Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference call will be recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Tiffany Aldrich, Head of Corporate Communications for Esperion Therapeutics. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Esperion's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. With us today are Sheldon Koenig, President and CEO; and Ben Halladay, CFO. Other members of the executive team will be available for Q&A following our prepared remarks. We issued a press release earlier this morning detailing the content of today's call. A copy can be found on the Investor page of our website, together with a copy of the presentation that we will also be referencing. I want to remind callers that the information discussed on the call today is covered under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. I caution listeners that management will be making forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied by our forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with the business. These forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained in today's press release and in our SEC filings. The content of this conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of this live broadcast, March 10, 2026. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this conference call and webcast. As a reminder, this conference call and webcast are being recorded and archived. We will begin the call with prepared remarks and then open the line for your questions. I'll now turn the call over to Sheldon.

Thank you, Tiffany. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. 2025 was a defining and transformative year for our company, representing our strongest performance to date. We fortified our financial foundation, continued our strong commercial execution and reinforced our commitment to the patients who inspire everything we do. Because of this work, we entered 2026 with strong momentum and a clear path forward. We recently introduced our Vision 2040, which defines our long-term ambition and the road map to achieve it. I'm proud to say we are already executing on that vision. Our planned acquisition of Corstasis Therapeutics significantly enhances our company and demonstrates our Vision 2040 strategy in action. It is a transformational step that will give us 2 powerful global franchises to grow, our global bempedoic acid portfolio and Enbumyst, a first-in-class intranasal diuretic addressing meaningful needs in heart failure care. This combination of addressing bad cholesterol and heart failure will align with our existing cardiology footprint, accelerate growth and most importantly, offer patients more impactful, patient-friendly options across the continuum of cardiometabolic disease. The acquisition of Corstasis is a catalyst for additional long-term value and a testament to our commitment to building a larger and sustainably profitable company. Our priority is to grow these 2 franchises to their multibillion-dollar potential. Turning to the progress we've made building the U.S. bempedoic acid franchise, we achieved strong prescription growth and broadened payer coverage as we focused our sales and marketing efforts on statin-intolerant patients, which represents a significant market opportunity. Together, this allowed us to drive Q4 year-over-year sales by 38%, increase retail prescription equivalents by 34% and expand the number of unique health care practitioners prescribing NEXLETOL and NEXLIZET by nearly 25%. We anticipate 2026 to continue this momentum, driven by our strong reimbursement and expect…

Thank you, Sheldon. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results can be found in the press release we issued this morning and more detail will be included in our upcoming 10-K. 2025 was the company's best year on record, and our financial results reflect the important advances the team has made. We continue to make progress through 2025 towards sustained profitability and our commitment to growing the bempedoic acid franchise has laid the groundwork that enabled us to enter into new markets and diversify our revenue streams. We ended the year with $55 million less in debt by paying off the 2025 convertible note stub. And thanks to our disciplined approach to expense management, we ended the year with $167.9 million in cash. We are still in a strong cash position, and we are well capitalized to successfully implement the Enbumyst launch. Fourth quarter 2025 total revenue was $168.4 million, an increase of 144%. U.S. net product revenue was $43.7 million compared to $31.6 million for the comparable period in 2024, an increase of approximately 38%. Collaboration revenue was $124.7 million compared to $37.6 million for the comparable period in 2024, an increase of approximately 232%, driven by a onetime payment of $90 million received from Otsuka related to regulatory approval and favorable NHI price listing, increases in royalty sales within our partner territories and product sales to our collaboration partners from our supply agreements. Turning to the rest of the P&L. For the fourth quarter 2025, research and development expenses were $13.9 million compared to $11 million for the comparable period in 2024, an increase of approximately 26%. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $41.4 million compared to $36.9 million for the comparable period in 2024, an increase of 12%. The increase quarter-over-quarter was primarily related to increased legal costs associated with the ANDA litigation. As mentioned before, we ended 2025 with $167.9 million in cash and cash equivalents and a balance sheet that continues to improve every year. Our strong stable balance sheet gives us the opportunity to build not only our NEXLETOL and NEXLIZET franchise, but to integrate Corstasis and successfully launch Enbumyst as well. Our new operating expense guidance updated to reflect modest increases shows the strong synergies we expect between our product lines. We now project full year 2026 operating expenses to be in the range of $225 million to $255 million, including $15 million in noncash expenses related to stock compensation. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Sheldon for closing remarks.

