Coherus Oncology (NASDAQ:CHRS) Q3 2019 Earnings Call

0:00 Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Coherus Biosciences 2019 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. My name is Julianne, and I will be your conference operator for the call today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. And as a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to David Arrington, Vice President of Investment Relations and Corporate Affairs. Please go ahead, sir.

0:24 Thank you, Julianne, and good afternoon, everyone. After close of market today, we issued a press release on the third quarter financial results. This release can be found on the Coherus Biosciences website. Joining me for today's call will be Denny Lanfear, Coherus CEO, Dr. Jean Bourret, Chief Financial Officer, Jim Hazard, SVP of Commercial, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Chief Legal Officer. Before we begin our formal remarks, I would like to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements with respect to product development plans, all of which involve certain assumptions, risks, and uncertainties that are beyond our control and could cause actual results to differ from these statements. A description of these risks can be found on our most recent filings with the SEC. In addition, Coherus Biosciences does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call. I will now turn the call over to Denny.

1:16 Thank you, David, and welcome, everyone, to our Q3 earnings call. Today, we'll cover four broad areas for you. First, we'll review for you the Q3 2019 Udenica results, which saw the company achieve a 20% unit market share one-quarter head of guidance, and we expect to see additional growth in Q4. Secondly, we'll discuss our ophthalmology licensing agreement that we announced today, which signals the initiation of the commercial phase of our ophthalmology franchise in preparation for a 2021 launch. With respect to that, we will provide the rationale and benefits of the agreement, and further, we will describe the similarities between ophthalmology and oncology markets, and why we believe these two therapeutic areas are synergistic with respect to our existing commercial infrastructure.

2:09 I have with me today our CSPB of commercial, Mr. Jim Hazard, who will walk you through the commercial case in ophthalmology and provide some additional color. Third, we'll make some remarks regarding the company's inflammation portfolio and CHS 1420, our Humira bow similar. After that, we'll turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Dr. Jean Barre, who will review our quarterly and year-to-date financial performance. And then lastly, we will provide you with a key takeaway summary before, of course, going to the Q&A. Now, I'll let Mr. Hazard review for you the Udenica progress in Q3. Jim?

2:49 Thank you, Denny. As Denny mentioned, we reached our 20% unit share in the last weeks of the third quarter. We continue to be disciplined in competitive contracting as demonstrated by the evolution of the Udenica average selling price. Quarter over quarter, the Udenica average selling price declined by only about 3%, consistent with the average selling price decline of approximately 2% for New Lasta. Udenica share growth in the third quarter resulted from penetration into both New Lasta OnPro and Neulasta pre-filled syringe segments. We believe the formula for Udenica success lies in our approach to branded biosimilars. The marketplace continues to value certainty of supply and patient and provider services.

3:40 Opportunity continues to lie within all three key segments, 340B hospitals, non-340B hospitals and oncology community clinics. and there is opportunity in both accounts that have already adopted Udenica and those that have not yet initiated utilization. I would also note that we have seen growth in the overall Pegfell Graston marketplace, suggesting that biosimilar entrants have increased patient access. Denny, back to you.

4:13 Thanks, Jim. Now let me make a few remarks about our Optimology franchise. As you see in today's press release, We have concluded a license agreement for the leading U.S. Lucentis Biosimilar product candidate, enabling the company to have a Q4 2019 BLA filing and a planned 2021 product launch. We believe there are a number of compelling reasons for executing the deal at this time, which I'd like to review for you now. First, this transaction effectively pulls forward our previous Lucentis Biosimilar timeline by approximately two years. allowing us to play a key role in the market formation for the first anti-VEGF ophthalmology biosimilar. Secondly, a lucentis biosimilar enjoys a relatively low manufacturing cost of goods as a result of monthly dosing intervals and the relatively small amount of protein injected per dose.

5:10 This translates to attractive gross margins. Additionally, the competitive set and ultimate number of market entrants is expected to be relatively limited, given the technical complexity of these molecules and the development challenges. Finally, given our own lucentis biosimilar efforts with CHS 3351, we are able to fully leverage our existing analytical platform and in-house clinical regulatory expertise to support the filing and approval of this product. On the financial side, This transaction saves well over $150 million in projected development spending over the next few years and allows us to sharply focus our in-house development efforts on our own wholly-owned ILEA biosimilar.

