Earnings Labs

Veru Inc. (VERU)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Fri, Jan 5, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Veru Inc’s Investors Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After this morning’s discussion, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded. The statements made on the conference call that are not historical in nature, are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the company’s current assessment of the risks and uncertainties related to our businesses. Our actual results and future developments could differ materially from the results or developments in such forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results or developments to differ materially include such things as the risks related to the development of the company’s product portfolio; risks related to the ability of the company to obtain sufficient financing on acceptable terms when needed to fund development and company operations; risks related to competition; government contracting risks; and other risks detailed in the company’s press releases, shareholder communications and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. For additional information regarding such risks, the company urges you to review its 10-Q and 10-K SEC filings. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dr. Mitchell Steiner, Veru Inc’s CEO and President. Please go ahead.

Mitchell Steiner

Management

Thank you, operator, and good morning. This is Dr. Mitchell Steiner, President and CEO of Veru Inc. And joining me are Michele Greco, Executive Vice President of Finance; and Kevin Gilbert, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Legal. I’m very proud of our team and our accomplishments to date as we transition to a urology and oncology biopharmaceutical company. Today, we will provide an update on the progress we’re making with our clinical development of our drug pipeline; commercialization of our products, FC2 and PREBOOST; as well as provide financial highlights for the fourth fiscal quarter and year-end fiscal year 2017. It has been a very productive year for Veru building the foundation for growth. Veru is now well-positioned to become a leading urology and oncology biopharmaceutical company. We are initially focused on low-cost, near-term, and high-reward pharmaceuticals, using an expedited regulatory pathway known as 505(b)(2). Our goal is to have several near-term and mid-term products progressing at the same time to have multiple shots to ensure that in the near future we file and commercialize several drugs in urology and oncology, putting our company on a trajectory of solid growth. We’re delivering on this goal. We have advanced Tamsulosin DRS, a new slow release granule formulation for the most popular medicine for symptoms of enlarged prostate, causing difficulty in urination also known as BPH and is currently marketed under the name FLOMAX. As it’s stated in the FDA package insert, FLOMAX capsules should not be crushed, chewed, or open, because it may lead to serious side effects of low blood pressure and dizziness. A slow release granule formulation will allow us to target up to 60% of men in long-term care or nursing homes and 15% of men in the general population over 60 years of age that can…

Michele Greco

Management

Thank you, Dr. Steiner. First, let’s review our fourth quarter results. FC2 unit sales totaled $6.9 million compared to $6.7 million from the fourth quarter of 2016. Net revenues for the quarter totaled $3.7 million compared to $3.6 million in the prior year quarter. Gross margin was 49% compared with 52% in the prior year quarter. Operating expenses increased to $4.6 million as compared to $2.2 million in the prior year quarter. The increase in operating expenses was primarily due to $1.5 million of research and development expense for our clinical development programs, which were not present in the prior year and increased cost for additional headcount from the APP accusation and costs associated with the prescription launch of FC2. Overall, there was a net loss for the quarter of $4.7 million, or $0.10 per diluted common share, compared to a net loss of $1.8 million, or $0.06 per diluted common share in the prior year quarter. For the year-ended September 30, 2017, unit sales totaled $26.2 million, which was down 38% from the prior year of 42 million units. Excluding Brazil sales of 11.5 million units, our unit sales were down 13% from the prior year. Net revenues for the year totaled $13.7 million, a decrease of 38% from the prior year. Excluding Brazil net revenues of $6 million, our net revenues were down 15% from the prior year. This year, we’ve seen a decline in public sector volume over the prior years. The recent decline is primarily due to timing of tenders, but also impacted by the U.S. political and geopolitical donor uncertainty that caused declines in our order frequency in the order size from some of our customers such as USAID and UNFPA, who are dependent on charitable donations or government aid, especially those dependent on funding…

