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Thank you for standing by. My name is Louella, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Q3 2024 Investor Update Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Matt Roache, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Louella. Good morning, and thanks for joining us for our third quarter 2024 investor update. Our press release issued this morning can be found on our website. Today’s call the accompanying slides include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. A discussion of these statements and risk factors is available on the current safe harbor statement slide, as well as under the heading Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and in our subsequent SEC filings. All forward-looking statements speak as of the date of this presentation. We undertake no obligation to update such statements. Also included are non-GAAP financial measures, which should be considered only as a supplement to, not a substitute for or superior to GAAP measures. To the extent applicable, please refer to the tables at the end of our press release for reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. During today’s call, Tom McCourt, our Chief Executive Officer, begin with a brief overview and discuss the commercial performance of LIN

Thanks, Matt. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today to review our third quarter 2024 financial results and business updates. Starting with LIN

Thanks Tom, and good morning everyone. I'll start with apraglutide for patients with short bowel syndrome who are dependent on parenteral support. As Tom mentioned last week, we presented new findings from a subgroup analysis of the primary endpoint of the STARS Phase 3 study at the ACG meeting. The additional data presented showed the positive treatment effects of apraglutide were consistent across baseline demographics including gender, age, body weight, region, race, ethnicity and SBS characteristics such as length of remnant bowel anatomy. These are important results for patients, given the established heterogeneity of adults with SBS who are dependent on parenteral support. In addition, moving to Slide 9, a poster highlighting an in depth analysis of the STARS Phase 3 program safety and tolerability data was presented at the meeting, which notably received a Presidential Poster Award from the ACG. The analysis focused on any treatment, emergent adverse event or TEA and those of special interest in SBS. Importantly, no new safety signals were detected for in this analysis. Of particular note were the TEA of special interest which have been seen with other GLP-2s in SBS such as injection site reactions and GI and hepatobiliary neoplasms which were similar in the apraglutide and placebo arms. These data further characterize the safety profile of apraglutide in this population of patients with short bowel syndrome who are dependent on parenteral support. This type of profile can be meaningful for patients to start and stay on therapy if approved. In regard to our NDA submission, we remain on track with our previous guidance and expect to fully complete the submission in the first quarter of 2025. We continue to be excited about the safety, efficacy and tolerability demonstrated by apraglutide in the clinical trial and its once weekly dosing convenience. Assuming approval, we believe these distinguishing factors have the potential to drive uptake and adherence and help improve the quality of life for patients with short bowel syndrome who are dependent on parenteral support. Moving to IW-3300, our wholly owned asset for the potential treatment of interstitial cystitis / bladder pain syndrome, we believe we have enrolled an adequate sample of patients to inform us of next steps and have decided to end further recruitment to complete an analysis of the data set for the patients currently enrolled. Based on this assessment, we expect to provide an update on the program in the first half of 2025. With that, I'll turn the call over to Sravan.

Thanks Mike. I will begin with collaborative arrangements revenue on slide 11. LIN

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Amy Li with Jefferies. Please go ahead. .

Hey, thanks so much for taking my question. I’ve just two. We noticed that the commercial margin for LIN

Yeah, thanks, Amy. Good morning. So let me just start by saying we do believe there's going to be a pricing headwind 2025. We haven't given specific guidance on 2025 at this point. We'll provide guidance full year next year, earlier in the year as we normally do. Just given how this year has kind of gone from a guidance perspective, we want to make sure we give the best possible guidance we can and I think we'll be in a good position earlier next year. With respect to commercial margins, Look, I think we're pleased with where the margins came out in the quarter and we'll continue to manage track expenses to draw as much profits out of the brand as we can. But right now I think what you're seeing is a good predictor of where the brand will be for the year.

Perfect. Thanks so much.

Your next question comes from the line of David Amsellem with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks. Just a couple. Maybe taking a step back on LIN

So as I think about where we are, where we're going, I mean we're at a point right now where the market is in a very, very strong place or I'm sorry, that the product is in a very, very strong place in the marketplace. The dominant player, it continues to gain share even in spite of some emerging competition. And I think we're at a point now where, as we mentioned earlier, we need to really look critically at how we continue to increase profits and cash flow. So as I look at the overall investment in the brand and I look at market access and contracting as part of that, the question is how do we balance ongoing growth, investment and promotion in contracting? And we're critically looking at all those. There's no question at this point in time the objective is to increase the margins and the profitability. So right now we're looking at everything from what we spend in media to our selling effort and how we contract to really maximize what we can push to the bottom line. And there's no question we will look at, we continue to look at other contracting strategies to really maximize that, including things like co-pay assistance. So I think all of those things right now are on the table and we're working very closely with AbbVie who is absolutely aligned with us to say it's time to really start looking at increasing profits and cash flow.

