Yahoo Finance Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNDX) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNDX) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 8, 2024
Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Syndax First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Sharon Klahre, Head of Investor Relations at Syndax Pharmaceuticals.
Sharon Klahre: Thank you, operator. Welcome, and thank you all for joining us today for a review of Syndax's first-quarter 2024 financial and operating results. I'm Sharon Klahre. And with me this afternoon to provide an update on the company's progress and discuss financial results are Michael Metzger, Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Neil Gallagher, President and Head of R&D; Steve Closter, Chief Commercial Officer; Keith Goldan, Chief Financial Officer. Also joining us on the call today for the question-and-answer session are Dr. Peter Ordentlich Chief Scientific Officer; and Dr. Anjali Ganguli, Chief Business Officer. This call is accompanied by a slide deck that is posted on the Investor page of the company's website. You can now turn to our forward-looking statements on slide 2.
Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that any statements made during the call that are not historical are considered to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the risk factors section in the company's most recent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q as well as other reports filed with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements made represent our views as of today, May 8, 2024, only. A replay of this call will be available on the company's website, www.syndax.com following its completion. With that, I am pleased to turn the call over to Michael Metzger, Chief Executive Officer of Syndax.
Michael Metzger: Thank you, Sharon, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. I'd like to begin by welcoming Steve Closter to the call. Steve joined us in March as Chief Commercial Officer. He brings over 30 years of commercial experience to Syndax, which includes establishing winning teams and leading successful product launches. Steve is building on the excellent framework that was in place prior to his arrival, and we are already benefiting from his keen insights as we prepare for commercialization. In the quarter, we made significant progress on executing against our corporate strategy. As you can see on slide 3, we achieved several significant milestones this quarter, including securing priority review from the FDA for both revumenib NDA filing and the axatilimab BLA filing.
We also completed enrollment in the NPM1 AML cohort of Augment-101, pivotal trial, bringing us one step closer to expanding the market opportunity for revumenib. We look forward to reporting data from the initial trial in the fourth quarter of this year, which could serve as the basis for a supplemental NDA filing in the first half of 2025. These accomplishments set us up for an eventful 2024 that we expect will include two full US regulatory approvals, NPM1 pivotal data readout, additional combination data for recommended for revumenib in KMT2A and NPM1, initiation of a pivotal trial for revumenib in frontline KMT2A and NPM1 acute leukemia in combination with venetoclax, as well as the initiation of two combination trials for axatilimab in frontline chronic graft versus host disease.
As we approach our expected approvals, we are working to ensure that we are fully prepared to successfully launch at any time during the third quarter with an ability to reach all patients in need as rapidly as possible. Steve will provide additional details on our launch preparations later in the call. Syndax has a differentiated profile as a smid-cap biotech with two first and best-in-class drugs on the cusp of their potential first approvals. Notably, revumenib has a potential second significant indication and near-term expansion opportunity in relapsed or refractory NPM1 that meaningfully extends the target patient population in acute leukemia. This is unique in a launch year as it quickly broadens the market opportunity for revumenib in the relapsed or refractory setting to up to 6,500 patients.
Multiple opportunities beyond the initial relapse or refractory indication exists for both assets. And trials are ongoing that can drive significant long-term value for these franchises for years to come. We are well-funded with $522 million in cash as of March 31, that we expect will provide significant capital through 2026. Our current balance sheet not only supports our planned commercial launches and clinical trials, but also allows us to expand beyond our core registration indications and pursue select business development opportunities. I'll now ask Neil to provide an overview of the pipeline. Neil?
Neil Gallagher: Thank you, Michael. In the first quarter, the NDA filing for revumenib of a highly selective menin inhibitor was granted priority review by the FDA for the treatment of adult and pediatric relapsed or refractory KMT2A rearranged or MT2Ar acute leukemia and issued a PDUFA date -- target date of September 26, 2024. The filing is being reviewed under the Real-Time Oncology Review, which provides a more efficient review process and has historically led to earlier approval . The submission is based on data from the pivotal AUGMENT-101 trial outlined on slide 4 where single-agent revumenib induced a high percentage of blastfree responses in heavily pretreated KMT2Ar acute leukemia patients, thereby, enabling many of them to undergo potentially curative stem cell transplant and to continue revumenib monotherapy following transplant.
