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Alkermes plc Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Lin-Manuel Miranda
Performer / Hamilton audio excerpt
Thank you for watching! ¶¶ ¶¶ I am not throwing away my shot. I am not throwing away my shot. You know, I'm just like my country. I'm young, scrappy, and hungry, and I'm not throwing away my shot. I'm gonna get a scholarship to King's College. I probably shouldn't brag, but jag, I'm mazed and astonished. The problem is I got a lot of brains, but no polish. I got a holler just to be heard with every word I drop. Knowledge, I'm a diamond in the rough. meant to be a colony that runs independently they want to keep on us endlessly essentially they tax us relentlessly then king george turns around runs a spending spree he ain't never gonna set his descendants free so there will be a revolution in this century and for me he says in parentheses don't be shocked when your history book mentions me i will lay down my life if it sets us free eventually you'll see my ascendancy Mr. Lafayette Let's get this guy in front of a crowd! Thank you for watching! so much it feels more like a memory, when's it gonna get me, in my sleep seven feet ahead of me, if I see it coming do I run or do I let it be, is it like a beat without a melody, see I never thought I'd live past twenty, where I come from some get half as many, ask anybody why we live this fast and we laugh, reach for a blast, we have to make this moment last, that's plenty, scratch that, this is not a moment, it's a movement, where all the hungriest brothers with something to prove went, pose and pose us, we take Thank you for watching. Tom, I'm thinking past tomorrow I am not throwing away my shot, I am not throwing away my shot, you know I'm just like my country, I'm young, scrappy, and hungry, and I'm not throwing away my shot, I'ma get a scholarship to King's College, I probably shouldn't brag, but dag, I'm amazed and astonished, the problem is I got a lot of brains but no polish, I got a holler just to be heard, with every word I drop knowledge, I'm a diamond in the rough, a shining piece of We are meant to be a colony that runs independently. Meanwhile, Britain keeps on us endlessly. Essentially, they tax us relentlessly. Then King George turns around and runs a spending spree. He ain't never gonna set his descendants free. So there will be a revolution in this century. And to me, he says in parentheses, don't be shocked when your history book mentions me. I will lay down my life if it sets us free. Eventually, you'll see my ascendancy.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Greetings and welcome to the Alkermes third quarter 2026 financial results conference call. My name is Dylan and I will be your operator for today's call. All participant lines will be placed on mute to prevent background noise. If you should require operator assistance during the call, please press star zero from your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Sandra Coombs, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs. Sandy, you may now begin.
Sandra Coombs
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, Alkermes
Welcome to the Alkermes plc conference call to discuss our financial results and business update for the quarter ended September 30th, 2026. With me today are Blair Jackson, our chief executive officer, Todd Nichols, our chief commercial officer, and Joshua Reed, our chief financial officer. A slide presentation along with our press release, related financial tables, and reconciliations of the gap to non-gap financial measures that we'll discuss today are available on the investor section of alkermes.com. We believe the non-GAAP financial results, in conjunction with the GAAP results, are useful in understanding the ongoing economics of our business. Our discussions during this conference call will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Please see slide two of the accompanying presentation, our press release issued this morning, and our most recent annual report filed with the SEC for important risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statement. We undertake no obligation to update or revise the information provided on this call or in the accompanying presentation as a result of new information or future results or developments. After our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for Q&A and now I'll turn the call over to Blair for some opening remarks.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Thank you, Sandy. Good morning, everyone. My first quarterly call as CEO of Alkermes, I'd like to start with a few thoughts on the opportunity ahead and the priorities that will guide us. We have a clear strategy and a strong foundation. Our focus now is on execution. That means advancing our pipeline with rigor and urgency, driving strong commercial and financial performance, and allocating capital thoughtfully to our highest value opportunities. Our commercial business is an important element of our strategy and provides a strong financial foundation to invest in innovation. Our greatest opportunity for growth and value creation lies in our pipeline, particularly our leadership in orexin research and the potential of our orexin development portfolio to yield important new treatment options in neuropsychiatry. I'll discuss the significant momentum across our development pipeline in more detail following the discussion of the quarterly results. The combination of commercial strength, financial performance, and a differentiated pipeline positions Alkermes well for its next chapter and the potential for meaningful long-term value creation for shareholders. I'm incredibly proud and honored to lead Alkermes at this important point in its evolution, and I'm confident in our strategy, our people, and the opportunities ahead. With that, let's turn to the quarter, Todd.
