Assertio Holdings, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. My name is John and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Assertio Holdings third quarter results conference call. All lights have been placed in mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the call over to Matt Krebs, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, John. Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss Assertio's third quarter 2024 financials. The news release covering our results for this period is now available on the investor page of our website at investor.assertiotx.com. I would encourage you to review the release and tables in conjunction with today's discussion. With me today are Brendan O'Grady, our Chief Executive Officer, and A.J. Patel, Chief Financial Officer. In just a moment, Brendan will open the remarks and provide an overview of the business then AJ will cover our financial results. After that, we will take questions from our covering research analysts. Please note that during this call, management will make projections and other forward-looking statements regarding our future performance. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, including those noted in this afternoon's press release as well as the CERTIO's filings with the SEC. These and other risks are more fully described in the risk factor section and other sections of our annual report on Form 10-K and in our Form 10-Q filings. Our actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Sardio specifically disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law. And with that, I will now turn the call over to Brendan. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Matt. Welcome, everyone, to today's call, and thank you for joining. I'd like to start by wishing you all happy Veterans Day, especially to our retired and active service members and their families. In addition to our usual quarterly performance, there are two other relevant issues that I would like to begin my remarks by addressing. The first is the unwarranted attack on Assertio stakeholders by Mr. Alex Parker of Buxton Hemsley Group that was launched this past Friday, November 8th. I'm sure many, if not most of you, have seen the letter I released this morning addressing Mr. Parker's rambling manifesto that he put out last Friday. Normally, I would not validate such conduct by speaking about it, but because of the numerous falsehoods and baseless allegations that had such an impact on our share price, I want to use this opportunity to address this head on. While we have taken Mr. Parker's allegations seriously and have looked into every single one of them, we found them all to be without merit. We have communicated that to Mr. Parker on numerous occasions while at the same time refusing to bow to his demands of cash payments or a seat on a board to which he would add zero, and I stress zero, value. And most importantly, neither of which would be in the best interest of shareholders. If you happen to take the time to read through his less than cogent 24-page document, he's essentially making three baseless claims While I do not want to rehash my entire letter, I do want to take a minute to set the record straight specifically on those claims. First and foremost, Rolvidon is a safe and effective product. I am 100% confident in that. Assertio was aware of the whistleblower claims around Rolvidon before the acquisition of Spectrum. In fact, those claims were investigated by three different professional outside firms. The experts involved in those investigations determined that the FDA was supplied with all relevant and required data that led to Rolvidon's approval. Rolvidon has now been in the market in the U.S. and South Korea for two and a half years and has demonstrated its safety and efficacy in the clinic with patients in real-world settings. It is well tolerated by patients and has been well received by providers. Second. The impairment charges had nothing to do with any purported Rolodon safety claims. Assertio simply followed clearly established accounting principles, as we always do, in regards to any asset. Our disclosures clearly explain the impairment and how any and why it was calculated the way that it was. It is that simple. Third, no payments to the alleged whistleblower were ever made. The proposed payments Mr. Parker is referring to is related to an employment claim that was raised by a disgruntled former employee. That employee brought claims forward about Rolvidon as leverage to boost the value of a settlement or reverse their pending termination. After a thorough investigation, it was determined those claims and allegations were false and without merit. The employee was subsequently terminated as part of a reduction in force, and the case was later dismissed without any payment ever being made. Finally, Mr. Parker's rambling rehash of connecting dots where none exist or misrepresenting long past settled issues is right with false statements and mischaracterizations that we have pointed out to him numerous times, including the circumstances and reasons for the departure of a former board member. Well, I don't expect his desperate attacks will stop. You should know that there is nothing here and we will vigorously defend our reputation using all legal and regulatory means at our disposal. Today will be my last comments on this matter as I turn 100% of my focus to the business. So now, with that out of the way, I'd like to focus my comments back to the business and the progress we are making in stabilizing the company and positioning it for transformational growth in the coming months. As noted in our earnings release today, I would like to announce that during the November 7th Board of Directors meeting, Chairman of the Board, Peter Staple, retired from the Board after 21 years of dedicated service and leadership. Peter was instrumental in bringing me to Assertio, and although our time together was short, I appreciated his calm demeanor, deep expertise, and presence on the Board. I cannot thank him enough. In addition, Dr. Jeff Basurka has stepped back from the Board to focus on his many other business interests. We thank Dr. Vicerca for his service in providing continuity through the acquisition and integration of Spectrum. His insights into the GCF, GCSF, and oncology markets were invaluable, and we will miss his contributions to the board. Both of these departures and continued transition to the board have long been in the planning. With that, I'm also happy to announce that Heather Mason, independent director, has been appointed as chairwoman