Stuart Peltz
Analyst · Barclays. Your line is open
Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us on the call. We’re happy to report on the progress we’ve made in the first quarter across our regulatory commercial and clinical front. Important first quarter updates include recent discussions with the regulatory authorities in both the United States and Europe, progress on our Translarna commercialization efforts, development in our clinical pipeline and financial results for the quarter. Let me start with the work we’re doing to make Translarna available to all patients globally who may benefit, including patients in the United States. We’ve begun a dialogue with the FDA to discuss and clarify the matters described in the recent Refuse to File letter. We anticipate that this process may require multiple interactions before we come to a conclusion. Given the sensitivity around these discussions as well as their iterative nature, we will refrain from any public comment, including responding to questions today as they might adversely affect the overall integrity of the process. We intend to provide an update once we have clarified our regulatory strategy in the United States. We believe that this approach is in the best interest of our patients and their families, our investor and the company. At the start of the year, we also submitted the ACT DMD Phase 3 results to the EMA in support of the marketing authorization for Translarna for the treatment of nonsense mutation DMD. And separately submitted the request for annual renewal of our conditional marketing authorization, which involves an assessment of Translarna benefit risk profile. As I’m sure you are aware, the process with the CHMP is also in iterative one. As part of this process, the CHMP has sent us questions related to these submissions. These are primarily focused on an assessment of efficacy in light of the ACT DMD data. They also include clarification questions related to observed changes in blood pressure and lipids in Translarna treated patients considering the boys with DMD already has compromised cardiac function. I would note that our product label already requires monitoring of blood pressure and lips. CHMP plans to hold the Scientific Advisory Group or SAG meeting to review whether the results of the ACT DMD study supports the benefit risk profile of Translarna. The SAG allows our team, as well as outside experts in the DMD field to provide their view on the clinical results from our Translarna study. We believe that the totality of our data across two large the placebo-controlled trials demonstrate the Translarna preserves muscle function in DMD boys. And in our view support the positive benefit-risk assessment. We anticipate that CHMP will issue its opinion on these submissions in mid-2016. Many people have asked us about the potential outcomes of the CHMP process for DMD. We believe that there are three potential scenarios. The first, do we receive full approvals for the Translarna which is then subject to the standard review after five years which is the current annual review. The second is that we receive an extension of our current conditional approval. The agency can impose additional conditions such as providing longer term data collected in the post-marketing setting. And third, EMA can pull the marketing authorization for Translarna. We are obviously devoting significant regulatory effort to achieving either of the first two positive scenarios as they enable continued access to Translarna outside of the U.S. We are actively pursuing regulatory approvals around the world. In Canada, we plan to submit a new drug submission to Health Canada incorporating results of the company’s Phase 3 ACT DMD study later this year with the decision expected in 2017. We are also pursuing Japan, one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world and a market favorable to orphan drug. In consultation with the Japanese regulators we have recently initiated a Phase 1 study to assess tolerability in pharmacokinetics for Translarna in Japanese healthy volunteers. This study is the first step towards bringing Translarna to DMD patients in Japan. Now switching gears to our commercialization efforts for Translarna. Our global launch of Translarna is tracking well and the feedback we received from physicians and patients about Translarna remains positive. We have seen good growth across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and we have generated significant, sequential quarter-over-quarter revenue growth. In particular, this quarter we generated almost $90 million in sales revenue which is nearly a 50% increase over the fourth quarter of last year. Revenue from reimbursed to the access programs in Latin America is growing and we received a significant order from Brazil in the first quarter. There is significant unmet medical need in Latin America with a large number of nonsense mutation DMD patients and we’re working closely with the regional DMD communities to bring Translarna to these patients. We believe that there may be as many as 7,000 nonsense mutation DMD patients global in market where reimburse therapy as possible. Our experience to-date has shown that approximately 40% of the total nonsense mutation DMD patient population, are on the label. We have found a country-specific prevalence and estimates vary depending on male birth rate, incidents above the DMD, and nonsense mutation and local standards of care. While we continue to refine our patient model we are not in a position to provide regional or country specific break up. In Europe market access discussions to continue on a country-by-country basis. We know that every day counts for families facing Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We continue to work closely with all stakeholders to bring Translarna to patients around the world as quickly as possible. On April 15, NICE issued draft guidance recommending Translarna subject to a final managed access agreement with NHS England. NICE recently extended the timeframe for finalization of their guidance. I wanted to thank the UK DMD community, NICE