Todd Nichols
Chief Commercial Officer, Alkermes
Thank you, Blair. Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report that we delivered strong performance across our commercial portfolio in the third quarter. reflecting contributions across addiction, psychiatry, and sleep medicine. Our teams remain focused on driving demand, broadening patient access, and building on the opportunities across our four proprietary products. In the third quarter, net sales from our proprietary product portfolio increased 31% year-over-year to $417.3 million, reflecting the addition of Lumerize, and continued demand growth across our established commercial portfolio. Starting with Vivitrol, net sales in the third quarter were $127.6 million. Vivitrol continued to see strong demand driven by penetration in the alcohol dependence market. Net sales also benefited from approximately $8 million in gross to net favorability, primarily driven by favorable patient mix. For the full year, we continue to expect Vivitrol net sales in the range of $460 to $480 million. We remain confident in the strength and durability of our Vivitrol business and look forward to continuing our impact with this important medicine. Turning to our psychiatry franchise, third quarter net sales for Aristata product family were $103.9 million. Aristata continued to see demand growth driven by expansion and HCP adoption. Net sales also benefited from approximately $7 million of gross to net and inventory favorability. We are encouraged by Aristata's continued strong performance within this category. For the full year, we continue to expect Aristata net sales in the range of $365 to $385 million. Revolving net sales were $95.9 million in the third quarter, with underlying TRX growth of 18% year-over-year. supported by New Patient Starts and broader prescriber adoption. Net sales also reflected approximately $2 million of inventory benefits. Last quarter, we implemented a strategic expansion of the Levalvi market access profile that we believe will position Levalvi for long-term growth. Access now stands at approximately 80% of covered lives, and as a result, we have already seen positive trends on volume demand and prescription fulfillment. As expected, gross to net adjustments were approximately 42% during the third quarter. For the full year, we continue to expect LeVolvi net sales in the range of $380 to $400 million. Looking ahead to next year, we expect gross to net adjustments for LeVolvi to be in the 45% range. We expect the benefits of expanded payer access to be reflected first in prescription volume, which we expect will continue to grow nearly 20% year-over-year, with an acceleration in net sales growth expected to follow. Beyond 2027, we expect volume growth and net sales growth to track more closely together again. Turning to our sleep franchise, Lumerize net sales were $89.9 million in the third quarter. We reached approximately 4,100 patients on therapy at quarter end, reflecting strong underlying demand, broader prescriber adoption, and increased use among existing prescribers. Net sales also reflected the drawdown of approximately $7 million of inventory build that we highlighted in our second quarter results. Last month, we presented results from the positive phase three revitalized study of lumerize and idiopathic hypersomnia at the Sleep Europe meeting. IH is a fast-growing segment for the Oxibate market. The revitalized data will serve as the foundation for the SNDA submission for IH with the potential launch and March 2028, if approved. IH represents an important potential growth opportunity for Loom Rise and we look forward to updating you on our progress. For the full year, we continue to expect total Loom Rise net sales of $350 to $370 million, of which Alkermes expects to record $315 to $335 million, reflecting the mid-February close of the Avidel transaction. Supporting Lumerize, we have an established sleep medicine platform that includes an experienced commercial and medical organization with a deep understanding of the market dynamics and HCP and patient journeys. This platform provides a strong foundation to support the potential launch of elixirexin and our broader ambition to become leaders in sleep medicine across multiple treatment modalities. Across our proprietary portfolio, we expect net sales to be in the range of $400 to $420 million in the fourth quarter. We are pleased with what we have accomplished so far this year and remain focused on delivering against our 2026 objectives. As we enter the final quarter, our priorities remain clear. Drive demand for our medicines, expand patient access and position our brands for continued growth. With that, I will pass the call to Joshua to review the financial results for the quarter.
