Stephen Toor
Analyst · Oppenheimer. Please go ahead
Thank you, Fabrice. Good morning, everybody. As Fabrice just alluded to, we've delivered another strong performance in 2024. On RUCONEST, we increased the prescriber base by 11% and new patient enrollments by 24%. This translated to a strong Q4, growing 9% over prior year and hitting almost $80 million for the quarter. We ended 2024 with sales of $25 million, 11% up on 2023. In the next two slides, I'll review why RUCONEST continues to show such strength and growth and why we're confident it will continue to grow in the years to come, even as the market becomes more competitive. On Joenja, we continue to build our patient pipeline and transition eligible patients to paid therapy. And as you would expect, our team delivered significant growth over the first year of launch, ending Q4 65% up on prior year at $13.1 million, up for 2024, plus 147% or $45 million. Of note, in addition to 96 patients plus five pending on paid therapy in the US, we have an additional 188 patients on therapy globally under various access programs and in clinical trials that can all move to commercial therapy when the necessary registrations are received. In the forthcoming slides, I'll also outline the opportunities we see in the coming months and years that will both build the Joenja business for APDS and with new potential indications for the molecule, create a strong high growth franchise. Looking first at u RUCONEST, as I just stated, RUCONEST is and will continue to be a growth driver for Pharming and an important treatment option for US patients and their doctors, which is why it's already the second most prescribed acute product in the US. And one of the key reasons for this is its mode of action. As you can see in the graphic, there are three inflammatory cascades involved in the development of an HAE attack, C1 esterase inhibition, represented in the graphic by the red C1 INH markers, blocks numerous enzymes across all three pathways. So, while many patients are effectively treated by blocking a single point in these cascades, patients who don't respond to the targeted therapies available, may benefit from RUCONEST since it works comprehensively across all these systems. C1 esterase inhibition ultimately stop bradykinin production via multiple points in the contact cascade, as well as other systems that may lead to attacks, which in turn, and this is important, leads to the 97% attack resolution in a single dose and a sustained response with 93% of patients attacks stopped for at least three days. So, let's look more specifically at RUCONEST patients and what this means for them. The first thing to note is that RUCONEST serves all patient types, those being type one, type two, and normal C1 patients. All three of these RUCONEST patient groups have one thing in common, though. They all suffer from moderate to severe debilitating HAE attacks and they have them frequently. They've also typically failed other targeted acute therapies such as Icatibant or are having to redose to stop their HAE attack. In the photos on the slide, you could see an actual RUCONEST patient at the start of an attack and then her recovery as it resolves at the four-hour mark on the 24-hour mark. For patients like this one suffering with a more severe course of disease attacking frequently and having to redose on other therapies, knowing, as I just stated, that 97% of patients will stop their attack with a single dose and almost all of them will be attack-free for at least three days, is a very big deal. RUCONEST efficacy and reliability allows our patients to better control and plan their lives, and that's why RUCONEST will continue to have a strong position in the US acute market and remain an important product for our company in the years to come. Our transition now to Joenja, which as you're aware was launched in the US in March 2023 and is available outside the US through various access programs. We see a number of opportunities for Joenja, which I'll walk you through now. Pharming's patient-finding efforts are continuing as we build our patient pipeline in the US and globally. In fact, we've already identified over 240 patients in the US, of whom 40% are already on paid therapy, and we've identified hundreds more in other key markets. So, while we work hard to continue to pull through those identified patients and put them on therapy, we also have some important opportunities to drive growth in the near term and the medium term, including efforts to expand the addressable population. So, what are they? Looking at the second block on the slide, the first is the outputs from the VUS resolution program, which Anurag will discuss. That will deliver another bonus of APDS patients available for treatment this year and beyond. The second will be the pediatric indication launch in the US, which is expected in 2026. We currently have over 60 patients in our US pipeline and growing, and they'll begin transitioning to Joenja as soon as the indication is approved. And the third is our geographic expansion program, which is the key markets around the world. And this begins this year with the UK launch. In fact, just today, NICE have published draft guidance in which they recommend the use of Joenja for NHS England and Wales. And then we have further anticipated launches in other important markets, including Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, and Australia. That means Joenja will soon be available in most of the industry's top 10 markets. In addition to that, you can see in the final two blocks on this slide, leniolisib for APDS is only part of the story. As you know, Phase 2 trials have been initiated for two bigger indications, APLS and CVID. In fact, CVID while still rare with a prevalence of 40 patients per million, transitions leniolisib from a small ultra-rare disease molecule to one with blockbuster sales potential, thereby creating the Leniolisib franchise delivering a significantly greater value for all stakeholders in the coming years. With that said, I'd now like to hand over to our Chief Medical Officer, Anurag Relan, whose team are of course critical to driving these programs forward and realizing these opportunities, to provide us with a research and development update.