Matthew Pauls
Analyst · Stifel
Thank you Lindsay. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us. For today's call, I will provide a high-level overview of our first quarter results, an update on near-term commercial and clinical milestones as well as our key growth objectives as we look to the second half of 2018. I will then turn the call over to Dr. Fred Cohen, our Chief Medical Officer, to discuss our clinical development progress. Brian Davis, our Chief Financial Officer, will then discuss the company's first quarter financial results. We will then open up the call for questions. With that, let me start by saying this was a highly productive first quarter for Strongbridge Biopharma. Starting with KEVEYIS, our first quarter delivered strong revenues of $3.9 million, a 30% increase over the fourth quarter of 2017. Given the trend we have seen of increased revenue quarter-over-quarter, we are increasing our full year financial guidance for KEVEYIS from $16 million to $19 million to $18 million to $20 million. Our expectation for continued strong commercial execution is reflective of current market dynamics, including progress in reaching the diagnosed Primary Periodic Paralysis or PPP patient population, efforts to identify additional undiagnosed patients and importantly, the robust clinical benefit KEVEYIS provides. I would like to highlight our genetic testing initiative known as Uncovering Periodic Paralysis, which continues to be favorably received by both patient and physician communities. We are closely monitoring scientific advances in the genetic basis of PPP and are modifying our gene testing panels accordingly. For example, we will soon be adding an additional gene known as RYR1 to the focused PPP gene panel. In terms of recent scientific exchange, we presented new analysis for KEVEYIS at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting last month. These data help validate the overall clinical profile and utility of KEVEYIS in a variety of patient populations, including adolescents. Looking ahead, our team is advancing a robust publication plan for KEVEYIS in 2018 to help increase understanding around the burden of PPP and the benefit of treatments with KEVEYIS. We continue to be very pleased with the progress that we are making on KEVEYIS and we are fully leveraging our expertise in rare disease launches to execute against our plans and sustain this momentum throughout the remainder of 2018. Now, I would like to shift gears and talk about our rare endocrine disease franchise. Our commercial team is incredibly energized for the planned July launch of MACRILEN, the first and only FDA-approved oral drug indicated for the diagnosis of Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency, AGHD, which is a rare endocrine condition with significant unmet medical need in known addressable patient population and significant growth opportunities. We believe that MACRILEN is a simple, safe, accurate and best-in-class option for the diagnosis of AGHD compared to other approaches, such as Insulin Tolerance Test or ITT or glucagon stimulation test or GST, neither of which are FDA approved and both of which are cumbersome for both physicians and patients. Key opinion leaders in the endocrinology believe that MACRILEN is poised to be widely adopted as the first-line diagnostic option in AGHD assessments. Currently, there are an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 tests conducted annually and recent market research finding suggest a 33% expected increase in AGHD testing due to MACRILEN's availability. This finding was also reinforced during our Scientific Advisory Board meeting in March and through interactions with physicians at our medical booths at the ENDO meeting. With regard to building out our endocrine commercial infrastructure, we have been recruiting top talent from across the industry and to create a field force of 16 rare disease professionals and I am pleased to inform you today that we have hired 15 members of this impressive team as of today's call. In fact, 10 of these new hires are already trained and out in the field, building relationships with key pituitary centers and high-volume endocrinology practices throughout the United States. From the payor perspective, our discussions to-date have been encouraging. Payors see the value of MACRILEN as an option for endocrinologists and their patients. Coupled with the support from the physician community, we are confident that we will be able to achieve broad coverage as we advance these discussions and efforts. That said, we expect coverage to vary payor by payor. For example, some payors may choose to cover MACRILEN on the medical benefit side, while others may choose to cover it on the pharmacy benefit side. So our planned hybrid go-to-market distribution and services model will be specifically designed to support health care providers and patients irrespective of the benefit MACRILEN is covered under. Finally, in terms of growth opportunities for MACRILEN, we believe there are additional conditions that can lead to Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency or AGHD where there is insufficient screening and confirmatory testing due to a lack of awareness. A great example of this is in traumatic brain injury or TBI. The current guidelines indicate that all patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury require evaluation of the pituitary function. However, most TBI patients are not being tested today. The CDC estimates that there is a combined total of approximately 2.8 million TBI-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each year. And we believe that approximately 20% to 30% of TBIs are characterized as moderate or severe. Additionally, we are exploring the opportunity for use of MACRILEN in the pediatric population. So we have launch plans in place to generate product and disease awareness, build relationships with key patient and professional advocacy groups as well as facilitate ongoing peer to peer interactions. All of these activities are rapidly advancing as we head into launch in July. We look forward to updating you on our progress on launching MACRILEN as we proceed over the next few months. And with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Fred Cohen, our Chief Medical Officer, who will provide an overview of our clinical development and medical affairs progress for RECORLEV. Fred, over to you.