and NHS England for all the ongoing support they are showing us as we work together to conclude this process. I would also like to provide an update for Germany. As we discussed in our last call, we experienced a real disconnect between the German Health Technology Group, GBA which gave Translarna a favorable rating of three meaning Translarna demonstrated, a quantifiable benefit and the GKV being the insurance consortium, which was not really fund Translarna at a sustainable price. The GKV has recently been communicating they are much less willing to fund orphan drugs at prices sustainable by the industry. As a result of our negotiations with GKV, we efficiently deal with the Translarna from the German pharmacy ordering system as of April 1. I am pleased to report that the first commercial order into Germany have already been successfully fulfilled via the pathway that allows patients with high unmet medical need to access treatment when no other options are available. We appreciate all the efforts of the German physicians and payors to expedite this process so patients have uninterrupted access to Translarna. We continue to work with local authorities across Europe, including in countries where we already have reimbursed early access program to finalize reimbursement and pricing agreements. Across the industry, there’s significant pressure on pricing for pharmaceuticals and orphan drug pricing is also drawing attention. As we have communicated to payors, Translarna represents an innovative new medicine for fatal genetic disorders when no other treatments addressing the underlying cost. PTC has invested over 18 years of research and development for a therapy that targets a very small patient population. We are working hard to negotiate access for Translarna for DMD patients at a price that reflects the value we are delivering the patients and ensure the long-term success of our business. To date, we have successfully concluded pricing and reimbursement discussions in six European countries at prices we considered to be sustainable. In Latin America, there has been significant interest in Translarna from patients and physicians. Currently, we have reimbursed early access programs in Columbia, Argentina, Peru, and Brazil, which we believe will continue to grow in 2016. By working with investigators and advocacy group to facilitate genotyping for patients, we have had success identifying nonsense mutation DMD patients in the region. Let me now turn to our program for Translarna in nonsense mutation cystic fibrosis, which continues to progress. As discussed previously, we completed enrollment of our Phase 3 ACT CF trial in November 2015 with approximately 280 patients. The trial remains on track with top line data expected in 2017. We submitted a type II variation to our marketing authorization in Europe to request approval for Translarna for nonsense mutation cystic fibrosis, during the third quarter of 2015. Translarna is the only treatment in development to address the underlying cause of nonsense mutation cystic fibrosis, which is considered the most difficult to treat population. The submission was based on post-hoc analysis of the results from our previously Phase 3 study. Based on recent interactions with regulators, there is substantial risk that the results from our confirmatory ACT CF trial will be required for approval. We filed for early EMA approval because believe that Translarna has demonstrated favorable benefit/risk and consistent with our mission we want to bring Translarna to patients and their families as rapidly as possible. Furthermore, as with DMD, it affords as an opportunity to educate and discuss with CHMP the benefits of Translarna for patients afflicted by nonsense mutation cystic fibrosis. We anticipate that the CHMP will issue its opinion in mid-2016. I would now like to focus no another program in our clinical pipeline. As we have discussed before we have developed a platform technology to identify molecules that modulate splicing. This technology has been used to discover potential new therapies for spinal muscular atrophy or SMA. SMA is a genetic neuromuscular disease caused by a missing or defective SMN1 gene which results in reduced levels of SMN protein. The SMN protein is critical to the health in survival of the nerve cells in the spinal cord. The disease generally manifests early in life and is the leading genetic cause of death among infants and toddlers. We have a robust program in collaboration with Roche and the SMA Foundation around oral small molecule SMN2 splicing modifiers as a way to address the disease. And oral therapy which has exposure to both muscle and nerve tissue has the potential to provide considerable advantage. As we discussed on our last call, concurred with the development of our lead compound RG7800, a robust research program regarding SMN through splicing modifiers continue to advance. And RG7916 was also identified as the development candidate. We’ve recently completed a Phase 1 study in healthy volunteers with this compound, preliminary results in the case that RG7916 increase the production of full length SMN2 mRNA and it was well tolerated. Because healthy individuals have both the SMN1 and SMN2 gene, we are in the unique position that changes in splicing can be measured in the blood of healthy volunteer. This allows us to rapidly monitor both the exposure and the activity of RG7916 in an early study. Results of this Phase 1 study support the continued development of RG7916. Together with our collaborators, we are planning to begin the clinical study in SMA patients later this year. Once we have data in SMA patients for RG7916, we will be able to compare the results for both compounds to determine the best one to move forward in subsequent clinical development. To wrap up, while we’re working to address the RTF letter, we have delivered strong commercial results and we’re actively preparing for upcoming regulatory interactions, and we continue to advance our clinical pipeline. With that, let me turn it over to Shane to talk about our financial results for the first quarter. Shane?