Thank you, Ben. In closing, 2025 marked a year of meaningful execution, strategic expansion and business transformation, and we are truly a new Esperion. We strengthened every core dimension of our company from commercial performance to global partnerships, from scientific leadership to long-term strategy. And now we have an agreement to add a synergistic high-value asset with the planned acquisition of Corstasis. We expect this transaction to be a growth accelerant and a foundational building block of our Vision 2040 strategy. We are energized by the opportunities ahead and remain relentlessly focused on delivering innovative therapies to patients, value to shareholders and sustainable long-term growth for our business. Thank you for joining us this morning. Operator, we are now ready to open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question is going to come from Joe Pantginis with H.C. Wainwright.

So I just wanted to go back and maybe review or get reminded again with regard to Corstasis, which was a nice addition to the sales bag for your field force. So just curious, with the device itself, what is your ability or what is the capacity now with regard to, say, approximate numbers of patients to treat and any capacity needed moving forward? And then what are the potential next steps that are required for the auto-injector?

Great. Thanks, Joe. So as it relates to capacity, we're fine. We're in good shape there. There's nothing really needed. We've got product and we're ready to go. There are physicians right now, some of which are using it, but there's never really a full-scale launch, and that's what we are working on and thinking about. Obviously, we have to wait for the deal to close, which, as we've mentioned before, will sometimes be in early April. And then your second question was related to next steps of the auto-injector.

Auto-injector.

Yes, yes. So we'll plan to update you probably after the deal closes of where we are in the pipeline, but it is something we want to mention because it is coming. And the reason why we're mentioning it is that it just gives physicians choice. What I will say is that one thing that we've heard already from key opinion leaders is the ease of use of this drug. And that's what patients need. As you know, patients suffering from heart failure, it's very alarming. People can't breathe, they can't sleep, et cetera. And to be able to just put something into your nose and get relief, that's a big deal. So we're focused on that now. And again, the auto-injector will be something in the future that will allow optionality.

And our next question is going to come from Kristen Kluska with Cantor Fitzgerald.

So I wanted to ask one on the ACC guidelines. When looking at their abstract titled online, it certainly gives the hint that we're going to be getting something soon. So just curious if you could talk about the latest that you've been hearing on that front, given the conference is in 2.5 weeks here. And then also what you as a company are doing to prepare for that conference? I know that this will also be an opportunity for the clinicians to get training at the conference, but what can Esperion do to prepare from that side?

Yes. Thanks, Kristen. Let me start off, and I'll kick it over to John to talk about what we're doing as an organization. So the intel was always the fact that we would be getting the guidelines sometime in the first quarter. At one point, we were told early in the first quarter. Obviously, here we are in March. Our best intelligence right now is that it will come out before ACC and will probably come out a week before ACC. We've seen some advertisements online that other people have probably seen by ACC talking about a satellite symposium that they're going to hold sometime in the March 19, March 20, and we're thinking that's probably when they could be released. So before I turn it over to John, the one thing, again, we don't know what they say, but we feel very confident that we should be well represented. And we also believe that there'll be harmonization between what we saw in Europe and U.S. guidelines. And you heard what I said in our prepared remarks around hsCRP. There's been a lot of references to bempedoic acid even before the guidelines in different areas about where we fit as a therapy, which have all pointed to positive signals. But let me turn it over to John to talk about how we're preparing for it.

Kristen, as you can imagine, the team has been preparing for quite some time for this event, and we have a very in-depth cross-functional plan for the entire organization and the medical community as soon as the guidelines are released. It will range from materials for our customer-facing field members, both medical as well as commercial and the sales team as well as a broad digital program and outreach. So we're ready and waiting.

And on that note, given that we kind of got a little bit of a preview about what to expect in Europe, curious if you've talked to your partners about what has happened to them in the months after and in terms of whether the number -- obviously, you guys as an organization are working closely with physicians, but how much of this was inbound from people that were newly introduced or perhaps getting reintroduced? I know you also launched in the midst of the pandemic here. So is there a potential that people are going to be coming internally to you because they'll be reintroduced to the product with these new guidelines?

