Earnings Labs

OPKO Health, Inc. (OPK)

Q1 2016 Earnings Call· Mon, May 9, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to the OPKO Health Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following management’s prepared remarks we will hold a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, May 09, 2016. I would now like to turn the call over to Anne Marie Fields. Please go ahead Ma'am.

Anne Marie Fields

Analyst

Thank you. Good afternoon, this is Anne Marie Fields with LHA. Thank you all for joining today’s call. Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that any statements made during this call which are historical will be considered forward-looking, and as such will be subject to risk and uncertainties, which could materially affect the companies expected results, including without limitation the various risks describing the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and its subsequent filings with the SEC. Before we begin, let me review the format for today’s call. Dr. Phillip Frost, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OPKO will provide brief opening remarks, followed by Steven Rubin, OPKOs Executive Vice President who will provide an update on the Company’s various businesses and clinical program followed by Adam Logal, Chief Financial Officer who will provide an overview of the Company’s financial performance during the first quarter of 2016. We will then open the call for questions after which Dr. Frost will conclude the call with his closing remarks. Now, I’d like to turn the call to Dr. Phillip Frost. Dr. Frost?

Phillip Frost

Analyst

Yes, good afternoon. First of all I’d like to thank you all for participating and I will just say that today’s announcement about our new agreement with a tremendous group, that is the Vifor Fresenius joint venture to market our reality product outside the United States and certain places and also to develop with us another dosage form which will be useful for dialysis patients is really very satisfying because it’s a result of a lot of discussion and negotiating and we are pleased because this is a group that are truly expert in doing with patients with kidney diseases, probably one of the premier groups in these particular disease area, so we are very satisfied. And again, for me it’s one of the great pleasures to get to know the different experts in certain areas. In that regard, I’ll mention, that’s it’s been an absolute pleasure dealing with the Pfizer team who are our partners with the growth hormone project as you know. And as we are sitting here, it would not be surprising to understand that at any point of time we are talking to many groups, and I think all of us here are happy to say that we are blessed by having the opportunity to have these great associations. So without further discussion, I’ll pass you onto Steve who will update you on the events of the quarter.

Steven Rubin

Analyst

Thanks, Phil and thank you all for joining us this afternoon. We entered 2016 with strong momentum following the transformative second half of 2015. The first quarter has been highly productive. During today’s call, I will provide an overview of our progress in therapeutics, diagnostics, biologics and certain partnered programs. Before turning the call over to Adam Logal, our CFO for a detailed discussion of our financial performance. Let me begin with an update on RAYALDEE. We announced some exciting news this morning about our new collaboration with Vifor Fresenius for the development and commercialization of RAYALDEE in Europe, Canada and certain other international markets for the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism in patients with stage 3 and 4 chronic kidney disease and vitamin D insufficiency. Vifor Fresenius is a leader in chronic kidney disease therapy and we believe they are the ideal partner to bring RAYALDEE to patients across Europe and elsewhere. Under the terms of the agreement, we will also collaborate to develop and commercialize a different dosage form of RAYALDEE for the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism in dialysis patients from end stage or stage 5 renal disease and we have granted to Vifor Fresenius an option to acquire rights to the U.S. market for this indication. The financial terms of the deal provide that Vifor Fresenius will make an upfront payment of $50 million plus upto an addition of $232 million of regulatory and sales based milestones as well tiered double-digit royalties or net sale. If Vifor Fresenius exercises the option for the U.S. dialysis market, they will pay OPKO upto an additional $555 million in commercial milestones as well as double-digit royalties or net sales. Turning to the regulatory status of RAYALDEE. As you know in 2015 we submitted the NDA for RAYALDEE to the FDA. On…

