5/8/2025

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Brian Dunn. You may begin.

speaker
Brian Dunn
Investor Relations/Call Moderator

Thank you, Amy. Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's conference call in which we will discuss InSmed's first quarter 2025 financial results and provide an update on our business. Before we start, please note that today's call will include forward-looking statements based on our current expectations. These statements represent our judgment as of today and inherently involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed. Please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information concerning the risk factors that could affect the company. The information we will discuss on today's call is meant for the benefit of the investment community. It is not intended for promotional purposes, and it is not sufficient for prescribing decisions. I'm joined today by Will Lewis, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, and Sarah Bonstein, Chief Financial Officer, who will each provide prepared remarks, after which they will be joined by Martina Flammer, Chief Medical Officer, for a Q&A session. I will now turn

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

the call over to Will. Thank you, Brian, and welcome, everyone. 2025 is off to an exceptionally strong start for InSmed, with our research and development, regulatory, and commercial teams executing on their ambitious goals for the year. EraCase delivered another quarter of double-digit -over-year revenue growth in Q1, and each of our mid- to late-stage clinical programs are on or ahead of schedule. Perhaps most importantly, we have continued to facilitate the FDA's ongoing review of our NDA filing for brenso-cadabin bronchiectasis, which has been steadily progressing without disruption, despite the changes occurring at the agency. We continue to expect the FDA's decision on their review by the August 12th BDUFA date. Before I walk through our recent progress in more detail, I'd like to reflect briefly on where InSmed currently stands on its development journey and, importantly, what still lies ahead. InSmed is advancing three mid- to late-stage programs with brenso-cadab, TPIP, and EraCase. We have achieved an uninterrupted string of positive clinical data for at least one indication from each program, which is a rare accomplishment. These results have offered patients new hope and have given us the confidence to pursue additional indications. In the next 12 months, we look forward to reading out data from TPIP for PAH, brenso-cadab for CRS without nasal polyps, and the EraCase ENCOR trial for all mac lung disease. If we are successful, these potential additional indications would represent a meaningful advancement for patients and a substantial growth opportunity for the company. Now let's dive deeper into each of these programs, starting with brenso-cadab. Last month, the full results of the Phase III Aspen trial of brenso-cadab and bronchiectasis were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, emphasizing the importance of this data set to the medical, scientific, and patient communities. The publication puts brenso-cadab among the rare category of drugs that have had both their Phase II and Phase III results for the same indication highlighted by the New England Journal of Medicine. At the FDA, the review team continues to be engaged and responsive, and we are not aware of any turnover or other disruptions to the FDA's review activities. In fact, all components of the review process have occurred on schedule, including the mid-cycle review meeting and all applicable inspections to date. We look forward to the FDA's decision in the coming months and are hopeful that it will result in this important medicine finally becoming available to bronchiectasis patients waiting for a therapy like brenso-cadab. As the regulatory process in the U.S. progresses, we are also making meaningful strides on our launch readiness. I am pleased to report that as of the end of April, our Disease State Awareness website has had over a million unique visits and over 53,000 self-identified patients who have taken action, such as downloading support tools or signing up to be kept informed about the latest updates in bronchiectasis. In addition, we continue to engage with both national and regional payers, which is critical as we prepare for our goal of a frictionless launch. So far, we have found a constructive audience in response to the proposals we presented within our initial discussions. As you know, additional U.S. sales reps were hired and deployed in October of 2024 with the aim of educating health care professionals about bronchiectasis while also detailing EraCase. In fact, that team has already successfully engaged with more than 27,000 health care professionals in the U.S. We have also recently completed the expansion of our patient support function, building on the strong foundation that we provided EraCase patients for many years. This function will be critical to fulfilling our mission to transform the lives of patients living with serious diseases by supporting them through their journey. Another indication of the promise of Brenso-Catib is the encouraging regulatory reception it's receiving internationally. Like at the FDA, both the European and UK regulatory authorities have accepted our filings of Brenso-Catib and are conducting their respective regulatory reviews. We also continue to advance our filing for Japanese regulators, and we look forward to submitting that application soon. Importantly, this progress keeps us squarely on track for potential approvals and launches in each region in 2026. Our second indication for Brenso-Catib, CRS without nasal polyps, is also advancing at an impressive pace. After sustained strong recruitment, the Phase II Birch trial completed enrollment last month with 288 randomized patients exceeding our original 270 patient target. We continue to expect top-line results by the end of this year. We remain encouraged by the blinded data we have seen from the studies so far and look forward to what those data could mean for patients. If successful, we believe that the Birch Phase II clinical study could unlock a significant additional commercial opportunity for Brenso-Catib that could match or even exceed that of bronchiectasis, given the larger number of patients suffering from this condition. I'm also pleased to mention that, while still early, enrollment in our Phase II CDER trial, which examines the potential role of Brenso-Catib in hydradenitis supertiva, is proceeding well. Based on our current enrollment rate, we anticipate the interim futility evaluation of the first 100 patients to occur in the first half of next year. I also want to briefly touch upon DPP-1 inhibition and the meaningful progress we are making to develop our next generation of DPP-1 inhibitors. The potential of this novel pathway for treating neutrophil-mediated diseases is still in its infancy and represents one of the most exciting and important areas of research we are exploring for patients. As a leader in DPP-1 inhibition, our research team is working tirelessly on next generation molecules with the potential to address other diseases where neutrophilic inflammation is relevant, such as COPD, rheumatoid arthritis, and many others. We anticipate the first of our next generation molecules could enter the clinic as soon as next year. Turning now to our TPIP program. Our Phase II trial of TPIP in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension continues to progress toward a top-line readout. The last patient's week 16 visit occurred in late March, and we are now in the process of cleaning and locking the database before unblotting the results. Based on this progress, we are narrowing the expected timing for the top-line readout to June, or the earlier end of our previously communicated timing of midyear. As we approach that readout, our excitement continues to grow for what it could mean for patients. Given its proximity and in keeping with our usual practice, I want to be clear about what we would see as success for this trial before we turn over those results. If the treatment shows a placebo-adjusted reduction in pulmonary vascular resistance from baseline of 20%, we would view that as a clear win. If it shows a 25% reduction on that measure, we believe it would be a home run representing a -in-class PVR reduction for a prostenoid in this setting. When you also consider that participants in this trial are heavily pretreated and that we are measuring this endpoint 24 hours after the most recent dose of TPIP, in other words, at trough or the most conservative time point, such a result would be all the more impressive. Separately, although this study is not powered to show a definitive effect on six-minute walk distance, our hope is that we will see a 15 to 20-meter directional benefit favoring TPIP. Regardless of the efficacy results that are achieved in this Phase II, it is important to remember that this could be the starting point for TPIP's efficacy profile, given that the study's max tolerated initial dose was set at 640 micrograms. While this max dose represents about 60% more truprosanil than the combination of four daily doses of Tivezo DPI, we have been encouraged by our study's investigators to allow for even higher dosing. In our Phase III program, we intend to allow patients to titrate their dose up to a maximum of 1,280 micrograms, or double the highest dose that was allowed in this Phase II study. Given that higher doses of truprosanil have been shown both in clinical trials and in real-world practice to yield greater efficacy in a dose-dependent fashion, the potential for safely increasing the dose of TPIP is extremely exciting. Taken together, the prospect of greater efficacy, combined with -a-day dosing, emphasizes how potentially powerful this therapy could be for improving patient outcomes in PAH and PHILD. One final update that we believe underscores the excitement of our investigators and study participants. Of the patients who completed the full 16 weeks of treatment in our Phase II PAH trial, about 95% of them have chosen to enroll in the Open Label Extension, which allows patients to titrate up to a max of 1,280 micrograms, and some have already reached that high dose. Data from this Open Label Extension will be made available at a future medical conference after the top-line readout. Collectively, we will use the information from our Phase II trials of TPIP to finalize our clinical plans for Phase III trials in both PHILD and PAH, with PHILD expected to start in the second half of 2025 and PAH to follow shortly thereafter. Finally, let me touch on our Error Case Development Program, which aims to satisfy the post-marketing requirement for full approval of its current refractory MAC lung disease indication, while also supporting the expansion of the label to include all patients with MAC lung disease. The Phase III ENCORE trial continues to progress on schedule toward its anticipated readout. As you know, this trial has a primary endpoint that is based on a patient-reported outcome measure applicable for the U.S. regulators, which will be measured at month 13. It also has a separate durable culture conversion primary endpoint that is applicable for the Japanese regulators, and that is measured at month 15. It is our intention to wait to unblind all the data until the month 15 culture conversion results are available. As a result, we expect the top-line results will be available in the first half of 2026, and we will provide more detail as this time approaches. Encouragingly, we have been monitoring the data from ENCORE on a blinded basis, which continues to look very similar to what we saw in the successful ARISE study. Before I hand the call over to Sarah, let me simply say that INSAMED is ready for the exciting future ahead. Each of our development programs is showing meaningful progress. Our regulatory filings and launch preparations for BrentsoCATIB are all advancing on or ahead of schedule, and our commercial performance continues to deliver strong -over-year revenue growth in each of our regions. Let me now turn the call over to Sarah.