We've also completed enrollment in the final pivotal cohort of the AUGMENT-101 trial of 64 adult relapsed refractory NPM1 AML patients in March and expect to report the pivotal results from this population in the fourth quarter of this year. I'll take a moment to review the Phase 1 data on slide 5 that underlines our confidence in the pivotal results for patients with relapsed or refractory NPM1 AML. Multiple presentations generated by us in both the relapsed or refractory and frontline settings have highlighted the consistency of menin inhibition across NPM1 mutations and KMT2A rearrangements, and we see the enthusiasm building for the revumenib in NPM1. The Phase 1 NPM1 data that we've reported supports our conviction that revumenib could be an important treatment for this AML population.
In the Phase 1 part of AUGMENT-101, 50% of NPM1 patients achieved an overall response and 36% achieved complete remission or CR with partial hematological recovery. And importantly, all patients with CR/CRh were MRD-negative. Consistent with the KMT2Ar population, revumenib also enabled a high percentage of NPM1 responders to proceed to transplant 43% and responses have been durable. This is despite many of the patients having failed prior venetoclax therapy and prior stem cell transplants. It's worth noting that revumenib has been well tolerated in patients with relapsed or refractory NPM1 AML. In the Phase 1, there were no Grade 4 or 5 QT prolongation events, no patient experienced greater than Grade 2 differentiation syndrome, and no patients discontinued due to treatment-related adverse events.
We believe that revumenib will form the backbone of treatment for patients who have both KMT2Ar and NPM1 acute leukemias. Our clinical strategy extends beyond the initial relapsed or refractory populations and into the frontline and post transplant maintenance settings, including combinations of approved therapies. We have several combination trials ongoing with different standards of care across the continuum of patients, including in the fit and unfit settings that are listed on slide 6. Investigators presented data from multiple Phase 1 combination trials, including Beat AML, SAVE AML, and AUGMENT-101 during the American Society of Hematology Conference in December, demonstrating revumenib's ability to safely and effectively combine with the standards of care.
We expect to provide updated data from these trials later this year. In the first quarter, we initiated another Phase 1 combination trial with standard-of-care intensive chemotherapy, also known as 7+3. Beyond acute leukemia, we are investigating the opportunity to expand to solid tumors. Our proof-of-concept signal seeking Phase 1 clinical trial in metastatic colorectal cancer is ongoing, and we expect to provide an update on the progress of the dose escalation phase of the trial later this quarter. Turning to axatilimab on slide 7. Also in the first quarter, the BLA filing for axatilimab or CSF-1R antibody was granted priority review by the FDA for the treatment of chronic graft versus host disease or chronic GVHD after failure of at least two prior lines of systemic therapy with the PDUFA date of August 28, 2024.
This submission is based on data from the pivotal AGAVE-201 trial for treatment with single-agent axatilimab led to an overall response rate or ORR of 74% with 60% of responders didn't respond for one year. Importantly, axatilimab has a differentiated mechanism of action from currently approved therapies for chronic GVHD. It is the first investigation of chronic GVHD agent to target inflammation and fibrosis through the inhibition of disease-associated macrophages. We're excited about the opportunity to expand axatilimab into the frontline setting in combination with standards of care and other fibrotic diseases where monocyte macrophage lineage plays a key role, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis or IPF, where we are currently enrolling a Phase 2 clinical trial.
The team has been working hard to increase awareness of the compelling regimen of AUGMENT-101 and the axatilimab AGAVE-201 data ahead of the respective potential approvals. In April, investigators presented pediatric data from AUGMENT-101 in a plenary session of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology that further supports the consistency of the data across subgroups. Also in April, investigators presented additional analyses from AGAVE-201 at the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation Congress highlighting axatilamab's impressive clinical activity in fibrosis-dominant organs, which, as I mentioned earlier, is a key point of differentiation. We have ambitious publication plan underway, and we look forward to detailing more of the clinical benefits of axatilimab and revumenib to the prescribing community.
I'll now turn the call over to Steve to talk about preparation for a planned commercial launches on the market opportunity. Steve?