So I think what we saw when we actually talked about the CLEAR Outcomes study going back to 2023, you saw this huge bolus of awareness. And some of the things that John talked about and some of the things we'll be doing after ACC, we view this as another opportunity to get a lot of awareness, similar to what Daiichi Sankyo saw when the European guidelines were released. I've told the story before where key opinion leaders in Europe said congratulations to Daiichi Sankyo. And their Chief Executive Officer said, well, because of the guidelines, he said, "Well, it's the first time ever that I hear somebody else talking about what a great product this is other than you." And I think that's what's important is that now you have these third-party guideline writers who are very respected who will be talking about our placement in the guidelines and where we should be utilized. And I think that's going to bring more physicians to the table. It's also going to help physicians really understand that I do need to be thinking about this therapy with this type of patient and this type of diagnosis, et cetera. So it's nothing but what I would say upside for us as it relates to awareness, prescribing, you name it and we'll be ready. The one thing John and his team, after the European guidelines came out, we are out there 4 days after those guidelines with a detailed aid telling physicians in the United States what Europe had done. It just shows you how quick we can react and be ready. So we will take full advantage of this meeting as a very large awareness event, just like we did in 2023.

And the next question is going to come from Georgia Bank with Jefferies.

Georgia Bank on the line for Jefferies. I guess piggybacking on the conversation around the EU guidelines, maybe you could just talk a little bit about the impacts that you've seen in the U.S. already from those guidelines changed in the EU? And then what kind of incremental impact would you see in the U.S. given the guideline inclusion that's coming, as you said imminently? And any changes in the sales force that you -- going forward and where you see opportunities to add coverage for dial back on territories that might be less profitable?

Do you want to do the territory part, and I'll do the guidelines part.

Yes, sure. So George, good question as it relates to kind of sales force coverage. So we continually evaluate the needs of the organization based on demand, productivity, profitability and the needs of our growing portfolio. Once the Corstasis acquisition closes and we integrate Enbumyst into our operations, we will plan to expand the sales team modestly to ensure appropriate coverage of key settings, including the new markets such as key heart failure clinics and IDNs and health systems for that hospital discharge opportunity. And we look forward to providing additional updates as the year progresses. And we continue to evaluate our coverage in light of the guidelines as well to make sure that we deploy our teams in places where we continue to see success.

Thanks, John. And as it relates to European guidelines and effect on U.S. prescribing and how that sets us up for the U.S., let me just first say, in Europe, it's more qualitative. They don't really get prescription data, et cetera. But as you know, we look at patient data, and you've seen in our presentation that we delivered today and in our prepared remarks, Daiichi Sankyo now has treated over 700,000 patients with this drug. In Germany alone, as you know, you have to use bempedoic acid before you can go to a PCSK9. And that was established even before the guidelines. The guidelines reinforced the decision by AMNOG, which is a division of IQWiG in Germany that makes these health care technology assessments. We've talked about France. In France, they'll be launching. I know that their guidelines were received very favorably there. It's the second largest market in Europe, and they're already off to a fast start. As you know, Organon has partnered with Daiichi Sankyo to launch there and also in the Nordics. From a U.S. perspective, again, it's more qualitative and the feedback that we've gotten from the field is that physicians responded very favorably to the European guidelines. And I think the sentiment was, hopefully, we'll see the same thing in the U.S. And I think that's what we're all waiting for. But as it relates to U.S. guidelines and effect on prescribing, similar to the answer I gave to Kristen earlier, we think this is nothing but tailwinds for us. I mean the fact that, again, we can have a third-party advocate, it's important to be in guidelines. And the fact that we would now be in guidelines, this is our first opportunity, that's going to be a really big deal for us. And future competition, which we get questions of, they won't be in the guidelines. Remember, one of the reasons why we think we'll have prominence in the guidelines and why we have prominence in the European guidelines is because of the 14,000-patient CLEAR Outcomes study, which was a game-changing study. And we'll see why and how that will be interpreted into the U.S. guidelines as well. It's undeniable and just it's data that's important and physicians will be keen to get those guidelines and apply them.

And the next question comes from Serge Belanger with Needham.