speaker
Sarah Bonstein
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Will, and good morning, everyone. I'm thrilled to be addressing you during one of the most inspiring periods that we have ever seen at INSAMED. In the midst of all the excitement going on inside the company, I want to take a moment to address concerns that I often hear about what is happening outside the company, particularly as it relates to tariffs. We have done extensive work to understand the potential impacts of various tariff policies on INSAMED, and based on that work, we are comfortable that INSAMED is well positioned to thrive, even in an environment of relative geopolitical uncertainties. Importantly, INSAMED's U.S. intellectual property resides in the U.S. This means we would expect tariffs to be applied only to the actual cost base of the product without any additional exposures due to markups or transfer price strategies, which are commonly used by others in our industry. In addition, INSAMED intends to expand its current U.S. manufacturing footprint. We have had to under way for some time to establish a second source of manufacturing for brenso-cathib in the United States. Importantly, all manufacturing for our gene therapy programs is already based in the U.S. Based on the tariffs currently in place, we estimate the impact on our business to be in the single digit millions annually over the next few years. We will continue to monitor and assess any impacts as the macro environment evolves. Let's move on to our first quarter results, beginning with the strong commercial performance of AeroCase, which is illustrated on this slide. We were pleased to deliver double digit -over-year growth in each of our geographic regions in the first quarter, representing the sixth quarter in a row for this achievement. Particularly striking was the percentage growth rates we saw in Japan and Europe, both hovering around 50%. These impressive results were driven by strong volume trends due to an increase in new patient starts. In addition, our U.S. commercial team delivered strong 14% growth for AeroCase this quarter, a remarkable result for our product in its seventh year post-launch. Due to the strength of this performance across each of our commercial regions, we remain on track to achieve our 2025 full year AeroCase net revenue guidance of $405 to $425 million. As a reminder, this guidance range is specific to AeroCase and does not include any future contributions from Brento Katsip, if approved. On slide 18, you can see our cash balance as of the end of the quarter. At approximately $1.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, we are well capitalized as we approach our upcoming clinical and commercial catalysts later this year. As is typically the case in the first quarter, our cash burn was higher than our usual quarterly cadence as a result of the timing of our annual employee incentive compensation payout. If you remove the impact of that payment, as well as the cash we received due to stock option exercises in the quarter, our underlying burn in the quarter was comparable to prior quarters. Although we don't guide to cash burn levels, in general, we continue to expect our burn to increase as we build out the necessary personnel and infrastructure in anticipation of the Brento Katsip launch. On the other side of that launch, we anticipate that increases in spending will be more than offset by revenue growth, leading to progressively smaller quarterly operating cash outflows. As I have said many times, we are not currently funded through profitability, but importantly, that is by our own choice, because we believe the investments we are making now will lead to outsized returns in the future. We continue to have line of sight to becoming a cash flow positive company, and believe our purposeful investments, along with future potential revenue growth, have put us on that path. Additionally, we expect to have many options for accessing the capital we need when the appropriate time comes. Last month, we announced that we were calling the remaining $570 million of convertible debt on our balance sheet, which would have matured in 2028, with a redemption date of June 6, 2025. If all the debt is converted prior to redemption, it would result in the issuance of approximately 17.8 million additional shares of common stock. This conversion would not only lower our ongoing interest expense, but would also meaningfully reduce our outstanding debt. We look forward to providing you with an update after the redemption date. Moving to the next slide, you can see our operating expenses for the quarter. Cost of product revenues for first quarter 2025 was $21.3 million, or .9% of revenues, which is consistent with our historical performance. As expected, both our research and development and SG&A expenses were higher this quarter than they were in the previous year's first quarter due to the significant growth of our company during the past year to support our commercial readiness initiatives in anticipation of the U.S. launch of Brent Sokatsib, as well as our increasing investments in our early and mid to late-stage pipelines. However, I will point out that our operating expenses this quarter were down from the levels we saw in the first quarter of 2024. In the fourth quarter of 2024, this was driven largely by lower research and development costs across Brent Sokatsib for bronchiectasis and TPIP. We anticipate that research and development expenses will increase going forward as we kick off the Phase 3 programs for TPIP, continued investments to advance Brent Sokatsib in both CRS and HS, and advance multiple gene therapy product candidates into the clinic. In closing, we believe INSMED is in a unique position of strength, both financially and operationally. We continue to deliver strong, aircase revenue growth in all of our regions. The expected launch of Brent Sokatsib later this year has the potential to significantly accelerate our revenue growth. In parallel, our team continues to execute with meaningful clinical and data catalysts in the near term. All of this is supported by our strong cash position. I couldn't be more pleased with where INSMED stands. With that, we would now like to open the call to your question. Operator, may we take the first question, please?

