HROW - NASDAQ

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Harrow, Inc. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jamie Webb, Director of Communications and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Harrow's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Before we begin today, let me remind you that the company's remarks may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Harrow's control, including risks and uncertainties described from time to time in its SEC filings, such as the risks and uncertainties related to the company's ability to make commercially available its FDA-approved products and compounded formulations and technologies, and FDA approval of certain drug candidates in a timely manner or at all. For a list and description of those risks and uncertainties, please see the Risk Factors section of the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Harrow's results may differ materially from those projected. Harrow's disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any financial projections or forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of today. Additionally, Harrow referred to non-GAAP financial metrics, specifically adjusted EBITDA and our adjusted earnings as well as core results such as core gross margin, core net income and core diluted net income per share. A reconciliation of any non-GAAP measures with the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in the company's earnings release and letter to stockholders, both of which are available on the website. By now, you should have received a copy of the earnings press release. If you have not received a copy, please go to the Investor Relations page of the company's website, www.harrow.com. Joining me on today's call are Harrow's Chief Executive Officer, Mark L. Baum; and our Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Boll. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mark to go over some prepared remarks prior to the question-and-answer session.

Thanks, Jamie, and welcome to everyone joining us on today's call. I will start, as I always do, with a reminder to review our earnings release, corporate presentation and letter to stockholders, all of which are posted to the Investor Relations section of our website. Our business demonstrated remarkable resilience in the first quarter of 2024, especially given the effects of the Change Healthcare cyberattack, with revenues for the first quarter of 2024 increasing 33% over the same period in 2023. Here are a few key recent accomplishments of note. We strengthened our management team, adding Greg DiPasquale, who started this week in the newly created role of Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial. Greg is responsible for all sales, marketing and sales operations activities for Harrow's portfolio of branded ophthalmic products. Greg comes to us from a sales leadership role at Regeneron, where he experienced great success driving revenue growth for the retina product, EYLEA, and EYLEA HD. Prior to Regeneron, Greg held leadership roles at Essilor, Novartis' retina division,

[Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Jeffrey Cohen with Ladenburg Thalmann.

So I guess, firstly, could you talk about VEVYE a bit? It looks like you made some strong progress on covered lives. How does that look for the balance of the year on the covered lives and remind us how things look with Medicare and CMS?

Yes. So obviously, in a matter of really less than 2 months, we've dramatically increased the number of covered lives, as I said on the call, from the low 40 million range to more than 150 million. And we continue to add covered lives almost on a daily basis. We expect that to continue through the balance of the year and into the first quarter of next year. From the time that we launched VEVYE, we always said that coverage was about an 18-month activity, and that Medicare Part D coverage, in particular, would take some time. The coverage improvements that we're seeing with VEVYE, I think may accelerate our time frames. But right now, we're kind of still leaving the overall coverage picture in that Q1 of 2025 range. But you should expect on a quarterly basis in August when we report Q2 numbers to see further improvements and then further improvements in November when we report again.

Got it. That's helpful. Andrew, any comment on margins or margins at all as far as gross margins for '24, and how you expect them to fold out or any cadence or any guidance on the margin side for the year?

Yes, absolutely, Jeff. Thanks for the question. On gross margins, core gross margins, in particular, where we're backing out the amortization of acquisition NDA for the noncash expense, we expect those right now in the mid-70s to float up hopefully into the low 80s by the end of the year. And the reason for that is as the company grows this year from a revenue standpoint, most of that growth we expect to come from the branded products, which are going to carry a higher gross margin profile than our compounded products.

Got it. Okay. And could you talk about -- we've heard about this cyberattack from a couple of folks out there. So was there an impact on the revenue for Q2? And if so, is that impact going to be a seeping back in for Q3? -- or from Q1 to Q2, sorry.

Sure. Obviously, the -- and you've heard from other companies you cover, the Change cyberattack had a big impact on the overall U.S. health care industry. It certainly had an impact on our customers. And in Q1, to be clear, it had a material impact on our sales. We're still assessing the total hit, but it's definitely in the millions of dollars. The good news, I think, is that we saw signs of improvement in the month of March and in April. And we're seeing the overall hit kind of die down. And frankly, the month of April and Q2 in general, the numbers look pretty good. So we think the risks and the damage from the Change cyberattack are waning for sure.

Okay. Got it. And then lastly, first, could you talk about the top line and its cadence for 2024, anything to guide us on as far as quarterly readouts?

Yes. So we don't really give quarterly guidance. As you know, we've given a guidance number for the 2024 period, which is greater than $180 million. And what I can tell you is, as we have kind of creeped into 2024 2nd quarter, so this present quarter, the numbers look pretty good. And we have a lot of interesting activities, I think, that we're excited about this year that give us even greater confidence that we'll be able to focus on the greater than sign of the $180 million and not just on the $180 million, but hopefully going over $180 million in a more pronounced way.

Got it. Is there any reason to believe it would not be sequential through the balance of the year?

