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Minerva Neurosciences, Inc. (NERV)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 6, 2014

$6.45

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Minerva Neurosciences Third Quarter 2014 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode and there will be a question-and-answer session at the end. This call is being webcast live on the Investors section of Minerva’s website at minervaneurosciences.com. As a reminder, today’s call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Joe Reilly, Chief Operating Officer at Minerva. Please proceed.

Joe Reilly

Management

Good afternoon. A press release with the company’s third quarter 2014 financial results became available at 4 p.m. Eastern Time today and can be found on the Investors section of our website. Joining me on the call today are, Dr. Rogerio Vivaldi, Chief Executive Officer of Minerva; Dr. Remy Luthringer, President and Chief Scientific Officer; and Mr. Geoff Race, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks we will open the call for Q&A. Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that today’s discussion will include statements about the company's future expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We caution that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include the initiation timing, cost, progress and success of our research and development, preclinical studies and clinical trials, developments related to our competitors and our industry, including the success of competing therapies that are or may become available, our ability to advance product candidates into and successfully complete clinical trials and other factors identified from time to time in reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements made on this call speak only as of today's date, Thursday, November 6, 2014, and the company does not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after today's date. I would now like to turn the call over to Rogerio Vivaldi.

Dr. Rogerio Vivaldi

Management

Thank you, Joe. Good afternoon, everyone. Today I will outline our recent pipeline progress and how these advancements reflect our dedication to the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases and the patients in this field [indiscernible] that needs. Let’s start with the Q3 highlights, Dr. Remy Luthringer will review the specific clinical developments that are currently underway later in his prepared remarks. But I would like to quickly highlight our achievements, where I am very excited by the progress we have made in the multiple upcoming milestones we are anticipating across our pipeline. During the third quarter, we advanced our two main clinical programs, MIN-101, which we are preparing for Phase 2b trials for schizophrenia and MIN-202 for insomnia, which is a multiple Phase 1 studies. Let start with MIN-101. We continue to advance MIN-101, our lead pipeline asset and initiate the new Phase 1 once daily dose formulation of the compound that is being conducted in two parts. The objective of the first part is to assess different prototypes of the drug and their plasma PK data after a single dose. We expect to release topline results from this part of the study in the near-term with an announcement planned for the fourth quarter of 2014. The second part of this trial will be to evaluate the selective prototype for dose and time-related effects which will then be used in the Phase 2b study being planned in Europe, which we’ll expect to begin rolling in the first half of 2015. On MIN-202, we have also made important progress with our insomnia program including the hidden FDA acceptance for our IND application for MIN-202 and our collaboration partner Janssen has now initiated a Phase 1 bioavailability study in healthy volunteers in the U.S. We expect to announce topline results from these trial…

Dr. Remy Luthringer

Management

Thank you, Rogerio. Turning first to MIN-101, MIN-101 is an innovative small molecule. It acts as an antagonist of 5-HT2A and sigma2 receptors. And in Phase 2a study has shown efficacy on the spectrum of symptoms for schizophrenia, particularly the negative symptoms, cognitive impairments and sleep disorders of the disease, which are underserved by current treatment options and constitutes the main unmet medical needs. MIN-101 also has a potential to avoid the similar side effects of existing therapies, including sedation, [indiscernible] symptoms, plasma prolactin increase, metabolic disorders and weight gain. We plan to initially develop MIN-101, as a first line monotherapy therapy. In our Phase III trials, we’d also study its use in co-administration with atypical antipsychotics. We believe there is also an opportunity to use MIN-101 in other neuropsychiatric diseases outside of schizophrenia, like severe mode of neurodegenerative disorders. We are currently conducting a Phase 1 trial of MIN-101 to come up with once-a-day formulation and to assess those dose dependency and time dependency features of our drug. The study is being carried out in healthy volunteers and the main objective is to establish the final optimal once-a-day formulation, which will be used in our Phase 2b trial in patients suffering from schizophrenia. As Rogerio mentioned, this trial is being conducted in two parts. Part one is exploring the plasma levels of several prototypes of the drug after a single-dose. The primary aim is to evaluate the plasma pharmacokinetic profile of the compound, is a similar aggregate exposure leveler to that observed in the Phase 2a study and it’s a drug that was administered twice a day. Safety, tolerability and the pharmacokinetic profile in a fed and fasted state are also being assessed as well. Results are expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2014. The data…

Geoff Race

Management

Thank you, Remy. Earlier this afternoon, we issued a press release summarizing our results of operations for the third quarter of 2014. A more detailed discussion of our results may be found in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed earlier today. Now moving to our cash position. Cash and cash equivalents as of September 30, 2014 were $23.6 million, compared to $1.8 million as of December 31, 2013. In July 2014, the sale of approximately 5.6 million shares in an IPO, including the partial exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares, and approximately 0.7 million shares in a private placement resulted in net proceeds to the company of approximately $29.9 million, after deducting underwriter discounts, offering costs, loan repayments and a $0.7 million license fee payment to ProteoSys. The company also sold approximately 3.3 million shares in July 2014 in a third private placement with Janssen, resulting in gross proceeds of $19.7 million. In conjunction with this private placement, the company made a $22 million license fee payment to Janssen. Minerva expects that the proceeds from the IPO and private placements will be sufficient to fund its operating requirements through the end of 2015. R&D expenses. Research and development expenses were $24.7 million in the third quarter of 2014, compared to $0.2 million in the same period in 2013. Included in research and development expense for the three months ended September 30, 2014 was $22 million associated with the license fee payment made to Janssen pursuant to our co-development agreement for MIN-202 and non-cash stock-based compensation expense of $0.1 million. Excluding non-cash stock-based compensation expense and the $22 million license fee, research and development expenses for the third quarter were $2.6 million, versus $0.2 million in the same period last year. This increase was primarily due to $1 million related to once a day formulation study initiated in 2014 for MIN-101 and $1.4 million in development costs for MIN-202 under our co-development agreement. G&A expenses. General and administrative expenses were $2.4 million in the third quarter of 2014, compared to $0.3 million in the same period in 2013. Excluding non-cash stock-based compensation expense of $0.8 million, general and administrative expenses were $1.6 million in the third quarter of 2014, versus $0.3 million in the same period in 2013. The increase was primarily due to $0.3 million related to intellectual property matters and our operations as a public reporting company and $1 million related to staffing, office leases and information systems to support our operations. The net loss was $27.2 million for the third quarter of 2014, or a loss per share of $1.53 basic and diluted, as opposed to a net loss of $0.5 million, or a loss per share of $0.12 basic and diluted for the same period in 2013. And now, I’d like to turn the call over to the Operator for any Q&A.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from the line of Jason Butler of JMP Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Jason Butler