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. To enter the queue, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you wish to withdraw your question, again, simply press star and the number one. If you are called upon to ask your question, please ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. We do request that for today's session that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow up. And if you would like to ask additional questions, we invite you to return to the queue by pressing star and the number one. Again, thank you. Your first question comes from the line of Andrea Newkirk with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Good

speaker
Andrea Newkirk
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

morning. Thanks for taking the question and congratulations on the progress. Will, as you think about Brent's account of launching globally and given what you've mentioned is what you think peak sales could be, how much does potential MFN legislation factor into your thinking on how to price both in the U.S. and abroad? And then I have a follow up.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

So I think, you know, it's hard to speculate on what really will will end up being the the outcome. It is the pattern of behavior that we've observed that sometimes things are said that are quite dramatic. And then there's a there's a period of time for reflection and consideration. And then the ultimate outcome is some compromise that orbits around what was originally said, but but it's pretty distant from it, regardless of what the actual outcome is. I think we're in a uniquely strong position because, of course, we don't have to look at Brent's account through the lens of what has already happened. We're setting the price in the U.S. first and then we're going to be setting prices in Europe and UK and Japan second, third and fourth respectively. And the consequence of that is it gives us tremendous flexibility to respond to whatever the new environment will be. Importantly, for everyone's recollection, Eric case was priced at parity between the U.S., Europe and Japan when it was launched.

speaker
Andrea Newkirk
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Right. OK. And then just one more here, just given the increased engagement with your bronchiectasis disease awareness website that you mentioned, can you speak to what trends, if any, that you're picking up on? And when you think about this patient group, how motivated are they to actively seek out pulmonologists for treatment? And should we expect there to be a bolus of patients coming onto therapy upon approval? Thanks so much.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So one thing we know about commercial launches is that there's always something that's unexpected that occurs within them, at least oftentimes more than one thing. What I can tell you is that the backdrop that we're approaching here is favorable across the board. The number of patients that are active, the interest and enthusiasm level from them parallels that that we're receiving from the physicians. The response we got to the New England Journal of Medicine publication was overwhelming. And I would just say I feel very good about the landscape we're stepping into. And I think we're ready for it. What that will look like, whether it will be a bolus up front or whether it will be more gradual. It's hard to say, as we mentioned in the opening remarks, we've now reached all the pulmonologists basically in the United States. And that's almost 30,000 physicians. So we have a very good understanding of the landscape. We're ready to launch this drug, assuming approval. And I'm expecting that that will go well. I think it's hard to say what the pattern will look like, but we certainly are targeting a frictionless launch. And by that we mean easy and rapid uptake for patients that are appropriate to go on therapy. And the physicians that are identifying them have an easy process to get them on on medicine.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jason Zemansky of Bank of America. Your line is now open.

