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`NPS Pharmaceuticals' (NPSP) CEO Francois Nader on Q3 2014 Results Earnings Call Transcript | Seeking Alpha
`
`NPS Pharmaceuticals' (NPSP) CEO Francois
`Nader on Q3 2014 Results Earnings Call
`Transcript
`
`NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:NPSP)
`
`Q3 2014 Earnings Conference Call
`
`November 10, 2014 4:30 PM ET
`
`Executives
`
`Susan Mesco – Executive DirectorInvestor Relations
`
`Francois Nader – President and Chief Executive Officer
`
`Paul Firuta – PresidentUS Commercial Operations
`
`Luke Beshar – Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President
`
`Eric Pauwels – Chief Commercial Officer and Senior Vice President
`
`Roger Garceau – Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
`Analysts
`
`Tazeen Ahmad – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
`
`Eun Yang – Jefferies
`
`Mark Vignola – Needham & Company
`
`John Newman – Canaccord Genuity, Inc.
`
`Carol Werther – CRT Capital Group LLC
`
`Andrew Barrons – FBR Capital Markets
`Operator
`
`Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the NPS Pharma Q3 2014 Earnings Conference Call. At
`this time, all participants are in a listenonlymode. Later, we will be having a questionandanswer session,
`and instructions will follow at that time. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call is being recorded.
`
`I would now like to turn the call over to Susan Mesco, Executive Director Investor Relations. Please go
`ahead.
`Susan Mesco
`
`Thank you, Nicolas, and welcome to our third 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 that may cause actual results
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`to differ from the results discussed in the forwardlooking statements. 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,
`President and Chief Executive Officer; Luke Beshar, Chief Financial Officer; and Paul Firuta, President,
`U.S. Commercial Operations. Roger Garceau, our Chief Medical Officer and Eric Pauwels, President, NPS
`Pharma International, are also here to participate in the Q&A session.
`
`At this time, I will turn the call over to Dr. Francois Nader.
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you, Susan, and good afternoon, everyone. The third quarter was another productive one for NPS
`Pharma. We expanded our Gattex/Revestive franchise. We delivered strong quarteroverquarter growth
`and we received a positive growth for Natpara from the FDA Advisory Committee.
`
`As you know, our growth strategy focuses exclusively on rare diseases and is anchored on three global
`pillars: first, growing our gastrointestinal business; second, advancing our endocrinology franchise; and
`third, building out our pipeline to address additional rare diseases. Beginning with our lead product we
`continue to successfully commercialize Gattex in the U.S., as the first and only GLP2 analog for the long
`term treatment of adult Short Bowel Syndrome.
`
`Yeartodate, we achieved nearly $68 million of net sales with significant quarteroverquarter growth and
`we continue to be on track to deliver our full guidance which represents a yearoveryear increase of more
`than 200%. We remain bullish about the longterm potential for Gattex, as we continue to identify new
`patients and expand our existing prescriber base.
`
`Our international team is growing in support of the Revestive launch and we now have approximately 50
`employees covering 18 key markets. We are delighted to report that Revestive has been officially launched
`in Germany and it has been gratifying to see that physicians recognize the unmet need of Short Bowl
`Syndrome patients and are excited about the transformation potential of Revestive.
`
`For Natpara, we are pleased to be very close to bringing to the U.S. market our second orphan product as
`the first PTH replacement therapy for patients with hypoparathyroidism. We continue to advance our pre
`commercial activities following a positive Advisory Committee vote, recommending the approval of Natpara
`and affirming our belief in its favorable riskbenefit profile.
`
`As we discussed during the Advisory Committee meeting hypoparathyroidism is a debilitating hormone
`deficiency disease and many patients are in desperate need for the unique and clinically meaningful
`treatment that Natpara presents. In anticipation of our January 24 PDUFA date we are actively working
`with the FDA to finalize our label, as well as (inaudible) program. We believe these will be final steps to
`securing Natpara’s approval in the U.S.
`
`We also expect that the FDA will require a postapproval commitment, which we are prepared to do.
`
`A critical component of our global endocrinology rare disease strategy is the approval of Natpara in key
`international markets. In support of this goal, I’m very pleased to report that we filed our marketing
`authorization application with the EMA. We are also advancing our pipeline to address additional rare
`diseases.
