Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (NASDAQ:KNSA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Ross Moat: Yes. Thank you. Thanks Paul. So, maybe I’ll start with your misdiagnosis question I have back on to John for the treatment guidelines part. So, I think for the misdiagnosis, obviously, we shared some information on how commonplace that could be among this patient population. And I think that really speaks to the need for education and awareness. I think we’re taking good strides in but have so much more to do. We’re seeing substantial increases around the awareness of the current pericarditis. And I guess previously, there were no targeted therapies approved for the current pericarditis. So now we’re in a different place. I think we’re starting to see the ramp-up of education and awareness. And hopefully, we’ll see improvements to the time that it takes for patients to get a correct diagnosis.

So, we’re focused across both our field team from a sales perspective, our medical affairs efforts out in the field, boosting education to physicians direct-to-consumer awareness around doing things directly to patients, so they can help to advocate for themselves, as well as just in the digital forum around webinars and speaker programs and various other ways that we can get messages out there very effectively across the populations as well. So, we’re seeing some good improvements to that, but certainly have a lot more work to do.

John Paolini: And then with regard to guidelines, maybe to point out that the last time guidelines were made was in 2015, and that was in the European theater. So, the European Society of Cardiology put those guidelines out and of course, that predates really almost any of the work in the IL-1 space. And so in that treatment paradigm, patients progress after NSAIDs and colchicine through corticosteroids. And then it’s only in patients that are resistant to corticosteroids that [Technical Difficulty]. So, therefore, the real evolution in the field came with the data from Rhapsody demonstrating not only the resolution of the acute pericarditis flare, but also the prevention of subsequent flares, while on therapy in two populations of patients, not only those who had been on corticosteroids, which is according to the old paradigm, but also about half of the patients in the study had failed NSAIDs and colchicine and had not yet progressed to corticosteroids.

And so the similarity of the data in those two populations actually then provides an opportunity to advance the treatment paradigm into the space of using IL-1 antagonism in advance of corticosteroids. And so that is, in fact, what has been picked up in the literature by American thought leaders and showing kind of that sequence of how to best manage the disease. And so we see that as a very encouraging sign for patients to achieve resolution of their acute flares and prevention of subsequent flares on therapy.

Paul Choi: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from David Nierengarten of Wedbush Securities. Your line is open.

David Nierengarten: Hey thanks for taking our questions. I have two. Just on the patient stops and restarts again, with a little bit with another quarter worth of data, do you have any idea on the patients who discontinued therapy and don’t return if there are less severe or earlier stage in their disease? I’m just curious to get kind of a handle on the distribution of time on therapy. I know it seems like you have a tail there with a stable percentage on longer term therapy bacterias on the nature of those patients. And then the second question was on 404 if we could expect a discussion of any additional indications beyond RA when you release the data in Q1? Thanks.