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Palatin Technologies, Inc. (PTN)

Q2 2022 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 15, 2022

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Palatin's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2022 Operating Results Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Before we begin our remarks, I'd like to remind you that the statements made by Palatin are not historical facts and may be forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions that may or may not prove to be accurate and that the actual results may differ materially from those anticipated due to the variety of risks and uncertainties discussed in the company's most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please consider such risks and uncertainties carefully in evaluating these forward-looking statements by Palatin's prospects. Now I'd like to turn today's call over to our host, Dr. Carl Spana, President and Chief Executive Officer of Palatin. Please go ahead.

Carl Spana

Management

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Palatin Technologies Second Quarter Fiscal 2022 Call. I'm Dr. Carl Spana, CEO and President of Palatin. With me on the call today is Steve Wills, Palatin's Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Steve?

Stephen Wills

Management

Thank you, Carl. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Regarding Palatin's second fiscal quarter ended December 31 2021, financial results are as follows. Total revenue consists of gross product sales of Vyleesi, net of allowances and accruals and licensing contract revenue. As a reminder, Vyleesi is our commercial product for the treatment of premenopausal women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Vyleesi gross product sales to pharmacy distributors for the quarter ended December 31 2021 amounted to $800,000 approximately, with net product revenue of approximately $72,000 compared to gross product sales of approximately $900,000 with negative net product revenue of approximately $164,000 for the comparable quarter in 2020. Regarding Vyleesi, for the quarter ended December 31 2021 gross product sales decreased 18% and net product revenue increased 144% over the comparable quarter in 2020. The gross product sales decreased 46% and net product revenue decreased 55% over the prior quarter ended September 30 2021. This decrease importantly was primarily result of pharmacy distributors minimizing their end-of-year inventory levels. Total prescriptions dispensed were flat compared to the same period in 2020 and the prior quarter ended September 30 2021. Commercial insurance reimbursement and net revenue per prescription dispensed increased significantly over the comparable quarter in 2020 and the prior quarter ended September 30 2021. Also for the quarter ended December 31 2021, Palatin recognized $250,000 in license and contract revenue pursuant to its license agreement with Fosun Pharma. There were no licensed revenues recognized during the comparable quarter in 2020. Moving over to operating expenses. Total operating expenses for the quarter ended December 31 2021 were $8.8 million compared to $9.1 million for the comparable quarter in 2020. The decrease in operating expenses was the result of decreased commercial expenses related to Vyleesi offset by increased research and development expenses primarily related to…

Carl Spana

Management

Thank you, Steve. Turning to Vyleesi, our operating objective has been to optimize the core metrics that support the commercial value of Vyleesi meaning how we make money on a prescription. For the quarter, commercial insurance coverage, net revenue per prescription and prescription refill rates all increased over prior quarters. Our ultimate objective is to relicense Vyleesi to a committed partner ensuring the continued availability of Vyleesi as a treatment option for premenopausal women hypoactive sexual desire disorder and a return on our investment. We continue to engage with potential partners and in the U.S. and other territories and the timing of potential license is dependent on us reaching several terms with the right partner. Moving on, across a multitude of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases there remains a vital medical need for new treatments provide patients and clinicians with safe and effective options. Our research and development operations are focused on developing drugs that modulate the melanocortin system, a new treatment modality for patients suffering from pathological inflammation, with a primary focus on ophthalmic diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, dry eye and uveitis. Many of the current treatments for inflammatory autoimmune diseases work by blocking one or more pro-inflammatory pathways, which can cause immune suppression and major safety concerns. By targeting the melanocortin system, one of the body's natural mechanisms for resolving inflammation, restoring the immune system to a normal state and promoting tissue healing. We believe that we can develop highly differentiated therapeutics with efficacy and superior safety profile. We have a multi layered plan to advance our understanding of the melanocortin system at a molecular level and to establish the clinical validation, melanocortin based therapeutics. Our clinical development programs include ocular, non-ocular indications are designed to demonstrate the broad utility of melanocortin system as a new target for…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. We'll take our first question from Joe Pantginis with H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Joe Pantginis

Analyst

Hey guys, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. A couple if you don't mind. So first, with regard to the pivotal DED study, maybe a little more specifics around the interim and what kind of news flow can be expected by the street? Is it anything be on just continue as planned or the study will be upsized?

Carl Spana

Management

It's an assessment, not a data analysis. So they're really going to be making looking at the power calculations that underpin the study and give us guidance on whether or not we need to upsize or we stay as is. And just look, it's an important innovation to add these things to drive these studies have a degree of variability. And this type of approach really does allow us to make sure that we don't under power the study, particularly in regards to the key secondary endpoints, we really want to get some of those key secondary endpoints in because they will be important for our label.

