NASDAQ:AKBA Akebia Therapeutics Q2 2024 Earnings Report $2.45 +0.06 (+2.51%) Closing price 05/2/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$2.45 0.00 (0.00%) As of 08:49 AM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Akebia Therapeutics EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.04Consensus EPS -$0.06Beat/MissBeat by +$0.02One Year Ago EPS-$0.06Akebia Therapeutics Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$43.65 millionExpected Revenue$45.61 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$1.96 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AAkebia Therapeutics Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2024Date8/8/2024TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateThursday, August 8, 2024Conference Call Time8:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsAkebia Therapeutics' Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, May 8, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 8:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Akebia Therapeutics Q2 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 8, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thank you. Thank you for standing by. My name is Andrea, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Akebia Second Quarter 2024 Financial Results. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Operator00:00:16After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer I would now like to turn the call over to Mercedes Carrasco, Senior Director, Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:40Thank you, and welcome to Akebia's Q2 2024 Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call. Please note that a press release was issued earlier today, Thursday, August 8, detailing our Q2 financial results and that release is available on the Investors section of our website. For your convenience, a replay of today's call will be available on our website after we conclude. Joining me for today's call, we have John Butler, Chief Executive Officer Nick Grund, Chief Commercial Officer and Eric Ostrowski, Chief Financial and Business Officer. I'd like to remind everyone that this call includes forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:25Each forward looking statement on this call is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these statements. Additional information describing these risks is included in the financial results press release that we issued on August 8, as well in the Risk Factors and Management Discussion and Analysis section of our most recent annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. With that, I'd like to introduce CEO, John Butler. Speaker 200:01:58Thanks, Mercedes, and thanks everyone for joining us today. Since the VASIO FDA approval in late March, virtually the entire company has been diligently focused on its commercial launch. Nick is going to walk you through the details shortly, but the punch line is that in the 4 weeks since we spoke to you last, we've made significant progress on our key launch initiatives, which are first, driving prescriber demand second, contracting effectively with dialysis organizations and third, advancing plans to generate clinical data that could demonstrate potential additional benefits of VAPZIO. As recently announced, we filed our TDAPA application in June and are now about 5 months away from making VASIO available in the market. Our entire organization is incredibly energized by this upcoming event. Speaker 200:02:47We're encouraged by the strong reception for VAPZIO from the medical community. The excitement around VAPZIO was evident in 2 physician advisory boards we recently hosted. What's especially interesting is that these are physicians we haven't worked with in the past and are new to the Vapacio story. The overwhelming response was that they're ready for a new choice in anemia management for dialysis patients. Our medical affairs team has been supporting dialysis organizations as they work to put VASIO clinical protocols in place ahead of TDAPA. Speaker 200:03:20Today, we have a full complement of MSLs who are actively engaged in physician education, armed with a wealth of clinical data, including the Vadadustat Phase 3 New England Journal publications as well as the additional data we've generated to support healthcare providers' understanding and utilization of the product. Similarly, our commercial team has also been making good progress. Our field sales team is connecting with prescribers to drive awareness and demand. As we expand these discussions, physicians are very consistent in where they expect to use the product initially. The focus is on home patients as well as patients on the highest doses of ESAs. Speaker 200:04:02These are the segments where physicians attribute the greatest unmet need and they total more than 200,000 patients. We believe prescribers will expand utilization of Apsio beyond these patient groups after gaining experience with the product and seeing the benefits of VASIO for these initial patients. We're also very focused on the longer term growth for VASIO. Generating new data to potentially expand the benefits of the product is critical. A key component of our strategy is to continue to generate this clinical data in collaboration with dialysis organizations. Speaker 200:04:38We're deeply engaged with DOs in study design and believe these studies may meaningfully contribute to continued growth of VASSIO post TDAPA in the dialysis population. We need to continue to generate important clinical data for VASIO to continue to move towards our goal of becoming a new standard of care. Think of it this way. Today, we're targeting the TDAPA patient population with a premium price. Once TDAPA ends in 2027, we'll have a price consistent with ESAs, but we'll target the entire market over 500,000 patients and approximately $1,000,000,000 today. Speaker 200:05:20New data along with the positive experience over the Tdapa period will be central to meeting our goal. The market for VASIO and dialysis is significant, but let's also talk about potential expansion. Circling back to physician interest in VASIO, an Physicians see a clear Physicians see a clear and obvious unmet need in the treatment of anemia in CKD patients not on dialysis. We agree. Accordingly, we've prioritized