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`NPS Pharmaceuticals' CEO Discusses Q1 2013 Results Earnings Call Transcript | Seeking Alpha
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`NPS Pharmaceuticals' CEO Discusses Q1 2013
`Results Earnings Call Transcript
`
`NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:NPSP)
`
`Q1 2013 Earnings Call
`
`May 9, 2013 8:30 AM ET
`
`Executives
`
`Susan Mesco – Senior Director, IR
`
`Francois Nader – President and CEO
`
`Eric Pauwels – SVP and Chief Commercial Officer
`
`Luke Beshar – EVP and CFO
`
`Roger Garceau – SVP and Chief Medical Officer
`
`Analysts
`
`Yuan Yang – Jefferies
`
`Salveen Richter – Canaccord
`
`David Friedman – Morgan Stanley
`
`Michael Schmidt – Leerink Swann
`
`Alan Carr – Needham & Company
`
`David Nierengarten – Wedbush Securities
`
`Carol Werther – Summer Street
`
`Matt Palmer – Oppenheimer
`
`Jim Molloy – Janney
`
`Ed Harris – MLV & Company
`Operator
`
`Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the First Quarter 2013 NPS Pharmaceuticals Earnings
`Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder this conference is being recorded for replay
`purposes.
`
`I’d now like to turn the call over to Susan M Mesco, Senior Director of Investor Relations. You may
`proceed.
`Susan Mesco
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`Thank you, Frances, and welcome to our first quarter conference call. Before we start let me remind you
`that today’s call will include forwardlooking statements based on current expectations. Such statements
`represent our judgment as of today and may involve risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our filings with
`the SEC which are available from the SEC or our website for information concerning the risk factors that
`could affect the company.
`
`Joining me on today’s call are members of our executive management team including Dr. Francois Nader,
`our President and Chief Executive Officer; Luke Beshar, our Chief Financial Officer; and Eric Pauwels, our
`Chief Commercial Officer.
`
`I will now turn the call over to Dr. Francois Nader.
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you, Susan. Good morning and thank you, everyone, for joining us on this call. So far 2013 has
`been marked by two multiple value creating milestones, the successful introduction of Gattex in the US and
`the reacquisition of the worldwide rights to Teduglutide and PTH which established NPS as a global
`commercial player in the orphan space.
`
`I would like to focus my remarks today on our three strategic priorities, number one, the successful
`execution of the Gattex launch; second, the filing of our BLA for Natpara in hypoparathyroidism and third,
`the advancement of opportunities to position NPS for long term sustainable growth.
`
`First and foremost I’m happy to report that the US launch of Gattex is off to a strong start. Eric will provide
`more color in his commercial update shortly, but the top line is that as of Friday, May 3rd, we have
`received 160 DOS Gattex prescriptions of which 42 patients are already on therapy. This gives us great
`confidence that we will achieve our objective of 200 to 300 patients on Gattex by the end of the year.
`
`With the respect to reimbursement, our progress to date has been tracking better than expected. So far,
`every payer we have presented to has indicated that they will cover Gattex including marquee names such
`as United Health, WellPoint, Aetna and Humana.
`
`On the clinical development side, we were happy to report topline results from STEPS 2 this morning. As
`you recall, STEPS 2 was our twoyear safety extension study for Gattex in adult patients with short bowel
`syndrome.
`
`We were pleased to see that nearly 75% of the ADHH patients enrolled completed this twoyear study.
`Gattex profile remained consistent with prior reports, and one in every seven patients on Gattex achieved
`complete independence from parenteral support. Our team is now preparing the full data set for future
`presentation and publication. Later this year, we’ll submit this data as a supplement for potential inclusion
`in our product label.
`
`Now let’s switch to discussing the development of Gattex for its next indication, the Gattex short bowel
`syndrome. This indication is an important part of our life cycle management strategy for Gattex. The
`medical importance of this program stretches far beyond the six months of marketexclusivity that it will
`provide.
`
`There is an extraordinary high and mathematical need for treating children with this lifethreatening
`condition. While parenteral support is a current standard of care, this supportive approach is associated
`with serious complications, and physicians are seeking new scientific options to minimize and hopefully
`eliminate the need for parenteral support.
`
`Further, having short bowel syndrome and being hooked on an IV line for the rest of their lives can be
`traumatizing and socially debilitating for children. And the cost of pediatric short bowel syndrome to the
`healthcare system is quite significant. Over a fiveyear period, the total cost of hospital and home care for a
`child with short bowel syndrome averages $1.6 million.