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

Thank you, Michele. Fiscal year 2017 has been a transformational year for Veru. We have established a foundation to make Veru a leading urology and oncology biopharmaceutical company. We have several near-term and mid-term drug candidates progressing at the same time to have multiple shots to be able to file and launch new drugs in urology and oncology. We aspire to file, at least, one NDA each year for the next five years. This will provide the engine for growth. We will continue to develop and commercialize existing 505(b)(2) products. Currently, we seek new 505(b)(2) products from the outside – from outside the company. We’re excited about VERU-111 as a novel targeted oral therapy for multiple types of cancer and look forward to obtaining a partner at the right time. We will continue to finance clinical development and commercialization in part through PREBOOST and FC2 sales. We will drive shareholder value through low-cost and expedited clinical development for large market opportunities in urology and oncology. We’re committed to becoming a leading urology and oncology biopharmaceutical company. And with that, I’ll now open the call to questions.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question will come from Yi Chen of H. C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Yi Chen

Analyst · H. C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Thank you. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is on the sales cycle of the global public sector customers for FC2. So generous speaking is, is this so that they order every, once every two years, so that if fiscal year 2018 has a higher revenue -- is projected to be have a higher revenue than 2017, then will typically be followed by a lower sales in 2019 – fiscal year 2019?

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

Yes, great question. So I’m going to answer it as I see us going forward. And then I’m going to ask Michele, who has been with the company for over five years to discuss historically. So going forward, the expectation is that the Brazilian government will order 50 million units, which is the largest order they have sought ever. So historically – so this is a big order compared to typical in the order of 15 million to 20 million. So this is a big number. With that said, I don’t think, if we get that full order, that would be a year to 18 months to maybe even two years to fill that order even though it’s an annual order. The second one in terms of South Africa, this is again the largest order they’re going to be putting in, and that’s 40 million units over three – a year for three years, it’s 120 million units. Now when I think it all and look at this competition, what – our expectation and we’re confident we’re going to get the bulk of it, and that will go on for three years, but that may go on to four years. And so, at least for the near-term, the next two to four years, the expectation for Veru is that, our biopharmaceutical pipeline will be moving along and hopefully the revenue that we will see from Tamsulosin and Solifenacin and from Tadalafil/Finasteride and VERU-944 and VERU-111 will dwarf what we’re getting revenue wise from FC2. So that’s kind of where we’re heading in the future. Historically, I’ll let Michele tell you kind of how the lumpiness plays out from a cycle standpoint.

Michele Greco

Management

Right. And again as Mitchell said, if you look at us historically, you’ll see some lumpiness. We have four main customers. As I mentioned, it’s been FPA, USAID, or governmental agencies, and they continue to order year-over-year. So there is no up and down with them, it all depends on which countries are asking for donations from them that they place the orders for those countries. Our – the Republic of South Africa and Brazil go through what they call a tender process, a request for proposal, if you will. And sometimes the - there’s a gap between when they put out the new tender process and when the last one closed. And other times like South Africa is working to close that gap, so that when one tender ends, the other tender will start. But in the past, the lumpiness you have seen is, because there’ll be a gap between when a tender ended and the next one comes out and then we’ll have a year where we have no shipments to those two countries and they’re large customers.

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

But historically, if you look at the last 5 to 10 years, on average, it’s been about 40 million units a year…

Michele Greco

Management

On average.

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

…on average. And so that’s something to keep in mind. The other thing to keep in mind is, this year is a first year that we put a major effort behind the U.S. market. And the U.S. market both from a pricing standpoint and reimbursement standpoint is premium. And so, as I mentioned in the call, we have six channels that we have now shown a proof-of-concept in traction and revenue. So the U.S. market could very easily match or surpass what we’re seeing in the global market. And so, if you’re confident with the right time and being careful with our resources, we will be able to realize that. So, there’s an opportunity here, but – and it will allow us to again bridge into the pharmaceuticals.

Michele Greco

Management

And then, the other thing that I mentioned during the call is that, we’ve been working globally to expand into new markets. We’ve entered relationships with new large distributors globally. We’re exploring new markets globally. So we have a new distributor in South America serving eight countries DKT, [ph]. They’re also going to be looking at working with Mexico and Pakistan. We’re exploring opportunities in Asia and in Latin America. So we’re working on new distributors, new arrangements, and new markets.