VASIO label expansion for non dialysis CKD patients. Speaker 200:06:04As we've said previously, we expect to provide a more detailed update on this initiative by the end of the year. Now, let me turn it over to Nick to talk about our commercial progress. Speaker 300:06:14Thanks, John, and thanks for those joining us on the call today. Our VASIO launch activities continue to ramp and evolve, and we are making significant progress across all of our key initiatives targeting both the high vision makers as well as the doctors who are directly involved in patient care. The feedback we are getting on VASIO has been positive and doctors are enthusiastic about using the drug to help their dialysis patients, especially in patients who receive in home dialysis patients on high dose of EUSAs or patients not achieving appropriate hemoglobin levels. We're also making strong advances on the contracting front where we are discussing our entire product portfolio, which strengthens our dialogue with dialysis organizations. We have had contract conversations with dialysis organizations covering nearly 90% of patient lives with many more to come in the next several months. Speaker 300:07:06I can tell you that dialysis organizations are looking for partners, partners who can help maximize the opportunity to incorporate innovative medications into their centers made possible by TDAPA and also navigate the changes that are necessary considering the high likelihood that phosphate binders will be added to the bundle. Akebia has been and will be that partner. Our national accounts team has been busy and every day the pace is accelerating. We have also heard uniformly about the high degree of change associated with binders in the bundle. This change in reimbursement dynamics for phosphate binders could be associated with a change in distribution channels. Speaker 300:07:44And as a result, in the traditional inventory purchasing patterns for this category, including Auryxia. As such, dialysis organizations are reviewing their supply chain logistics to optimize their economics both ahead of and during the TDAPA period. We are in the process of evaluating many new supply partners to minimize any disruption. That said, the change in distribution channel is not to impact overall demand for phosphate binders or Auryxia market share. And we therefore anticipate similar revenue trends in 2024 as compared to last year, though the supply chain could see some fluctuation as these changes roll out. Speaker 300:08:24We have leveraged Auryxia contracting discussion to simultaneously engage in Vatsio contracting. There is significant value to us as a company to have a portfolio of products promoted in the same space and it allows for meaningful operational and potential financial benefits to be realized. The VASIO wholesale acquisition cost of approximately $15,500 per patient per year has been well received by our customers and stakeholders operating in the TDAPA environment who want to use VASIO. We expect our product supply contracts with dialysis organizations will include an off invoice discount and a volume based rebate. We also continue to work towards having all contracts complete by January. Speaker 300:09:07Before I turn it back to John, I wanted to quickly note progress from our international partner, Medici. VASIO is now available in Germany and Austria and Medici just recently launched in the Netherlands. It is still early days for the European launch, but we are encouraged by our partners enthusiasm and execution in their launch. John? Thanks Nick. Speaker 200:09:28And now I'd like to introduce you to Eric Ostrowski, who joined Akebia in June as our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer. Eric has an impressive track record in corporate finance and financial team leadership. His skill set is highly complementary to our executive leadership team and he's already adding value to the business. Eric, over to you to talk about our financial position. Speaker 400:09:50Thanks, John. I'm extremely pleased to have joined Akebia and firmly believe this is a transformational time for the company. Now a month into the job, my conviction is strengthened. With the VASIO product launch and established revenue generating business in Auryxia and a promising HIF based pipeline, I believe Akebia is well positioned for growth. And as importantly, I am happy to be working with a dedicated and hardworking team with such strong knowledge of and relationships in the renal space. Speaker 400:10:20Now let's review the quarterly financials. Total revenue was $43,600,000 in the Q2 of 2024. Of this amount, dollars 41,200,000 was derived from Auryxia net product revenue as compared to $42,200,000 of Auryxia net product revenue during the second quarter of 2023. The remainder of our revenues during the quarter were derived from license, collaboration and other revenues, which totaled $2,400,000 as compared to $14,100,000 in the Q2 of 2023. Of note, last year's Q2 licensing collaboration revenues included a one time $10,000,000 upfront payment related to our Medici license agreement. Speaker 400:11:01Cost of goods sold was $17,000,000 in the Q2 of 20 24 compared to $17,300,000 in the Q2 of 2023. Tevia continues to carry a non cash intangible amortization charge of $9,000,000 per quarter in COGS through the Q4 of 2024. Research and development expenses were $7,600,000 in the Q2 of 2024 compared to $20,200,000 in the Q2 of 2023. This decrease was driven by the completion of certain clinical trial activities, a reduction in consulting expenses and lower headcount related costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $26,900,000 in the Q2 of 2024 compared to $27,000,000 in the Q2 of 2023. Speaker 400:11:46And lastly, net loss was $8,600,000 in the second quarter of 2024 compared to a net loss of $11,200,000 in the Q2 of 2023. Cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, 2024 were $39,500,000 and I'm pleased to say we expect to have at least 2 years of cash runway. Our cash position continues to be supported by revenue from Auryxia and careful expense management. And with that, we welcome questions. Operator00:12:20Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. And your first question comes from the line of Julian Harrison with BTIG. Thank you. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:12:56Thank you for taking my question and congrats on all the progress. I'm sorry if I missed it, but just want to confirm that it's still your expectation that you don't need to build out your sales force beyond what you already have for Auryxia and you probably don't need to manufacture additional API to meet initial demand for your VAP SCIO launch expected January next year? Speaker 200:13:20So Nick, do you want to talk about sales force? Speaker 300:13:22Absolutely. And so Julien, thanks for the question. Yes, we've had a team in place for the entire year that's already been calling on dialysis organizations and providers. While there may be some small tweaking around the edges, I don't think there's going to be anything that I would regard as significant or material in how we approach the marketplace from an account perspective. Speaker 200:13:42I think the bigger change that we had was adding to the medical affairs group. We had skinny down that group because medical affairs wasn't as impactful on Auryxia, but they're incredibly important for protocol development for the dialysis providers. So we did expand that group. As I said, they're it's fully staffed now and they're out there being very effective with physicians. And then your second question was around API and that's correct. Speaker 200:14:19We have product in place. And Eric maybe you want to kind of Speaker 400:14:24talk to that? Yes. No, we do. We have projects in place. As has been discussed on prior calls, we do have some it will be effectively 0 cost inventory because it was previously expensed to R and D. Speaker 400:14:36So yes, just to reiterate, we're well positioned from an inventory perspective for the launch. Yes. Speaker 200:14:41Our quality team did a great job of generating data to expand the dating for the product. So everything we have on the shelf will that we had for 2 years ago for the launch we were expecting, we can use now. And it's a great place to be in just from the perspective that you don't have significant cash outlay for manufacturing. But of course, you do like to manufacture some product and keep your CDMOs current on the process. But it is helpful from a cash perspective. Speaker 500:15:14Okay, great. Thank you. And then one more if I may. I mean, it's great to hear that you're already engaging dialysis providers representing, I think you said 90% of the addressable market already. I'm wondering how much of that you expect to be enabled through your recently updated relationship with CSL v4? Speaker 300:15:35Yes. No, it's a great question. It's frankly, we were already engaging with them around Auryxia. If you remember, some of the catalysts for Auryxia was the proposed rule that came out around binders in the bundle, that helped dialysis organizations really understand that it was coming, which was a catalyst for their urgency to meet with us earlier in the year. And really the 90% is since the Vifor announcement, we've met with providers representing 90% approximately 90% of the patients. Speaker 300:16:05So the Vifor catalyst becomes additional reasons for them to want to get us back in the room in order to discuss contracting and the process. Speaker 200:16:14I mean, Nick talked about us becoming a partner. I think we've considered ourselves a partner for some time. But when you have to contract directly with the dialysis providers and now we're doing that on 2 products and particularly with phosphate binders where there's going to be a lot of work for them to incorporate those into the you said, they are now purchasing the phosphate binder, I mean, managing that with their patients, a lot of work in that. And they really want to work with companies as closely as possible on a lot of operational aspects, not just contractual aspects. And that's where it's one of those reasons why it's so powerful to have both products that we're talking to them about. Speaker 200:16:58It just increases the partnership between Akebia and dialysis providers on some really core areas of their business. Speaker 300:17:09The only thing I'll probably add to that is our history in dialysis allows those conversations to be one with a knowledge of their operational concerns, right. If you don't if you walk into these conversations without the knowledge of how they think about their business and what's important to them, it does become a conversation that can appear very one-sided and out for Akebia only. And in a partnership, if they don't have an opportunity to be able to use the product successfully, then it's really not a partnership. And so creating that environment is really important. Yes. Speaker 200:17:40And we've been saying for years how important knowing the dialysis business is. And I mean, I think Eric here for a month is learning how different and complicated dialysis can be and that is a real competitive advantage for us. Thanks for the question, Julian. Operator00:18:01Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Ed Arce with H. C. Wainwright. Thank you. Operator00:18:07Please go ahead. Speaker 600:18:09Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions and congrats on the progress towards the launch next year. Couple of questions for me. First on the WACC price that you announced, Wondering if you could give a little details around some of the criteria as you thought through working to optimize the price not only for TDAPA but afterwards? And what sort of key aspects came into that thought process? Speaker 600:18:49Secondly, with Medici, wondering if you can disclose what proportion of the collaborative sales this quarter came from Germany. I think it was Germany and Australia, which launched in June, if there were any. And if there's any other further countries that you expect to come online between now and the end of the year? Thanks so much. Speaker 200:19:23So Eric, do you want to just handle the second one? Speaker 400:19:26Yes, I mean that's a quick one. Yes, so no revenues from the DC in this quarter. As you pointed out that was a June launch. Speaker 200:19:32Yes, they just started. So we look forward to seeing that progress. I don't know if we have Nick, do you know any other countries you're expecting to Speaker 300:19:44I know there's Netherlands just went. Netherlands just went. There are others for Some of the other Nordic countries will be in the balance of the year. Speaker 200:19:52Yes. I mean the larger countries is where they have to do the price negotiation, which I think we'll start to see them come online next year. But the smaller countries like Netherlands and now the Nordic countries will come on sooner. Nick, you want to walk through the thoughts around WACC pricing? Speaker 300:20:12Yes. And so really WACC pricing, couple of different things is when we thought about it is 1, what price would allow for dialysis organizations to be successful during the TAPA period. And so how do you set up your contract? What is the WACC prices, your reimbursement for the 1st several quarters of TDAPA and allowing TDAPA, which really supports innovative products being utilized, that WACC price and how do we make it a price that makes our dialysis organizations and Akebia successful was a consideration. 