Collegium Pharmaceutical, Inc. (NASDAQ:COLL) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Joe Ciaffoni: Okay. Greg, thanks for the question. So unfortunately, that’s not something that I’m going to be able to comment on, on this call. What I would say is we believe that BELBUCA is a very hard product to achieve all doses successfully without infringing upon the IP. And we will always continue to vigorously defend the intellectual property of BELBUCA. I’ll also remind you that chemo had attached themselves to the Alvogen litigation from an invalidity perspective. So both from that perspective are barred from entering the market until 2032.

Greg Fraser: Got it. Thank you. Quick one on Nucynta ER. Sales were higher than expected given the Rx trajectory. Was there anything to note in terms of inventory or gross net dynamics that benefited sales in the quarter?

Joe Ciaffoni: Colleen.

Colleen Tupper: Hi, Greg. No, nothing related to inventory. But in the beginning of every year, we typically have a bit of a profitability acceleration because of Nucynta being late in its life cycle, there are fewer contracts that are renewing. And so that led to the net sales that we had in the quarter of – for ER of $21 million.

Greg Fraser: Got it. Okay. And then – sorry if I missed this, but could you comment on whether you repurchased shares under the new program? Or are you holding off on buybacks pending visibility on a potential deal? Thanks.

Joe Ciaffoni: So Greg, we have not purchased any share – we did not purchase any shares in the first quarter. of this year with the new share repurchase program. And we certainly, as I’ve commented on, are very active and engaged from a business development perspective, which will always be our top priority and a key consideration as you think about when we opportunistically utilize the share repurchase program. I would also emphasize over the history of the share repurchase programs we’ve had, we have acquired back $62 million worth of our stock at an average price of $19.14. So I think we’ve been good stewards of capital from that perspective.

Greg Fraser: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Glen Santangelo with Jefferies. Please state your question.

Glen Santangelo: Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I just want to follow up on a couple of the previous questions. First, with respect to driving the scripts and expanse BELBUCA, I think, Scott, it sort of sounds like you’re going to be adding some resources and Colleen. I’m trying to reconcile that to the SG&A reported this quarter, which was a little bit higher than what we were looking for. But I thought I heard you say you expected that to sort of tail off as the year sort of progresses. So I was wondering if you could just sort of reconcile all those comments.

Colleen Tupper: Yes. Absolutely, Glen. So we did – we came into the year strong and those investments that we set up in the fourth quarter and initiated in the first quarter impacted our overall adjusted operating expenses. So we had $38.2 million in the quarter of investment, which is higher than what you’ll see in the next couple of quarters. We’re still projecting full year and guiding full year operating expenses between $135 million and $145 million.

Glen Santangelo: Okay. And maybe just a follow-up to Greg’s question on BELBUCA. I mean what’s your latest thoughts with respect to LOE, I don’t know if you’re willing to share your expectation at this point.