Yi Chen

Analyst · H. C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Thank you. Actually, my second question is going to be what kind of the revenue of FC2 in the U.S. can we reasonably expect in 2018, or in other words how soon a sales ramp up can we expect to see in 2018?

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

I understand the question. The question is what kind of revenues are we expecting in 2018?

Yi Chen

Analyst · H. C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Right, because you just talked about, you just mentioned that you expect the potential market size of FC2 in the U.S. could be comparable to the….

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

Yes, yes.

Yi Chen

Analyst · H. C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Global public sector, right.

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

Yes, that’s exactly true. And so what we’re seeing this year is, we looked at six different channels, as I mentioned in the call, and each of those channels are now producing revenue. We launched in the U.S. in April. So here we are now literally eight months later, and so we really need to have about another quarter or two under our belts that we can actually see how we can project that growth and to answer your question specifically. So we’re being very, very careful, because we’re excited. We’re seeing growth in each one of these channels, but we’re going to refrain from making natural guidance statement until we have a little bit more data under our belt, but it is [indiscernible] it is promising.

Yi Chen

Analyst · H. C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Okay, got it. Thank you. My third question is, when targeting the patients in the long-term care facilities, how large are the markets for Solifenacin DRG and to Tadalafil/Finasteride combination capsules, compared to the markets of Tamsulosin DRS?

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

Yes. So I can tell you based on some data that I’ve looked at, which is IMS data for Tamsulosin and it’s 2015, so it’s recent enough. In 2015, it was roughly 29 million prescriptions in the U.S. for Tamsulosin, excuse me, for alpha blockers. Tamsulosin comprise 22 million prescriptions a year, okay. One out of 10 men on FLOMAX Tamsulosin, the generics are sitting in the nursing home. And so that number is roughly about 3 million prescriptions a year. If you asked the question, how many men in nursing homes are not swallowing tablets? The answer is 60%, but that’s used the number 50%. So there are 3 million men sitting in nursing homes they can’t take pills and they have BPH. Then the means there is about 3 million men in nursing homes that cannot take pills who would have a diaper or catheter who have to go through surgery. So the numbers about 3 million is what we’re using as 3 million new prescription – 3 million prescriptions a year represents men who cannot swallow or have difficulty in swallowing tablets in a nursing home long-term care settings, that’s a big number. We think, because the other alpha blockers and there’s about three or four of them also are not available by powder or slow granules that will get some of those. So there maybe north of 3 million, so maybe 3.6 million or something like that. Now, Solifenacin, as you know, now you open it up to women. So it’s not just men with BPH. Now you’re dealing with women and now these drugs are very different. As you know, BPH is, because the flow of the urine is restrictive. Solifenacin is taking care of the bladder and the bladders is overacted, meaning keeps wanting to squeeze and it doesn’t act as a storage facility. And so by having a drug like Solifenacin, you can open up the bladder, relax it to be more of a storage. In fact, men with BPH can also take drugs to overactive bladder. So they’re not mutually exclusive, so there could be overlap. With that said, we would imagine that the Solifenacin market will be similar, it’s not larger in nursing homes, because you’re dealing with both men and women.

Yi Chen

Analyst · H. C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Got it. Thank you.

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question will come from Matt Kaplan of Ladenburg. Please go ahead.

Matt Kaplan

Analyst · Ladenburg. Please go ahead

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the progress during 2017. Just a follow-up on the Tamsulosin DRS. In terms of your strategy focusing on the long-term care facilities, is there an opportunity outside of that, Mitchell, market to go after the overall market as well you contemplated formulating as a tablet or capsule as well?