The first one regarding the triple combo products. Based on your FDA interactions and the development path you've taken, what kind of label do you expect for these products? Is it going to be similar to the NEXLIZET? And then secondly, regarding guidance, I guess, for Ben, I know you don't provide top line guidance, but can you give us a little more color on the collaboration revenue line for 2026, just given that there's a couple of moving parts with Otsuka launching in Japan and the manufacturing transfer that's going to affect those numbers?

So let me start with the triple combination. Just as a reminder to everyone, the triple combination therapy is bempedoic acid plus ezetimibe plus the statin. So essentially NEXLIZET plus the statin. We're doing 2 different statins, atorvastatin and rosuvastatin. We're looking at a low-dose strategy. If you even look at ESC and what they showed in their presentation of the guidelines, if you look at the addition of a statin such as atorva or rosuva to NEXLIZET, you get close to a 70% reduction in LDL. We've done our own study with atorvastatin 10 milligrams and showed close to a 70% reduction in LDL. The label itself is -- will not carry the outcomes data that you see in NEXLIZET or NEXLETOL because people know the background of these drugs, statins and also bempedoic acid, whether it be NEXLETOL or NEXLIZET. So it's pretty much just a label without the outcomes data that will speak to efficacy. And we've already market researched this as well, Serge, and physicians get it. And what I will say is that this is something that not only are physicians really interested in, in Europe, but they're really interested in here in the United States. And the reason for that is because there is more of the shift to this polypill within a therapeutic area strategy. And the fact that you can give somebody one pill that will get them to perhaps a 70% LDL reduction speaks to so many benefits as it relates to compliance, persistence, et cetera. So we're excited about it and look forward to the day where we can bring it to market. Ben?

Yes. Serge, thank you for the question. So when it comes to the partnership revenue line, there are a lot of moving parts this year. I mean, first and foremost, we won't have another $91 million in milestones because of the regulatory work that we had in 2025. But primarily, I think the big drivers are going to be, we expect royalties to continue increasing both from the addition of Otsuka as well as the fact that Daiichi Sankyo continues to grow in their existing markets and added France in first quarter of this year. On top of that, the tech transfer will start flowing through the P&L, and we expect that, that manufacturing will continue to ramp up over the course of this year. So that partner reimbursement line will tick down, but associated with that will actually be an increase in the gross margin based on the margins that we've discussed on these calls before. So a lot of moving pieces, but I think overall, we expect to continue to see that partner reimbursement line continue to add significant value to the company and enhance over the course of the year.

And our next question will come from Jason Zemansky with Bank of America.

Congrats on the quarter. So it seems in the last 2 quarters, while you broadened access on the payer front, there have been a number of concessions. So moving forward, can you discuss what the risks look like for additional concessions in 2026, especially given, as you mentioned earlier, there are potential new competitors poised to enter the market?

Jason, thanks for the question. But can you -- when you say concessions, do you -- what are you speaking to? Are you speaking to price or...

Yes, exactly.

Okay, yes. No, we don't see anything as it relates to concessions. We're set with our contracts. We have a 90% coverage in commercial, 90% now in Medicare. If anything, I think it's competition that's going to have to make concessions. Keep in mind, again, we have an outcome study, competition doesn't. I know you speak to the MK-0616 product. Keep in mind that they don't have outcomes until 2030, and payers really look for outcomes in order to avoid step edits and significant prior authorizations. So we're good. No concessions needed from us.

And the next question is going to come from David Amsellem with Piper Sandler.

I just have a couple. Coming back to the triple combination, what's your market research revealed regarding the extent to which it could expand your overall bempedoic acid franchise patient footprint on both sides of the Atlantic or frankly, globally? That's number one. Number two, as you think about the triple combo, I mean, the messaging historically has been about statin intolerance. Do you think the triple combo changes that message or muddles that message? And how do you square the triple combo with the historical messaging about statin intolerance and the utility of bempedoic acid in that context? That's number two. And then lastly, regarding your Vision 2040 plan, maybe just thinking about the sales force and how you're expanding the product offering what is the optimal number over the next 2 to 3 years, I should say, the optimal number of products that you think your commercial organization can carry in its bag, so to speak? Or put differently, what's the extent to which there's going to be other assets you're going to be bringing in over the next couple of years?