5:58 Most importantly, we view this transaction as highly transformative by adding not only a second product to our near-term commercial portfolio, but accelerating the launch of a second therapeutic area for the company, the $6 billion anti-VEGF ophthalmology market. which has even a larger product category than the current $4 billion Udenica market. With all that being said, I'll now allow Mr. Hazard to discuss the Lucentis biosimilar commercial case in more detail.

6:28 Thanks, Denny. There are three primary reasons why we believe the ophthalmology market is commercially compelling. First, the Lucentis market is approximately $2 billion, a subset of the broader anti-VEGF market for severe retinal disease, which itself is greater than $6 billion in the United States. We believe the primary differentiator between Lucentis and ILEA is the dosing regimen, monthly versus bimonthly. It is a differentiation of convenience that lower cost might overcome. Secondly, in the United States, treatment of retinal disease follows the buy and bill model, analogous with the business model for oncology.

7:15 We believe it is an ideal opportunity to leverage our commercialization competencies. We plan on applying the same winning strategy for our Lucentis biosimilar in ophthalmology as we did for Eudenica in oncology. This includes the internal platform that we've developed, including Coherus Complete, our contracting capabilities, and our proven commercial analytics infrastructure. It also includes our payer infrastructure, both at the national and regional level, which has been a key component of our Udenica success story. This is critical, as we expect payers to be pro-biosimilar in this ophthalmology space, especially Medicare, which pays for 65% of ophthalmology lives with favorable demographics.

8:06 Third and finally, The ophthalmology market is four times more concentrated than the Pegg-Philgraston market. Approximately 90% of Lucentis sales are driven by only 450 accounts. By comparison, approximately 2000 accounts drive 90% of Pegg-Philgraston sales. This means we anticipate leveraging our current sales infrastructure requiring modest additional resources. Denny?

8:41 Thank you, Jim. We'll be happy to take additional questions during the Q&A. Now let me make a few remarks about our inflammation franchise. The company's third therapeutic area is, as you know, inflammation, where we expect to launch our CHS 1420 Humira Biosimilar in mid-2023 alongside others into a $15 billion market. We believe we can gain significant market share with a targeted strategy against certain segments, leading to $500 million to $1 billion in top line sales in subsequent years. This space, this therapeutic area, has been the subject of egregious price increases over the past decades, with annual patient costs increasing four to five times since launch. This makes this particular therapeutic area attractive for biosimilar adoption and the realization of savings for patients in the overall healthcare system.

9:37 Similarly to oncology and ophthalmology, inflammation decision makers are relatively concentrated, therefore conforming to our existing commercial footprint requirements and infrastructure. The company plans to file the BLA for CHS 1420 in 2020 in support of the mid-2023 launch, and we'll have further comments about this on future calls. I'd like to point out one further development in our information portfolio. Today, we announced that Coherus and Pfizer have entered into a license and settlement agreement relating to patents and applications for patents directed to adalimumab formulations. With that, I'll let the company's chief financial officer, Dr. Jean Bure, review the quarterly and year-to-date financials.

10:24 Jean?

10:25 Thank you, Denny. I will now review the main financial results for our third quarter since we launched Udenica. Net product revenue for the third quarter of 2019 was $111.7 million. This represents an annual run rate of nearly $450 million. Cost of goods sold for the third quarter of 2019 was $6.4 million, resulting in a gross profit margin of 94% for the third quarter. Research and development expense for the third quarter of 2019 was $21.6 million compared to $31.6 million for the same period in 2018. R&D expenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 were $59.2 million as compared to $83.6 million for the same period in 2018. The decrease in R&D expense in both periods was primarily due to the capitalization of Udenica manufacturing costs since the approval of Udenica on November 2, 2018, and a decrease in costs related to impairment loss, facilities, supplies, and materials.

11:39 Selling, general, and administrative expense for the third quarter of 2019 was $31.8 million as compared to $25.4 million for the same period in 2018. SG&A expense for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 was $101 million as compared to $60.3 million for the same period in 2018. The increase in SG&A expense in 2019 was primarily attributable to the costs related to commercializing Udenica in the United States, which included personnel and third-party services costs for commercial and marketing initiatives. Overall, Operating expenses excluding cost of sales were $53.4 million for the third quarter. Cash, cash equivalents and investments in marketable securities for the third quarter totaled $170.5 million at September 30, 2019 as compared to only $111.9 million at June 30, 2019, a more than 50% increase in balances.