Joe Pantginis

Analyst

Got it, that's helpful. And I guess let's just stick with ocular for a second. I know this is a very broad stroke type of question, you might not be willing to necessarily go too deep right now but other types of front of the eye indications that you might be interested in, as well as additional indicators in ocular setting even with 9654 and beyond?

Carl Spana

Management

Sure, the 9654 is the back of the eye treatment but 9643 and other compounds that we haven't yet disclosed, there are only so many indications for the front of the eye. I mean, ones that we're interested in outside of dry eye would be things like glaucoma, for example, a very big market that needs really desperately need new treatments. And there are various types of diseases that are related to corneal function, things around for example, cataract surgery and other types of surgeries that are done that need better healing where I think lot of important agonists really can help promote better tissue healing, and what have you. In addition to that, there are a few indications that we're just not ready to disclose yet that we think preclinical data can use to pan out what really represent new front of the eye indications. So we're really looking very deeply. And I think over the next year, we'll have a lot of information flow there.

Joe Pantginis

Analyst

No, that's fair. Thanks. And my last question, if I could just switch gears, obviously Vyleesi has the long history with your company and it's glad to see that you're seeing increasing reimbursement engagement and with the commercial payers, so I guess the overarching question is, to the level that you can discuss or want to discuss, how can you describe the tenor of your say ongoing discussions right now, but even more specifically depending on the outcome of those discussions, are you potentially considering other options for Vyleesi whether I don't know, I'll just take some wild shots here a spin out company, or even keeping for yourself to expand Women's Health again?

Stephen Wills

Management

Hey, Joe, it's Steve. I'll take that one. So let's in not a particular order. But on the last point, as Carl mentioned, and we've mentioned prior, our objective is to relicense Vyleesi to a company that that frankly just fits better than we do. Our strategy going forward is absolutely the autoimmune anti-inflammatory, the ocular focus, the dry eye disease trials, the Ulcerative Colitis and at some point, some additional ocular treatments, that we will illuminate on. We needed to concentrate. I mean we targeted certain metrics that we believe which shows the brand. And I don't know if I want to use the term the right hands, but in the hands where someone can do it justice, that they have the infrastructure, they have the resources, and frankly, their strategic vision is to expand the female healthcare landscape, we've done that. I'm not going to get into where we started per se, but when we got the product back, we had single digit insurance reimbursement, we actually had negative don't start negative net revenue, so gross to net going down to net. So we now, we have greater than 50% of every prescription dispense is covered by insurance, we have very good insurance coverage. And importantly, when you get that type of insurance coverage, your gross to net is going to increase significantly. So that's where we've concentrated our efforts. We do have social media that we are still engaging in but we're not going to be putting feet on the ground. We have several sales folks in place right now. But we're not looking to expand 10, 15, 20, 25 to sales, that's going to be for the new part. So specifically on the tenor, we think the tenor is good, and it's positive, because we're showing…

Joe Pantginis

Analyst

It certainly was. Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Michael Higgins with Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

Michael Higgins

Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

Thanks operator, good morning guys. I appreciate the opportunity to ask some questions here. First off, looking forward to your KOL event March 7 but that sparks a question, since you tell them before how would this one be different from previous events? Thanks.

Carl Spana

Management

Sure, Mike sure. Actually, I think that just one out today. So actually what we did mentioned, but we are having a dry eye disease Key Opinion Leader event on March 7, and you'll find information coming out on the website shortly on how to listen to that. Our viewpoint and we think this is point, these are not just designed as commercials for PL9643, we really want is the first part of that is going to be Dr. [indiscernible] he's going to talk about really how he sees and manage the dry eye disease patients, current options that he's using. And we're also going to review there's been several new approvals in the space. We're going to go cover those, how they're impacting treatment, and also what's coming down the pike besides PL9643, there are other things that are in development. So we'll be covering some of those as well. We will of course, also cover Dr. Michael Raizman, our Chief Medical Officer who's also a well respected ophthalmologist, we'll be covering the field 9643 profile, how that fits into potential disease treatment as well and as well as the Phase 3 trial. So it really would be something you want to listen to it, if you want to learn about dry eye disease, you'll learn a lot.

Michael Higgins

Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

That's very helpful. Appreciate that. Thanks for staying with 9643. So we're looking forward data, as you noted back half of this year? How does the data potentially impact your thoughts on partnering it? What are your thoughts going in on that? Thanks.

Carl Spana

Management

Sure. Listen clearly -- we have a -- obviously have a strong business development effort. We're actually routine basis talking to various potential partners about all of our programs. The data of it, clearly, if it's strong positive data, I would expect to have a tremendous amount of interest. And we'll have to make some decisions based on what the opportunities are whether or not we want to partner at this stage where we want to continue to go forward. Steve, and I've never tell you that we're not going to engage in business development activities around our various programs. Our goal is to maximize the value and if that's the right strategy, based on the data that we're going to.