Steve Closter: Thank you, Neil. This is an exciting time to be at Syndax, and we're looking forward to launching two first-in-class and meaningfully differentiated agents this year. As Michael indicated earlier, we'll be ready to launch revumenib and axatilimab in the third quarter. And we've made significant progress so far this year to prepare ourselves in the market to realize the full potential of these medicines for patients or health care professionals and the company. Our key focus areas are highlighted on slide 8. Our pre-commercialization strategy has focused on developing an efficient, effective, and purpose-built infrastructure to support the business and prioritize relationships with important external stakeholders [Technical Difficulty] and the health care provider as well as the payer space to accelerate uptake at launch.
For revumenib, our prelaunch activities have been centered around disease awareness, mechanism of disease education, and market access, as well as ensuring patient support services are in place at the time of launch. The customer facing leadership team has been in the field for some time and focus on disease state awareness and building relationships with health care providers. The team is actively profiling accounts, understanding workflows and identifying the patient journey at the largest and most influential academic centers in the country. This has allowed us to have important conversations with health care providers and other health care organization decision makers and gained valuable insights on the market, which has helped us define our outreach strategy.
We launched a non-branded campaign last year, focused on improving the knowledge and understanding around the role of menin inhibition across key segments of acute leukemia, including KMT2A rearrangements, as well as follow-on indications like NPM1 AML. This effort will expand as we approach a potential launch. We've recruited a talented and highly experienced sales team with an average of 22 years of experience, primarily in hematology/oncology with an average of six product launches per representative. This is obviously a very experienced group with existing relationships and proven past success. The customer facing field team will play a multidisciplinary role in supporting health care professionals and patients. With regard to market access, our team has been educating commercial and Medicare payers on the burden of relapsed or refractory acute leukemia to prepare them to conduct timely and evidence-based reviews and ultimately access decisions upon potential FDA approval while formulary approval builds over time.
We have little doubt that revumenib will be covered for reimbursement, while plans to review the product for formulary inclusion. We've been meeting with pharmacy benefit managers and payers since 2023, sharing relevant market and product information and expect to reach plans covering more than 90% of all lives prior to revumenib's anticipated approval. Payers are telling us that they recognize the significant unmet need in KMT2Ar acute leukemia patients and the benefit that revumenib could provide as supported by the AUGMENT-101 data. This is important due to the acute nature of the disease and the high mortality and morbidity in relapsed or refractory KMT2Ar acute leukemia, making the urgency to treat quickly absolutely critical. I'm excited about our progress to date and look forward to sharing more about our ongoing efforts in the future.
Turning now to slide 9, KMT2Ar and NPM1 acute leukemias represent up to 40% of all AML patients. And there are no FDA approved targeted therapies for this population. We believe relapsed or refractory KMT2Ar acute leukemia alone represents a total addressable market of approximately $750 million in the US. The annual incidence of KMT2Ar acute leukemia is about 2,600 patients and the majority are refractory to front-line standard-of-care treatments. We estimate a median duration of therapy across the treated population of approximately nine months, and we believe the clinical data supports pricing competitively to other targeted therapies in AML, such as the FLT3 or IDH inhibitors. Physicians we've spoken with indicate an eagerness to prescribe revumenib early during an eligible patient's treatment journey to bring more patients to transplant and then extend responses by continuing with revumenib line of therapy following transplant engraftment.
We expect that our first mover advantage and the early experience physicians will gain treating patients with revumenib will be vitally important to the long-term success of our brand. Our significant market share is likely to extend meaningfully beyond KMT2Ar, especially as we will be the first to deliver meaningful pivotal data in other indications such as NPM1 AML. We estimate that the two distinct market segments in acute leukemias, KMT2Ar and NPM1 available accessible population of 5,000 to 6,500 patients in the relapse or refractory setting and an addressable market opportunity that approaches $2 billion in the US. Turning now to slide 10, approximately 14,000 US patients suffer from chronic GVHD, 50% of whom require treatment beyond second line due to disease progression, inadequate response, or disease manifestations that aren't wholly addressed with current treatments.
