Heron Therapeutics Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 6, 2024

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Thank you for standing by. My name is Hermione, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Heron Therapeutics Q2 2024 Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

Operator

I would now like to turn the call over to Melissa Dyerl, Executive Director, Liekel. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on the Heron 2024. With me today from here are Craig Hallard, Chief Executive Officer Yaron Duarte, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Bill Ford, Executive Vice President, Chief Development Officer and Kevin Werner, Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs Strategy and Engagement. For those of you participating via conference call, slides are made available via webcast and can also be accessed via the Investor Relations page of our website following the conclusion of today's call. Before we begin, let me remind you that during the course of this conference call, the company will make forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

We caution you that any statement that is not a statement of historical fact is a forward looking statement. This includes remarks about the company's projections, expectations, plans, beliefs and future performance, all of which forward looking statements for the purposes of the Safe Harbor provision under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on judgment and analysis as of the date of this conference call and are subject to numerous important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward looking statements. The risks and uncertainties associated with the forward looking statements made in this conference call and webcast are described in the Safe Harbor statement in today's press release and in Heron's public periodic filings with the SEC. Except as required by law, Heron assumes no obligation to update these forward looking statements to reflect future events or actual outcomes and does not intend to do so.

Speaker 1

And with that, I would now like to turn it over to Craig Holler, Chief Executive Officer of Huron.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Melissa. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Heron Therapeutics' Q2 2024 Earnings Call. Today, we are pleased to update you on our latest achievements for the Q2, which includes a narrowing of our financial guidance and a view into our financial performance, discussion of our prior performance, progression of the vial access needle or VAN towards our September 23rd PDUFA date, the publishing of the long awaited Bill Paying Act, which includes ZEMALF and last an update on the billing and training of our partners at CrossLink. Now moving to financial performance. I believe this slide demonstrates the impact our new management team has had on this business as we compare first half of twenty twenty four with the first half of twenty twenty three.

Speaker 2

Keep in mind, the management team was not fully in place until August of 2023. Since arriving, we have been able to establish the proper financial management that has allowed us to reduce spends dramatically, while still growing top line revenue. As you can see from the slide, revenues were up 15%, gross margin has improved from 40% to 73% and operating expenses have been reduced by over $36,000,000 when comparing the 1st 6 months of 2024, the same period in 2023. Now moving to product performance, The oncology franchise continues to outpace our expectations with Cinvanti net revenues of $24,900,000 for the quarter and Sustaw net revenues of $4,300,000 for the quarter. We continue to maintain our existing market share in a very competitive environment with the oncology franchise and we believe these products will continue to show similar consistency throughout 2024.

Speaker 2

Total acute care net revenues for the quarter were $6,800,000 which is record revenue for our acute business. Zimmerli's net revenues for the quarter were $5,800,000 Aponvi net revenues for the quarter were $1,000,000 which is double versus Q1 of this year. While we are pleased with the direction we are headed, we realize we are still transitioning with our new expanded Zenerife label, bringing on the CrossLink team, the VAN submission and launch later this year, which will all have a dramatic impact to not only ZEMRALEF as we move later in the year and into 2025, but also upon the as these actions will free up more selling time for our sales team and allow us to create better pull through with our account wins. As we think about upon me performance, it's important to note that upon me is the type of product where systematic wins are possible. What I mean specifically is when we win at the P and T and formulary level, protocols can be put in place where PONI is used through our hospital system for a specific patient or surgery type.

Speaker 2

As you can see on this slide, we continue to gain PNP wins and new customers ordering. The goal of any new account win is to establish a protocol, get product order and set up in our hospital system and then move to expand usage within the hospital. Slide 10 provides a dashboard of how we forecast our POMBI business. We've established sharing by account size based on the number of surgical procedures within each account. Commercially, this allows us to better focus our sales team and evaluate account performance within each tier.

Speaker 2

We believe the greatest opportunity resides in the surgical patients that present to the operating room with moderate and high risk of having postoperative nausea and vomiting. This risk evaluation already happens preoperatively across the country and uses a validated series of questions to reliably classify these patients. The medical literature informs us that approximately 1 in 2 patients or 50% present as moderate to high risk. Our internal sales target is to achieve market penetration of 40% of that 50% of Hyre's patients or if you will 20% of the overall surgical opportunity with our convert business. The opportunity we have today reflects a $30,000,000 potential from a 3 20 accounts currently under contract.