speaker
Jason Zemansky
Analyst, Bank of America

Great. Good morning. Congrats on the progress. And thank you for taking our questions. I had a follow up on your comments just now. But again, the patient numbers seem pretty compelling in terms of kind of driving that frictionless launch. But what you see is sort of the big levers there in terms of transitioning a patient who might be interested onto therapy. You know, I appreciate that you're in the field here. I've been curious as to what you're hearing about, you know, potential headwinds here and how you intend to make the process kind of seamless and moving that interest into an actual revenue generating patient.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So, again, I think it's going to be hard to know until we're actually in the middle of it. What I can say is that, you know, when we talked about the numbers we were targeting out of the gate here, we are it was very important that people understand we're talking about patients that are already diagnosed and have two or more exacerbations. So this is the label we anticipate receiving. Obviously, that will drive what is an appropriate patient for use. And the physicians are prepared knowing that they have patients that have two or more exacerbations within the last 12 months and that this medicine is coming. So I think making sure we connect those dots and just execute on that is going to be the first order of business. There is a second order that will be occurring in parallel, which is looking at those patients who are very likely bronchiectatic and probably have had two or more exacerbations. But perhaps they have not had their CT scan or have not seen a pulmonologist recently. We've been encouraging through disease state awareness, both for patients and physicians to explore those conditions and patients and try to line them up so that they, if appropriate, can be diagnosed as bronchiectatic with two or more exacerbations and would therefore be on label for treatment. Once again, I think we have a healthy number of patients that we've identified. We think we know where they are, and we have built those relationships over the last many months. I think it's not unfair to say that we have a strong reputation in the pulmonology community as a result of the way we've handled ourselves with our case, and that will pay dividends in this setting. I just met with the leadership of the U.S. commercial team, and I can tell you to a person, they are exceptional, and we are going to do an extremely good job at this launch. But the specifics of what that will look like, we're just not going to know it until we're in the middle of it.

speaker
Sarah Bonstein
Chief Financial Officer

I would just add one additional comment. It reminds you all that the COPD Foundation, they had an initiative to create 150-ish sites over the next three years that specialize in NTM and bronchiectasis. My understanding is the first cohort of those have been established in excess of 30 new sites that specialize in treating NTM and bronchiectasis. So that is obviously encouraging to see for patients as well. And

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

you asked about levers. So, Sarah, it's an excellent point, the COPD Foundation efforts. Similarly, there are guidelines out there to treat bronchiectasis. I don't know, Martina, if you want to just comment on those.

speaker
Martina Flammer
Chief Medical Officer

Yeah. So I think the guidelines are expecting, of course, and have been waiting for the publication. We know that TESS and as well as ERS are expecting and working on updating their guidelines. We hope, of course, that they take this into consideration. Also remember, right now, patients have nothing to really treat their disease. We are talking about patients who do respiratory therapy, and if they have an infection, they are getting an antibiotic. It is nothing that currently truly impacts the progression of their disease or goes to the causation of their disease. And maybe one more comment that shows us also the interest just driven by patients themselves, because we've measured who is actually looking at the publications at the New England Journal. And we've seen an exorbitant high amount of over 60 percent that is coming from the public. So this is largely representing by patient interested family members and caregivers. We expect always the scientific community to be part of it. But patients who are strongly engaged and their representatives are looking at these publications and this data.

speaker
Jason Zemansky
Analyst, Bank of America

Just to clarify quickly, do you expect a CT scan to be necessary for prescription and diagnosis there?

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So just to be crystal clear, the definitive diagnosis of bronchiectasis is achieved with a high resolution CT scan and symptom evaluation by a pulmonologist. And so when we identify patients with two or more exacerbations who have a definitive diagnosis of bronchiectasis, all of those criteria are met in the numbers we've outlined. What we've raised for awareness is that there are many, many more behind them who perhaps have COPD or asthma or some other comorbidity and also are experiencing exacerbations despite being on best available treatments for those conditions. And that suggests that they may also be suffering from bronchiectasis. To Martina's point, in the absence of anything to treat these patients, there really hasn't been a strong motivation to get them a CT scan to definitively define and identify the diagnosis of bronchiectasis because there's nothing they can do about it. So with that potential arrival of this new medicine, that will change that equation dramatically. And it's not uncommon to find when a disease that has a first ever treatment arrives that many more patients than were originally thought are part of the diagnosed group that eventually emerges.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jessica Phye with JP Morgan. Your line is now open.

speaker
Nick (on behalf of Jessica Phye)
Analyst, JP Morgan

Hi, this is Nick on for Jess. Thanks for taking our questions. First, for the upcoming TPIP update, can you talk about how you're thinking about the real importance of PVR versus six minute walk? And then I know it doesn't sound like it, but can you just remind us if your power for six minute walk in the phase two trial?

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so the way we think about it is that the most definitive examination of this is the PVR measure, right? That's a direct measure of pulmonary vascular resistance. These patients typically expire as a result of right heart failure. So the ability to alleviate that pressure is very, very material. It's also an incredibly invasive measure. And so that's why it's not conducted commonly or widely in the setting of the clinical trial and phase two in particular. You're often seeing it as the definitive measure for whether or not the drug is having an impact. And then people look to the correlate of six minute walk test and other biomarkers like NT ProBNP to capture the impact as a result of the treatment. So we think PVR is the most important measure. I think the agency and physicians would agree with that. And then we look at six minute walk as a less specific measure, but still capturing the ultimate exercise capacity of patients as an ancillary benefit of the pulmonary vascular resistance improvement. So when we look at it in this context of this phase two study, we are not powered for statistical significance on six minute walk test. However, we are hoping to see a trend somewhere in the 15 to 20 meter range. Just as we expressed that we're hoping to see a placebo adjusted PVR reduction of 20 percent as the threshold for success for this trial. We are, it's our practice to put out these expectations before data is unblinded. We get them by stepping back and saying what would be a definitive way to prove that this medicine is impactful in a phase two setting that would impress physicians and regulators and market access participants. And having done that work, these are the measures that we come back with. And we'll see where the trial comes out. It's been widely reported that the fact that this is a once a day is in and of itself a huge advance for these patients. Clearly, we're not setting ourselves up to top tick the results because we're measuring it trough. But nonetheless, we think that's the right way to think about it through the lens of the patient, the position and the regulatory and market access communities. What will this drug really do for patients after they take it? And if we can capture that by an improvement of 20 percent or so placebo adjusted on PVR, that's a clear win.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Joe Schwartz with Lurink Partners. Your line is now open.

speaker
Brendan Kettib
Analyst, Lurink Partners

Great. Thanks for taking my question and for the update. I'm Brendan Kettib. It was great to see the New England Journal of Medicine article recently. The accompanying editorial seemed to raise some questions about the magnitude of the benefit. I'm just wondering how common is that opinion in the marketplace and what does the company typically or what kind of company say when in order to educate folks on the importance of the benefit? And how come we don't hear more about the severity of exacerbations as opposed to just the number of exacerbations?