There are no cures for this advanced chronic GVHD patient population. Patients initially treated with corticosteroids are then cycled through a variety of additional therapies based on the physician's experience and manifestations of the disease being addressed. The successful commercial launches of Jakafi and , and importantly, the speed by which both these agents gained adoption really speak to the unmet need in chronic GVHD. We also know that despite these recent advances, the disease is still inadequately treated and physicians are looking for an agent that can better address the underlying fibrosis that ultimately leads to organ damage. Further, they are excited to have a drug with such a fast onset of action and impressive durability of response.
These key points of differentiation should enable axatilimab to carve out a sizable commercial opportunity within the estimated $1 billion US refractory chronic GVHD market. As you know, Incyte is our partner for axatilimab and really the leader in the GVHD space. As of last year, we exercised our option with Incyte to co-commercialize axatilimab in United States and provide 30% of the commercial efforts as we believe there is a considerable benefits of [indiscernible] two products simultaneously to a highly overlapping and targeted physician prescriber universe. We're working closely with Incyte to develop our go-to-market strategy for axatilimab and plan to align more fully with Incyte before sharing additional details. However, we expect to follow a similar set of strategic imperatives as we've just outlined for revumenib.
Now I'll turn the call over to Keith to review our financial results.
Keith Goldan: Thank you, Steve. Turning to slide 11, as Michael mentioned earlier, the $522 million in cash equivalents and short- and long-term investments on our balance sheet at March 31, expected to provide runway through 2026. Our financial strength allows us to appropriately invest to maximize the value of our pipeline, and importantly, to transition into a commercial stage organization this year. Turning to the income statement, operating expenses in the first quarter was $79.5 million, comprised of $56.5 million of research and development expense and $23.0 million of selling, general, and administrative expense. Keeping in mind that we've always embraced a disciplined approach to resource allocation, we'd like to provide financial guidance for the second quarter and full year of 2024.
For the second quarter, the company expects research and development expenses to be $50 million to $55 million and total operating expenses to be $80 million to $85 million. For the full year 2024, there is no change to the existing guidance, and the company continues to expect research and development expenses to be $240 million to $260 million and total operating expenses to be $355 million to $375 million. Note that the guidance range for operating expenses for the full year 2024 is inclusive of an estimated $43 million of non-cash stock compensation expense. And preparing for launch, I want to take a minute to lay out how we plan to recognize revenue for axatilimab. Slide 12 includes an illustrative example of accounting for sales of axatilimab and is not intended to provide any margin or other guidance.
Commercially, our partnership with Incyte is a 50/50 split of the economics in the US. We will report 50% of revenues earned, net of cost of sales and commercial expenses. During the period where there is a net commercial profit for axatilimab, as in the top example on this slide, our 50% share of the net profit will be recognized on our P&L as collaborative arrangement revenue. During a period where there's a net commercial loss for axatilimab, as in the bottom example on this slide, our 50% share of the net commercial loss would be included in operating expenses designated as a separate line item called share of collaboration loss. We also have various future US commercial and regulatory milestones owed to us from Incyte that would be recorded as partnership or milestone revenue on our income statement.Development expenses are shared 55/45 in the US and our 45% share is included in the income statement as part of R&D expense.
Outside of the US, Incyte is responsible for 100% for the development and regulatory expenses, and we are entitled to receive a milestones plus royalties on ex-US sales. With that, let me now turn the call back over to Michael.
Michael Metzger: Thank you, Keith. As you've heard during the call, 2024 is shaping up to be a historic year for Syndax as we prepare to launch two first-in-class products. And I'm confident that we have the expertise, resources, and determination to bring these products to market. As an organization, we are truly excited to evolve into a commercial organization, and we are laser focused on bringing these important treatment options to patients in need. On slide 13, we lay out our key upcoming milestones for the balance of the year, and I look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming months. As always, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Syndax team, our collaborators, and most importantly, the patients, trial sites, and investigators involved with our clinical programs.
Through our work and dedication, we are getting ever so close to delivering on our mission of improving the lives of patients with cancer. I'd also like to thank our committed, long-term investors who continue to share in our vision and support us in building Syndax. With that, I'd like to open the call for questions. Operator?
Operator: [Operator Instructions]. Our first question is from Peter Lawson at Barclays.
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