Speaker 2

Our confidence in the PAVNI is based on the ease of use, the superior onset of action via intravenous administration, the absence of infusion reactions as well as the absence of certain central nervous system and cardiovascular side effects seen with other agents. We believe there's an opportunity to convert business to the use of Lopanbia when other approaches to preventing POMB still report an approximate 30% failure rate in this high risk population. Of course, Slide 10 only takes into account the business Heron has today. There are an estimated 75,000,000 surgical procedures in the U. S.

Speaker 2

Every year. While penetrating 20% of the entire market may not be achievable, Heron does believe that as we convert more accounts that upon me is our hidden gem. Moving to Zener Lev, it's important to note the progress and the number of improvements to the product that we have coming in 2024. In January, it started off with a much anticipated label expansion, which now allows Interlep to be used much more broadly throughout the number of surgeries within a given hospital or ASC. 2nd is the introduction of the VAN, which if approved in September will go live in Q4.

Speaker 2

Next was the inclusion of ZEMILAV in the much anticipated No Pain Act, which will continue to allow Xenolaf to be reimbursed outside of surgical fungal. And last, the CrossLink partnership, which continues to progress. Now we say the impact of demand is a bit easier when you see both devices depicted together. Our current configuration with a VDS or VINDA vial spike on the left hand side of the slide is a much more difficult to use as compared to the VAN or vial access needle on the right hand side of the slide. The two main advantages that the VAN offers is sterility and speed of product withdrawal from the vial.

Speaker 2

The preparation of XIMALA has been at the Achilles' heel since launch. We believe the launch of the VAN later this year, combined with the expanded label and having a cross linked presence within the OR study is going to provide a tremendous boost to ZEMDALF for years to come. Now moving to Mill Pain Eye. CMS recently released its outpatient prospective payment system, OPPS, and ambulatory surgical center, ASC proposed rule for calendar year 2025. The rules included the non opioid policy for pain relief, which was supported by the No Pain Act.

Speaker 2

As expected, ZENRILEF was a main product in the rule. This will benefit Heron and our patients on multiple levels. Inclusion of ZenoF in the rule will increase awareness, remove financial barriers, encourage adoption and endorses its use. The acronym No Pain stands for non opioids prevent addiction in the nation, which in itself is a strong endorsement. The goal of the Act was to assure patients have access to non opioid alternatives and providers are not financially incentivized to utilize opioids instead.

Speaker 2

To be included, the medications must have an indication for postoperative pain, not act on the body's opioid receptors and have proven efficacy in the ability to replace, reduce or avoid intraoperative and postoperative opioid use. CMS agreed that Zimilev's clinical attributes satisfy these requirements. CMS proposed to include ZEMALF in the policy for calendar year 2025 effective April 1, 2025, which will ensure that MLF is eligible for separate payment outside of the surgical bundle. We believe based on the CMS action and the endorsement of non opioid therapies that many more commercial payers could also follow suit. Overall, we were extremely pleased with the proposed rule and this will ultimately support increased adoption of FINRA.

Speaker 2

Training for the CrossLink team kicked off with the executive team in late February and with the reps at the beginning of March. As of today, we have 561 cross linked reps consisting of joint trauma and spine that have been fully trained and are in the field selling ZEMALA in 28 states. Now obviously, all of these new sales folks were not in the field in Q2. And while we are pleased with our progress, there is a learning curve that's part of this process. As an example, once a new cross linked group comes out of training, the process begins for our sales teams to interact to determine physician and account targeting, IDN formulary strategy, product messaging to a given account and ultimately a planned attack within a territory.

Speaker 2

Our plan is still to continue to expand our reach across the country with over 650 reps being fully trained and integrated before the launch of the van in Q4 of this year. We continue to be impressed by the CrossLink team and the relationships they have with the orthopedic surgical community And we realize in time this is going to have a substantial impact on ZenoWeb revenues. In Q2 alone, we have over 350 new surgeon introductions, generating 98 new prescribing physicians that translates to 33 new ordering accounts. It's obvious this has not had a major impact on revenues yet, but we believe the impact will be substantial over time. Many of these new introductions are with top prescribing physicians with deep relationships with CrossLink.

Speaker 2

As with any new drug, it takes some time for physicians to get comfortable with something new or different, especially due to the unique delivery and application of ZEMRALEV. We are extremely pleased with the progress we have made in getting the CrossLink team trained and in the field. We believe this partnership is going to completely change the direction of XENRILEV as we move into 2025 and beyond. I will now turn the call over to Erika D'Orfi, our CFO, to cover our financials and update our financial guidance. Go ahead, Erika.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Craig. Craig has covered our product performance and operating results in his comments, and I will add some additional points for our Q2, 2024 results. Our product gross profit for the 3 months ended June 30, 2024 was $25,500,000 or 71%, which increased from 37% for the same period in 2023. This was primarily due to the fact that the current quarter did not see the significant inventory write offs we experienced in the comparable quarter of 2023. Year to date, our product gross profit was $51,700,000 or 73 percent, an increase from 40% for the same period in 2023.