2, how do we make sure we manage that price over the TAPA period, so that post TAPA when we talk about ESA like pricing, we can manage ES like pricing to make the product sustainable post TDAPA. Speaker 300:20:59Remember, it's a $1,000,000,000 market today at ESA pricing, and therefore creating that predictability post TDAPA that the dialysis organizations wanted is critically important. And then lastly, but importantly, the non dialysis population. Less than 25% of patients today in the non dialysis space are on an anemia management product are being treated for their anemia. And when they enter into dialysis, the outcomes associated with folks that have been treated versus those not is enormous. And so the value of having a product like Vazio in the non dialysis space is very, very high. Speaker 300:21:37And therefore, making sure we're pricing for that dynamic and that innovative value in that subset of population is important as well. Speaker 200:21:46Yes. That last point is just can't be emphasized enough. And frankly, I mean, I think it really was a challenge balancing what's right for the dialysis market today versus what's possible and the benefit we would bring to the non dialysis patient population. I hope we struck the balance here. Particularly as Nick pointed out that WACC reimbursement for the 1st few quarters of TDAPA is critical because there's some real operational costs for the dialysis providers to add a new product to put protocols in place, storage, etcetera. Speaker 200:22:23And they have to see the business rationale for them to do that. Yet, you also want to be very cognizant of the optics around kind of how pricing is viewed. So it's quite the balance we had to strike. We did a lot of and had a lot of conversations with folks before making that decision. And as Nick pointed out in his remarks, I think we did hit the right balance for the dialysis population. Speaker 200:22:58Folks are reacting quite well and are very willing to contract and put the product as part Speaker 300:23:07of their formulary. The only additional context I'll add, Ed, is I've been with a lot of customers over the last month. And as you go through the WACC price and how to understand that, how to operationalize it, what it means in the context of the contract structure that we've talked about, an off invoice discount and volume based rebates, which we've talked about again as volume goes up, their price goes down, which means their economics improve, they've looked at it and said, that makes a lot of sense, right? And that's what you really want from your customers is that makes a lot of sense, that reinforcement that you've done the right thing for them, which is important. Speaker 200:23:47And it really creates an environment where physicians can try VAPS it, right. I mean, as he said, you can have a great contract in place, but if you don't have physician demand, they're not going to force that. Our sales force is driving that demand. And we know that if physicians have access and are able to use it, which we create through the contracting, that physicians will like using the product, they'll see the benefits of using the product and they'll expand their use of the product. And that's what positions us well, even though post TDAPA, we're going to have to take this price cut, if you will. Speaker 200:24:24We're now going to be targeting the entire dialysis market and people will be open to that. And that's a $1,000,000,000 market today. So that's a significant opportunity. And then hopefully as shortly as possible thereafter, we introduce the product into the non dialysis market with a label on non dialysis and then you'll start to have patients starting dialysis on VASIO. So this is how you become standard of care. Speaker 200:24:48It's a process. First step in dialysis is you've got to have that contract input in place that allows physicians to access the product and that WACC pricing decision was very, very central to that to making that possible. Speaker 600:25:05Very helpful. Thanks so much. Speaker 400:25:08Thanks, Ed. Operator00:25:11Thank you. There are no questions. I will now turn the conference back over to John Butler, CEO, for closing remarks. Speaker 200:25:19Thanks, Andrea. We remain extremely energized by our contracting process and the upcoming VASIO market availability, which is now only a few months away. We're on target with all of our internal timelines and believe we will have all the pieces in place for a successful launch. I really look forward to seeing many of you at the fall investor conferences and hopefully at the ASN Kidney Week in October. Thanks everyone. Speaker 200:25:46Enjoy the rest of your summer. Operator00:25:50Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallAkebia Therapeutics Q2 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Akebia Therapeutics Earnings HeadlinesWhat is Leerink Partnrs' Estimate for AKBA Q1 Earnings?May 3 at 2:01 AM | americanbankingnews.comAkebia Therapeutics, Inc. 