Adam Logal

Analyst

Thank you, Steve and good afternoon everyone. During the quarter ended March 31, 2016 we saw a significant improvement for financial performance compared to the 2015 period. Revenue increased to $291 million from $30 million principally driven by revenue from Bio-Reference of approximately $251 million. Operating loss for the quarter was $27.5 million compared to $56.9 million for the 2015 period. Operating loss during 2016 includes approximately $17.2 million related to payments to Bio-Reference executives including $8.9 million of non-cash expense related to the acceleration of their stock option. Impacting the 2015 period was $25.9 million non-recurring charge related to the repayment of a grant in Israel as a result to the Pfizer transaction. The acquisitions of EirGen and Bio-Reference have the most impacts on the comparability of our results between the two periods. Net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2016 decreased to $12.0 million from $117 million for the comparable period of 2015. Net loss in the 2016 period benefited from an income tax rate change in Israel. The 2015 period included the non-cash $53 million charge related to the mark-to-market activity of embedded derivatives of our convertible debt. Our balance sheet remains strong to approximately $175 million in cash and cash equivalents, plus the cash we received is part of the upfront payment from our collaboration agreement for RAYALDEE and the availability under our credit facility. I would now like to turn the call over to Dr. Frost. Phil?

Phillip Frost

Analyst

Thank you. Now, we'll open to questions if there are any.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Dana Flanders from JPMorgan.

Dana Flanders

Analyst

Hi. Thanks for the questions and congratulations on the deal. My first question is on the Vifor deal, can you just remind us what is the process to move RAYALDEE forward in these ex-U.S. markets and get approval. Just what are the timelines there? And then how should we be thinking about ex-U.S. market size for RAYALDEE relative to the U.S.? And then, I have a few follow-ups.

Charlie Bishop

Analyst

Hi, Dan, it's Charlie Bishop. The time line for moving RAYALDEE into approval in Europe is basically submitting an MAA to EMA which our plan in the first half of 2017 that would put us in a position to be approved sometime approximately a year latter with the launch following as soon as possible there after. With regard to the size of the market, our chronic kidney disease is pretty agnostic to cultures and races across the world in the United States. Blacks and Hispanic seem to be mostly affected and that's true across other countries as well. So, you can look at the proportions of populations recognizing that there are some differences in our Country's treat end stage renal disease or chronic kidney disease.

Dana Flanders

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. And my next question just on the development in dialysis patients. Is the cost there I guess what 50/50 with your partner and just where are you on the development of that currently?

Phillip Frost

Analyst

So, the answer – the cost will be split 50/50 and as far as the progress for developing we are just beginning.

Dana Flanders

Analyst

Okay. And then just my last one here and then I'll hop back in the queue. On the 4KScore reimbursement I believe you are expecting a CMS decision soon. Can you just walk us through the different potential outcomes there and can you remind us is this a decision on access and price or does the price negotiations still just come at a later date? Thank you.

David Okrongly

Analyst

Hi. This is David Okrongly. So, we're working right now with the group called MolDX. This is a group run out of Palmetto, and that is going to be used as hopefully a way to get a third party who is use to looking at novel molecular and advanced diagnostic test to allow then our Medicare Administrator know it has to give a local coverage decision and then based on the pricing we're seeing which is quite good from the private insurance companies that are bank to-date use that pricing information to set a price with Novitas. So it's still a couple of steps in the process but we're making great progress on it.

Dana Flanders

Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Couillard with Jefferies.

Brandon Couillard

Analyst · Jefferies.

Hey, thanks. Good afternoon. Just back on 4Kscore, could you give us a sense of sort of in the context the volume run rate that you gave us for April, what proportion of that is coming from GP community base, I guess the Bio-Reference incremental uptake, any color coming out of the AUA meeting this week?

Phillip Frost

Analyst · Jefferies.

Approximately half of the tests are coming from the Bio-Reference reflex type of situation in which an elevated PSA automatically gets a 4Kscore down the line, because the precision requesting the PSA has indicated that if it is elevated he would like to have the 4K. We have had tremendous reports back from the meeting out in California. We understand that our booth was swamped for most of the time and that was great not only at the booth, but we had several presentations and private meeting and vendors, they all attracted great audiences. So, we're feeling as though it is on a very track, and this was the first meeting in which Bio-Reference team participated and they certainly added a lot to the picture.