Speaker 3

SG and A expenses for the 3 6 months ended June 30, 2024 were $27,500,000 $53,900,000 respectively, compared to $40,800,000 $77,800,000 respectively, in the same period in 2023. The decrease was primarily related to decreases in personnel and related costs due to the reductions in force in prior years, as well as improved cost efficiencies along all departments. Research and development expenses were $4,400,000 $9,000,000 for the 3 6 months ended June 30, 2024, compared to $13,200,000 $22,000,000 in the comparable period in 2023. The decrease was primarily related to decreases in personnel and related costs due to the reductions force implemented in previous years as well as decreases in development activities. During the quarter, we incurred inventory write

Speaker 2

offs of

Speaker 3

$1,600,000 but unlike last year's write offs, these were not related to inventory management. In addition, we also reported an asset impairment write off of $1,300,000 related to projects no longer part of the company's forward looking strategy. As you will see on the slide, if we had excluded depreciation and amortization, stock based compensation, the inventory write off and the asset impairment write off, our adjusted operating results would have been a positive $1,700,000 operating income, which represents a substantial turnaround in the financial management of our business. As noted in the 10Q, the condensed consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive loss as of June 30, 2023, reflect reconfiguration of certain expenses from research and development to general and administrative expenses to align with function of expenses incurred. This resulted in no change to total operating expenses.

Speaker 3

The net loss was $9,200,000 for the 3 months ended June 30, 2024 $12,400,000 for the 6 months ended June 30, 2024, compared to $42,100,000 $74,800,000 respectively for the comparable period in 2023. Cash and short term investments at June 30, 2024 was $63,700,000 As you can see from these results, we have made tremendous progress in cutting expenses and creating efficiencies within the company over the last 12 months. We are therefore narrowing our previously given guidance range of $108,000,000 to $160,000,000 for adjusted operating expenses to a range of $107,000,000 to $111,000,000 Adjusted operating expenses exclude stock based compensation, depreciation and amortization and going forward, we will also exclude impairment of long lived assets and inventory buyouts. We are also narrowing our previously given guidance range for adjusted EBITDA of $22,000,000 loss, dollars 3,000,000 income to a range of $10,000,000 off to $3,000,000 income. Adjusted EBITDA excludes stock based compensation, depreciation and amortization and going forward we will also exclude impairment of long lived assets and inventory write offs.

Speaker 3

And now we would like to open the call for any questions.

Operator

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. And your first question comes from the line of Brandon Folkes with Rodman and Renssel. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Congratulations on a lot of good progress in the quarter. Maybe just firstly for me on ZYNRA LEAF, any color on where you're seeing the most uptake across joint trauma and spine with the CrossLink partnership?

Speaker 2

I'm sorry, Brad, could you say it one more time?

Speaker 4

Any color on where you're seeing the most uptake across joint trauma and spine with the cross linked partnership? Anything new there that you wouldn't have expected?

Speaker 2

Yes. No, at this point, again, we've been as I said in my comments, we've been getting the CrossLink team up to speed. And in Q2, we had roughly a couple of 100 folks sort of, if you will, that had gone through training. And so we haven't been able to really dive into the data enough to tell where we're having the largest impact. I mean, obviously, with orthopedic surgeons is where we're spending majority of time.

Speaker 2

But at this point, I just can't really dice the data into that sort of level in order to determine specifically or have an impact in one place more than another. Okay.

Speaker 4

And then maybe just obviously did a tremendous job during the quarter on the rep training with CrossLink. Can you just elaborate when you expect to see that revenue trajectory change for Zenerife? How thorough does that training need to be?

Speaker 2

Yes. So we have been along the way talking about the van, and they know that certainly is coming. And I think it's obviously anticipated. We do anticipate being fully trained by the time the van launches. And again, so we think that's certainly going to have an impact.

Speaker 2

But there will be certainly a briefing post the approval of exactly what we get approved and then sort of the timing to launch and all that. So we'll go through that again with them. But they are being briefed on sort of what's going on and what's coming.

Speaker 4

Great. Thanks very much. Congrats on all that progress. Maybe just lastly one for me. On the gross margin line, obviously, tremendous progress year over year.