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Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Akebia Therapeutics and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Akebia TherapeuticsAkebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA), a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The company's lead product investigational product candidate is Vafseo (vadadustat), an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent patients. It offers Auryxia, a ferric citrate that is used to control the serum phosphorus levels in adult patients with DD-CKD on dialysis; and the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in adult patients with CKD not on dialysis. The company's product pipeline includes AKB-9090, a drug targeting critical-care indications; and AKB-10108, a drug targeting conditions related to premature birth. It has collaboration agreements with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation for the development and commercialization of vadadustat in Japan and other Asian countries, as well as research and license agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV for the development and commercialization of hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase targeted compounds worldwide. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.View Akebia Therapeutics ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Amazon Earnings: 2 Reasons to Love It, 1 Reason to Be CautiousMeta Takes A Bow With Q1 Earnings - Watch For Tariff Impact in Q2Palantir Earnings: 1 Bullish Signal and 1 Area of ConcernVisa Q2 Earnings Top Forecasts, Adds $30B Buyback PlanMicrosoft Crushes Earnings, What’s Next for MSFT Stock?Qualcomm's Earnings: 2 Reasons to Buy, 1 to Stay AwayAMD Stock Signals Strong Buy Ahead of Earnings Upcoming Earnings Advanced Micro Devices (5/6/2025)American Electric Power (5/6/2025)Constellation Energy (5/6/2025)Marriott International (5/6/2025)Energy Transfer (5/6/2025)Mplx (5/6/2025)Brookfield Asset Management (5/6/2025)Arista Networks (5/6/2025)Duke Energy (5/6/2025)Zoetis (5/6/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. 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There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thank you. Thank you for standing by. My name is Andrea, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Akebia Second Quarter 2024 Financial Results. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Operator00:00:16After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer I would now like to turn the call over to Mercedes Carrasco, Senior Director, Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:40Thank you, and welcome to Akebia's Q2 2024 Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call. Please note that a press release was issued earlier today, Thursday, August 8, detailing our Q2 financial results and that release is available on the Investors section of our website. For your convenience, a replay of today's call will be available on our website after we conclude. Joining me for today's call, we have John Butler, Chief Executive Officer Nick Grund, Chief Commercial Officer and Eric Ostrowski, Chief Financial and Business Officer. I'd like to remind everyone that this call includes forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:25Each forward looking statement on this call is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these statements. Additional information describing these risks is included in the financial results press release that we issued on August 8, as well in the Risk Factors and Management Discussion and Analysis section of our most recent annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. With that, I'd like to introduce CEO, John Butler. Speaker 200:01:58Thanks, Mercedes, and thanks everyone for joining us today. Since the VASIO FDA approval in late March, virtually the entire company has been diligently focused on its commercial launch. Nick is going to walk you through the details shortly, but the punch line is that in the 4 weeks since we spoke to you last, we've made significant progress on our key launch initiatives, which are first, driving prescriber demand second, contracting effectively with dialysis organizations and third, advancing plans to generate clinical data that could demonstrate potential additional benefits of VAPZIO. As recently announced, we filed our TDAPA application in June and are now about 5 months away from making VASIO available in the market. Our entire organization is incredibly energized by this upcoming event. Speaker 200:02:47We're encouraged by the strong reception for VAPZIO from the medical community. The excitement around VAPZIO was evident in 2 physician advisory boards we recently hosted. What's especially interesting is that these are physicians we haven't worked with in the past and are new to the Vapacio story. The overwhelming response was that they're ready for a new choice in anemia management for dialysis patients. Our medical affairs team has been supporting dialysis organizations as they work to put VASIO clinical protocols in place ahead of TDAPA. Speaker 200:03:20Today, we have a full complement of MSLs who are actively engaged in physician education, armed with a wealth of clinical data, including the Vadadustat Phase 3 New England Journal publications as well as the additional data we've generated to support healthcare providers' understanding and utilization of the product. Similarly, our commercial team has also been making good progress. Our field sales team is connecting with prescribers to drive awareness and demand. As we expand these discussions, physicians are very consistent in where they expect to use the product initially. The focus is on home patients as well as patients on the highest doses of ESAs. Speaker 200:04:02These are the segments where physicians attribute the greatest unmet need and they total more than 200,000 patients. We believe prescribers will expand utilization of Apsio beyond these patient groups after gaining experience with the product and seeing the benefits of VASIO for these initial patients. We're also very focused on the longer term growth for VASIO. Generating new data to potentially expand the benefits of the product is critical. A key component of our strategy is to continue to generate this clinical data in collaboration with dialysis organizations. Speaker 200:04:38We're deeply engaged with DOs in study design and believe these studies may meaningfully contribute to continued growth of VASSIO post TDAPA in the dialysis population. We need to continue to generate important clinical data for VASIO to continue to move towards our goal of becoming a new standard of care. Think of it this way. Today, we're