Joshua Reed
Chief Financial Officer, Alkermes
Thank you, Todd. We delivered solid financial results in the third quarter, supported by the strength of our commercial portfolio and disciplined management of the business. Through the first nine months of the year, our financial position has provided the flexibility to advance our strategic priorities and invest in key opportunities that we believe will support our future growth. During the quarter, we generated total revenues of $480.1 million. As Todd outlined, our portfolio of proprietary products generated net sales of $417.3 million. These results reflect contributions from all four of our proprietary products and positive underlying demand trends across the commercial business. Manufacturing and royalty revenues were $62.9 million for the quarter, including $29.5 million from Vumerity, and $26.4 million from the long-acting Invega products. Turning to expenses, cost of goods sold in the third quarter was $94.2 million, which includes the purchase price fair value accounting of Lumerize inventory that we described last quarter. This compared to $51.6 million in Q3 of the prior year. R&D expenses in the quarter were $121.1 million compared to $81.7 million in Q3 of the prior year, reflecting continued investment in our orexin development portfolio. Of note, our development activities during the quarter included the elixirexin Phase III studies initiated earlier this year and clinical development activities to advance ALTS 7290 in ADHD and MDD, as well as ALTS 4510 in fatigue associated with Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis. SG&A expenses were $208.5 million for the quarter compared to $171.8 million in Q3 of the prior year, with the addition of the Avidel commercial infrastructure as the primary driver of the year-over-year change. During the quarter, we also recorded amortization of acquired intangible assets of $19.7 million and net interest expense of $21.1 million. In Q3, we recorded GAAP net income of $16.3 million and EBITDA of $63 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $120.1 million, which we believe provides a useful measure of the underlying cash generating performance of the business during the quarter. From a balance sheet perspective, we entered the third quarter in a strong position with approximately $787.6 million in cash and total investments. For the year, we are reiterating our 2026 financial expectations provided in July across all line items. Our performance through the first nine months of the year positions us well to deliver against these expectations. Our 2026 financial performance and operating expenses reflect a number of Avidel transaction-related costs. As we look ahead to our 2027 operating expense profile, there are a few important dynamics to keep in mind, beginning with cost of goods sold. With the vast majority of the non-cash Lumerize inventory fair value step-up associated with the Avidel acquisition being recognized in 2026, We expect cost of goods sold to be lower in 2027, reflective of more normalized patterns. For SG&A, excluding the transaction-related costs recorded in early 2026, we expect a broadly similar expense profile for 2027. For R&D, our 2027 investment will reflect the growing number of programs across the portfolio and the broader level of clinical activity plans. Importantly, we expect to deliver strong cash generation and adjusted EBITDA performance in 2027 while continuing to invest in the significant opportunities across our pipeline. We believe this balance demonstrates our ability to fund future growth drivers while maintaining financial discipline. We'll provide our full 2027 expectations on our February call. With that, I'll now hand the call to Blair.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
As you've heard from Todd and Joshua, our commercial business continues to perform well with the proprietary product portfolio expected to deliver net sales of nearly $1.6 billion in 2026. That foundation allows us to advance an increasingly broad pipeline led by our portfolio of orexin-2 receptor agonists. We are in the early stages of understanding the full therapeutic potential of orexin biology. Over the past several years, we've been generating a substantial body of clinical evidence across central disorders of hypersomnolence. And we are now generating our first clinical data sets from our orexin portfolio in broader areas of neuroscience. Starting with elixirexin, our most advanced orexin candidate, we reached several important milestones across the development program during the quarter. Our phase three brilliant studies in narcolepsy type one and narcolepsy type two are underway, and we are pleased with enrollment progress across the program. We continue to expect top line results from these studies beginning in mid-2027. In idiopathic hypersomnia, we completed enrollment in the Vibrance III Phase II study, which enrolled approximately 130 participants and will represent the first multi-week clinical data set of an oral orexin II receptor agonist in IH. The study is evaluating wakefulness and IH symptom severity with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and idiopathic hypersomnia severity scale as primary and secondary endpoints, respectively. Beyond evaluating the safety, tolerability and efficacy of elixirexin in patients with IH, we expect the study to provide important insights to inform a potential registration program, including dose selection, dosing regimen and endpoint strategy. The study also includes our first evaluation of split dosing in a hypersomnolence disorder which we believe could provide additional flexibility to address the diverse needs of patients. We expect top line results around year end or in early 2027 and look forward to sharing those data. Hypersomnolence disorders represent a significant market opportunity and this month the first orexin-2 receptor agonist is expected to become commercially available for the subset of patients with narcolepsy type 1. As this new therapeutic category enters the commercial landscape, we believe that if approved, Elixirexin's wide therapeutic range, dosing optionality, and broad anticipated utility across narcolepsy types 1 and 2 and potentially IH will support a differentiated profile with the potential to provide an important new treatment option to providers and patients. While the commercial opportunity