Speaker 4

How should we look at this quarter compared to the go forward? And then that's it for me. Thank you.

Speaker 2

At this point, again, we've said all along. We think we'll be somewhere in the kind of low to mid-70s. We anticipate that continuing. Again, with product mix and so forth, it may vary a little bit, but we should be in that range.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you very much.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Brad.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Serge Belanger with Needham. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hi, good afternoon and thanks for taking my question. The first one, Craig, on Zimrilef, can you just give us a picture of what the current reimbursement and coverage is across the Medicare and Commercial segments? And how you think that will change once you switch over to no pain next year? And then secondly on SYMJENTI, I think a bench trial was held last month or June, late June in the patent infringement lawsuit. Can you just give us an update on when you expect a decision, what potential outcomes could be and some things like that?

Speaker 2

Yes, sure. Actually, sir, Kevin Werner is on the call as well. I'll let him get the first part of this and then I'll address this and Bhadhi piece.

Speaker 6

Yeah. Thanks Serge. In regards to the reimbursement picture and how it looks, there's a difference between no pain and a pass through status product. So currently right now, generally it's reimbursed via the pass through status. And so that's all our hospital outpatient procedure department patients and all of our ASC patients under Medicare reimbursed.

Speaker 6

As far as the commercial payers, it's somewhere between 30% 50% of the commercial payers. It varies by state by state, region by region. That said, with no pain that paradigm kind of switches because of how no pain is phrased. And historically, a lot commercial players don't come on and always follow these pass through drug stipulations, but with no pain and the fact that it has clinical reasoning for using non opioids and minimizing the impact of opioids in our nation. There's more, I guess, push for them to follow along with the statute and the fact that it could be extended in perpetuity and continue to provide that reimbursement.

Speaker 6

So the commercial payers, if you will, they're going to want to be on the right side of the fence on this paradigm. They understand the cost efficacies and the clinical efficacies and the overall economic model. So we expect to see more commercial payers to come on board with no pain and no pain really doesn't change the current reimbursement from the CMS perspective.

Speaker 2

Okay. As you stated, the trial ended in June. And again, as we've said all along, we feel very comfortable with what happened in the trial. We feel very strong in our positioning. And again, this case really comes down to we have infringement has sort of been established in the case, and it all really comes down to obviousness.

Speaker 2

And again, that's where we feel the invention that we made here was unique. Merck had this product for years as a prefaceant and was unable to get this in this form. And so that really is what this comes down to as burden of proof there. And again, we feel that Fresenius did not meet that and we feel very comfortable with our position.

Speaker 5

And do you expect a quarter of your decision? I think the current the 30 month, the 30 month, this actually expires in December. Is that when you think you will get a court decision?

Speaker 2

Yes. So there's yes, remaining to be done are closing arguments and then we're expecting a decision to be made in Q4 of this year.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kelly Shi with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hi, this is Claire on for Kelly. Thanks for taking our questions. So could you remind us how many cross linked reps are in the were in the field selling product during Q2 and how that number is going to change in the second half of twenty twenty four? And based on the experience they have in the field so far, I was wondering if you've heard any feedback and if there is anything you think could be added to their training for the remaining reps or maybe also the existing reps that will be helpful in selling the product? Thank you.

Speaker 2

With CrossLink which were North Carolina, Duck Island and Georgia. And then we moved from there. But we end up getting, I think, by Q2, we had a couple of 100 reps, and we had just migrated to maybe 12 states. And so where we sit now is 561 reps in 28 states and that continues to grow. And again, we believe we'll be over 650 at the time of launch with the van.

Speaker 2

And so if you think about sort of inflection and how this really comes together, we've had a lot of things happen this year, obviously, with the No Pain Act, the expansion of our label, getting the cross links folks trained. And but there's another piece of this too, which is really the integration with our sales force and managing that and working together and targeting accounts and all that. And some of that just takes time. So I've said all along that we view that as we launch the van and really kind of move out of Q4 into Q1 of 2020 5 is really when we see majority of inflection taking place into next year. And I guess some of this just takes time in order to get all this sort of fully up to speed and integrated.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Carl Byrnes with Northland Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Thanks for the question and congratulations on your progress. In the event that we see a generic EXPAREL down the road, how do you see that changing the dynamics, if at all, for ZimuraLift? Thanks. And then I

Speaker 2

have my follow-up as well.

Speaker 6

Hey, Carol, it's Kevin Warner. I'll jump in and take that one. Appreciate that. I guess the question is, if we see a generic and then if at all, how would it impact Zenerleaf? There are multiple barriers here to the access to the market with them.