Sure. Yes. Let me start off with the triple combination and the excitement in Europe and U.S. and market research. Succinctly, it's very high, David. I mean the fact of the matter is this cardiovascular disease is still the #1 killer. And even despite all the therapies that we have out there, it still is the #1 killer and continues to grow. The excitement around triple combination has been very high in both Europe and the United States. As a matter of fact, it was reinforced with the European guidelines where the whole emphasis was on triple combination. And there, they talk about triple combination without even having the pill. It's more a combination of therapies to get patients to goal. And I think we finally have reached that point where similar to diabetes, similar to hypertension, one drug does not get you to the goal that you need, you need multiple. So it's very exciting from that perspective. Regarding statin intolerance, it doesn't muddy the waters at all because remember, the definition of statin intolerance is really 3. One, a patient who doesn't want to take a statin at all; two, a patient who can't tolerate a statin; three, a patient who can take a statin, but only a low dose. And keep in mind, for triple combination, it's really about looking at that low-dose statin with bempedoic acid. So the definition of statin intolerant, as a reminder, is not just a patient who can't take a statin at all. It's just about the dose of a statin. And keep in mind, titrating a statin only gives you a 6% additional LDL efficacy. It's meaningless. That's why it's better just to go to these other therapies. Again, something that was reinforced in the European guidelines, and I think you'll see reinforced in the U.S. guidelines. Before I turn it over to John to talk about number of representatives, et cetera, because I think there's maybe 2 questions in there, we're good now. We have bempedoic acid, NEXLIZET and NEXLETOL. We're doing the Corstasis acquisition. We talked about Vision 2040 having 5 products. Keep in mind, primary sclerosing cholangitis is a product. If successful, would be out in 2030, 2031. But from a BD perspective, we're good where we are now. We'll call our jets with BD. We'll always look at the environment. But as it relates to number of field personnel, et cetera, just overall, I'll turn it over to John.

Yes. Thanks, Sheldon. David, I look at the question twofold. One is the size of the sales organization and number of reps as well as to your question, the optimal number of products within an existing bag. And it really depends upon, one, the target overlap and the customer call point. It also depends upon where the product or products are within their life cycle. We still are in the early stages of the life cycle of NEXLIZET and NEXLETOL. And obviously, we're in the very beginning stages of the life cycle of Enbumyst. In 2 to 3 years from now, we could envision having a field that has 2 to 4 products in the bag. Again, it depends upon call points, synergies as well as life cycle. And getting beyond that 4 sometimes gets questionable. But we have seen it where more mature products can be in the bag, so it could be 4 or 5. But again, we're not at that stage yet from a maturity and a product life cycle standpoint, but we'll continue to evaluate how the products fit as we evolve into our Vision 2040.

And the next question will come from Paul Choi with Goldman Sachs.

My first question is another one just on the triple combination and that was combinations. And I was wondering if you could any -- offer any narrowing of the range in 2027, where you might potentially file the NDAs for the 2 drugs. And my second question is on Corstasis. Can you maybe just remind us if there are any clinical development obligations or post-market obligations at this point for Enbumyst? And then also just sort of in '26, whether you anticipate any additional clinical updates from the ongoing clinical development or presentation development programs?

Great. Thanks, Paul. And let me -- well, Ben, why don't you start with the Corstasis one?

Yes, Paul, on the Corstasis side, there are some small PMR studies that need to be done, but we've included all those in the updated expense guidance. They're minimal. It's not something that we really expect to move the needle all too much.

Thanks, Ben. And it relates to triple combination and narrowing down the date. I'm just going to say right now, Paul, we'll continue to update you. But right now, sticking to 2027. There's competitive reasons for saying that as well, but we'll definitely continue to update you on our progress. But again, to me, the triple combination reinforces our commitment to, again, making bempedoic acid franchise as successful as possible while also making our Corstasis acquisition once approved, equally successful.

I am showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Sheldon for closing remarks.

Great. Well, thank you so much. I again want to thank everyone for your ability to attend our earnings today. Again, 2025 was just a great year for us, our best year ever, fourth quarter, our best quarter ever and really appreciate all the questions as well. And look forward to updating all of you in the future as we continue along here at Esperion. So thank you so much. Have a great rest of the week.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.