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so a number of points in there, Joe. The first is to understand that when the New England Journal has published the results from phase two and phase three for the same drug in the same condition, that's an extremely rare occurrence. I think in the last 25 years, it's happened maybe five times in the respiratory field, and it's been for drugs like Dupixent and other extremely impactful medicines. So we're excited about that. Coupled with that, to have two editorials associated with a publication is also equally rare, and it highlights the importance that the medical community puts on the arrival of this medicine, which is something that the editorial clearly called out. This is the new kid on the block, as they said. It's important to go for a more nuanced look at what those editorials were saying and where they are coming from. And so let me just take a moment to dwell on that. The reference to a macrolide as a potential use of therapy is not uncommon in the most restricted and rationed health care systems in the world. That was the lens through which they were examining this. It is not something we have encountered in any of our settings where we are planning on commercializing the drug, and it is not something that is common discussion. Clearly macrolides and other medicines are used for the treatment of bronchiectasis when patients develop infections, but macrolide use as a monotherapy is a really big no-no. And one of the challenges that emerges from that is the potential for resistance development to a macrolide, and once that happens, that patient is in very serious trouble. So you will hear mention of this in health care ration communities. I think it was offered as something almost ancillary. We have not encountered it in any of our market access discussions, nor do we expect to, nor would you find it commonly suggested in the medical community. But it is an interesting additional perspective, and I think the New England Journal prides itself in ensuring objectivity and third-party points of view are heard, and that's why we received the two editorials, which on balance I would say were quite positive in terms of their endorsement of the arrival of this new and important medicine.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Vamil Devan with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is now open.

speaker
Daniel
Analyst, Guggenheim Securities

Hi, thank you. Yeah, this is Daniel on VAMIL. I have a couple questions on the next generation DPP1s. So you mentioned that COPD and rheumatoid arthritis, you know, they're potential indications to pursue. Maybe if you could describe in a little more detail the choice of highlighting these two indications in particular, and if there is any sort of hierarchy between those two for which you think would be a higher priority, whether due to commercial or scientific reasons, and get connected to that. Maybe you could dive into what properties you're looking for in the next generation DPP1 as compared to what you have with the Brenzocatib profile. Thank you.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So I think the first thing that is important to convey is that our North Star is always the patient and the impact of the medicine on the patient. And while that may sound trite or ring a little hollow to people in this industry, it is truly something to which we align ourselves. And with that in mind, we look at these areas, COPD, rheumatoid arthritis, and many others, because we see an unmet medical need and we see this medicine is having a particularly impactful potential in those settings. We've done some early animal work in some of these, and so we know that DPP1 in that setting is effective. That raises our expectation and excitement and enthusiasm for what we may be able to do. Shortly after the Willow study was published, we began work on expanding the library of DPP1 candidates, both from the point of view of protecting what we already have, but also to expand potential clinical use into new indications. And so some of these molecules differ from Brenzocatib in ways that we hope will ultimately result in clinical benefit to patients in these different disease settings. And that is the primary driver of how we're going about their assessment. As they develop and as we learn more entering the clinic, perhaps as early as next year, we certainly are going to be very excited about that because these are substantial indications. And our goal is to have the biggest influence on the largest number of patients, and that's why we targeted them.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Richie Burrell with TD Cohen. Your line is now open.

speaker
Unknown Speaker
Unknown

Hi,

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

guys. Thanks for taking the

speaker
Ritu
Analyst (Affiliation not specified)

question. Apologies for any background noise. Will, can you address if there's any outstanding inspections on the Brenzo review to be done, whether it's domestic or international? And then I have a follow-up question on TPIP.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

So the short answer to your question, Ritu, is that the FDA reserves the right to inspect all the way up basically until the end of the approval. So we can't say definitively whether or not there's any more to come. I can only say definitively, as we mentioned in the comments, that we've had some inspections. We've had the mid-cycle review. Everything is going according to plan. We couldn't be happier about the progress we're making, and that's being echoed in what we're seeing internationally in terms of the engagement, both in the approval of the initial filing, but also the engagement we're receiving from the regulators almost on a daily basis, as we sit here today. So nothing but thumbs up from our side at this point to report.

speaker
Ritu
Analyst (Affiliation not specified)

Were there any surprises in the mid-cycle review meeting? And then on the TPIP side, what are your thoughts on either the phase 3 design or the path forward in the event of divergent six-minute walk and PBR data? You clearly expressed the 15 to 20 on six-minute walk and then the 20 plus on PBR. But what if you have sort of extreme, what does that tell you about what you need to do with the phase 3?

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so on the mid-cycle review, no surprises. On the TPIP study, you do see divergence on occasion in these measures, and that's always something that is what gives us caution to otherwise interpreting the blended blinded data that has been positive, as we've shared to date. But I'm not as concerned about that for a number of reasons, the primary one being that this is a known moiety. The underlying drug, the prostanoid class, the vasodilatation it accomplishes is well established to be beneficial in both of these measures, and consequently, we would expect that to be evident. If we see aberrations, we'll obviously look very closely at the data. Many of you have heard the great story from the phase 2 of last year where we had a patient who had great PBR reduction and then had a terrible six-minute walk result, and it turned out that between the beginning and the end of the six-minute walk measure, they had broken their leg. So sometimes it is just something as simple as that that can throw off results. If it's a more broader trend where there's divergence, that would be very unexpected. So I would just say I think we feel good about where we are. We're going to know in about a month. And once we've got that data in hand, we'll obviously share it and be very transparent with it because we think it's important for people to understand if we have enthusiasm where that's coming from.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jennifer Kim with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is now open.

speaker
Jennifer Kim
Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald

Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the progress. Maybe to start, during your preparative remarks, you commented on expanding your U.S. manufacturing footprint, specifically for Brento in the U.S. Can you just talk about timing?