12:37 Cash flow from operations year-to-date is $10.6 million. Cash flow from operations for the third quarter of 2019 stood at nearly $55 million. Then income attributable to the company for the third quarter of 2019 was $47 million or 63 cents per share on a fully diluted basis compared to a net loss of $58.8 million or a loss of 87 cents per share on a basic and fully diluted basis for the same period in 2018. Now, I would like to turn the call back to Danny for his concluding remarks.

13:27 Thanks, JV. Let me make a few points in summary before we go to the Q&A. We believe the company is firing in all cylinders as we continue to deliver on our strategic objectives. First, we have achieved solid financial results, including gaining 20% unit market share for Udenica earlier than expected. We are generating significant cash, which are now able to strategically allocate towards ophthalmology and other areas which will leverage the value of our platform and expand our franchises in the future. We expect to see modest investment in our infrastructure that will not greatly impact our cash flow profile. Lastly, we have completed our first significant in-licensing deal, providing the company a near-term revenue catalyst in a second therapeutic area.

14:14 The company's track record in biosimilar commercialization has made us an attractive potential partner and our deal flow is moving faster than previously expected. In fact, it appears to us that there are more high quality opportunities available than there are companies capable of successful biosimilar commercialization in the United States. We believe it is prudent and opportune to invest the cash generated from our commercial operations into additional external product growth opportunities Thank you, Operator. Julian, would you like to... If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the pound key. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster.

15:21 Your first question comes from Chris Schott from J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.

15:26 Great. Thanks very much for the questions, and congrats on the transaction today. My first question was just on the Lucentis opportunity. First of all, is there any IP issues we have to think about on this opportunity, or is this a pretty certain kind of timeline as we think about the 2021 launch?

15:45 Thanks for your question there, Chris. I'll let Tom Fitzpatrick, the company's chief legal officer, answer that. Tom?

15:54 Chris, thank you. There's no unique IP issues or anything that's special to this portfolio, so I'm not sure what you mean.

16:06 Generally, I think our view is that the intellectual property profile of the census is probably more constrained than other biosimilars have sometimes been. So, We feel there's a good legal strategy going forward with the legal. Of course, we won't comment on it, but I would think I would characterize it as well-constrained as opposed to other products which you know which have more vigorous activity.

16:43 Okay, perfect. And then my second question is on Lucentis. Maybe a broader question is just on R&D spending. It seems like this obviously pulls forward your launch and saves quite a bit of development cost. Just help me think a little bit about how I should be thinking about R&D spending going forward and when we should be thinking about that, I guess, the ILEA ramp, but just in general about R&D spend at the company.

17:05 I can comment specifically about the ILEA spend for R&D. So we've We have circled about the same $150 million for IALEA spread over approximately three years across manufacturing, clinical process validation lots, preparation for commercialization, and filing. So that $150 million allocation would have been similarly distributed across Lucentis. But that's one way to look at it. That is the one program that we expect and we can see we'll go into phase threes over the next year or two.

17:46 Perfect. And then just my final question, just pivoting to the Udenica opportunity, maybe just update expectations of where you expect share to be as you exit 2019 and should we be able to think about further share gains for that product in 2020 with another competitor coming in the space?

18:05 Yeah, we haven't revised our guidance for 2019. We would expect to provide additional guidance on 2020 on our Q4 call, which will probably happen sometime around February 2020. We can say that we expect to see continued growth over Q4 with Udenica. I think it's going very well. And I think that we have previously signaled what our thoughts are about 2020, which was 20% or greater growth. So overall, we're pleased with the way the Udenica story is shaping up. Great. Thanks so much. Your next question comes from Douglas Salve from HC Wainwright. Your line is open.

18:46 Hi. Good afternoon, and thanks for taking the questions. Just, you know, maybe a little perspective on how you think the new competitor might affect the marketplace. Are there sort of strategies that you've put in place and think about defending the The share that you've already captured. And, you know, in terms of Jim's comment that you've seen the PEG Philgraston market grow, do you think that's come at the expense of the short-acting the Philgraston market, which seems to have sort of, you know, kind of flattened recently? I'll

19:21 let Mr. Hazard address those two questions. Jim, maybe you want to take the... The last one first, short acting.

19:29 Yeah, you bet. Thanks, Doug. So in terms of growth of PEG filgrastim, we think that maybe it's a function of not necessarily the short acting, but in fact additional patients within the PEG filgrastim space. That's either due to perhaps clinical practice or it could be perhaps also just in terms of cost and payers loosening up things a little bit. In terms of additional competition, again, I'll remind you that we always expected additional competitors in this space, and our models have always assumed that Sandoz would launch. I will remind you that, again, Amgen still maintains 75% of the market share, so that's where we expect Sandoz to go.