targeting the TDAPA patient population with a premium price. Once TDAPA ends in 2027, we'll have a price consistent with ESAs, but we'll target the entire market over 500,000 patients and approximately $1,000,000,000 today. Speaker 200:05:20New data along with the positive experience over the Tdapa period will be central to meeting our goal. The market for VASIO and dialysis is significant, but let's also talk about potential expansion. Circling back to physician interest in VASIO, an Physicians see a clear Physicians see a clear and obvious unmet need in the treatment of anemia in CKD patients not on dialysis. We agree. Accordingly, we've prioritized VASIO label expansion for non dialysis CKD patients. Speaker 200:06:04As we've said previously, we expect to provide a more detailed update on this initiative by the end of the year. Now, let me turn it over to Nick to talk about our commercial progress. Speaker 300:06:14Thanks, John, and thanks for those joining us on the call today. Our VASIO launch activities continue to ramp and evolve, and we are making significant progress across all of our key initiatives targeting both the high vision makers as well as the doctors who are directly involved in patient care. The feedback we are getting on VASIO has been positive and doctors are enthusiastic about using the drug to help their dialysis patients, especially in patients who receive in home dialysis patients on high dose of EUSAs or patients not achieving appropriate hemoglobin levels. We're also making strong advances on the contracting front where we are discussing our entire product portfolio, which strengthens our dialogue with dialysis organizations. We have had contract conversations with dialysis organizations covering nearly 90% of patient lives with many more to come in the next several months. Speaker 300:07:06I can tell you that dialysis organizations are looking for partners, partners who can help maximize the opportunity to incorporate innovative medications into their centers made possible by TDAPA and also navigate the changes that are necessary considering the high likelihood that phosphate binders will be added to the bundle. Akebia has been and will be that partner. Our national accounts team has been busy and every day the pace is accelerating. We have also heard uniformly about the high degree of change associated with binders in the bundle. This change in reimbursement dynamics for phosphate binders could be associated with a change in distribution channels. Speaker 300:07:44And as a result, in the traditional inventory purchasing patterns for this category, including Auryxia. As such, dialysis organizations are reviewing their supply chain logistics to optimize their economics both ahead of and during the TDAPA period. We are in the process of evaluating many new supply partners to minimize any disruption. That said, the change in distribution channel is not to impact overall demand for phosphate binders or Auryxia market share. And we therefore anticipate similar revenue trends in 2024 as compared to last year, though the supply chain could see some fluctuation as these changes roll out. Speaker 300:08:24We have leveraged Auryxia contracting discussion to simultaneously engage in Vatsio contracting. There is significant value to us as a company to have a portfolio of products promoted in the same space and it allows for meaningful operational and potential financial benefits to be realized. The VASIO wholesale acquisition cost of approximately $15,500 per patient per year has been well received by our customers and stakeholders operating in the TDAPA environment who want to use VASIO. We expect our product supply contracts with dialysis organizations will include an off invoice discount and a volume based rebate. We also continue to work towards having all contracts complete by January. Speaker 300:09:07Before I turn it back to John, I wanted to quickly note progress from our international partner, Medici. VASIO is now available in Germany and Austria and Medici just recently launched in the Netherlands. It is still early days for the European launch, but we are encouraged by our partners enthusiasm and execution in their launch. John? Thanks Nick. Speaker 200:09:28And now I'd like to introduce you to Eric Ostrowski, who joined Akebia in June as our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer. Eric has an impressive track record in corporate finance and financial team leadership. His skill set is highly complementary to our executive leadership team and he's already adding value to the business. Eric, over to you to talk about our financial position. Speaker 400:09:50Thanks, John. I'm extremely pleased to have joined Akebia and firmly believe this is a transformational time for the company. Now a month into the job, my conviction is strengthened. With the VASIO product launch and established revenue generating business in Auryxia and a promising HIF based pipeline, I believe Akebia is well positioned for growth. And as importantly, I am happy to be working with a dedicated and hardworking team with such strong knowledge of and relationships in the renal space. Speaker 400:10:20Now let's review the quarterly financials. Total revenue was $43,600,000 in the Q2 of 2024. Of this amount, dollars 41,200,000 was derived from Auryxia net product revenue as compared to $42,200,000 of Auryxia net product revenue during the second quarter of 2023. The remainder of our revenues during the quarter were derived from license, collaboration and other revenues, which totaled $2,400,000 as compared to $14,100,000 in the Q2 of 2023. Of note, last year's Q2 licensing collaboration revenues included a one time $10,000,000 upfront payment related to our Medici license agreement. Speaker 400:11:01Cost of goods sold was $17,000,000 in the Q2 of 20 24 compared to $17,300,000 in the Q2 of 2023. Tevia continues to carry a non cash intangible amortization charge of $9,000,000 per quarter in COGS through the Q4 of 2024. Research and development expenses were $7,600,000 in the Q2 of 2024 compared to $20,200,000 in the Q2 of 2023. This decrease was driven by the completion of certain clinical trial activities, a reduction in consulting expenses and lower headcount related costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $26,900,000 in the Q2 of 2024 compared to $27,000,000 in the Q2 of 2023. Speaker 400:11:46And lastly, net loss was $8,600,000 in the second quarter of 2024 compared to a net loss of $11,200,000 in the Q2 of 2023. Cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, 2024 were $39,500,000 and I'm pleased to say we expect to have at least 2 years of cash runway. Our cash position continues to be supported by revenue from Auryxia and careful expense management. And with that, we welcome questions. Operator00:12:20Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. And your first question comes from the line of Julian Harrison with BTIG. Thank you. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:12:56Thank you for taking my question and congrats on all the progress. I'm sorry if I missed it, but just want to confirm that it's still your expectation that you don't need to build out your sales force beyond what you already have for Auryxia and you probably don't need to manufacture additional API to meet initial demand for your VAP SCIO launch expected January next year? Speaker 200:13:20So Nick, do you want to talk about sales force? Speaker 300:13:22Absolutely. And so Julien, thanks for the question. Yes, we've had a team in place for the entire year that's already been calling on dialysis organizations and providers. While there may be some small tweaking around the edges, I don't think there's going to be anything that I would regard as significant or material in how we approach the marketplace from an account perspective. Speaker 200:13:42I think the bigger change that we had was adding to the medical affairs group. We had skinny down that group because medical affairs wasn't as impactful on Auryxia, but they're incredibly important for protocol development for the dialysis providers. So we did expand that group. As I said, they're it's fully staffed now and they're out there being very effective with physicians. And then your second question was around API and that's correct. Speaker 200:14:19We have product in place. And Eric maybe you want to kind of Speaker 400:14:24talk to that? Yes. No, we do. We have projects in place. As has been discussed on prior calls, we do have some it will be effectively 0 cost inventory because it was previously expensed to R and D. Speaker 400:14:36So yes, just to reiterate, we're well positioned from an inventory perspective for the launch. Yes. Speaker 200:14:41Our quality team did a great job of generating data to expand the dating for the product. So everything we have on the shelf will that we had for 2 years ago for the launch we were expecting, we can use now. And it's a great place to be in just from the perspective that you don't have significant cash outlay for manufacturing. But of course, you do like to manufacture some product and keep your CDMOs current on the process. But it is helpful from a cash perspective. Speaker 500:15:14Okay, great. Thank you. And then one more if I may. I mean, it's great to hear that you're already engaging dialysis providers representing, I think you said 90% of the addressable market already. I'm wondering how much of that you expect to be enabled through your recently updated relationship with CSL v4? Speaker 300:15:35Yes. No, it's a great question. It's frankly, we were already engaging with them around Auryxia. If you remember, some of the catalysts for Auryxia was the proposed rule that came out around binders in the bundle, that helped dialysis organizations really understand that it was coming, which was a catalyst for their urgency to meet with us earlier in the year. And really the 90% is since the Vifor announcement, we've met with providers representing 90% approximately 90% of the patients. Speaker 300:16:05So the Vifor catalyst becomes additional reasons for them to want to get us back in the room in order to discuss contracting and the process. Speaker 200:16:14I mean, Nick talked about us becoming a partner. I think we've considered ourselves a partner for some time. But when you have to contract directly with the dialysis providers and now we're doing that on 2 products and particularly with phosphate binders where there's going to be a lot of work for them to incorporate those into the you said, they are now purchasing the phosphate binder, I mean, managing that with their patients, a lot of work in that. And they really want to work with companies as closely as possible on a lot of operational aspects, not just contractual aspects. And that's where it's one of those reasons why it's so powerful to have both products that we're talking to them about. Speaker 200:16:58It just increases the partnership between Akebia and dialysis providers on some really core areas of their business. Speaker 300:17:09The only thing I'll probably add to that is our history in dialysis allows those conversations to be one with a knowledge of their operational concerns, right. If you don't if you walk into these conversations without the knowledge of how they think about their business and what's important to them, it does become a conversation that can appear very one-sided and out for Akebia only. And in a partnership, if they don't have an opportunity to be able to use the product successfully, then it's really not a partnership. And so creating that environment is really important. Yes. Speaker 200:17:40And we've been saying for years how important knowing the dialysis business is. And I mean, I think Eric here for a month is learning how different and complicated dialysis can be and that is a real competitive advantage for us. Thanks for the question, Julian. Operator00:18:01Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Ed Arce with H. C. Wainwright. Thank you. Operator00:18:07Please go ahead. Speaker 600:18:09Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions and congrats on the progress towards the launch next year. Couple of questions for me. First on the WACC price that you announced, Wondering if you could give a little details around some of the criteria as you thought through working to optimize the price not only for TDAPA but afterwards? And what sort of key aspects came into that thought process? Speaker 600:18:49Secondly, with Medici, wondering if you can disclose what proportion of the collaborative sales this quarter came from Germany. I think it was Germany