`
`Early next year, we expect to report topline data from our teduglutide in pediatric Short Bowl Syndrome
`and NPSP795 in autosomal dominant hypocalcemia, both are disorders with a high unmet medical need.
`
`Behind these clinical programs, we remain very active on the business development front. Needless to say,
`the U.S. market is a highpriority for NPS. And at this time, I would like to turn the call over to Paul Firuta,
`to share some additional details on the commercial side of our business. Paul?
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`Paul Firuta
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`NPS Pharmaceuticals' (NPSP) CEO Francois Nader on Q3 2014 Results Earnings Call Transcript | Seeking Alpha
`
`Thank you, Francois. I’ll start with Gattex. We continue to focus on developing the U.S. market and the
`physicians and patients remain enthusiastic about the performance of Gattex. The team is doing an
`excellent job, reaching out to our physician targets and identifying potential prescribers, as well Short Bowl
`Syndrome patients here in the U.S.
`
`Now that we are in yeartwo of launch, we have started to move beyond the early adopters. First time
`prescribers are becoming a more meaningful target of our outreach. We’re finding that this group
`represents a robust opportunity, although these physicians generally prefer more education interaction with
`us before they prescribe Gattex than the earlier adopters did.
`
`In addition, Centers of Excellence represents an important opportunity for growth. Although these centers
`support numerous patients they can face a variety of organizational challenges such as administrative
`hurdles or resource constraints which lead to the pacing of patient care and a slower introduction to Gattex
`than initially anticipated.
`
`The good news is that as new prescribers become more familiar with managing Gattex patients we are
`seeing that they begin writing more prescriptions. With respect to market access, the reimbursement
`environment continues to be very encouraging. Lastly, our NPS advantage care coordinators are doing an
`outstanding job of working with patients to support a positive Gattex experience.
`
`To summarize Gattex, we continue to be confident in the growth potential we are seeing in the Short Bowl
`Syndrome market.
`
`Turning to Natpara, the team has done an outstanding job ensuring launch readiness. Today, I’ll highlight
`three of our top priorities: first, generating disease awareness; second, profiling physicians and field force
`deployment; and third, market access. Disease awareness is mission critical. Over the past several months
`we partnered with the National Organization of Rare Disorders and conducted a series of patient
`engagement meetings throughout the U.S. Approximately 150 patients and 100 caregivers participated in
`these meetings which consisted of physician and patient presentations, questionandanswer sessions and
`introductions to the hypoparathyroidism association.
`
`We also generated significant results through our digital and social media platform to enhance patient and
`physician understanding of hypoparathyroidism and the burden of the disease. We are pleased with the
`growing number of patients who have registered on our unbranded website hypoparathyroidism.com. We
`also continue to see a significant level of interests on social media platforms where we are providing
`patients with important educational information including videos and ebooks.
`
`Importantly, the metrics from our Facebook and YouTube channel align directly with hypoparathyroidism
`patient population demographics, which is very encouraging. In addition, we received nearly 2000 requests
`for our emergency resource kit which includes an ID bracelet, wallet card and keychain tag. These items
`help patients alert physician providers when they are affected by severe or life threatening symptoms.
`
`With respect to physician targeting and field force deployment as you may recall we are using a contract
`field based team to profile endocrinologists who will be our primary prescriber target. This group has
`profiled more than 450,000 physicians and accumulated key demographic information they were using for
`our sales force mapping and launch playbooks. Our medical science liaison, have also been building
`disease awareness with key thought leaders.
`
`With respect to our sales organization, we are building a dedicated team for Natpara. Our sales leadership
`is now in place and we are interviewing applicants for field force. Based on the level of interest from high
`caliber candidates we are very confident that we will have a world class team in place to support the
`Natpara launch.
`
`The last area I’d like to cover today is market access. Ensuring broad access to Natpara is our top priority.
`Based on market research, most hypoparathyroidism patients have insurance coverage and approximately
`60% are covered by commercial plans. Our market access team has been conducting burden of illness
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`discussions with key payers that cover the majority of the U.S. insured population. Based on our
`interactions and research conducted thus far, payers have been very understanding of the unmet medical
`need in the hypoparathyroidism and the need to treat this condition.
`
`Lastly, we finalized – we are finagling our network of specialty pharmacies that will distribute Natpara
`directly to hypoparathyroidism patients. So to summarize our commercial efforts for both Gattex and
`Natpara teams are marketing – are making solid progress. We are excited to continue to build upon the
`success of Gattex in the U.S. and we look forward to introducing Natpara to U.S. market in the second
`quarter of this year.