Your next question comes from the line of Jason Butler with Citizens JMP. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking the question. Just another one asked. When you look forward through to LOE, how do you think about the drivers of demand growth and obviously promotions being one of them? I guess I'm thinking more in terms of things like breadth and depth of prescriber base and not just market share but the patient profile of this receiving the drug. Thank you.

Yeah, I'll take that. It's Tom. I think there's probably three pieces to that. When you're the market leader this is all about growing the market and capturing disproportionate share. And we've been doing that for the last several years. But we're at a point right now where the momentum is extremely strong, both with regard to the market dynamics but also the presence of the brand. So what we have seen over the past couple years is there's significantly more people seeking care, obviously in part that's due to increased awareness of the disease that has been driven with by years of DTC campaigns and also physicians view of who the appropriate patient is, which is also something that we spent a great deal of time educating physicians on as far as who is the right patient and is the patient appropriate for the drug, and of course, adding the pediatric indications expanded that significantly. And as we move forward, certainly we want to continue to drive demand, but we want to do that in a very far more efficient way, which we're looking at. And also other lifecycle management plays such as OTC, which clearly is on the horizon and something that we are working with [Indiscernible] to really understand when that happens and how it happens, because as you know, it's a very large market and these tend to be very durable brands over time, over the counter. So I think when I look at that, I think LIN

Great, thanks, Tom. And then I just had one on apraglutide. You're obviously continuing to focus on presenting data at medical meetings. Can you maybe talk about the other aspects of the commercial readiness work that you're doing now and have planned for the coming months during the regulatory review?

Yeah, this has been ongoing for the last six to nine months. You just don't turn on a switch and go to market, as you know, and everybody on this call knows. This really focuses on how do we prepare the market, how do we prepare the brand, how do we prepare the organization. And we are very diligent in moving all of those things forward, including we're already out there in medical meetings with a disease awareness program about what is short bowel syndrome and what are the current limitations of therapies. As we prepare the market, obviously, Mike and his team are working towards pulling together the best possible label we can. And then of course, we have some significant things we need to create as far as core capabilities in the organization, particularly things like a patient service hub, which really is going to be critical for pulling patients through the system, both with regard to getting them on the drug, but also keeping them on the drug, which is something that I think we'll be sharing in the upcoming months with regard to our go to market strategy. But also the potential value of apraglutide, not only its attractiveness as the drug of first choice, but also the durability and the likely adherence to therapy, which then increases the overall value of each patient that's treated. And the team is working on those. And as we complete that work and move it forward, we'll be sharing that with you in the months to come.

Thank you, Tom, and thanks for taking the questions.

Thanks Jason.

Your next question comes from the line of Mohit Bansal with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Question -- I have two if I may. One is that can you help us understand the -- it seems like the $30 million charge you took in the first quarter, seems like a lot of that is reversing. Can you help us understand the dynamic here and why it is not impacting the guidance, because it seems like a positive impact? And the second question is regarding the -- I mean it seems like the fourth quarter -- if I do the math, fourth quarter, you're expecting a decent bump in your share of profits, not as much as the top line number for LIN

Yeah, so Mohit, I don't necessarily understand the second question. Could you repeat that?

So like if I look at the guidance for LIN

Yeah. So first of all, Mohit, it's cyclical, right, and the brand has been historically cyclical. The fourth quarter tends to have more of the profit than other quarters, so that's the answer to the second question. With the first question, the first question was tied to just the adjustments we've taken. I would say that, look, there's been a small divergence about when and timing for the recording of these gross to net adjustments with respect to AbbVie and they will even out over the course of the full year, but that's all you're seeing is just timing differences at this point in time.

Got it. Helpful, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Natalia Davis [Phonetic] with Interim Health Research. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking my question. Just on costs, should we expect a jump in SG&A associated with the pre-launch cost for apra? And how should we think about R&D going into 2025 compared to the current year? Thank you.

First of all, thanks for the question. And I think as I mentioned earlier, we'll give guidance on 2025, as we normally do next year. But just know that we have an existing sales force. Part of the rationale for acquiring apraglutide and buying an asset that we think we could take commercial is the fact that we already have significant commercial infrastructure, but we'll give guidance on where we think we will be next year for spend and launch and profitability when we give guidance.

Great. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Okay, your next question comes from the line of Learn Partners [Phonetic]. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys, this is Matt Calperon [Phonetic] for [Indiscernible]. Thanks for taking my question. Just on apraglutide, how large of a salesforce do you need here and how will this between the current LIN

Yeah, I think, you know, this is the real strength that we bring to the table here is, we have a very tenured and experienced sales force in gastroenterology. They continue to do a fantastic job with LIN

Great. Thanks for the insight and taking my question.

All right, thank you.