begins to take shape in hypersomnolence disorders, We are advancing our strategy to develop orexin-2 receptor agonists for a range of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Last month, we reported the first clinical results for ALK7290 in adults with ADHD. This was a 50-subject phase 1b proof of concept study designed primarily to evaluate safety and tolerability and to generate initial data characterizing the effects of ALK7290 across a range of established clinical scales for ADHD, CNS biomarkers, and objective cognitive performance tests. In the study, ELK7290 was generally well tolerated with no serious treatment emergent adverse events and no treatment discontinuations among participants who received ELK7290. Most treatment emergent adverse events were mild and largely consistent with on-target effects for orexin-2 receptor agonists. Across the two doses evaluated, ELK7290 demonstrated dose-dependent, clinically meaningful improvements from baseline on exploratory endpoints evaluating established measures of ADHD symptoms and disease severity. We were pleased to observe improvements across both the inattentive and the hyperactivity impulsivity subscales of the adult ADHD investigator symptom rating scale, or ACERS, with effects emerging as early as the first assessment on day six. ALK7290 also demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements from baseline in overall ADHD disease severity as measured on the CGIS scale. In addition, we observed treatment effects across objective measures related to processing speed, information processing, working memory, and attention. These findings provide the first clinical evidence of the effects of an orexin-2 receptor agonist in the treatment of adults with ADHD. and further support the dose range selected for the ongoing phase two study. That phase two study is already enrolling adults with ADHD and is designed to evaluate once daily in split dose regimens of ALK7290 with change from baseline in ACER's total score compared with placebo at week four as the primary endpoint. We expect the ADHD phase two data in the second half of 2027. Building our momentum in diseases outside of hypersomnolence Last week we announced the expansion of the ALX7290 development program into Major Depressive Disorder, or MDD, with the initiation of a 150-patient Phase II study evaluating ALX7290 as an adjunct to antidepressant treatment in adults with MDD who have had a partial response to standard antidepressant therapy. This randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study is designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of ALK7290 over six weeks while also assessing its effects on depressive symptoms as measured by change from baseline on the madras or CGIS compared to placebo at week six. The study will enroll adults with and without excessive daytime sleepiness which will allow us to evaluate the potential effects of ALK7290 in the overall MDD population as well as in this important subgroup. Turning to erection biology and neurodegenerative disorders, we plan to initiate a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase II study evaluating ALKS4510 in people with fatigue associated with multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease. Fatigue is one of the most common and consequential symptoms across a broad range of neurological and systemic diseases, yet effective treatment options remain limited. Fatigue associated with multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease are compelling initial areas for development with clearly defined patient populations, significant unmet need, and established clinical scales focused on fatigue. We believe these disease areas offer a tractable development pathway for establishing clinical proof of concept for orexin-2 receptor agonism in fatigue while also representing meaningful commercial opportunities in these patient populations. Importantly, This study is intended not only to evaluate the potential of ALKS4510 in these specific disorders, but also to deepen our understanding of the role of orexin biology in fatigue more broadly. We believe these insights generated could help establish a foundation for evaluating additional disease areas where fatigue remains a significant source of patient burden and unmet need. Alexorexin and hypersomnolence disorders, ALKS7290 and broader neuropsychiatric disorders, and Elks 4510 and Fatigue are components of a broader orexin portfolio development strategy that allows us to evaluate these distinct molecules across a range of patient population and disease settings. As we advance and expand these development programs, we're also continuing to advance additional orexin compounds through preclinical development. We're just beginning to explore the potential clinical utility of orexin compounds and Alkermes is at the leading edge of research for this emerging therapeutic class. Our focus will remain in neuroscience applications, but with the potential to reach across a broad range of disorders, we believe the opportunity for this class is vast and will be the focus of significant research and development for years to come. Looking ahead, the next year will be a pivotal and data-rich period for Alkermes with six important studies expected to read out across our orexin portfolio. We start with anticipated data from the Vibrance 3 Phase 2 study of elixirexin and idiopathic hypersomnia in the coming months, followed by top-line results from all three Brilliance Phase 3 studies in narcolepsy beginning in mid-2027. For ALKS 7290, we expect Phase 2 data in ADHD next fall, and for ALKS 4510, Phase 2 proof-of-concept data in fatigue toward the end of the year. Taken together, these studies have the potential to significantly expand our understanding of where orexin-based therapies can make a meaningful difference for patients. Our focus remains on executing with urgency and discipline, generating the clinical evidence needed to unlock the potential of this novel class, and building what we believe can become a leading franchise addressing some of the most significant unmet needs across sleep, neuropsychiatric, and neurological disorders. We plan to pursue these opportunities while continuing to deliver strong commercial performance and investing thoughtfully to support long-term growth and value creation. With that, I'll turn the call back to Sandy for the Q&A.