and Australia, which launched in June, if there were any. And if there's any other further countries that you expect to come online between now and the end of the year? Thanks so much. Speaker 200:19:23So Eric, do you want to just handle the second one? Speaker 400:19:26Yes, I mean that's a quick one. Yes, so no revenues from the DC in this quarter. As you pointed out that was a June launch. Speaker 200:19:32Yes, they just started. So we look forward to seeing that progress. I don't know if we have Nick, do you know any other countries you're expecting to Speaker 300:19:44I know there's Netherlands just went. Netherlands just went. There are others for Some of the other Nordic countries will be in the balance of the year. Speaker 200:19:52Yes. I mean the larger countries is where they have to do the price negotiation, which I think we'll start to see them come online next year. But the smaller countries like Netherlands and now the Nordic countries will come on sooner. Nick, you want to walk through the thoughts around WACC pricing? Speaker 300:20:12Yes. And so really WACC pricing, couple of different things is when we thought about it is 1, what price would allow for dialysis organizations to be successful during the TAPA period. And so how do you set up your contract? What is the WACC prices, your reimbursement for the 1st several quarters of TDAPA and allowing TDAPA, which really supports innovative products being utilized, that WACC price and how do we make it a price that makes our dialysis organizations and Akebia successful was a consideration. 2, how do we make sure we manage that price over the TAPA period, so that post TAPA when we talk about ESA like pricing, we can manage ES like pricing to make the product sustainable post TDAPA. Speaker 300:20:59Remember, it's a $1,000,000,000 market today at ESA pricing, and therefore creating that predictability post TDAPA that the dialysis organizations wanted is critically important. And then lastly, but importantly, the non dialysis population. Less than 25% of patients today in the non dialysis space are on an anemia management product are being treated for their anemia. And when they enter into dialysis, the outcomes associated with folks that have been treated versus those not is enormous. And so the value of having a product like Vazio in the non dialysis space is very, very high. Speaker 300:21:37And therefore, making sure we're pricing for that dynamic and that innovative value in that subset of population is important as well. Speaker 200:21:46Yes. That last point is just can't be emphasized enough. And frankly, I mean, I think it really was a challenge balancing what's right for the dialysis market today versus what's possible and the benefit we would bring to the non dialysis patient population. I hope we struck the balance here. Particularly as Nick pointed out that WACC reimbursement for the 1st few quarters of TDAPA is critical because there's some real operational costs for the dialysis providers to add a new product to put protocols in place, storage, etcetera. Speaker 200:22:23And they have to see the business rationale for them to do that. Yet, you also want to be very cognizant of the optics around kind of how pricing is viewed. So it's quite the balance we had to strike. We did a lot of and had a lot of conversations with folks before making that decision. And as Nick pointed out in his remarks, I think we did hit the right balance for the dialysis population. Speaker 200:22:58Folks are reacting quite well and are very willing to contract and put the product as part Speaker 300:23:07of their formulary. The only additional context I'll add, Ed, is I've been with a lot of customers over the last month. And as you go through the WACC price and how to understand that, how to operationalize it, what it means in the context of the contract structure that we've talked about, an off invoice discount and volume based rebates, which we've talked about again as volume goes up, their price goes down, which means their economics improve, they've looked at it and said, that makes a lot of sense, right? And that's what you really want from your customers is that makes a lot of sense, that reinforcement that you've done the right thing for them, which is important. Speaker 200:23:47And it really creates an environment where physicians can try VAPS it, right. I mean, as he said, you can have a great contract in place, but if you don't have physician demand, they're not going to force that. Our sales force is driving that demand. And we know that if physicians have access and are able to use it, which we create through the contracting, that physicians will like using the product, they'll see the benefits of using the product and they'll expand their use of the product. And that's what positions us well, even though post TDAPA, we're going to have to take this price cut, if you will. Speaker 200:24:24We're now going to be targeting the entire dialysis market and people will be open to that. And that's a $1,000,000,000 market today. So that's a significant opportunity. And then hopefully as shortly as possible thereafter, we introduce the product into the non dialysis market with a label on non dialysis and then you'll start to have patients starting dialysis on VASIO. So this is how you become standard of care. Speaker 200:24:48It's a process. First step in dialysis is you've got to have that contract input in place that allows physicians to access the product and that WACC pricing decision was very, very central to that to making that possible. Speaker 600:25:05Very helpful. Thanks so much. Speaker 400:25:08Thanks, Ed. Operator00:25:11Thank you. There are no questions. I will now turn the conference back over to John Butler, CEO, for closing remarks. Speaker 200:25:19Thanks, Andrea. We remain extremely energized by our contracting process and the upcoming VASIO market availability, which is now only a few months away. We're on target with all of our internal timelines and believe we will have all the pieces in place for a successful launch. I really look forward to seeing many of you at the fall investor conferences and hopefully at the ASN Kidney Week in October. Thanks everyone. Speaker 200:25:46Enjoy the rest of your summer. Operator00:25:50Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by