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

So part of that is driven by how we manage to pull this through. And as you know, these things are not just as simple as flipping a switch and starting something up. There's qualification. There's other elements of that. But the important point for people to understand is that this is a plant that has been underway for some time. And so as we begin to implement it, we'll provide further updates. But as a point of departure, as Sarah mentioned, our tariff exposure is de minimis by virtue of domiciling our U.S. intellectual property in the U.S.

speaker
Jennifer Kim
Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald

Okay, that's helpful. And maybe a question on blinded blended data, maybe both for Birch, for Brento, and ErrorCase for Encore. I think ErrorCase, he says blinded blended data looks very similar to Arise. Is that in terms of the individual components of the PRO? And then on Birch, any update on what you've been seeing?

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

So on Birch and the Encore study, I'm going to turn it over to Martina for her comments.

speaker
Martina Flammer
Chief Medical Officer

Yeah, so for the Encore study, we continue to look at blinded. What is the trend that we see in the PRO? The PRO, as you know, as we've aligned with the agency, we'll be based on the QoB with eight questions. It's not looking at the individual components. It's since we have blinded at this point. But what we see is consistency of what we have seen in Arise. With regards to Birch, the same is true when you look at the primary endpoint in the Birch study is the sign of total symptom score. So this is also a questionnaire that patients fill out every day. And over the treatment period, you look at what is the difference that you see towards the baseline and the end of treatment. So we're looking and see, is there anything that is unexpected or do we see a trend in the right direction, which is what we currently do? There is a second PRO that you are looking at, and that is called the SNAP-22. This is often a very good correlator also to the total symptom score. And we're seeing that both of those continue to trend in the right direction and most importantly in the same direction.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Lisa Baco with Evercore. Your line is now open. Hi, thanks for taking the

speaker
Lisa Baco
Analyst, Evercore

question. I wonder if you could just walk us through this so we have it kind of all straight. Number of patients with bronchiectasis, this is in the US, those with a CT scan, how many are under care and then how many have at least two exacerbations? And when we think about that, just to just ask a little question on that, is that would that be like in the last year or is that kind of on average in the prior years? Like, how do we think about that? But I'm just trying to kind of break down from sort of top to bottom. You know, when you launch, how many are actually in care with at least two exacerbations? Thanks.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So just to be really clear, the numbers that we have put out into the ether, as it were, about patient numbers in the US are derived from ICD-10 coding for bronchiectasis patients with two or more exacerbations in the last 12 months. So the entry criteria for our phase three study, which we anticipate will be the criteria for use at the market access level. We don't actually anticipate that that will necessarily be the label, but it doesn't really matter because the market access is what's going to control obviously access to the to the medicine. From that point of view, the roughly 500,000 patients in the US represents those that are diagnosed today with bronchiectasis, including a definitive CT scan of those roughly half, we estimate, have had two or more exacerbations documented in the last 12 months. So entirely consistent with that market access criteria. And those are the patients that will be targeting out of the gate.

speaker
Lisa Baco
Analyst, Evercore

Okay, great. Thanks.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Craig Savannah Beach with Mizuho Securities. Your line is now open.

speaker
Craig Savannah Beach
Analyst, Mizuho Securities

Okay, thank you. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the quarter in the progress. Wanted to get back to the Brenso Catib launch and the idea that you're going to try to affect a frictionless launch. You've given us great color on what's happening with patients. Just to remind us on the payer front. You provided some color on how that's going, but could you provide a little bit more on perhaps based maybe on latest market research like where pricing, where your head is on pricing and also just for our modeling purposes, what we might be able to think about in terms of gross to net.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Thanks. Sure. So I'll turn pricing and gross to net over to Sarah in a minute. But the frictionless launch ambition we have is just really a way to express a best possible practice for a commercial launch and for any medicine. And what we're trying to do is ensure not only that the access to the medicine, once the appropriate patient has been identified, is smooth and easy that insurance will support that as quickly as is possible and that we can fulfill that to ensure that patient has the best possible experience on the medicine. That obviously includes for a chronic medicine like this one reauthorization as well as upfront ease of access. And so we are entering into select negotiations and contracting to gain that access and to ensure that the prior authorization is one that is consistent and doesn't introduce any unnecessary onerous aspects to it. Like going back and pulling from the records, the scan and the and the documentation of the exacerbations. What we're looking for is a position to simply attest to the existence of those, which is the appropriate way to address something like this. So with all that said, our discussions with the market access world have been very positive. I think we continue to feel very good about the ranges we've expressed to the street in terms of price and no new information that would direct that any other way. I think this launch is going to go well based on those pre approval discussions with market access, which can now include detail from the actual phase three study. So in other words, we're having much more specific dialogue with the market access world. Here is what the medicine is going to provide. Here is what we propose and we get to hear their reaction to that and ultimately will come to agreement with them as we get closer to launch and we won't launch the actual announce the actual price until the till just at the time of launch. But, sir, over to you for comments on price and gross to net.