`
`With that, I’ll turn the call back to Francois.
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you, Paul, and before turning to the pipeline, I would like to quickly cover a few international
`highlights. First, I'm happy to report that Health Canada recently approved our request for priority review
`status for Revestive, and we plan to file our new drug submission there before the end of the year. In
`Europe, we continue to build on our relationships with key centers of excellence. As a reminder
`approximately 60% of the sites from our pivotal steps study were in Europe.
`
`For Germany, we filed our AMNOG dossier in September with free pricing for the first 12 months. This
`process follows a structured timeline, and we expect to finalize discussions on Revestive benefit raising in
`the first quarter of next year, and then again begin pricing negotiations soon thereafter.
`
`Our commercial preparations in France are also advancing. As mentioned on our last call, we have filed
`our Health Technology Assessment, and we expect to receive our benefit assessment rating from the
`transparency commission of the French National Health Authority before the end of this year. This will
`allow us to initiate pricing discussions in France in the first quarter of 2015.
`
`We have also secured public pricing in the UK, in Denmark, Norway and in Austria. Initially,
`commercialization will begin with individual funding requests within these markets. Typically, it takes
`several weeks to finalize these requests and ship product to the patient. As you know, securing broad base
`reimbursement in Europe can take around 12 to 18 months, and we are making good progress with strong
`physician support for Revestive.
`
`In addition, we plan to submit our marketing authorization application for Revestive in Switzerland later this
`year. We remain very bullish about the peak revenue opportunity for Revestive in key European markets,
`where we have exclusivity into 2024. We expect to begin achieving significant revenues in key countries in
`the secondhalf of 2015, so the ramp is expected to be slower than that in the U.S.
`
`In Japan, which could represent the second largest single market opportunity for Gattex, we submitted our
`orphan drug application and we expect to receive orphan designation later on this month. We are also
`preparing to initiate a small bridging study in Japanese Short Bowel Syndrome patients before the end of
`this year.
`
`With respect to our namedpatient programs, we are making Revestive available to patients in Latin
`America with positive feedback from key opinion leaders and patients. Although shipments to patients on a
`namedpatient basis will have a very small impact on 2014 revenues, we believe these are important
`programs that reflect our commitment to patients with short bowel syndrome.
`
`The last item I will cover today is our clinical programs, an important initiative to support our Gattex
`Revestive franchise is our global study in Pediatric Short Bowel Syndrome patients. Gattex could answer a
`significant unmet medical need for children with SBS given the comorbidities and daily living challenges
`associated with lifelong parenteral support along with the significant healthcare burden to society.
`
`Enrollment in the study is now complete and the last patient’s last visit is planned for early next year. We
`look forward to reporting top line results soon thereafter. For NPSP795 our Phase 2a proofofconcept
`study in Autosomal Dominant Hypocalcemia or ADH continues to progress, and we now expect to report
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`top line results from this study early next year. This ultrarare genetic disorder only affects a few thousand
`patients globally.
`
`This is caused by mutations of the calciumsensing receptor gene that disrupt calcium homeostasis,
`because patients with ADH have an increased sensitivity to serum calcium, the receptor senses that serum
`calcium is too high and patients continuously excrete consume in the year end.
`
`Consequently, patients with ADH can present with severe hypercalcemia, low concentrations of PTH, and
`high levels of urine calcium that could lead to an increased risk for serious renal complications. There is
`currently no approved treatment for ADH. NPSP795 is a selected consume receptor antagonist that binds
`to the calciumsensing receptor and decreases its sensitivity to serum calcium, which in turn could restore
`normal calcium homeostasis, because its mechanism of action may restore the normal physiological action
`of the receptor, this could be the first treatment specifically targeting the ADH mutation.
`
`In addition to our current programs, we are pleasing a significant emphasis on business development
`strategy to pursue acquisitions, or inlicensing opportunities that are either first in or best in rare disease for
`Gattex that provide quantifiable value to patients and society.
`
`So in summary, 2014 continues to be marked by tremendous progress across all of our strategic priorities.
`We are pleased with the growth of our global gastrointestinal rare disease franchise with Gattex and
`Revestive, and are confident about its outlook for longterm market potential. We are preparing for the
`U.S. launch of our second orphan product Natpara in the second quarter of 2015, and we have filed the
`Natpara European marketing application.
