Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PHAT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Paul Choi: Okay, got it. And then, a pipeline question. The EOE program is really interesting. I noticed in the press release, you guys referenced PPI as off-label or unapproved treatment. But I’m just curious how you’re thinking about the study population, particularly in the recent light of budesonide being approved for that population as well as Dupixent and so I’m just curious, are you thinking about this study as a treatment-naive population or a post-steroid, post-biologics population as your initial study population and maybe subsequent studies and other populations down the road?

Terrie Curran: Paul, thanks for your question. I’ll kick it off and then I’ll pass over to Azmi. So we’re finalizing the protocol for the Eosinophilic Esophagitis Phase II, we’re really excited about that. And as you know, PPI is a utilized first line but are not approved and start positioning in the treatment paradigm would be prebiologic first line. And so that’s what we’re pursuing there. And we intend to initiate that Phase II by year-end. Maybe Azmi, do you have any other comments?

Azmi Nabulsi: Yes. I mean we’re definitely targeting first line. We’re looking at broader population because remember, this is a Phase II. So we need to understand the performance in the different population segments but the intent is to be first-line prebiologic as patients will start with a similar treatment that hopefully we’ll be able to show is effective.

Operator: And our next question is going to come from the line of Umer Raffat with Evercore.

Umer Raffat: I have a couple here, if I may. First, could you remind us, there was some confusion on whether the uptick in IMS, especially was observed in January, — was that a function of IMS just doing a better job capturing Blink? Or was that completely exclusive? Maybe a different way of answering that is the significant sort of acceleration we saw almost tripling in TRx heading into January, February. Was that also seen in the prescriptions to date you guys saw? And I have a couple of follow-ups.

Martin Gilligan: Yes. So I think what your question was specifically asking about the IQVIA data and anything uptick or anything else in January. What that is, is any script that has gone through a retail channel is being picked up by IQVIA. So that’s all scripts realized through normal retail channels.

Umer Raffat: It’s all scripts. But I guess just to clarify, the acceleration seen in prescription pickup which is over a doubling of TRx. Was that something also observed in the prescription fill rate you guys were seeing as well or the overall prescriptions?

Martin Gilligan: Yes, we’re seeing the same patterns between Blink and anything that’s filled by Blink and anything that’s filled by IQVIA. But what you’re seeing on a weekly basis through IQVIA are all scripts that are filled through retail means.

Umer Raffat: Okay, got it. That’s great. Now the next one is really around some of the stuff, the data points you guys shared. So we know by IQVIA, the total prescriptions reported so far are just under 2,000 or so. You guys implied 3,800 have been filled. So is it reasonable to assume that the IQVIA to Blink ratio is about 1:1 right now? Is that reasonable?

Martin Gilligan: Yes. I think it’s a pretty good assumption.

Umer Raffat: Got it. And I guess the last point would be, how do you think about the prescriptions being filled up? Is that because of some payment issue? Because presumably through Blink, people are able to pay $50 or $75 and get it. So why would there be 10,000 or so prescriptions not picked up?

Martin Gilligan: Yes. So physicians have, obviously, when they’re writing a prescription, the ability to send it anywhere. And that’s a really important point that VOQUEZNA is available at all retail pharmacies. Blink overall is a new service. We are creating change at the same time. What we’re seeing is utilization growing at Blink. We’re seeing a weekly demand growing at Blink, meaning there’s new physicians coming in and there’s repeat physicians coming in. So we would expect, over time, as more physicians start to use Blink you might see that gap start to narrow. Simultaneously, as we have more wins, the gap is also going to narrow. So there’s — we’re in early weeks of a launch, Umer, so there’s a lot of variation that we’re seeing in the midst of a launch. And then on a very positive side, we’ll see more variation in things such as this going forward.

Operator: And our next question is going to come from the line of Matthew Caufield with H.C. Wainwright.

Matthew Caufield: Congrats on the launch progress. So based on the current erosive labeling, do you have a sense of whether any non-erosive patients or patients that are possibly unconfirmed if their disease is erosive or non-erosive are included in the current script launch numbers, either IQVIA or the BlinkRx numbers?

Martin Gilligan: Yes. Thanks for the question. Right now — well, it’s not even right now, we’re not tracking by indication. But I guess what I should make really clear is we’re also not promoting for non-erosive, so at the same time, we’re not measuring any non-erosive utilization.

Matthew Caufield: That’s helpful. And then just one quick follow-up. So with the range of the 140 scripts written to date and the 3,800 plus that were filled, is that spread at least at this stage, in line with what you would have expected for this part of launch?

Martin Gilligan: Yes. Just to clarify, you say nationwide.

Matthew Caufield: Yes.

Martin Gilligan: Yes. No, we’re seeing uptick similar — uptick similar across the U.S. We’re not seeing differences by area of the country, regions. And so we have — the representatives are calling on 52,000 physicians and they’re all getting very similar positive feedback receptivity and we’re seeing uptick across all of the all of the different targets that we’re calling on. We’re really pleased with the demand. I mean we see 14,000 scripts. And as I mentioned earlier, or I should say, written scripts and as I mentioned earlier, that we only had our full sales force in place, only 7 weeks ago, it really shows that the unmet need is there. We’re hearing feedback from physicians that they’re seeing patients already who work quickly within hours, healing results that happened in a very short period of time.