Ardelyx, Inc.

Good day, and welcome to the Artelix First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Caitlin Lowey, Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations at Artelix. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to our first quarter 2024 financial results call. During this call, we will refer to the press release issued earlier today, which is available on the investor section of the company's website at ardellis.com. During this call, we will be making forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those described. We encourage you to review the risk factors and our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q that was filed today and can be found on our website at ardellis.com. While we may elect to update these forward-looking statements in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our views change. Our President and CEO, Mike Robb, will begin today's call with opening remarks and an overview of the company's progress during the first quarter of 2024. Next, Susan Rodriguez, Chief Commercial Officer, will provide an update on the performance of Insurella and Exposa. Justin Renz, Chief Financial and Operations Officer, will conclude today's prepared remarks with a review of the company's financial performance during the first quarter ended March 31, 2024, before we open the call to questions. With that, let me pass the call over to Mike.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on this call. Q1 earnings always seem to come quickly after we report our Q4 results, and yet, as usual, a lot has happened since we last provided you an update. First, Xposed's performance out of the gate following the launch in November continues at a remarkable pace. This is a first-in-class product in a therapeutic area that has seen no innovation in decades. The response from the prescribing community clearly demonstrates the significant unmet need among this patient population. EXPOSA is an important new option for physicians to help patients whose serum phosphorus remains elevated despite best efforts. All demand indicators are favorable. Prescribers are eager to learn more about EXPOSA's blocking mechanism and are working to identify potential candidates for therapy. Like Azarella, our deluxe assist is supporting prior authorizations and helping patients take advantage of our affordability programs. Patients are accessing the drug, and the feedback is that patients are seeing sustained reductions in their serum phosphorus. We are focused on ensuring prescribers are aware and educated on Exposa and ensuring patients have access to treatment. As you can see by our performance, it's going very well. Izrella continues to perform strongly, providing an important option to, again, address a large unmet need among IBSU patients. We believe that this can be a billion-dollar product, and on the path to achieving that peak, we expect full-year net sales revenue for 2024 to be between $140 and $150 million. As I consider the first quarter performance, the underlying demand metrics and fundamentals of the business are robust and continue to demonstrate growth in new and repeat writers and new and refill prescriptions. Our reported revenue reflects demand growth, offset by the impact of seasonality, which is standard across the industry that we experienced during this first quarter. Importantly, our cash position remains strong, resulting from our revenue, the third tranche of debt from our partnership with SLR, and thoughtful management of our expenses. We are at an exciting time in our evolution as a company, and our top priority is to build upon the growth momentum of Insurella and Exposa. Now, I will turn the call over to Susan to discuss first quarter performance for both of our products. Susan?