speaker
Sarah Bonstein
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, sure. Thanks, Greg, for the question. I'll just remind the listeners that we have put out a price range 40 to 96,000 based on other products in the space. We've commented that we believe our price will be in the upper half of that range. I do not expect that we will provide any more narrow guidance on that until until we launch on gross to net. We have again not provided formal guidance, but we have studied other specialty launches and what their gross to net has looked like as well as the impact of IRA. I'll remind folks that we are not subject to the small manufacturer sort of exception for Brent. So like we are air case because Brent wasn't launched yet. So we will need to pay for the 20% catastrophic coverage for the Medicare patients. We've commented. We believe the breakdown will be pretty similar. So about 60% of patients we will believe will be on Medicare. So off the bat, that's 12% on gross to net. And so if you study all that and take that into account somewhere between 25 and 35% seems reasonable based on precedent analogs. But again, not formal guidance. Hope that helps.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Leonid Timoshev with RBC. Your line is now open.

speaker
Leonid Timoshev
Analyst, RBC

Hey guys, thanks for taking my question. I just want to ask on the H.S. trial. You know, can you guys talk a little bit more about what the bar for for the futility analysis is going to be? Is that just going to be any positive trend? Is there like a 20% difference that you'd like to see? And then ultimately just curious what you'd expect or would like to show relative to the Jax and the biologists and that indication. Thanks. Martina, do you want to take that one?

speaker
Martina Flammer
Chief Medical Officer

Yes, sure. So remember on the futility analysis of 100 patients, we're not looking for a P value. We're looking for a signal of efficacy. We're still determining with the from a statistical perspective exactly how that will look like for this phase two study. What we're looking at is the difference of the total abscess and nodule count from baseline to the end of treatment. I think the study will tell us what we have in terms of the efficacy, and that will allow us to then plan for what is it that we can show and that we will plan for in phase three.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

And just so you're clear that 100 patient analysis, that will be an unblinded analysis by an outside group of experts. We will not see that data, so there'll be no data shared with the market or with us for that matter. What we're simply going to hear is a thumbs up or a thumbs down. This trial should continue because we see something going on there that could be positive or we don't see anything. It's futile and shut it down. And that goes to the heart of our belief that we don't want patients on a medicine they're not going to receive benefit from. And this has few animal models that are gold standard in terms of predictability. So our hope is that this medicine will show something and that first 100 patients will permit us to say so. And if that's the case, then we want to continue with all speed on the completion of that phase two trial from which we'll learn and derive how we're going to structure the phase three trial. In the end, we're anxious to see whether or not this medicine could be a complement to the other medicines that have been developed for the treatment of this condition.

speaker
Martina Flammer
Chief Medical Officer

Yeah, maybe just one thing to answer. What we're looking for from a powering perspective really for this trial is that we are showing a 40% reduction. That's what we're aiming for versus placebo in the AN count. And I just want to remind everybody the AN count is not exactly the same as the high score, but it has two thirds of the components of the high score and that will inform how we're powering for phase three.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Nicole Germino with Truis Securities. Your line is now open.

speaker
Nicole Germino
Analyst, Truis Securities

Hi, good morning. Congrats on the progress and thanks for taking the question. So just quickly for CRS without nasal polyps, are you enriching for patients with higher nutritional level or patients who are a lot worse? And is there a minimum threshold or cutoff for NSP and blood or is that something that you're looking for in the patient's blood?

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question.

speaker
Martina Flammer
Chief Medical Officer

I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. Okay, so this is what we've seen at the lol 300 as well as a bus-300 kept but below 750, over 700. Okay, so this is what we've seen at the lol 300 as well as a bus-300 kept but below 750, both are enrolled in the trial. both are enrolled in the trial. What we've seen in the Aspen study, because we looked at these patients as well, is there was not really a difference between either of those patient populations. And in a blinded way, that is what we are currently seeing also in the Birch trial. That is the reason why we have made the decision to look at the analysis, the intent to treat analysis. And there is no indication right now that we see that both of these patients would be differently. So with capping patients at 750, you are really capturing the vast majority of patients with CRS without nasal polyps. And maybe just a short comment on how this endotyping, so the mix between neutrophilic and eosinophilic disease works. While in the majority of cases, it's neutrophils that drive the disease, there is a mixed endotype where both neutrophil and eosinophils are part of the disease. And right now, we will look at what Birch shows us in CRS without nasal polyps. And then we can then decide, is there an opportunity to go potentially even in patients with nasal polyps. Maybe just as a reminder, if you look for an example that is similar, in patients with have a similar type where they have a mix between neutrophils and eosinophils. And that could be also a situation that we see in CRS overall.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

And just to highlight this, we originally thought you would see a distinction between higher or lower eosinophil counts. And so we stratified the trial across the numbers that Martina just mentioned. So patients below 750 but above 300, and those patients below 300 in terms of eosinophil counts. Because of the Aspen analysis, which revealed that there was no difference in terms of impact on patients with those different eosinophil profiles, we've now removed that stratification from our statistical analysis plan that's been proposed. And that essentially increases the statistical power of the study on that endpoint.

speaker
Nicole Germino
Analyst, Truis Securities

Okay, great. Thanks so much for that. And then one quick clarification. So the two saturations in the CT scan, is that going to be on the label or is this more for a peer requirement?