`
`We look forward to reporting top line results early next year from our Phase 2a study of NPSP795 in ADH,
`and we will continue to remain focused on creating sustainable longterm value through the inlicensing
`and acquisition of new products. Our vision here at NPS is to create a world in which every person living
`with a rare disease has a therapy.
`
`Our GI and endocrinology franchises are just only the beginning. Our patient centric ambition is 10 in 10, or
`developing treatments for 10 distinct rare diseases in 10 years. Given the expertise of our team, our
`productive business model and our commitment to patients, I'm very confident that we will make it happen.
`
`With that, I will turn the call to Luke for his financial report.
`
`Luke Beshar
`
`Thanks, Francois, and good afternoon again to all, joining us today. We ended the third quarter in a very
`strong financial position with solid quarteroverquarter and yearoveryear revenue growth, prudent
`expense management, and a significant cash position. We achieved $28.1 million in net quarter sales of
`Gattex and Revestive, and we are on track to deliver on our guidance for 2014 sales.
`
`Based on the ninemonth results and our current expectations for the balance of the year, we believe full
`year net sales are most likely to come in at the lower end of our guidance range of $100 million to $110
`million. Our Sensipar royalties continue to be a solid contributor with more than $26 million in the third
`quarter revenues and $81 million yeartodate. With annualized Sensipar sales now exceeding $1 billion,
`our cash flows in Sensipar royalties provide us with tremendous financial flexibility.
`
`Moving to the expenses, I’ll start with cost of sales, which were $3.2 million or approximately 11% of Gattex
`sales. Our cost of sales this year consists primarily of royalties and packaging costs. As you may recall, the
`product currently being used to Gattex sales is produced prior to approval and therefore extends to R&D.
`
`We expect this supply to support U.S. product demand into 2015. Once the preapproved U.S. inventory is
`depleted, we expect Gattex cost of sales in the U.S. to normalize around 20%. With respect to Revestive,
`we capitalized API inventory we received when we regained the worldwide rights from Takeda. And we will
`begin expense this inventory as a practice sold in international markets.
`
`Our research and development third quarter expenses increased to $24.5 million versus $18.8 million last
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`year through a clinical study class Natpara regulatory activities including Advisory Committee readiness,
`the expansion of our medical affairs function and preapproval of Natpara production.
`
`Selling, general and administrative expenses came in at $28.1 million versus $17.6 million last year. This
`increase was related to commercial activities for Gattex and Revestive, around our prelaunch activities for
`Natpara. We ended the quarter with $169 million in cash, so we continue to be well capitalized to
`commercialize Gattex and Natpara globally and advance new pipeline opportunities to support our growth.
`
`With respect to our forward looking guidance as made in today’s press release and as I discussed earlier,
`we expect our full year net global sales to come in at the lower end of our guidance range of $100 million
`to $110 million. In addition, today we are narrowing our operating expense guidance to $185 million to
`$195 million.
`
`I do want to emphasize that our operating expense guidance does not include share based compensation
`or cost of sales. For the ninemonths ended September 30, sharebased compensation was $11.2 million
`and cost of sales was $7.8 million. So to summarize our financial results, we continue to be delighted with
`the U.S. launch of Gattex and its long term revenue potential. We are pleased with the buildout of our
`international organization in support of the Revestive launch.
`
`We believe Natpara will be the next significant growthdriver for NPS Pharma as we focus on completing
`the regulatory process and ensuring launchreadiness in the U.S., as well filing for EU approval.
`
`And our financial position is strong and significantly enhanced by our Sensipar royalty stream. All the
`above leaves us very well positioned over the coming years to drive toward our 10 in 10 goal and deliver
`significant growth in shareholder value.
`
`That concludes our prepared remarks and I will turn the call back to the operator to begin the Q&A
`session. Nicolas?
`QuestionandAnswer Session
`
`Operator
`
`(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Joe Schwartz. Your line is now open.
`Please proceed with your question.
`Unidentified Analyst
`
`Hey, thanks a lot for taking my question. It is Paul [ph] on for Joe. I have a few. First of all on Gattex, I’m
`wondering what price Gattex is running at in Germany and when you ultimately expect the retro price for
`Gattex to normalize at its long term levels?
