Esperion Therapeutics, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference call may be recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Tiffany Aldridge, Senior Manager in Corporate Communications at Asperion. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Experian's first quarter 2022 financial results and company update conference call. I'm Tiffany Aldrich and I'm part of the corporate communications team here at Experian. I want to remind callers that the information discussed on the call today is covered under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. I caution listeners that management will be making forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied by our forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with the business. These forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained in today's press release and our SEC filings. The content of this conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of this live broadcast, May 3, 2022. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this conference call and webcast. As a reminder, this conference call and webcast are being recorded and archived. We issued a press release this morning detailing the content of today's call. A copy can be found at www.esperion.com within the Investors and Media section. We will begin with prepared comments and then open the call for your questions. Following today's call, the team will be available for follow-up questions. Please email corporateteam at esperion.com to schedule a time to speak with the team. With us today are Sheldon Koenig, President and CEO, Dr. Joanne Foody, Chief Medical Officer, Eric Warren, Chief Commercial Officer, and BJ Swartz, Chief Strategy Officer. I'll now turn the call over to Sheldon for some prepared remarks. Sheldon?

Thank you, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. We are excited to be here with you today to recap the first quarter of what will be a transformational year for Aspirion and reaffirm our goals for 2022. Over the past few quarters, Aspirion has outlined a strategic vision to position our company for long-term growth and success. and we continue to execute both commercially and in the clinic to attain our goal of becoming an innovative cardiometabolic leader. As part of that strategy, in 2021, we streamlined our operational structure to focus our resources on driving the consistent growth of our commercial products, Nexlatal and Nexlavet, and the advancement of our ongoing unprecedented clear outcomes trial leading up to the planned top-line readout in the first quarter of 2023. Now, during the remainder of 2022, we remain steadfast and are focused on delivering these objectives. I'd like to begin with a brief overview of the commercial progress of Nexlatal and NexlaZec. To recap the last quarter, year-over-year demand for our medicines grew 56.7% in the first quarter, with U.S. net product revenue of $13.4 million, up approximately 109%, from the same period of 2021. These robust results were the culmination of the enhanced product positioning and refined patient support programs we initiated in 2021 and continue to improve. We have enhanced our targeting efforts even further to identify and optimize new physician targets using the contract sales organization we began deploying this year, concentrating on physicians who will help drive more frequent utilization. Our partners, Daiichi Sankyo Europe, continue to actively grow Nolendo and Nustendi in their European territory and have cumulatively treated at least 52,000 patients through the first quarter of 2022. Our products have demonstrated significant traction in the European market with a stronger launch trajectory than PCSK9 inhibitors, and we continue to believe that the accessibility and convenience of an oral medication will provide a significant improvement to the quality of patient care. I am also pleased to report that this quarter we have achieved year-over-year cost savings of 32% in our operational expenses compared to the first quarter of 2021. This represents effective execution of our transformative plan announced in the fall. We are approaching 95% MACE accumulation in our unprecedented clear outcomes trial and expect to reach 100% of MACE by the end of the year, with top-line data in the first quarter of 2023. As you all know, this is a critical priority for Aspirion, and our entire team is focused on the task of assuring a high-quality trial close and proper data collection. With an estimated 41 million patients impacted by hypercholesterolemia globally and 18 million patients in the U.S. alone, it is more crucial than ever to identify and treat patients who are unable to achieve their LDL cholesterol goals with existing treatment options. Presently, an estimated 70% of patients are not at guideline recommended LDL levels despite the numerous treatment options in the cholesterol management landscape. Other cardiovascular drug manufacturers also see the significant value waiting to be realized in cholesterol management. By 2026, annual worldwide revenue in the lipid market is projected to exceed $11 billion. Aspirion remains committed to its mission of providing oral, accessible therapies to address cardiovascular risk. We recently announced support for a collaborative study with a large integrated and learning healthcare delivery system in Northern California to study the effects of Nexoset in reducing LDL cholesterol following a heart attack. These data will add to the extensive body of evidence supporting the clinical value of NexLizet. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Joanne for an overview of our ongoing clinical activities and data presentations.