Michael Higgins

Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

Make sense. [Indiscernible] but switching to 8177. What are your thoughts as well there with partnering. And also in terms of that trial design. Will there be an interim for 8177 as well? Thanks.

Carl Spana

Management

Yes, so to that point one 8177, the oral formulation that is designed, as we've said it multiple times for two things. One, when we think is a great potential treatment of UC patients. And but our goal is really to license that program. We don't do not see ourselves going forward pass this study in and any time of inflammatory bowel disease, whether it's UC cons or any anything else. This is really designed it's actually has -- there was actually input from potential various partners. So when it has been very helpful as we I don't think there's a GI franchise out there that hasn't taken a meeting around oral PL8177. We have gotten a tremendous amount of feedback as to what we would need to demonstrate in the trial. And those are things have been built in. According the interim, there is an interim analysis, there is an interim just last part, there is an interim analysis built in that study it, that's what we will have identity or that is the first 16 patients we will have a look at and that's what the data will have by the end of the year.

Michael Higgins

Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

Perfect. Thanks. And then a couple of financial related ones here for Steve. How many in the money warrants did you have at year end? And the milestone that came from Palatin, what milestone did they earned? I guess kind of a third, maybe a back half of that milestone related question would be any others looking forward this year? Thanks.

Steve Wills

Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Michael. Let me take the easy one warrants in the money at the end of the year. Zero. You know why? Because we have no warrants outstanding, which is a good thing very clean cap table. $232 million common outstanding and 10%, 15% of that. We also add on top of that are the options, equity grants for employees, for total about $266 million fully diluted. But again, no outstanding warrant. So obviously, knowing the money. Regarding the focus on 250,000. I don't think I call that a milestone it was contract revenue that was for payment for the trial -- for the clinical trial material for them to advance the program from a regulatory standpoint. So the next milestones for either -- for each, whether it's planned on or focus on, is going to be on regulatory. So we're not going to get any milestones, as they're advancing any types of clinical activity for the regulatory filing. It's going to be on the regulatory filing and the approval. So we don't expect -- don't anticipate anything else in '22 coming from them. That would be a 2023 event.

Michael Higgins

Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

Awesome. Appreciate the color. Thanks, guys. Congrats again.

Steve Wills

Analyst · Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

Thanks Mike.

Carl Spana

Management

Thanks Mike.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from John Newman with Canaccord. Please go ahead.

John Newman

Analyst · Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Hi guys, thanks for taking the question. Just wondered for the PL8177 study. It sounds like we'll see some interim analysis there later this year. Just curious, what are the endpoints that you'll be looking at just at this stage of development there?

Carl Spana

Management

The primary endpoint is we're looking for evidence of mucosal healing based on colonoscopy. So we're using the Mayo score, the Mayo biopsy score is a primary one that we'll be looking for. Of course, we also have secondary endpoints looking at symptom relief. But this is these patients are being treated for eight weeks. So we should expect to see pretty strong evidence of mucosal healing, which generally translates into eventually translates into patient symptoms being relieved. There's also a whole variety of secondary endpoints. This is a -- this is a lot of data is being collected here, which is pretty typical for proof-of-concept study.

John Newman

Analyst · Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Great. And then just one additional question on PL9643 Melody study. When you take a look at the interim, will you have the opportunity, if desired to extend either the treatment period, or the follow-up for that study? Or will you primarily be focused on simply the number of patients that you might look to potentially add there? Thanks.

Carl Spana

Management

So it's just a number of patients added. So the typical drive of these studies are 12 week treatment periods. We're not extending past that, in this particular study, we may choose to do that in the second study Melody 2 and we certainly will have that data in Melody 3, which is the open label safety extension, we'll be collecting data over the course of a full-year of treatment. But it's a pretty straightforward question, just really looking at the power calculations. And based on the standard deviations that are being seen, are they are matching? And if so, then we will hold as we are and if they feel that they need to be moved up a little bit numbers need to be moved up. They'll give us guidance as to how to move up.

John Newman

Analyst · Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Great, thank you.

Operator

Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's question-and-answer session. At this time, I'd like turn the conference back to Dr. Spana for any additional or closing remarks.

Carl Spana

Management

I'd like to thank everyone for participation in the Paladin Technologies second quarter fiscal 2022 conference call. Good things going on here. A lot of stuff happening. All of our programs are moving forward and progressing nicely. So I want to thank all your participating. Certainly we'd like to thank all of our employees and collaborators and patients for their participation as well. And we look -- Steve and I look forward to continuing to update you on our progress throughout the year. Thank you and have a great day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. We appreciate your participation. You may now disconnect.