`
`And during that period children can spend an average of 146 days in the hospital. We recently met with the
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`FDA to discuss our Gattex pediatric program. The meeting was very collaborative and constructive. The
`agency recognized the high unmet medical need of this indication and the potential benefit that Gattex
`could offer.
`
`Our next step will be to discuss our proposed pediatric development strategy with EMA with the goal of
`initiating a global development program. Based on our research of the US market, the pediatric short
`bowel syndrome is in the ultra orphan category with an estimated preference of 10% to 20% of the adult
`population.
`
`From a commercial reach perspective the pediatric and adult short bowel syndrome patients are typically
`treated by many of the same key opinion leaders at the same centers of excellence. Consequently the
`incremental commercial investments required would be fairly limited. We are in the process of defining the
`value of the worldwide Gattex pediatric opportunity and will share our results with you at a later stage.
`
`Now turning to Natpara, our lead product for the treatment of adult hypoparathyroidism, we have
`completed our final human factors use ability and instructions for use testing of the injection pen devise,
`and we are in the process of incorporating these data in our BLA. We have also made excellent progress
`towards resolving the film finish manufacturing issue and we are more confident in our ability to submit our
`BLA in the second half of this year.
`
`We have been working with a number of the world’s experts in protein chemistry and particle
`characterization to design numbers experiments and work streams. We have advanced diligent strategy
`and implemented a number of improvements to the Natpara manufacturing and controls processes.
`
`The remainder of our work will result over the next few months and we will update you further on our
`second quarter call. As reported in today’s release, there will be some very exciting data on
`hypoparathyroidism presented at this year’s ENDO Conference in June, specifically the results of our 374
`patient version of ENDO study, which is known as PARADOX.
`
`This study was conducted in partnership with the Mayo Clinic and the Hypoparathyroidism Association, and
`it is the largest study of its kind and its orphan indication. To that underscore the physical, emotional, and
`financial burden of hypoparathyroidism and how misunderstood and underappreciated this condition and
`its complications are by the medical community.
`
`Now let’s talk about the global expansion of NPS. As you know in March we announced that we regained
`full worldwide rights to Teduglutide and PTH 184. We believe that ownership of worldwide rights and the
`successful execution of a targeted international expansion are key elements for long term commercial
`success and value creation in the remedy space.
`
`The transfer of assets for both products is underway across all operational areas including the refinement
`of the E.U. marketing authorizations of Revestive and Preotact from Takeda to NPS. Regarding our
`international operations, even though we reacquired the rights only eight weeks ago we are already
`pursuing a multiprong strategy first.
`
`We are advancing a prioritization progress of the European countries to define the launch sequencing of
`Revestive. We are also initiating the development of core value dossier as a prerequisite to starting the
`pricing and reimbursement process.
`
`Next we are identifying the key countries and their necessary requirements to begin phase names patient
`programs for Revestive in countries outside of the European union. For PTH, we are defining the global
`brand strategy for maximizing the value of this asset. And last, we are launching an in depth analysis of the
`market potential and regulatory requirements to register both products in Japan.
`
`As our international plan continues to take shape over the next coming months, we will update you further
`on next quarter’s call. So in closing in a very short period of time 2013 has already been marked by
`significant progress building for the near and long term growth of NPS. And we believe the best part of the
`year remains ahead.
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`I would like now to turn the call over to Eric to share some additional details on the Gattex launch. Eric?
`Eric Pauwels
`
`Thank you, Francois, and good morning to those joining us today. As Francois mentioned we are very
`excited with the progress we are making on the launch. While it remains early days, all metrics are tracking
`in line with or slightly ahead of our expectations. Our field organization is interacting well with the medical
`community and prescribers are demonstrating a high level of interest with approximately 300 physicians
`who are now Rens trained.
`
`As noted in today’s press release, as of last Friday we have received a total of 160 Gattex prescriptions
`and 42 patients are on therapy. This puts us in a solid position to reach our goal of 200 to 300 patients on
`Gattex by the end of the year. The prescriptions received to date are consistent with our prelaunch
`planning, with virtually all coming from centers of excellence and large GI practices. All in all, our field
`activities and launch data so far continues to support our estimated addressable US population of 3,000 to
`5,000 patients.