of the board. Heather has been on the Assertio board for over five years, serving as interim CEO prior to my joining, and she has a wealth of industry experience. I look forward to continuing to work with Heather in her newly expanded role. I am also excited to announce that David Stark has joined the Assertio board effective November 7th. David is an experienced litigator and senior pharmaceutical executive, recently retiring from Teva as chief legal officer. David brings a wealth of industry and relevant legal expertise from his 20 plus years at Teva. David and I were colleagues at Teva, and I'm excited to be working with him again in this new capacity. Now onto the business. First and foremost, let me just say, I'm very pleased with where we are today as a starting line for growth. As I've said previously, this year is about stabilizing the organization as we transition from Indison as our lead product to Rolodon, and at the same time, positioning ourselves for more transformational growth in the coming months. It is worth restating that we have a solid balance sheet, modest debt on favorable terms, and a good stable of growth, core, and legacy assets led by Rolvidon. We also have an excellent team of dedicated professionals who know this industry extremely well, giving us the opportunity to add or enhance key capabilities as we grow. Also important to note is that our capabilities and lean model will allow us to be relatively sector agnostic, broadening the landscape for new assets and letting us focus on those that best fit our commercial parameters. For all these reasons, we are well positioned to deliver value for patients and providers we serve, as well as shareholders and employees, as we build a significant branded specialty business through acquisition, integration, and a focused go-to-market strategy. As I said on my first call with you in August, Our focus will remain on steady execution, driving cash flow, and identifying new assets we can add to bring further scale to Assertio's platform. Now, turning to performance, and I'll first address Rolvidon. Rolvidon Q3 sales were essentially steady quarter over quarter, showing continued solid demand. We continue to retain a stable share around 33% in the oncology community, a community oncology clinic space, where we have primarily focused. We did see a dip in demand due to some typical seasonality that can occur in the third quarter, as well as some shift in the community oncology clinic space, specifically Part B. This was offset by the addition of new customers, enabling further expansion into the hospital space and community oncology clinics where we did not have a presence. There are segments, these are segments that will be important for further future growth. We remain focused on using our position, a safe and effective non-biosimilar GCSF to offer stability to providers and patients, positioning ourselves as a predictable, reliable solution at a more stable price. And of course, this is a market dynamic, but our message continues to resonate. Additionally, Robidon same-day dosing trial wrapped up in early Q2, and I'm excited to announce that the data will be presented as a poster exhibit at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in December. I'm excited about Rolvidon, as it's going to play a key role for us over the next several years, both in our current clinic-focused market, as well as hospital, as well as the hospital market, as we prepare to expand into those additional opportunities. As the only available GCSF approved under a BLA without biosimilar copies, there may also be opportunities for label expansion. We're in the very early phases of making that assessment. Now, a couple words about Indicyn. On Indison, we continue to manage the lifecycle process and drive cash flow generating from the asset. Although there is some compounding activity, to date we have only one generic competitor. Our share of the market is holding steady at our internal target levels, which is around 50% of the ex-compounding market. We will compete to hold our rightful share of the market, and at the same time we will work to maintain our share and optimize price. Having worked at Teva for more than 20 years, this is something I am very familiar with and know how to do. Looking at Simpazan, while this is a smaller asset, we believe that it has under-penetrated the market and there is room for growth. We also understand that Simpazan is especially responsive to key opinion leader awareness and support. I think I mentioned on the last call that we're piloting and executing sales and marketing tactics designed to drive prescriber awareness and prescription growth in key markets. Although early, we have seen record demand levels in Simpazan prescriptions in July and August as a result of these activities. This is a product I like from the beginning of my time at Assertio. It serves a specific unmet medical need. We have a broad coalition of growing support among patients, caregivers, and providers, and look to expand both awareness and use of Simpazan going forward. And then lastly, just a quick word about some of our remaining assets. And I'd like to just talk a little bit about how to characterize the business. I see it really in three main buckets. I see a growth asset bucket. This is clearly Rolodon, and I've spoken about it. I see a core asset bucket. This is Simpazan and Spricks. And while I discuss Simpazan and her plan there, I've not said much about Spricks. What I will say about Spricks is that it serves a significant unmet medical need by providing opioid-level pain relief. In fact, our indication states that Spritz is indicated in moderate to moderately severe pain that requires analgesia at the opioid level. There continues to be a focus on non-opioid pain relief, and the No Pain Act, which expands reimbursement for non-opioid post-surgical options starting January 1, 2025, could be an opportunity that we are looking at very seriously for Spritz. If nothing else, it brings the need for non-opioid pain relief back to the forefront and reason to believe that SPRX could be a bigger asset for us than it currently is. The last bucket is our legacy assets. These are our tail products that have lost exclusivity or face very difficult market dynamics. In this bucket, it's all about asset optimization and includes Indicyn and Cambia among others. I understand how to extract maximum value out of assets like this and will continue to focus on cash generation in this bucket. With that, I'll conclude my remarks and I'll hand it over to A.J. Patel, our Chief Financial Officer.