20:17 We have put in place some mechanisms to defend the current share that we have, and we do believe that our value proposition that we've established will continue to be a competitive advantage for us in terms of, again, our supply, the service offering that we provide, as well as our contracting and pricing.

20:42 Okay, great. And then just one final question. Danny, maybe if you could provide a little bit of context around the settlement with Pfizer and a little background of where that – Are there meaningful financial implications for the company?

21:00 Let me let Tom handle that.

21:03 Thank you. Obviously, the details of the agreement are confidential. I think what I can say is that we've always believed in the value of our portfolio, and we will continue to look for opportunities to monetize that portfolio.

21:18 I wasn't aware of litigation. We presume that you are in conversations with potentially other

21:26 We don't want to comment on any conversations that we're having with respect to the portfolio, but suffice to say, as I mentioned, we will continue to look for opportunities to monetize

21:40 it. Okay. And is there anything meaningful from this agreement?

21:47 Meaningful... Financial... Again, the details of the agreement are confidential, so we couldn't comment on that. Okay, great. Thank you.

21:59 Thanks, Doug. I just want to make one additional remark. To point out to me, I may have misspoken with respect to 2020. The company reiterates its earlier guidance of exiting Thank you very much. Thank you very much. If you, Danny, you could comment on the manufacturing readiness of Lucentis product that you are getting, or who would be manufacturing?

22:47 You are the partner here, and could it be a rate-limiting step in terms of filing it? I have a follow-up after that.

22:55 Yeah. At this point, Mohit, we haven't disclosed the manufacturing strategy for this product, but I would indicate to you that we expect to approach the market with a very similar supply philosophy that was shown to be successful with Udenica. That is to have robust, high-quality supply, to have very, very good track records with all the regulatory inspections, et cetera. We'll have subsequent disclosures around manufacturing, I'm sure, but not at this time. But given that you are filing in Q4 this year, Do you have it ready at this point? Or shouldn't you – don't you have to have manufacturing ready at this point before you file?

23:44 Yes. Yes, manufacturing – that's correct. Manufacturing has to be ready when one files, and one can expect subsequent inspections upon filing. Got it. Very helpful. And then one more follow-up on Udanica. So if I look at the market share exit rates – It seems like your unit volume grew probably at 50% to 60% rate, but that is not reflecting in the dollar increase. Is there a further pricing discount this quarter, or is there some kind of inventory that we are missing, if you can help us understand that part?

24:26 Yeah. Let me see. Jim, you're probably the best to handle that question. Jim Hezard?

24:33 We'll say, Mohit, that in the latest quarters, we have established performance-based rebate contracts within the marketplace. The results of those are now rolling into the gross to net, but I will remind you, it's performance-based, so we only pay a rebate when we have sales. That's the strategy, and that's what we're now executing today. Again, moving forward, some of the gross to net or the revenues will be a little bit lumpy, but again, as Denny said, we continue to expect continued growth.

25:12 The additional point that I would make there, Mohit, as we've said before, with respect to a quarter, you can expect lumpiness month to month in that sort of linear trajectory across months for growth. And similarly, quarter to quarter, you can expect a bit of lumpiness either for seasonality or buy-ins or other sorts of things. So I think you have to take more of a 50,000-foot view on all these sort of trajectories. God, it's very helpful. Thank you, and congrats on the progress.

25:42 Oh, thanks, Mohamed. Your next question comes from Ken Cacciatore from Cowan & Company. Your line is open.

25:50 Hey, guys, just wondering if you could give us some sense of what's going on from a Mylan perspective and their supply situation. I know you don't like to talk about competitors, but it would help us understand as we go into 2020 maybe how the evolution of the kind of competitive landscape. And then on Lucentis, I'm sure, Denny, you all know exactly who you think is going to be there and how many. Can you give us a little bit more? New wants on the evolution of that marketplace. You said it's going to be obviously a healthy one, but can you give us a sense of how many potential competitors you will have there? And then lastly, you made an interesting comment about more deals and being a little bit constrained, more than you can handle, I think is what you said. Can you just talk about, is it more just getting outside of different therapeutic areas, meaning having to build kind of a sales force or...

26:41 Give us maybe a little bit of an understanding of what some of the rate limiting issues would be. Thanks.