Brandon Couillard

Analyst · Jefferies.

Jumping over to Claros, any -- Steve, any more granularity you can give us on the exact time line or dates when you expect to actually submit the first two I guess tests for that platform?

Steven Robin

Analyst · Jefferies.

We're looking to submit those tests, the PSA and testosterone towards the end of this year or early next year, and regulatory approval in 2017.

Brandon Couillard

Analyst · Jefferies.

Okay. And then lastly for Adam, can you give us your operating cash flow figure for the first quarter. Look like the net cash balance decline little bit sequentially. And then any more insight you can give us on in terms of the sequential jump in SG&A, I mean, even excluding the severance related payments to Bio-Reference, so looks like a sizeable sequential uptick. Anything you can help us on there? And then in terms of the outlook for the year you know ballpark numbers in terms of OpEx?

Adam Logal

Analyst · Jefferies.

Sure. So with operating cash flow we used about $9.2 million from operations for the quarter, which is a pretty good result for us. As far as the increase in SG&A cost, those are – we mentioned the severance related costs, but there is not anything else individually that stands up Brandon to call out. And I do think from a run rate perspective on the cost of revenue R&D and SG&A lines, I think they are excluding some of those one time cost that we call now those should be pretty run rate to consider – continue to think about.

Brandon Couillard

Analyst · Jefferies.

Super. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Yale Jen with Laidlaw & Company.

Yale Jen

Analyst · Laidlaw & Company.

Thanks for taking questions. Could you give us a little bit breakdown for the top-line revenue between the Bio-Reference Lab and other aspects?

Steven Robin

Analyst · Laidlaw & Company.

In my remarks I mentioned that we had about $251 million revenue from Bio-Reference, revenue from our products which consist of our pharmaceuticals we're selling abroad. We're just below $20 million and 19.9 and then revenue from our transfer from intellectual property was approximately $18.6 million.

Yale Jen

Analyst · Laidlaw & Company.

Okay, great. Thanks. And another question is that in terms going forward, if you want to use the data, RAYALDEE for dialysis patient. How would you see any differences or similarity to that of in terms of the chronic kidney disease patient in terms of any special needs or in terms of [Indiscernible] any other aspects? And thanks for taking the questions.

Charlie Bishop

Analyst · Laidlaw & Company.

Hi, Yale this is Charlie.

Yale Jen

Analyst · Laidlaw & Company.

Hi.

Charlie Bishop

Analyst · Laidlaw & Company.

The pre-dialysis patients are more specifically those patients who have CKD stages 3 or 4. They will be treating with RAYALDEE on a daily basis whereas hemodialysis patients will be treated three times per week. Now that being the case, the dose to be delivered to hemodialysis patients will be higher. Also it's known that secondary hyperparathyroidism as it progresses requires usually higher and higher doses to patients to effectively control elevated PTH. So given that stage 5 for hemodialysis patients have more advanced secondary hyperparathyroidism. We expect that the dose will be even higher.

Yale Jen

Analyst · Laidlaw & Company.

Okay, great. Thanks lot. I appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin DeGeeter with Ladenburg.

Kevin DeGeeter

Analyst · Ladenburg.

Hey, good afternoon guys. Congratulations, really nice quarter. Couple of questions following up I guess with regard to RAYALDEE in potential development in the dialysis setting. Charlie, can you comment on you sort of the target patient population for RAYALDEE in light of the other Vitamin D analogs with approved indications for dialysis some of which will likely be generic by the time RAYALDEE were to enter the dialysis market.

Charlie Bishop

Analyst · Ladenburg.

Hi, Kevin, good question. RAYALDEE will be unique as a treatment for dialysis patients in that its an own oral-only drug, and as you will understand Oral-only drugs are excluded from the U.S. dialysis bundle, that would mean that RAYALDEE should stay excluded as we expect from the bundle would be covered by Medicare Part D and not by Medicare Part B as in boy. That's creates an interesting situation where RAYALDEE will not be a cost to dialysis providers rather it would be potential profit center given that it could to dispensed five dialysis centers, pharmacies, should they have pharmacies and that of course is the trend for dialysis centers to have more and more capability from the pharmacy standpoint. I hope that answered your questions.