`
`Reimbursement of Gattex is also going quite well. We have conducted extensive inperson clinical reviews
`with 34 health plans, representing over 145 million lives. In addition we have met with top PBMs
`representing several hundred million lives. Today, we have secured prescription approvals by many key
`national and regional health plans. In addition, a major PBM, along with the Veterans Administration and
`other government sponsored plans have approved prescriptions.
`
`Another encouraging recent development is the addition of Gattex to formulary for several states’ Blue
`Cross/Blue Shield programs. For the first patients who are now on Gattex, the time between prescription
`and approval of reimbursement has been shorter that we expected. While these early data are
`encouraging we continue to believe that during the initial launch here, the time from prescription to
`dispense may take 90 to 120 days for many patients.
`
`With respect to copays, they have been in line with our expectations and so far have ranged from $0 to
`$200 per month. Now as a reminder, through NPS Advantage we are committed to minimizing any
`financial burdens to Gattex patients through our patient assistance programs.
`
`For commercial patients we are offering a copay assistance program that limits the outofpocket burden
`to $10.00 per month, and for public patients, NPS Advantage is connecting patients to third party non
`profit foundations that provide copay assistance.
`
`In summary, as Francois noted, we are really excited with the progress of the Gattex launch. Specifically,
`marketrich activity and reimbursement have been very encouraging. We attribute this early success to
`detailed prelaunch planning, comprehensive market research and the highquality execution that we are
`seeing from our field force. I look forward to providing you future updates.
`
`With that, I will turn the call over to Luke for his financial report. Luke?
`Luke Beshar
`
`Thanks, Eric, and thanks to everyone joining us on this morning’s call. The past few months have been an
`incredibly exciting time here at NPS. We are completing our transition into a commercial organization and
`have begun recognizing sales of our first marketed product.
`
`It’s with great personal pleasure that I report today that NPS recorded $654,000 of Gattex net sales for the
`first quarter of 2013. Given it’s our first commercial quarter of commercial sales I’d like to take a few
`minutes to get grounded on our revenue recognition method.
`
`We’ve created an efficient limited distribution model for Gattex. Given the way the product is distributed it is
`appropriate to recognize revenue using the selling accounting method. Under this method we recognize
`revenue when specialty pharmacy receives the from NPS, tattles passed, there’s a corresponding
`prescription in hand, and insurance benefits have been confirmed. Our specialty pharmacy distributors
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`have told us that they do not plan to stock Gattex and based on our initial experience, this is the way this is
`largely playing out.
`
`You will note that during the first quarter we recorded returns reserve of approximately $145,000. This
`reserve represents inventory held by our specialty distributor, for government entities and will reserve once
`the product is shipped.
`
`In its initial quarter our grosstonet was disproportionately high at 31%, largely driven by the
`aforementioned reserve for Gattex returns. The gross net without the inventory reserve, without the return
`reserve, was 16% due to fixed costs and payer mix. We will continue to expect that it will normalize in our
`forecasted range of 10% to 14% as revenue ramps.
`
`Moving to the first quarter royalties, these are $25 million and were largely driven by $22 million of
`sensitized royalties. This product continues to perform extraordinarily well, increasing by 19% over the
`same period last year. Under repayment terms of our royalty advance from Amgen on May 15 we will
`receive a $14 million cash payment and Amgen will withhold the remaining $8 million or $9 million prepaid
`interest and principle.
`
`We continue to anticipate that we will fully repay the remaining advance of $6 million to $8 million by the
`third quarter 2015. After this we will receive 100% of our Sensipar royalties through March of 2018 in the
`US and through the end of 2018 for the rest of the world. With eight quarters of sales growth at 15% or
`more, and annual sales now exceeding $1 billion run rate, Sensipar continues to provide tremendous
`financial value to NPS.
`
`We also received a cash royalty from Janssen sales in NUCYNTA, which for the quarter increased by
`roughly 30% to $800,000.
`
`Moving to the expense side of the P&L, first quarter cost of goods sold was $65,000 and primarily consist
`of royalties and packaging costs. The product is being used to support the launch of Gattex, was
`manufactured before approval and therefore expensed to R&D. During the first few years of sales, we
`expect that this will result in a benefit to our gross margin and that when the preapproval product is
`depleting, our gross margin will normalize in a range of 80% of sales.
`
`First quarter R&D expense was $16 million, representing a decline of $4 million from the same quarter last
`year. The decrease related to a reduction of cost due to the completion of clinical studies, partially offset by
`increased production costs resolved of the Natpara filtering issue.