Analyst

Hi. Thank you for taking the questions and congratulations on the progress. First question on MIN-202 and actually let me just start by congratulating Remy also on his promotion. Congrats, Remy. On MIN-202, can you just give us some more color on what you are looking for out of this array of Phase 1 studies? And what in your mind are go-no-go hurdles that need to be crossed to move into a further advance development?

Dr. Remy Luthringer

Management

Jason, thank you for your congratulation. So, MIN-202, I mean these three studies, I mean as you heard, one study is exploring insomnia in patient suffering from major depressive disorders and here we are doing polysomnography. So an objective measure of sleep. So here definitely, this objective is very clear, is to really show that the drug is improving, sleep induction and sleep maintenance. So this is really to cover the effect of insomnia. The second study, which is a multiple ascending dose study, is really to see what are the PK characteristics of the drug. And as you know, when you are developing a drug for insomnia, you need to have a very specific PK behavior, which is really fitting very well with a PK/PD effect expecting, which is in other words quick sleep induction. An effect which is maintained over a few hours and afterwards when you wake up, you are completely refreshed, so the drug should no longer be on board. So this is a second objective and because often this drug is given after repeated administrational several times, you need really to cover this. So if this is ready to cover this aspect and there is a study in the U.S., which has been completed in the U.S., is really to move from the liquid formulation, which has been used in the previous trials, was a solid formulation, which is a formulation which would be used in Phase 2a studies. So it's really to get a good understanding of the PK of this drug, to get a good understanding about the PK/PD and to get first hints of efficacy using an objective measurement, which is polysomnography.

Jason Butler

Analyst

Okay great that's helpful. And then just a question for Geoff on the numbers I guess, two different is about some question. One can you help us think about from the current base R&D spend excluding the payment to Yens and how we should think about that trend going forward? And then the second question I am thinking about the current cash and putting into contest what you think they get you in terms of runway both in terms of time and clinical catalysts?

Geoff Race

Management

Thanks for the question Jason. I’ll take the second one first the runway hasn’t changed from our original indication earlier this year and the current cash balances will take you through the end of 2015. That will take us most of the way through the Phase 2b study on 101. And it also obviously completes the first part of the 202 studies. With regard to your second question, obviously, there has been a lot of extraordinary expenditure in quarter two and quarter three related to the IPO. In quarter four, we expect R&D expenditure to increase from that level reported in quarter three, the $2.6 million reported in quarter three. I would expect that quarter four R&D expenditure would be in the region of between $4 million and $5 million.

Jason Butler

Analyst

Great. Thanks for the added color and again, congratulations on the progress.

Joe Reilly

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Brian Skorney of Robert W. Baird. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Brian Skorney

Analyst

Hey, guys, afternoon. Thanks for taking the call. Operator, thanks for taking the question. I guess, my whole question is really when do you think we might walk towards a U.S IND filing for MIN-101? Any thoughts about including some U.S. sites in phase 2b? I just know, historically, we've seen some ex-U.S. studies in phase 2b look good and then once U.S. patient were included in Phase 3. We’ve seen some failures. So I just wonder you can maybe just characterize thoughts about moving clinically into the U.S.? And how the phase 2b study might be derisked in terms of moving to Phase 3 from that perspective?

Dr. Rogerio Vivaldi

Management

Let me answer this.

Joe Reilly

Management

Yeah. Go ahead.

Dr. Rogerio Vivaldi

Management

Yeah. So Brian, great question obviously. So as you can guess we are working very intensively on preparing the file to go to the FDA. We are really compiling all the data and also as a new data coming in are very important for this file. We have completely designed Phase 2b study. As you heard, I mean, it’s a once a day formulation is also under control. So I think it is the right time to grow, so we are really working on this. And as soon as we will be ready, which will be almost in next few weeks, we will seek for our first time meeting with the FDA. So this will be our first meeting to get advice but I admit we’re working very hard on this to get it as quickly as possible. So this is the objective in terms of opening an IND. The objective is to get the feedback from the FDA in terms of study design and to really get them also understanding what you are doing currently in Europe in order to have the possibility as soon as we have the IND to do some patients in the U.S. if coming to this stage. But that mean, we are really working hard on this and it should be a matter of some weeks to have the first meeting.

Brian Skorney

Analyst

Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And I’m showing no further questions. I’d like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Joe Reilly

Management

Thank you. Thank you all for your participation in today's call. And of course, we are very excited with the upcoming milestones that we just announced to you in the following months. And we look forward to updating you again very soon. Thank you all.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program and you may all disconnect.