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

So we don't anticipate it'll be on the label. And obviously we won't know until we see the label. But in our discussion, that is not the direction we're traveling. However, we have always said that market access is going to align their approval pathway with what were the entry criteria of the phase three study. And so we're structuring all of our commercial efforts around that reality.

speaker
Martina Flammer
Chief Medical Officer

Yeah, maybe just to add, just to clarify, I think I heard you say two HRCT scans. The HRCT scan is just to diagnose the disease. The two pulmonary exacerbations is what we've studied.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Right. And those are examined, pardon me, those are documented separately from the CT scan.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Maxwell score with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

speaker
Maxwell Score
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Great. Thank you. Just a quick question on the TPIP readout in PAH. Could you remind me the rationale for measuring PBR versus baseline and how we should think about the potential placebo rates? And also for the potential phase three trial, what do you consider to be a relevant primary end point? Will you potentially go with mortality or morbidity and mortality based end point? Thank you.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

I'll ask Martina to address that.

speaker
Martina Flammer
Chief Medical Officer

Yeah, maybe let me start with phase three. So the registrational endpoint recognizes a six minute walk distance. That would we anticipate we will have a primary input also in phase three. Yes, there is clinical worsening and clinical worsening would be one of the things we consider as an end point. We right now look at the primary endpoint being the six minute walk distance with regards to PBR. So you're measuring PBR at baseline and at the end of the study to basically see what is the reduction that you can achieve over the treatment period. In our trial, we are titrating up to a maximum of 640 micrograms. That titration goes over a three week period. Majority of the many patients have already reached the 640 micrograms, which is why in the open label study, we are allowing a higher titration up to 1280 micrograms. We anticipate and plan for a higher up to 1280 in our phase three study. The exact design we will then determine based on the phase two readout.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Chong Huen with UBS. Your line is now open.

speaker
Chong Huen
Analyst, UBS

Thanks for the question. I have one and then just a clarification on T-PIP. So you announced your CCO departed the company late last month. Do you anticipate naming a permanent replacement ahead of Brenzo? And then the clarification on T-PIP. In your prepared marks, you said you are locking and cleaning at the moment. Is there anything particularly unusual or complex about that database cleaning or analysis process? Your last patient week 16 visit was late March and you expect readout in June. That's three months. Should we expect anything with this data release? Thank you.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so in regards to the Chief Commercial Officer, that's a transition and a search that is underway. We're not in any rush. We have the benefit of continued access to Drayton during this time frame. And also I'll remind everybody that we also have the benefit of our Chief Operating Officer, who is the former Chief Commercial Officer of the company who is still working with us. And so I feel like we are felt and suspenders in terms of the capabilities we have on board right now. And I'll also just emphasize our preparation for this commercial launch began two years ago. So we are unusual in that regard. Many of you had many questions about that during the two years before we saw the data. And I understand those questions. But now that the data has come out as strong as it has, everyone celebrates that early effort and early investment in the preparation for a successful launch. And I think we're all going to be the beneficiaries of that, most importantly, the patients. The second question was with regard to TPIP and the data cleaning. So the note I wrote here was registration. So one of the things we're doing with this TPIP data set, as we do with all of our data sets now, is we want them to be registrational quality. What that means is you can produce top line results pretty quickly after you lock and clean a database. But we want to go back in and make sure that every single detail there is accounted for in every way so that it is prepared and ready for submission to the FDA. And that requires an extra layer of scrutiny and quality control. There is nothing about this database that we have seen that is aberrant or in any way problematic. And you should not interpret the time we're taking as being related to that. On the contrary, I'll just remind everybody the original timeline for this was the second half of this year. The trial was then accelerated once the blended blinded data was released to the treating physician community. And they began to come to us with patients that they wanted to put on the trial. And now we're in a place where we're able to narrow down the release of the top line results to June of this year, which is at the front end of our original guidance of the middle of the year. So overall, I would say this is moving very efficiently. The team is doing a fantastic job of getting the database ready, not only for the release in terms of top line results, but also, equally importantly, if not more so, preparation for a registrational submission when that day comes.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Your final question comes from the line of Andy Chin with Wolf Research. Your line is now open.

speaker
Emma Han (for Andy Chin)
Analyst, Wolf Research

Hi, this is Emma Han for Andy. Thanks for taking our question. Congrats on the quarter. Just a question from our side on your gene therapy program. With the patient death reported with SREPT's DMD gene therapy, has this influenced your development strategy at all? Thank you.

speaker
Will Lewis
Chair & Chief Executive Officer

So I appreciate the question. I think one of the things that we want to emphasize about these programs are that they sit in what we refer to as our fourth pillar. The entire scope of research that's underway at Insomed is, while controlled from a capital investment point of view at less than 20 percent of our overall spend, it is nonetheless, I would describe it as extensive. We have advanced a number of different preclinical programs. We haven't commented on them publicly just because we think the right time for a company of our profile to bring those to your attention is as they are entering the clinic. The strategy in particular with regard to gene therapy and as it relates to DMD is that we are using an intrathecal delivery approach that has several benefits, one of which is that it reduces the amount of drug that you actually have to deliver. That is a clear safety benefit to patients. The other is that by virtue of being a intrathecal delivery, you're bypassing the first pass effect on the liver, which is typically where the strongest immune reactions occur and a lot of the viral delivery is frankly lost. So you have to overdose the patient to get past the liver's efficiency at removing a lot of that viral vector. What we've seen in the preclinical models is that this has resulted in a very good transduction throughout the musculoskeletal system, as well as the cardiac tissue, quite remarkable given that it's intrathecally delivered. And I think that's going to we think that's going to provide benefits from a safety point of view as well as an efficacy point of view. We'll see that as we begin to dose these patients just to remind everybody it's going to take a while for us to get patients on drug. And then we are going to be for purposes of safety titrating up slowly to ensure that we have these patients get the appropriate dose and that we're putting safety first. We have not seen anything that gives us any concern of the kind that you've seen at other places. And we certainly hope that we don't see any more of that for anyone. But I think one of the reasons we try to take the extra time on our gene therapy program is because of those safety concerns that have appeared. CMC and our control over that is, I think, standard setting for the industry. I think as we look at the other gene therapies we're developing for things like ALS and Stargardt, those two are on track for getting into the clinic between now and sort of 18 months from now. And as those develop and they get in and we begin to see data, safety and efficacy, we'll be sure to share that with everybody.

speaker
Amy
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. That is all the time that we have for question and answer today. On behalf of INSMED, I do thank you for your time. That does conclude today's call. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

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