`
`For the first quarter, selling, general and administrative expenses were $14 million versus approximately
`$8 million for the first quarter last year. This increase is attributable to the build out of our commercial team
`and other activities to support the launch of Gattex.
`
`We continue to maintain a strong financial position and ended the quarter with approximately $90 million in
`cash and investments with a $14 million payment due next week from Amgen for the first quarter Sensipar
`royalties. We continue to believe that we sufficiently cap – we have sufficiently capitalized the launch of
`both Gattex and Natpara. However, consistent with our track record, we’re always proactive in valuing
`ways to enhance our balance sheet in the manner that is in the best interest of our shareholders.
`
`Now let’s discuss this quarter’s acquisition of the worldwide rights and the assets related to Gattex and
`Natpara from Takeda. As consideration reached its 6.1 million shares of NPS common stock valued at $50
`million. In exchange, we have worldwide commercial rights to both compounds along with all the assets
`related to the two products including significant unmet inventory and other life cycle management assets.
`
`For purpose of accounting, we value the equities in the spot rate on the date of the transaction and used
`an independent valuation firm to determine the fair values of the assets, which will capitalize at $16 million
`in commercial divested inventory, $21 million in commercial Preotact inventory and $18 million of
`intellectual property related to invested market rights.
`
`Turning to guidance, as Francois and Eric mentioned, we continue to feel good about ending the year with
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`200 to 300 patients on Gattex with the majority initiating treatment in the latter part of the year. We are
`reiterating our full year operating expense guidance of $135 to $145 million, which includes noncash
`charges such as equity compensation but excludes cost of it sold.
`
`So in closing, we’re off to a terrific start and we are thrilled with the performance of Gattex so far. As
`additional data becomes available, we will update you on future calls.
`
`With that, that completes our prepared remarks. I’ll turn the call back to the operator to begin the Q&A.
`Operator?
`QuestionandAnswer Session
`Operator
`
`Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Yuan Yang from Jefferies.
`You may proceed.
`Yuan Yang – Jefferies
`
`Thanks. So the 42 patients out of 160 Gattex prescription, it’s about 26%. So the question to you is
`realistically what percent of Gattex prescription do you expect to translate into patients on therapy in
`general?
`
`Francois Nader
`
`Good morning, Yuan. Then reason for the delta between the prescription and the number of patients on
`drugs had to do with the time it takes to get the product reimbursed, to ensure the copay and to have the
`product really reach the patient. So far most every patient has been converted from prescription to actually
`be on drug. So we still can expect that all 160 will be converted. There might be a few here and there that
`might not, but so far everyone has been.
`Yuan Yang – Jefferies
`
`Yes. Sir, you mentioned that you take over 92 to 120 days to convert the prescription to patients, but 42
`out of 160 since you launched the drug in February, it seems to me that it is shorter than that. So based on
`42 patients on Gattex now, what’s the average time between prescription and patients on therapy?
`Francois Nader
`
`I don’t know that I would answer this question, simply because this time has been extremely variable. As
`we reported when we talked on March 19, we already had patients on drugs back then, a handful but
`nevertheless. So for these patients the time has been extremely short. I would caution that the speed at
`which we’re converting might extend over time, so therefore we’re reiterating our guidance that it might
`take between 90 and 120 days for patients to go from the prescription to the dispensing.
`
`Yuan Yang – Jefferies
`
`Thank you. Quickly, last one is on Natpara. So once you finish the fillin finish issue, how soon can you file
`for approval in the US?
`
`Francois Nader
`
`Well, we have been preparing the BLA for some time. So there are certain sections of the BLA that are
`now completed. We added the user study, so most of the BLA has been completed. Yet, we need to
`complete the CNC section and wrap it up. So it won’t take long, but nevertheless it’s a process that – I
`mean it’s an administrative, frankly, process that takes time. With that in mind, as I mentioned earlier, we’re
`confident that we’re filing the BLA second half of this year.
`Yuan Yang – Jefferies
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`Thank you.
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you, Yuan.
`Operator
`
`Your next question will come from the line of Salveen Richter from Canaccord. You may proceed.
`
`Salveen Richter – Canaccord
`
`Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on a good quarter.
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you, Salveen. Good morning.