Kevin DeGeeter

Analyst · Ladenburg.

Yes. That's was really helpful. Thanks. And just maybe two other quick follow-ups from me. Adam, can you give us sort of apples-to-applies comparison of the Broadway for Bio-Reference, I know we gone through this exercise before comparing to the historical -- historically reported Bio-Reference numbers create some accounting issues from [Indiscernible] standpoint?

Charlie Bishop

Analyst · Ladenburg.

Yes. I think if you look at the Q4 to Q1 growth rate you'd see that Bio-Reference revenue grew by just below 15% quarter-over-quarter and that's been really driven by a substantial increase in the patient counts particularly at GeneDx, so those are the comparable scale.

Kevin DeGeeter

Analyst · Ladenburg.

Okay, great. And then maybe one last one from me and I'll get back in the queue, maybe this one for Steve, Steve, what's really the gating factor to kicking off the pediatric human growth hormone registration study sometime later this year?

Steven Robin

Analyst · Ladenburg.

It just device and drug finder [ph] device and as we said, we're going to start our trial with the device, the same device and the same formulation that we commercialized. Pfizer controlling that process and we're obviously supportive of the strategy.

Kevin DeGeeter

Analyst · Ladenburg.

Great. Thanks so much.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Rohit Vanjani with Oppenheimer.

Rohit Vanjani

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

Hi. Afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I had a couple of questions on the RAYALDEE filing. For the Catalent plant Florida have they made any new hires, or they hired any consultants to come in and help with the action plan?

Phillip Frost

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

Jane Hsiao, if can respond.

Jane Hsiao

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

Yes, indeed. They have consultants working with them but most important is they actually a very good quality team from top to the bottom, so very comfortable with their response.

Rohit Vanjani

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

And then when you submitted the action plan, does that mean that all of the corrective actions that doesn't mean that they're all implemented as of this submission, right. It's more of a promise that you'll get those actions implemented by the PDUFA in 10/22/16.?

Jane Hsiao

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

No, they response them actually addressing the deficiencies, with regard to that they have corrective action plan, by the time they submit this response on April 15, most of the corrective action are in place and some of them already completed and some of them will be completed in the next few weeks that includes implementing new sterner [ph] operating procedures as well as training the employees very, very comprehensive response from their point of view.

Rohit Vanjani

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

Okay. And I’m assuming the FDA would have to come back and re-inspect the plan, has that date already been decided and is that before the PDUFA?

Jane Hsiao

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

FDA has not decided that if there is a need for re-inspection as of today.

Rohit Vanjani

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

Okay. And just hypothetically if it’s the remediation can’t be implemented quick enough and you have to change, if you have to move to another Catalent side, let’s say in Latin America for Softgels, would you have to resubmit to the FDA in case of plant move, and what will the time line be again hypothetically?

Jane Hsiao

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

Hypothetically, one has to change the manufacturing side that’s basically far over the development, that would take years to do. And we are very confident that Catalent has very adequately addressed the deficiencies.

Phillip Frost

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

As we probably know this facility is still operating, it is a huge facility one of Catalent’s largest that accounts for over 40% of the Softgels in the U.S. is continuing to operate ordinary core. So, the only things held up are new drug approvals, so we are not at this stage where a facility has been shut down.

Rohit Vanjani

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

And then for the partnership with Fresenius, are they responsible -- are you responsible for the manufacturing or are they?

Phillip Frost

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

We are.

Rohit Vanjani

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

That’s it from me. I guess, I’ll take up the rest with you offline. Thanks.\

Phillip Frost

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

Thank you.

Phillip Frost

Analyst · Oppenheimer.

Okay, we thank you all for participating once again and we look forward to being in touch with you next time.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and announce that you please disconnect your lines.