Coherus BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHRS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Douglas Tsao of HC Wainwright. Your question please, Douglas?

Douglas Tsao: Maybe as a starting point with CIMERLI, Paul, the – your Q-code will come into effect on April 1. Just curious from your perspective, how meaningful will that be and we sort of really unlock a lot of that value or will it continue to build throughout the year or should we feel really big step up in with the start of 2Q and with the Q-code being available?

Paul Reider: Yes. Thanks, Doug. Yes, the Q code is really important because under this miscellaneous code period retinal specialists have to manually submit claims and the processing of the claims is manual which delays reimbursement and it increases financial risk to the practice. And so retinal specialists trying to manage cash flow understand this. And so with the product-specific Q-code will do is it will enable efficient electronic billing processing and will automate the reimbursement for the claims minimizing the risk of air and the claims denial. And so we’re working with many practices now to begin to operationalize that with their billing systems electronic health record systems and so we think it’s going to be the catalyst for growth in 2023 starting in Q2, obviously it will build as the year goes on.

Douglas Tsao: Okay. And obviously, with one of the big events for the year, Denny, is the launch of YUSIMRY in July. Just curious, at what point, will you start to have visibility be able to share with us where that product is positioned from a formulary standpoint with payers because I know you’ve always said that that’s going to be a big part of the strategy? Thank you.

Denny Lanfear: Yes. Thanks, Doug. Fair question. So I think that it’s fair to say that the Humira biosimilar formulary environment is in a dynamic period at this point with Amgen launching and so on, and I think that we will have clarity on this sometime after the July launch. So I would say that the Q3, the post Q3 call, when we get to that, which should be around November will be a great time to talk about how things are panning out and what’s going on. But I think that is fairly dynamic. As you know, for this year and ’23 press things will settle out little more in ’24, but I don’t think we’ll know very much until we see what happens in Q3 and how things are shaking out. Fair question though.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Schott of JPMorgan. Please go ahead, Chris.

Chris Schott: Just two questions from me. Just continue on the biosimilar Humira front, just help set our expectations. Do you see there being a meaningful revenue opportunity for this product in 2023 or is the opportunity more skewed to ’24 and beyond given some of the contracting that AbbVie has put in place? I was trying to a sense of, is this year more about can like formulary building and access versus actual revenue and next year is more of a revenue opportunity? And then my follow-up question was just on the cost savings front. I think you mentioned Tori and some streamlining of the programs there. But can you just elaborate a little bit more about where the other expense reductions coming from? Trying to get my hands around how much of this is savings on the SG&A side versus further deferred R&D and just getting a little bit more color of how you kind of streamlining the business? Thanks so much.