Mark Baum
Analyst · Lake Street Capital Markets.
Well, I think at our office today and over the next week or so, we are over the moon excited about Melt. And I don't think we've talked about Melt really at all, but we're hoping to get this closed here in the very near term. And I don't think people really understand the value of Melt and what the potential is there. It's really transformative for us. And so yes, we can -- we look at deals constantly. We're always evaluating things. But if you look at our portfolio and you think about some of the strategic goals that we've discussed and I've laid out even in the letter, in particular, around cataract surgery, the vision for ophthalmic surgery that we have, which is to have opioid IV and drop-free cataract surgery, that's exciting for patients. That's transformative. The idea that you can probably go into an office, have office space, maybe even bilateral same-day cataract surgery and on the pharma side, have no IVs, no opioids and not need eye drops post-surgery, that's extraordinary. And that's what Melt and some of the other products that we have will enable. That's transformative for the nearly 5 million surgeries that occur annually in the U.S. So we are looking at other deals. We're very interested in other deals. But right now we're super pumped about Melt. We want to get that closed. We want to get the balance of the data collected and put into a dossier so that we can submit an NDA and get that product approved and help realize this vision that we have to really transform ophthalmic surgery. And then eventually, hopefully see the MELT-300 drug candidate used outside of ophthalmology, which is really a much bigger market opportunity in dental and GI and claustrophobia for MRIs and the tens of millions of annual uses in the U.S. where we think the MELT-300 will be impactful. And then, of course, what's also interesting is this will be the first global play that we have. Historically, we've been a U.S.-focused business. And as you, I think, know, MELT-300 is not only patented, multiple patents issued domestically, but in all of the -- many of the major markets around the world. So it's a global opportunity as well that we hope to discuss with partners in other markets around the world. So lots to look at, but I'll tell you, when we look at what we have with Melt and the products that we've acquired over the years recently, we have just something very, very special that we need to execute on. And I'm really pleased to have Pat as my partner, our partner to help us do that.