`Salveen Richter – Canaccord
`
`Good morning. My first question is just on the scripts. If we assume the 72 patient cutoffs initially and then
`the 160patient script cutoff and that it takes 3.5 months for them to roughly get reimbursed, we’re kind of
`at the high end of your guidance.
`
`So I just wanted a little bit of clarity there from you about how to think about that? And also just the
`trajectory here, you had an initial bolus, but you had about 14.4 patients coming on per week. Now you’re
`at 12.6. I just want to get a sense of how we should think about that going forward as well?
`Francois Nader
`
`The challenge has been of these early data points is the vesco extrapolations. So I would very caution
`everyone not to extrapolate too quickly. We’ve been now in the launch mode for about three months. So
`it’s early data point.
`
`All I can say is we’re off to a great start to a very strong start, but for the moment we’re not changing our
`guidance of 200 to 300 patients that will be on Gattex by the end of the year. Okay? We had an initial bolus
`which is still totally expected. Again, the 13 months have been very good, but nevertheless we are
`cautiously optimistic in the trajectory, and I believe that the 200 to 300 patients is our target.
`Salveen Richter – Canaccord
`
`Great, Francois. Then if I could just follow up, could you just give us some color on your pair interactions in
`terms of rejections and appeals? Then just physician feedback on the drug to date?
`Francois Nader
`
`Yeah. I will ask Eric maybe to answer the question. Eric?
`
`Eric Pauwels
`
`Yes. In terms PNC back, again we’re one surprised that we’ve generally had very proactive and positive
`feedback from our pairs. To date we’ve not had any rejection from pairs at all in terms of coverage, which
`is very good. And it’s contributing to again one of the factors of why we believe some of the early surprises
`in terms of patients getting onto drug. So we have broad coverage from these pairs and the time to get on
`therapy has been very, very good
`
`Regarding feedback from physicians, very important about 50% of our prescriptions are coming from these
`large GI practices and a lot of them are coming from our centers of excellence. And the physicians
`themselves are responding very well to Gattex. They see it as innovative therapy that addresses a very
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`high need. We’re actually getting in with key physicians who are quite busy and have busy practices –
`we’re getting a lot of access and good time in front of these physicians. So the response initially has been
`very, very positive.
`Salveen Richter – Canaccord
`
`Thank you.
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you, Salveen.
`
`Operator
`
`And your next question will come from the line of David Friedman from Morgan Stanley. You may proceed.
`David Friedman – Morgan Stanley
`
`Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Just two quick ones. One is on reauthorizations and I know in the past
`you said there was I think at least one sort of qualitative one and I guess I just wanted to see if you had any
`update there as to whether that’s come up more.
`
`And then the other is just on the prescriptions that are being written I know in the past you’ve mentioned
`some being written with refills. Maybe if you could just talk a little bit about what type of prescriptions are
`being written. Are they written with a number of refills? And what is your perception of physicians’ intention
`in terms of duration?
`Eric Pauwels
`
`Sure, David. Great question. Thanks for placing the question. I think, again, on the pair front everything is
`going according to plan. We anticipated prior authorizations to be in place. The majority of pairs have put
`in prior authorizations but they’ve not been ours in any way. They’ve been mostly for the label, which is
`quite broad, and we’ve been able to manage those from an administrative perspective quite well with NPS
`Advantage.
`
`A very, very small proportion of pairs, less than 10% or so, have actually put in reauthorizations. And it’s
`really just been a few pairs and they’ve actually left it quite open to the physicians and patients regarding
`benefit risk. So it’s really more of an administrative process in which they will have put in may six months’
`reauthorization, but again, they’ve left a lot of that back to the physician for clinical benefit reasons.
`
`To address your other question regarding physicians and refills, the majority of the prescriptions that we’ve
`gotten have been either for six months or 12 months, so physicians, when we get the initial prescription in
`we have opportunities to get at least six to 12 months and we’ll refill.
`
`David Friedman – Morgan Stanley
`
`Great. Thank you.
`
`Operator
`
`And your next question will come from the line of Joseph Schwartz from Leerink Swann. You may
`proceed.
`Michael Schmidt – Leerink Swann
`
`Hi. It’s Michael Schmidt for Joseph this morning. Just had one question on Gattex again. Can you provide
`some more color on the type of patients that are going on the drug in this initial phase? Are those the more
`severely affected patients or are those patients that maybe are not on PN four, five days a week.