`Eric Pauwels
`
`Yes, Paul, thanks for the question. Sorry, hi, sorry, Paul. This is Eric Pauwels. Just want to give some
`clarity. We filed the price in Germany and the price is actually very similar to the U.S. price so it’s around
`€298,000. And we anticipate though – and to come back with additional benefits rating and as we
`mentioned thorough that process in the firsthalf it will be some significant discussions and negotiations
`towards that final price. We have that period for about 12 months.
`
`We are in the process right now. We defined a fairly narrow quarter within Europe and in other markets as
`well. We anticipate that narrow quarter to be, if you will, very similar to close to the U.S. price.
`Unidentified Analyst
`
`Okay. Great. Thanks. Eric, that’s helpful. And then one on Natpara, I’m wondering if you can give us a little
`more color on why you think the FDA extended the PDUFA? What exactly the major protocol amendment
`was and if you still expect Natpara’s label to lack a two year treatment limit? Thanks.
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`Francois Nader
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`NPS Pharmaceuticals' (NPSP) CEO Francois Nader on Q3 2014 Results Earnings Call Transcript | Seeking Alpha
`
`Well, a good question. Unfortunately, I cannot answer them. And the reason I cannot answer them is we’re
`kneedeep into an active review process with the FDA. All I can say is we are very confident that the
`product will be approved on January 24. We are actively working with the FDA on the label. We are
`actively also interacting on REMS. We expect that the FDA would ask us for a postmarketing commitment
`that we’ll be more than happy to do.
`
`So all this to say, that things are progressing as planned, on the flip side of this equation
`hypoparathyroidism is a chronic condition and it is the opinion of all the physicians that we talk to, the
`advisory committee and others that because it’s a chronic condition it requires a chronic treatment and we
`are very confident that Natpara offers the benefitrisk ratio that would enable Natpara to serve these
`patients longterm.
`Unidentified Analyst
`
`Okay, great. That’s really helpful. And if I could sneak one more in, Francois, just wondering what do you
`think the post marketing requirement might be and have you done any more consideration to for your own
`sake looking at BID dosing as an option for patients after the presentation at the panel which showed that
`that could have optimal pharmacokinetics? Thanks a lot.
`
`Francois Nader
`
`Here also – sure, here also I cannot comment on the specifics until the product is approved and the post
`market commitments will become public. All I’m saying is that during our development program it appeared
`that most of the patients benefit from onceaday and there could be patients that could benefit from BID.
`And we will certainly look into the BID dosing in due time.
`
`But again the clinical development showed that once a day is what most of the patients need. And that
`hopefully what the label will say, and tuned as it relates to the post marketing commitment.
`
`Unidentified Analyst
`
`Okay. Thanks again.
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you, Paul.
`Operator
`
`Our next question comes from the line of Tazeen Ahmad with Bank of America. Your line is now open.
`Please proceed with your question.
`
`Tazeen Ahmad – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
`
`Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Just one on Gattex, for you to hit the bottom end of your guidance for
`the year you would need to have some sort of sequential growth in the fourth quarter. I guess, based on
`your experience from the last holiday season are you expecting any kind of seasonality there?
`
`Francois Nader
`
`Tazeen, very good question, we did not experience any seasonality last year, but it was an end of one, so
`we need to be very careful how we interpret only one data point, but for the moment we are – as we said,
`confident that we’ll reach our guidance.
`Tazeen Ahmad – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
`
`Okay. And then either for Paul or for Eric, where do you see the area for untapped growth for Gattex going
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`forward without giving specific guidance into next year? What are the areas or can you give us some color
`as to whether most of your use is from new patient still or is it shifting to continuing patients.
`Francois Nader
`
`Good. I will ask Paul to address this question, Tazeen.
`Paul Firuta
`
`Yes, sure. So our field force is doing an excellent job, identifying prescribers who treat Short Bowel
`patients. Many – there’s many patients opportunities still and – or Gattex patient opportunities still in the
`Centers of Excellence. We are also able to reach a broader prescriber market. These are first time
`prescribers. So our efforts are certainly continue to focus with the MSL to educate and work with the
`Centers of Excellence, but also reach a broader prescriber market for first time prescribers.
`
`Francois Nader
`
`So that’s for the U.S. Tazeen and I’ll ask Eric to address the international market.