Jeff, so the answer to that is, I think it depends. Our belief is that we will see sequential quarterly revenue growth. There are times though where we'll see wholesaler stocking quarter-to-quarter that may have some fluctuations. But our general expectation this year is that each quarter, we will continue to see revenue growth part of that as Mark talked about the VEVYE resales coming in. Those should just mount and grow, and that will help extend and really accentuate that quarterly revenue growth, we believe, in addition to the additional new accounts on IHEE

The next question comes from Chase Knickerbocker with Craig-Hallum.

I just want to start first on kind of that impact from Change. Those millions of dollars of impact Mark, that you just mentioned, was that primarily in the Anterior Segment kind of products bucket? And then maybe a related question. Can you kind of speak to if there was any kind of impact from Change just from like a position payment perspective driving less willingness there that kind of drove sequential declines in volumes for IHEE

Yes. So thanks for the question, and welcome to the mix, by the way, good to speak with you. The assessment that we've done so far has really been on IHEE

And then maybe just kind of parlaying that into kind of peeling back the layers on guidance. Just to confirm, there's still no TRIESENCE contribution in that? And then just maybe speak to what that $180 million floor kind of assumes from a sequential growth perspective, the largest growth driver sequentially, certainly, in our model is IHEE

Andrew, you want to take both of those on guidance related to inclusion of TRIESENCE and the Anterior surface?

Yes. Chase, in regards to TRIESENCE, just to confirm, the $180 million does not include any contribution from TRIESENCE on the revenue side. So we feel good about that number regardless of any outcome with TRIESENCE and the ability to relaunch that product this year. In regard to sort of product contribution to that revenue number, IHEE

And then just last for me, guys. I just wanted to talk a little bit about the supply agreements at the 7 large multi-practice organizations. What are the terms there? Is that essentially just you guys have access to their clinic network and now it's a fairly easy process for those individual clinics to adopt when you kind of send your sales rep out and kind of pull that demand through? Or is there some sort of contracted kind of volume commitment from these large kind of multi-practice organizations? Just kind of dive into a little bit more detail around terms there.

Sure. Sure. I can't get into specific terms with an individual account, but that's a bit of a mix, actually. Some of these deals are essentially licenses to hunt, if you will. And they're really more than that, though, because in order to get into some of these practices, you really need to have authorization and approval. It's got to be easy for the physician to go ahead and make an order and ultimately purchase. In other contracts, we certainly have volume discounts and other incentives built into those agreements. But it's a bit of a mixed bag. And I think the exciting thing for us is it's not easy to get these agreements in place, number one, and I think the most important feature that I'm seeing, and I believe you'll start to see this more in the numbers as we progress into the quarter and into the third quarter as well is the pull-through. Pull-through is the key. And we certainly are signing these agreements, but I think our team is doing a much better job of pull-through and actually getting orders from these accounts. I think you're going to see more of those strategic accounts happen on the retina side, which is very exciting. And that really hasn't even begun to kind of kick in, but we expect it to. And certainly, Greg's involvement will, I think, support that effort.

The next question comes from Brooks O'Neil with Lake Street Capital.

I jumped on a few minutes late. So if I ask you about something you talked about already, just mention it now read the transcript. But I was hoping you could provide a little color on your pricing realization in particular for the 2 key branded drugs and what you're seeing and how that's impacting your performance so far with those products?

Yes. So pricing, really, from our perspective, is all about ASP, so our average selling price, which is really kind of what we end up getting. I can't go into ASP specifically by product for competitive reasons. But what I can tell you is with respect to both IHEE

Perfect. Yes. And then I'm just curious, I think the G&A spending was a couple of million higher than we were thinking, not a shock to me at all, but I'm just curious how you're thinking about your level of G&A spending so far and what you anticipate sort of for the balance of the year?

Andrew, do you want to take that?

Sure. In regards to SG&A and spend there, so the answer is -- as we look at the year, the answer is it depends. We're trying to manage to that leverage ratio number that we talked about on the last call being coming in under 5 times. And so if revenue growth is there, if we're able to support the revenue growth and can with additional resources on the sales and marketing side to drive further revenue growth and still hit our EBITDA number, at least from what we project internally, then we're going to do that. Right now, the expectation is we'll make some incremental investments on the sales and marketing side and G&A side, you just support what we have. And if there's an opportunity to invest, we will. But we're going to be cautious and sort of take a measured approach on that expense to manage the EBITDA number. I think last quarter, we talked about, too, right after the -- right after we filed the 8-K regarding the announcement from CMS or the message from CMS, we put out job postings for additional IHEE

Congratulations on the great start to the year.

That's all the time we have for questions today. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mark Baum for any closing remarks.

Thanks [indiscernible], and thank you for everyone joining today. We remain confident that our 5-year strategic plan is going to lead to Harrow becoming a leader in the North American Ophthalmic Pharmaceuticals industry. And your trust and collaboration are the cornerstones of our success, and we're excited to share further developments in the near term and, of course, in upcoming quarters. Thank you once again for your commitment to our journey towards innovation and excellence, and thank you to everyone for attending today's call and for your interest in Harrow. If you have any investor-related questions, please e-mail Jamie Webb at [email protected]. This will conclude our call.