Sandra Coombs
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, Alkermes
Thanks, Blair. We'll now open the call for Q&A.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. We ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Leenad Temeshev with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Leonid Timashev
Analyst, RBC Capital Markets
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to ask one on IH and how you're thinking about what to expect there. Maybe can you talk us through when you see that data, how you'll think about moving forward with the split dose, maybe with one's daily doses, and maybe how you're thinking about what you could see on the relative magnitudes between those. Thanks.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Sure, so thanks for the question Leo, it's Blair. I think when we look at the IH data set that's coming out, there's a wealth of information that we're going to be getting from that trial. As you alluded to, first and foremost, we're going to be getting the once daily dosing for that program. And as we've spoken before, we see the IH population as somewhat similar to the NT2 population in that it's highly variable. These patients have a range of disease and different responses to orexin agonism. So we would expect something similar to that NT2 data set. The main difference though being that with IH population, they do have one separate population which is the long sleepers. Those long sleepers we have less experience with. We expect that we'll have a similar response within them, but this data set will tell us more on that piece. With regards to the split dosing, The split dosing, as you know, is an important component of our overall program in that it provides both flexibility for patients across NT1, NT2, and NIH, but also could provide some additional efficacy for those patients who need it in the later afternoon. And so this will be the first opportunity we'll be able to see that split data set as part of a patient program. So all this data will be coming out towards the end of the year, and we're pretty excited to see it.
David Amsellem
Analyst, Piper Sandler
Thanks. We'll take the next question.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question. Yes, my apologies. Our next question comes from Paul Matias with Stiefel. Please go ahead.
Multiple analysts
Includes representatives for Paul Matteis (Stifel), Akash Tewari (Jefferies), Rudy Lee (Wolfe Research), Ashwani Verma (UBS), Andrea Newkirk (Goldman Sachs), and Ben Burnett (Wells Fargo)
Hi, this is Emily on for Paul. We were just wondering, you know, where do you think Takeda may price? And, you know, like if there was a chance that they price on the lower end, do you think that you have the possibility to kind of like adjust there with the different doses you plan to have available across sleep disorders. Thank you.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Thanks for the question. This is Blair. I think that Takeda is going to be pricing imminently, and we'll see that in the next few weeks. And obviously, that'll set the range for the overall market. As you alluded to in your question, though, we have a lot of flexibility on our pricing moving forward. So we'll see where they price, and we'll adjust accordingly.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Greg Savanovich with Mizuho Securities. Please go ahead. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question and congrats on the progress in the quarter. Just on the pipeline and obviously on the Ericsson franchise, I was intrigued by the movement into major depressive disorder and psychiatry. Could you give us perhaps a little bit more of the rationale there and can you give us maybe a sense of if there are other psychiatric indications beyond MDD that you think anorexin might make sense. Thanks so much.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Thanks for the question, Greg. Yeah, we've looked extensively at other areas outside of hypersomnolence where you could apply orexin agonism, and we did some comprehensive preclinical work really looking at the basic biology behind orexin agonism and identified a number of different domains where you could apply this, some of them being cognition, fatigue, Mood, wakefulness, all these different areas and so as part of that we did some translational work in many of these areas and within mood some of the things we noticed is that we saw a really strong synergistic increase in serotonin in the prefrontal cortex when orexin agonism was given with SSRIs or SNRIs and so synergistically and I think that's really telling that there's a benefit you could have here by having adjunctive therapy with orexin agonism. We also did use the highly translational model as part of that early research which is the chronic social defeat test which is really a way of establishing rodents who have really a depressive phenotype and then providing them with therapy and seeing how they respond to treatment and what we found is we found similar effects to what you'd see if those animals were dosed with ketamine or with fluoxetine. So we felt pretty strongly that there's a potential signal here and so the desire to move into a patient population is something we've had for some time. And so part of this study that we're looking at is exploratory in that we'll be looking at not only The full MDD population, but we'll also be looking at a subgroup of the population who also has some excessive daytime sleepiness. So that gives us an opportunity to really learn a lot as part of this program and really design our program going forward. To the first part of your question regarding other things, yes, we have a number of other areas that we're looking at within neuroscience, both neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatry, and we'll talk about those as we get closer to additional activity.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Akash Tiwari with Jeffrey. Please go ahead.
