Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Ironwood Pharmaceuticals first quarter 2020 investor update conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to one of your speakers today, Meredith Kaya. Ma'am, you may begin.

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us for our first quarter 2020 investor update. Our press release crossed the wire this afternoon and can be found on our website, www.ironwoodpharma.com. Today's call and accompanying slides include four looking statements. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. A discussion of these statements and risk factors is available on the current Safe Harbor Statement slide, as well as under the heading Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and in our future SEC filings. All forward-looking statements speak as of the date of this presentation, and we undertake no obligation to update such statements. Also included are non-GAAP financial measures, which should be considered only as a supplement to and not a substitute for or superior to GAAP measures. To the extent applicable, please refer to the tables at the end of our press release for reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. During today's call, Mark Mallon will begin with an overview of the quarter, Tom McCourt will review our commercial and pipeline performance, and Gina Consulman will review our financial results and guidance. Meg Shetzline will also be available during the Q&A portion of the call. We will be referring to slides via the webcast. For those of you dialing in, please go to the events section of our website to access the webcast slides. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark.

Thanks Meredith and thanks everyone for joining us today. We hope you and your families are safe and healthy in these challenging and uncertain times. The Ironwood team are all in different locations today as we continue to work remotely. It has been just over one year since Ironwood launched as a GI-focused healthcare company. We've made significant progress towards achieving our mission of advancing GI treatments and redefining the standard of care for millions of patients in need. We entered 2020 with a strong foundation and continued this momentum in the first quarter, highlighted by double-digit Linzess prescription demand growth, the advancement of our 3718 Phase III program for refractory GERD, The completion of patient dosing in our 7246 Phase 2 trial for abdominal pain associated with IBSD in our fourth consecutive quarter of delivering profits. However, the first quarter was also marked by the beginning of an unprecedented time in the U.S. and around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial disruption to our lives, the healthcare system, and the economy. Navigating this pandemic is a primary focus for all of us right now, and so we plan to spend a good portion of today's call discussing the impact that it's having on our business, the actions we're taking in response, and our unwavering focus, especially during these times, to deliver on Ironwood's vision and mission. First and foremost, the health and well-being of our Ironwood teammates and their families, as well as patients, healthcare providers, and our broader communities is our primary focus. Both our headquarters and customer-facing employees have been working remotely since March 16th. We've developed comprehensive plans for employees to resume in-person work practices and expect to begin implementing those plans as we determine it to be safe to do so and pending relevant health authority guidance. As demonstrated by our strong first quarter performance, we believe Ironwood is well positioned to face these challenging times and we remain steadfast in our vision to become the leading US GI healthcare company. We are announcing today that we continue to expect to generate greater than $105 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2020. as we previously announced as part of our 2020 financial guidance. We've decided to withdraw the remainder of our 2020 guidance until we have greater clarity on the impact that COVID-19 may have on our business. Before turning it over to Tom, I'll close by saying that I remain confident in Ironwood, both today and its future. GI diseases affect an estimated 70 million Americans in the U.S., or one in every five Americans. Nearly two-thirds of Americans report being burdened by GI symptoms at least once per week. New innovative therapeutic approaches to treat GI diseases are needed, and Ironwood is ready to lead in this important space. As we look ahead, we're focused on building a sustainable, profitable growth and enhanced value creation. We are investing thoughtfully into our growing business, and our capital allocation strategy is aligned with our three strategic priorities. We continue to deploy our capital towards driving lens-sized growth, advancing our late-stage pipeline, and delivering sustainable profits. As we mentioned when we provided our full-year results, We are also exploring inorganic opportunities that we believe fit well within our strategy and can deliver significant patient and shareholder value. We remain disciplined and rigorous in our approach in this current environment and beyond. With that, I'll now turn it over to Tom.