Journey Medical Corporation (NASDAQ:DERM) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

But I can tell you, I have high expectations, it’s #1 out of the bag with a significant majority of our sales force. We have great marketing strategies to continue to be able to get the product as simple and as easy to the patients once the doctor has decided to prescribe that for their primary axillary hyperhidrosis. So I think we’ve got a number of key items here that are going to really help bring some growth into this brand.

Scott Henry: Okay. And when would you expect the anti-itch product to launch? Any clarity there?

Claude Maraoui: Yes. I’d love to give you exact date and month. I’m not going to be able to do that. Right now, it’s positioned for the second half of 2023. We are working very closely with our manufacturer, and we have some good guidance from them, but that has been pushed out several times before. They’ve given us guidance again, and it’s going to be in the second half of 2023.

Scott Henry: Okay. Great. Now shifting gears, and I’ll wrap up pretty quick here. But COGS was pretty high in Q4. Anything going on there? When should we expect that to kind of normalize with higher margins?

Claude Maraoui: Sure. Joe, would you like to take that one, please?

Joseph Benesch: Sure, sure. Our COGS in the fourth quarter included some freight, some additional validation and testing costs that we have through COGS. That was for AMZEEQ and ZILXI for the most part. 2023 will not have those costs, at least not as high. So with the reduction in the royalties and reduction in some of those expenses, we expect our margins to be around the 60% range, give or take.

Scott Henry: And then final question just on the pipeline product, DVD — I think 124. Hopefully, I got those letters right. Enrollment was complete let’s say, mid-January, if I’m trying to think about when the data should be is a follow-up in that trial, remind me? Is it a 12-week follow-up and then we should maybe think about a month to slice and dice the data. Is that the right way to think about the timing of that data?

Claude Maraoui: Yes, it’s DFD-29 and Dr. Sidgiddi will give you the specifics on that.

Srinivas Sidgiddi: Scott, thanks for that question. DFD-29, as we mentioned in our press release, the last subject, first visit that is the last subject enrolled was early January and there is a treatment duration of 16 weeks, that is each subject will be treated for 16 weeks with this product. And then there is, as you said, 4 to 6 weeks duration for slicing the data and analyzing. So that’s what makes it towards the end of the first half of 2022, somewhere around June 2023.

Operator: . Our next question will come from Kalpit Patel with B. Riley Securities.

Andrew Fleszar: This is Andy Fleszar on for Kalpit. It looks like some of the method of use patents for Oracea are set to expire starting next year. In anticipation of potential generic introductions for Oracea, how should we think about the potential market opportunity for DFD-29. Specifically, you guided the peak sales of over $100 million, does this figure factor in the possibility of generic cannibalization? And does it assume that DFD-29 demonstrates improved efficacy over Oracea?

Claude Maraoui: Andy, it’s Claude here. Thanks for the question. Yes, the final — the patent expiry on Oracea is on December 2025 is the way we’re looking at it. Again, this product is Galderma asset. And they actually have had an authorized generic out into the marketplace now for several years. So that mix has been out there. And it’s now more skewed to the generic. Again, roughly, it’s about 60% on the generic and 40% on the brand. And I think you really honed in on exactly it. The study results for DFD-29 in the Phase II are superb. Again, almost doubling the efficacy of the co-primary endpoints. If we are able to achieve that type of level and get that approval, we believe that, that is going to be very meaningful, where you can actually say that this product has this much better efficacy and very comparable safety, for example.