26:50 Thanks, Ken. Let me start again with the supply issues. We don't have visibility onto mile-end supply capability one way or another. We have no inside confidential information on exactly what is going on. I believe that What we have done is, as you know, invest heavily in our own supply chain and our own quality systems to make sure that we have a very robust supply. And you are familiar with the fact that we actually launched this product with about 350,000 syringes in stock. And I think that's been a very potent strategy in the market, and that is a value that the market embraces. With respect to your second question and Lucentis' potential market participants, Probably at least one other, maybe not a third biosimilar.

27:41 I think these are tough molecules to do. There's been additional announcements in the space so far today with that. But this isn't an area where we'd see three or four market entrants, I do not believe. I think it's going to be somewhat constrained. And I think, and what we want to communicate here is we think that we can do fairly well in this market given its similarity to the oncology market, the way that it's structured, its buy and build nature, the way that our infrastructure is structured and really put together to match those needs. And so we think that we'll be able to put our best foot forward as we go forward, and I think it's very important to be near the front so you can participate in market formation.

28:27 Great. With your last question with respect to deal flow, I think that we've seen a lot of potential deal flow come our way. Certainly, Eudenica has been the benchmark highest performing biosimilar launch. And to have that come from a small company and be able to do as well as we have in the first year, I think it demonstrates that, as we've said before, that the best way to be successful in the biosimilar business is to be a biosimilar company. So folks have come forward, unsolicited or not, with their biosimilars for us in various areas in oncology or ophthalmology or even other areas, and we've taken a look at those. So I think, number one, our commercialization competency and expertise is broadly recognized. But number two, as we said, there's more potential deals than there are companies who can potentially successfully commercialize them because I think biosimilars are difficult and take specialized expertise.

29:31 The other remark that I made to give you a little more color on, you know, we said that deal flow is moving faster than expected. I probably, you know, six months ago when we first started talking about our desire to do additional deals for the pipeline, I probably would not have guided of completing the deal within three or six months as we managed to do here. But I think we're very pleased with the deal flow, very high quality deal flow. And so we'll keep you informed on the calls. We won't say too much, if anything at all, before those deals are done. But I think that we're busy over here with the deals. Your next question comes from Mike Olds from Baird. Your line is open.

30:13 Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question, and congrats on all the progress as well. And just with respect to the in-licensed Lucentis biosimilar, You mentioned launching in 2021. Should we be thinking early 21 there, just considering the BLA is going to be filed by the end of this year? Just trying to get a sense of are there other factors here other than approval that will sort of determine the timing of the launch?

30:42 Thanks. Well, it's, of course, a good question. If I had a little more granularity for you, you know, I may be tempted to offer it. I would say that we're going to launch this product as early as we can in 21. It was identified by the company on the last call, the call before that, that 21 represented the midpoint between the 2019 launch of Eugenica and the 2023 launch of our Humira Balsam, both of which are substantial product opportunities. So, as you know, as we said, we were targeting 21, and the message we're conveying here is we feel we've hit that bogey, and we think that that's very important in providing very continued growth for our investors.

31:30 Got it. Thanks.

31:32 Thank you, Mike. Your next question comes from Salim Syed from Mizuho Securities. Your line is open.

31:41 Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question and congrats on the progress. Just one for me, Denny, on just kind of Higher level, I think there were at least some investors who were thinking that if you were going to do some M&A, it would be more down the oncology path and not the ophthalmology path. I was just thinking, was there a reason why you wanted to go down the ophthalmology path? What exactly was it thinking there? Because right now you only have one drug in oncology, and you could get synergies if you brought something else there. What was exactly the thinking to go down there? and not do oncology for this first deal. Thank you.

32:24 Well, I think it's a fair question. I would first say that it's not an either-or proposition. The fact of the matter is we were developing several product licensing opportunities in oncology and product opportunities in ophthalmology. For a variety of reasons, this particular product opportunity came to fruition earlier. We're very pleased to be working with Bioec. We have great chemistry with the team, great chemistry with the company. Met with them several times, and I think it moved along quite quickly. As I indicated, we have not done this at the exclusion of oncology.

33:10 We remain very focused on oncology and biosimilars in oncology, as a matter of fact, and I wouldn't say too much to lead you on, but I would say that it's an area of a lot of activity for us in the future and I would probably manage your expectations that the next deal you see would be an oncology biosimilar deal of some flavor. Okay, got it. Thanks so much. First across the line, basically.

33:37 Got it. Thanks so much, guys. Thank you. We have no further questions and this will conclude our call. A replay of the webcast will be available on coherus.com. Thank you and have a great day.

33:50 Thank you.