Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXSM) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Herriot Tabuteau: Right. Yes. So just you start with regards to the product profile question that you asked, Charles, in the second part of your first question. Lori?

Lori Englebert: Yes. So Charles, I’m going to switch back to Auvelity and answer the question on the most – on interest positions, but then I’ll also answer the competitive piece on 07. Sorry about that. What most interesting – what we’re seeing out in the real world is, I would say, three things. One, obviously, the rapid onset of action is really impressive to HCPs, and we are seeing results very similar to what we saw in the clinical trials. The second piece is, we are getting to a point now where we have enough patients on therapy, where the durability is really starting to come through the sustained effect of the product. And so that’s really encouraging out there to physicians. We are able to have a very large number of patients achieve remission, and that is something that physicians are commenting on quite a bit on how fast not only does symptoms improve, but we are able to achieve remission.

Again, everything is very similar to what we’re seeing in the clinical trials or what we saw in the clinical trials with remission as early as two weeks. But then the last thing is the side effect profile. So the side effect profile is obviously favorable versus some of the competitors out there and physicians and patients are both commenting on them. In terms of AXS-07, the – as Mark was mentioning, the Mosaic technology really does allow for that very early onset of action for patients to reduce pain. That is despite the fact that there are multiple entrants in the category right now and a lot of activity and a lot of promotional dollars, even now more than 70% of patients still are dissatisfied with their current therapies. We know they cycle through therapy is looking for something that’s efficacious.

And so we hope to bring us up to market as an option for them.

Charles Duncan: Regarding Auvelity, you point out three key differentiations from [indiscernible]. So thank you for the added color and congrats on the quarter.

Lori Englebert: Thanks Charles.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Ram Selvaraju from H.C. Wainwright. Your line is now live.

Raghuram Selvaraju: Thanks so much for taking my questions and congrats again on the quarter. I just wanted to ask a little bit about the kinetics of the sales force expansion for Auvelity within what time frame you expect that to be concluded if you expect that new expanded size to effectively be the steady state for the sales force for the foreseeable future? Or if any further expansion might be on the cards? And also, if you could perhaps comment on the sales force composition and what you see as the facility with which you’re going to be able to execute those new hires from a pool of candidates who have prior CNS or antidepressant sales experience. Thank you.

Lori Englebert: Ram thanks. Sorry, if don’t get all of them. I just try to write down every question that you asked. So if I miss something, please remind me. So, we are intending to have the expansion rolled out and completed and ready to perform in Q4. We are very much underway in building that expansion right now and have been for a little bit. Part of the reason why we think and believe so strongly that the expansion is needed right now is we are seeing such early success. We have 10,000 HCP writers, 40,000 new patients or patients on therapy right now. We’re adding about 1,000 HCPs or more than 1,000 HCPs every month. And what we’re seeing and why we’re so encouraged is, obviously, field forces at this stage of launch, typically struggle between depth and breadth.

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