Speaker 6

The current brand of manufacturer has multiple patents that they feel confident in. They've yet to receive a sample or if it's known one of the generic manufacturer would be able to scale, if you will, as they've always cited that as being very challenging. But that said, a generic product, if it did come to market, a second major barrier would be the possible lack of financial benefit. So historically, most generics come to market, obviously, as a discount to the branded product to provide financial advantage to our healthcare system. But in today's current economic climate, specifically with the No Pain Act and broadening commercial reimbursement, those advantages would be mute, if you will.

Speaker 6

So generally for even EXPAREL to that extent with the reimbursement package from No Pain, the follow on commercials could trump would utilizing a genericized product. When looking at the possibility of more non opioid analgesics just in general come to market, I see synergies rather than antagonism. With the practice of medicine moving to opioid sparing therapies, novel mechanisms are needed in order to provide the most effective multimodal therapy. So whether it's generic liposome will be pIVigane as a regional block or an oral NAB1-eight inhibitor like Vertex, Zetrogene, I see opportunities for ZYNRA LEAF as the best in class local installation product to be combined with the other modalities as we all seek one common goal, right? And that's to minimize or eliminate the need for opioids.

Speaker 6

Looking at a fundamental level though, just briefly, considering liposomalopivacaine as a competitor or not, you have to look at the key differences of what makes a drug, a drug, right, if you will. So the active ingredients, the dose, the route, the frequency, the mechanism of action, in the end the primary prescriber. So these all differ between Zynrelief and liposomal Zynrelief and liposomal bupivacaine. They're different drugs. 1 is a combo, one is a single agent.

Speaker 6

The dose is different up to 400 milligrams bupivacaine with Zynrelief, 266 of liposomal bupivacaine. Zynrelief's extended release, liposomal is not route of administration, it's installation for Zynrelief injection for liposomal bupivacaine, also the site of action, whether it's local or regional. And then possibly most importantly is who's your prescriber, if you will. So for ZYNOLIEF, it's the surgeon doing the installation process. And largely with liposomal now, it's mainly the anesthesiologists doing regional blockades with it.

Speaker 6

So huge differences overall when looking at, is it truly a comparator when you look at those fundamentals. And in the end, the last piece I'd mention is the clinical efficacy, right. Zenerleaf has proven through 72 hours over standard of care for pain reduction, severe pain reduction and opioid reduction across multiple clinical trials, but also real world trials even head to head against liposomal showing benefit. So makes those decisions fairly simple for our institutions.

Speaker 8

Great. Thanks, Brett. That's very helpful. On a different topic, what are you seeing with respect to opportunities for potential complementary tuck in acquisitions? And what sort of timing might we expect in terms of some activity there?

Speaker 8

Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes. No, Karl, thanks for the great question. Again, as we really tried to put out there, so in this call and prior calls, is really getting our hands around the business and managing it. And I think we've shown that we've certainly done that due to reduction of expenses and that type of thing. And now it's about growing product and the partnership with CrossLink and some of these things.

Speaker 2

But really the next phase is what else can we do from an M and A standpoint. And again, this management team has been together before. We've done these things. And we're bringing in this will be announced in the next few weeks. We're bringing in a business development First thing to head that up.

Speaker 2

And again, we're going to get a lot more I guess, a lot more active, if you will, in that area, looking at things and trying to bring in complementary type of assets and or companies that would be accretive to what we're doing. And we're going to be fairly active here in a very short timeframe.

Speaker 8

Excellent. Thanks.

Powered by Quartr

Key Takeaways

  • First half 2024 revenues jumped 15%, gross margin improved from 40% to 73%, and operating expenses were slashed by over $36 million versus the prior year.
  • Oncology franchise delivered strong quarter with Cinvanti net revenues of $24.9 million and Sustaw at $4.3 million, while total acute care sales reached a record $6.8 million.
  • ZEMRALEV positioning strengthened by an expanded label, upcoming VAN (vial access needle) FDA decision on September 23, and inclusion in the No Pain Act—enabling separate ASC and OPPS reimbursement in 2025.
  • CrossLink partnership scales rapidly with 561 reps trained across 28 states (aiming for 650 pre‐VAN launch), generating 98 new prescribing physicians and 33 new accounts in Q2.
  • Management narrowed full‐year guidance, targeting adjusted operating expenses of $107–111 million and adjusted EBITDA between a $10 million loss and $3 million income, reflecting tighter financial oversight.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Heron Therapeutics Q2 2024
00:00 / 00:00