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`And secondly, I was wondering if you could provide your thoughts on the rest of broad market opportunity
`for Gattex. You mentioned you would probably launch in Europe first, but what is the overall market
`opportunity at the US. Thank you.
`Francois Nader
`
`Eric, you want to take the first part of the question. I’ll take the rest.
`Eric Pauwels
`
`Thanks for the question. Good question, as well. We’re very pleased to see a pretty broad spectrum of
`patients that have been initially on for the 160 prescription. And again, we have visibility to them as they go
`through the NPS Advantage system. About twothirds of them are female, and it’s like we say, because
`they’re the ones typically more a very social media savvy and the ones who are on blogs and continue to
`be actively involved in patient advocacy.
`
`We’re seeing a pretty broad spectrum in terms of age, between 20 and 80plus years old. So really in
`terms of severity, I wouldn’t categorize severity. We’re seeing patients who are on lower volumes of PN or
`higher volumes of PN. So there really isn’t a specific category – more severe or less severe.
`
`There are clearly some of the earlier doctors that were involved in prescribing the drug. There are patients
`who are reading about this even after the product was looked at by the advisory committee, and FDA
`approval. Who have done the colonoscopies, who went on drugs very, very quickly. And the anecdotal
`feedback that we’ve gotten so far has been very positive, and physician response has been very positive
`so far.
`Francois Nader
`
`I’ll take the second part of the question. We guided that Gattex peak sales in the US will exceed $350
`million. We do not want to change this guidance until the launch will be well going on, and this is something
`that we might consider in the future. We are in the process currently of assessing the value of Revestive
`which is Gattex exUS.
`
`As a reminder, we reacquired the rights only eight weeks ago and a lot of work has been done so far.
`Yes, from a prevalence perspective it seems that we are within more or less the same range as the US so
`it’s proportionate to the population. But the value of the asset will be very much dependant on the price
`that we will be able to secure, and the reimbursement we will be able to secure in Europe and exEurope.
`
`The other big opportunity for us we believe, is Japan. As I mentioned this requires an indepth analysis to
`see what is it that we need to do from a development and regulatory perspective if any, and also assess
`the market opportunity which as you can imagine is quite significant. So stay tuned. These are peak seas
`projections that we might update you on in the future. Thanks.
`
`Michael Schmidt – Leerink Swann
`
`Okay. Maybe a quick followup on the European market.
`Francois Nader
`
`Yes.
`Michael Schmidt – Leerink Swann
`
`Is it true that the European market, the treatment of SBS is much more concentrated that in the US with
`more centers of excellence there, which could lead to potentially a more rapid launch?
`Francois Nader
`
`That’s correct. So, just to give you an idea, even though we had only onethird of our clinical sites in
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`NPS Pharmaceuticals' CEO Discusses Q1 2013 Results Earnings Call Transcript | Seeking Alpha
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`Europe, we were able to recruit twothirds of our patients from Europe. And the main reason, frankly, is
`number one the fact that you have very sophisticated key opinion leaders in Europe that now that space
`extremely well. But second also to your point, the treatment of short bowel syndrome is much more
`concentrated around these centers of excellence in Europe.
`
`So if you take a country like France for example, even though they have 50 million people, you have
`probably less than 10 centers of excellence that actually attract most of the short bowel syndrome patients.
`So from a commercial perspective, once we go beyond the hurdle of pricing and reimbursement, it will
`require a relatively small, actually a very small field organization to reach these key opinion leaders and
`start generating revenues.
`
`Michael Schmidt – Leerink Swann
`
`Okay. Great. Thank you.
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you.
`Operator
`
`Your next question will come from the line of Alan Carr from Needham & Company. You may proceed.
`
`Alan Carr – Needham & Company
`
`Hi. Thanks for taking my questions.
`Francois Nader
`
`Good morning, Alan.
`Alan Carr – Needham & Company
`
`Good morning. I’m wondering to what extent home and fusion partners and patient advocacy have been?
`What sort of roll they’ve had? How much they’ve helped in terms of sourcing patients? Then also can you
`comment on the steps to discontinuation rate? I think you said 74% completed. I wonder if you could
`comment on that too? Thanks.
`
`Francois Nader
`
`I’ll ask Eric to take the first part, and I’ll ask Roger Garceau to take the question on discontinuation. Eric?
`
`Eric Pauwels
`
`Yeah. I’ll take the question. It’s a good question. One of the key strategies is obviously working with our
`specialty infusion partners. They’ve