption in GBM. Continuing the theme of greater TTFields awareness and education. In August, we introduced a new marketing campaign designed to drive awareness and interest in TTFields in the broader oncology community beyond neuro-oncology. The campaign emphasizes the versatility of the TTFields modality, its multi-mechanistic capabilities and ability to expand the treatment possibilities for patients. The campaign explains the TTFields are electric fields that exert physical forces to kill cancer cells via a variety of mechanisms, including the disruption of mitosis, interference with cell motility and migration, activation of antitumor immunity and down regulation of genes important for DNA damage repair. One facet of this campaign is the creation of a new Tumor Treating Fields website which serves as a central educational resource to learn more about our therapy. The website is now live at www.tumortreatingfieldstherapy.com. I would encourage all of you to explore this resource. Before I turn the call over to Asaf, I'd like to reiterate my excitement for the upcoming pivotal trial readouts. For the last 10 years, Novocure's primary focus has been treating patients with glioblastoma. The top line readouts from both the pivotal LUNAR and INNOVATE-3 studies next year should be transformational for our company and potentially enable tens of thousands of patients to utilize our therapy for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and ovarian cancer. We look forward to sharing data from these studies with you as soon as possible. With that, I'll turn the call over to Asaf to discuss our clinical and product development updates.