Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPR) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sheldon Koenig: And the conference was – 80 wing conference, Tom if you want to go back and take look at that. Its archived.

Tom Shrader: Got it. All right. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for next question, please. And the next question comes from the line Troy Langford with TD Cowen. Your line is now open.

Troy Langford: Hi. Congrats on all the progress this quarter. And thanks so much for taking our questions. I have one about the label change next year. So when that does occur next year exactly how quickly do you think we could start to see that uptick in prescription numbers that you just mentioned? You know, do you think it will look more like the inflection that we saw after ACC or do you think it could take a couple of months after the sales team has the ability to formally promote the data before we see that more substantial increase?

Eric Warren: Thanks for your question, again. Its Eric again. So no doubt the team will be ready. The team has been spending the vast majority of their time now preparing for this label change there across every function ensuring that we’re a well-oiled machined with these new — new data and ultimately new indication. There does need to be some payer changes that happen in order to realize the full potential. So I would look for some improvements right away. But as we start unlocking that access that aligns with the broader label is when you can start to see the even greater changes that we anticipate? JoAnne.

JoAnne Foody : Thank you for the question this is JoAnne, Chief Medical Officer. The other thing that’s really critical as we think about the label is timing that we’ve announced that the producer date is March 31 that precede the American College of Cardiology. And I think you all recognize how significant this year’s American College of Cardiology has been. We’re getting our message out. So we anticipate similarly having the opportunity with the American College of Cardiology in 2024 to leverage not only our playbooks, but all the noise. We had over 1 billion impressions from last year’s ACC and we’re looking forward to similar uptake. This year are coming year in 2024.

Troy Langford: Thanks.

Sheldon Koenig : Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Jason Zemansky with Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Jason Zemansky : Perfect. Congrats on the quarter, and thanks so much for taking our questions. Wanted to ask a follow up on an earlier comment you’ve made obviously the 12(c) ruling was a win, but as acknowledged by your attorneys in the filing. There’s a challenge to litigating indefinitely. And if the proceedings are extended for whatever reason be it and appeal or what not. Are there contingency plans in place to support the relaunch? And then a follow-up if I may in that sense?

Sheldon Koenig : Yes. happy to take that one Jason. So as far as kind of pushing out our cash runway and being able to help manage both the launch and funding that litigation. We have drivers that are ahead of and most of our spend next year hasn’t even been contractually locked into. So we can delay spending like on preclinical pipeline some of our smaller R&D projects even with the sales force ramp up without fully hampering the commercial launch here. And he will always be trying to walk a fine line of funding the stuff that’s going to show us an immediate return, but also managing that burn rate and managing those expectations from a cash standpoint. But truthfully the litigation is a cost. It is not doesn’t compromise frankly I thought it would and we can manage to keep that going as needed.

Jason Zemansky : Got you. And thank you for the color. And then maybe as a follow-up on the business what does a typical patient starting bempedoic acid currently look like? Are they the primary prevention secondary? And then I mean how do you expect this to shift? When do you receive hopefully the label update?