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

Yes. So the answer is because of the fact that this is not appeared to have a food effect. Then that’s pretty exciting, because, as you know, one of the biggest issues outside of just in general with Tamsulosin is, it has to be taken with food. And patients like doctors, we don’t always take our advice and they take the medicine on an empty stomach and they end up getting dizzy and they pass out and that’s a problem. So to be able to have something without a food effects certainly help with the administration compliance and potentially safety. So when we found out that these granules did not appear not to have a food effect and/or food requirement, then we said to ourselves, boy, wouldn’t be great, because if we’re going to be using a powder, the powder really – the slow release granule powder really is focused in nursing homes and long-term care, because that’s where right now the formularies have nothing, which means that, if you come in with a capsule or tablet in nursing homes, look, we’ve got generic Tamsulosin, why do we need another capsule. But with a powder sliding on the formulary, it gets on the formulary. So we’re going to be able to get on every one of these formularies, pharmacies in long-term care, because they don’t have the alternative. And certainly, they don’t want to admit to the fact of giving breaking capsules for patients that are in the nursing homes that potentially could fall and break their hip and things of that nature. So for medical, legally, they’re going to want to have a powder available. So what we found out was that, my gosh, if you have the slow release granules in nursing home setting outside of nursing home…

Matt Kaplan

Analyst · Ladenburg. Please go ahead

All right, that’s helpful. Thank you. And then just shifting gears a little bit in terms of some of your proprietary programs, VERU-111, can you help us understand where that sits in, in terms of for the treatment of prostate cancer, how that plays well?

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

Absolutely. So here’s the exciting part. We know in urology – in prostate cancer and make a blanket statement, it’s a true statement that for advanced prostate cancer, hormone therapies and taxanes have been the most effective therapies period. So that means docetaxel and cabazitaxel have shown overall survival and activity. And then when the hormone therapies fail, then they go to docetaxel and they go to cabazitaxel, okay. And so the problem with docetaxel and cabazitaxel besides the fact that given intravenously, there are other issues related to neutropenia, neurotoxicity, muscle weakness, and so it’s not ideal. And also because of the hormone therapies, oral hormone therapies like abiraterone and enzalutamide, urologists have been pretty much involved with taking care of their patients. They start out with giving them a LUPRON or a drug similar to LUPRON androgen deprivation therapy, so they primarily castrate them. And then when they break through, the primate castration which they all do, then they go on to enzalutamide or abiraterone, it’s a pill urologists gives it. And then when they fail that, now they have to send them to the medical oncologists and in some ways patients get really upset, because that means now they have to go to IV therapy and they have to recognize to get into the end of the disease and then losing the relationship they have with the urologists. Now by having an oral agent, that’s basically a anti-tubulin that we know well – we know from our animal models has activity in prostate, in fact, the fact has activity even in taxane-resistant prostate cancer that this would be ideal, because it will allow the urologist to continue the therapy after they fail in enzalutamide and abiraterone. There was a recent publication from Mario Eisenberger, we’re looking at…

Matt Kaplan

Analyst · Ladenburg. Please go ahead

Thanks, Mitchell.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Yi Chen of H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Yi Chen

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Thank you. Just a quick follow-up. Was all the above equivalent study and the additional trials for 944 and 111 in 2018, do you expect the operating expenses in fiscal 2018 to be significantly higher than 2017?

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

I expected it to be higher than 2017, because we’re now finally getting to the point that we’re moving the products. Now with that said, bioequivalence study is non-expensive and they’re easy to do and they’re small. So the big expense going to be VERU-944. Veru has a big expense, so you can understand what that means. In VERU-944, we’re expecting about 120 patients, and in our budget, it’s roughly around $4 million. So it’s not huge numbers.

Yi Chen

Analyst · H. C. Wainwright. Please go ahead

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dr. Mitchell Steiner for any closing remarks.

Mitchell Steiner

Operator

Thank you. I appreciate everybody joining us on today’s call and I look forward to updating you on our progress in the next investor’s call. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

The digital replay of the conference will be available beginning approximately noon Eastern time today, January 5th, by dialing 1-877-344-7529 in the U.S. and 1-412-317-0088 internationally. You’ll be prompted to enter the replay access code, which will be 10114690. Please record your name and company when joining. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s discussions.