Alimera Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALIM) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Rick Eiswirth: Yi, thanks. Good morning to you. That’s a good question. I mean right now, we are only 3 or 4 months into having the team of 35 out there. So we want to see how productive and effective they are first. Obviously, if more face-to-face time at the rep level does yield positive benefits in 2024, I think we will continue to evaluate the potential to expand the sales force. But no decision has been made on that at this time.

Yi Chen : And could you comment on the percentage of international revenue that’s represented by your direct sales force?

Scott Gordon: Percentage-wise we’re looking at — I’m going to say direct is roughly 2/3 of our total and distributors is roughly 1/3 of our international sales.

Yi Chen: And lastly, in the coming quarters, do you expect any seasonality in terms of YUTIQ sales, either in the U.S. or internationally?

Rick Eiswirth: Yes, I think you’re going to continue to have seasonality in the first quarter related to – these are both high-priced products. So in the U.S., the vast majority of patients start their deductible years over as of January 1 with new insurance plans or slight modifications in their insurance plans. So we always see quite a delay in January and February as doctors try to reevaluate, or excuse me, redo benefit investigations to make sure the insurance coverage is there. I think that’s pretty typical with some higher-priced products in this space. You also see a little bit of seasonality in the first quarter, some of the budgets in Europe are reset as they reset their budgets. And then we often do see seasonality in Q3 as well, related to European holiday season and also holiday season in the U.S. in the third quarter also seems impacted as well.

Operator: Our next question will be from James Molloy of Alliance Global Partners.

Laura Suriel: This is Laura Suriel calling in for James Molloy. So for your net revenue this past quarter reported at $23.4 million, what’s the specific breakdown of this value between both YUTIQ and ILUVIEN product revenues?

Rick Eiswirth: Well I think we — in Russell’s comments, he noted that’s about $8.9 million of that was from YUTIQ.

Laura Suriel: And then also looking ahead, you mentioned that you’re on track to deliver over $100 million in that revenue for next year 2024. Maybe just provide a bit more guidance on how this would be broken up again between both products, both in the U.S. and internationally.

Rick Eiswirth: As we noted in the release and some of the comments, our plan going forward is to really report the fluocinolone acetonide franchise on a combined basis. So we’re not going to break out specific guidance on that. I mean, frankly, we benefit from increased usage of a long-term low-dose steroid in any indication. And we’re still working out — where the focus of the promotion would be extra on that. But overall, we’re very confident with the $100 million number.

Laura Suriel: And then lastly, your share count now at 32 million for this past quarter. Can you just provide a bit more detail on the jump in the number here in comparison to this past second quarter at 8 million.

Rick Eiswirth: We’re — right now, we’re at about 53.4 million shares of common outstanding.

Laura Suriel: And then also — all right. Last question from us. Just any more updates on the ongoing Protocol AL trial that you had? And then just a first look into the data on when that might come out?