`Eric Pauwels
`
`Yes, hi, Tazeen. I think most of our growth is going to come from new accruals as we are just beginning
`the process of actually launching. By next year we should have at least eight countries on board and we
`are hoping to have obviously some good news from both France and from Germany which will be key
`growth drivers as well as UK.
`
`As Francois mentioned as well, we have received a priority review from Canada and we also hope to
`prepare the market in Canada and we would expect the secondhalf launch in Canada as well. So the
`strategy for us internationally will be to really accrue new patients and in particular do that in these Centers
`of Excellence, where in Europe and in Canada as well, many of the patients are in these concentrated
`centers.
`Tazeen Ahmad – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
`
`Okay, thanks for the color on that. And I guess one question on Natpara. For the REMS, what's the
`purpose of it really just generally, because I think at the AdCom, one point REMS was discussed in FDA,
`someone from the FDA had said that it's not really used to monitor safety. So given that you've been
`asked to propose a REMS, is it fair to assume that you or it's going to be used for controlled distribution?
`Francois Nader
`
`So, I’ll ask our Chief Medical Officer Dr. Roger Garceau to answer your question.
`
`Roger Garceau
`
`It’s okay. So on the REMS as you’ve heard from the FDA, had to be accounted for educational purposes
`to try and put the risk benefit into a something in terms of a scenario, so that when physicians prescribe,
`okay, they target the right patients and the right populations and they talk the risk factor over with the
`patients. I mean, that’s generally what REMS are doing. REMS are not, as you’ve heard, they are not
`registries, they are not for other things.
`
`So in general, REMS – and there is different parts of REMS, so most are educational. Occasional REMS
`will have what's called an ETASU, Elements To Assure Safe Use and those are requirements to say this is
`the population that should be treated, this is how you want to target., so that’s again some things are on
`that. So you have a big variety of what REMS means, okay from that perspective, not exactly for in
`Natpara, we’re – this is we’re in discussions with the FDA.
`Tazeen Ahmad – Bank of America Merrill Lynch
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`Okay. Thanks.
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you.
`Operator
`
`Our next question comes from the line of Eun Yang with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please proceed
`with your question.
`
`Eun Yang – Jefferies
`
`Thank you. So in the third quarter, Gattex sales growth was a pretty healthy 28%, but with the price
`increase in August, what was the volume growth in third quarter from second quarter?
`Luke Beshar
`
`Yang, this is Luke. Actually we increased our price 9.4% on July 1, so you can strip out the need to buy in
`piece of it with the price, because the price is effective on the first day of the quarter. And we are very
`pleased with the market acceptance of that price increase.
`Eun Yang – Jefferies
`
`Okay, thanks. And then with all the activities going on exU.S., is it reasonable to assume that meaningful
`sales would start the second half of next year in exU.S.?
`
`Luke Beshar
`
`Yes, actually as we said, I believe Francois mentioned in his prepared comments, we expect that revenue
`to begin flowing in 2015, a little bit in 2014, but it’s not going to be material, and it will be become
`meaningful and significant in the second half of next year.
`Eun Yang – Jefferies
`
`Okay, thanks. And last question, in preparation for Natpara launch in the second quarter next year, how
`many sales reps would you be hiring upon approval?
`Luke Beshar
`
`We’ve already hired the regional sales directors, and they’re in the process right now of recruiting 50 sales
`representatives that will call on endocrinologist and other specialist.
`Eun Yang – Jefferies
`
`Thank you.
`
`Francois Nader
`
`Thank you, Yang.
`Operator
`
`Our next question comes from the line of Alan Carr with Needham. Your line is now open. Please proceed
`with your question.
`Mark Vignola – Needham & Company
`
`Hi, guys, it's actually Mark on for Alan. I had a question about the Gattex guidance for the year. I was
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`NPS Pharmaceuticals' (NPSP) CEO Francois Nader on Q3 2014 Results Earnings Call Transcript | Seeking Alpha
`12/22/2015
`wondering if you could point to what sort of happened over the last few months that shifted you guys from
`the broader range to the lower range? Is this something that's happening in the US, is this more about the
`regulatory process on the EU?
`Francois Nader
`
`Paul?
`Paul Firuta
`
`Sure. So the sales force is doing a great job. We armed with new target lists and they are reaching many
`new prescribers of Gattex. There is really two parts to this, the slowing, first is the centers of excellence.
`What we found at the centers of excellence is that, the centers