Multiple analysts
Includes representatives for Paul Matteis (Stifel), Akash Tewari (Jefferies), Rudy Lee (Wolfe Research), Ashwani Verma (UBS), Andrea Newkirk (Goldman Sachs), and Ben Burnett (Wells Fargo)
Hey, thanks so much. This is Albert Ong for Akash. Given that your ADHD program will likely need to demonstrate efficacy comparable to existing stimulants to be competitive, Can you discuss the rationale for not modifying the trial design to target a specific patient type and what gives you confidence that the current trial design can demonstrate a clinical meaningful treatment benefit?
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Hi Albert, thanks for the question. So first I would like to correct a little bit of what you said there. I think there's a wide range of efficacy outcomes that are commercially attractive for a new entrant in the ADHD space, especially an entrant like an orexin agonist which could bring broader response profiles over and above what you see with existing therapies that are there. So I think for us the goal moving forward is to establish that efficacy level, flush out some of those broader domains that we started to see in the phase 1b study and show and demonstrate that this is a safe profile within this patient area. And I think the early data that we saw in our Phase 1B program support all of those goals. One of the key things that we looked at through that Phase 1B study was our dosage range, making sure we were at the right region of targeting those receptors and engaging that circuitry. What we found was exactly that, that yes, we're right in the range. We don't need to lower or raise our dose. We can use the doses that we have. We also found that we were seeing a really robust response early within treatment. I think there is no requirement for us to modify the study in any way, nor would it benefit from us based on what we've seen to look at individual subtypes.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Rudy Lee with Wolf Research. Please go ahead.
Multiple analysts
Includes representatives for Paul Matteis (Stifel), Akash Tewari (Jefferies), Rudy Lee (Wolfe Research), Ashwani Verma (UBS), Andrea Newkirk (Goldman Sachs), and Ben Burnett (Wells Fargo)
Hey, thanks for taking my question. Just a quick follow-up question on 7290's MDD study. So JMJ showed good efficacy data in MDD for its orexin antagonist, but in patients with insomnia. Can you maybe talk about the rationale for orexin agonist for MDD? I mean, what would be the key difference In the study population, the trial design versus J&J will be the key differentiator versus current state of care.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Thanks. Thanks, Rudy. It's a good question, and I think it's important to recognize that using orexin agonism is a fundamentally different approach than using orexin antagonism. In orexin antagonism, what J&J was trying to do there was sort of address the sleep disorder and hoping it would have a knock-on effect on potential mood. This is very different what we're doing. We believe that we directly impact centers of mood within the brain, and we're actually looking at treating the depressive symptoms directly. Now, because we are using a subgroup who has excessive daytime sleepiness, because we think we might be able to drive additional signal through that group. But this is a fundamentally different view than what J&J did with their erection antagonists.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from David Emsellin with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
David Amsellem
Analyst, Piper Sandler
Thanks. Got a couple of Lumerize questions. So regarding the launch of Takeda's over Porexton, do you perceive any potential impact to Lumerize in terms of new starts next year in NT1? So that's number one. And then looking longer term with the IH launch for Lumerize in 28, how are you envisioning uptake? Do you think there's going to be a sizable switch market from ZyWave to Lumerize? Do you think you'll be able to expand the overall Oxibate footprint in IH or is it a little bit of both? Thanks.
Todd Nichols
Chief Commercial Officer, Alkermes
Yeah. Good morning, David. This is Todd. I appreciate the questions on Lumerize. Yeah, we're really, really excited and pleased with the performance of Lumerize this year and specifically in Q2. Strong net sales, really strong patient demand, up to 4,100 patients. We are watching very closely and thinking very deeply about the impact of orexins. As you know, we're big believers in the mechanisms of We actually believe they're complementary, and we hear that pretty consistently from HCPs around the belief and the desire to use both mechanisms. So we think there's a long-term durability in the oxibate market and a lot of excitement with orexins. Initially, we're going to have to see how this plays out with the CADIS product entering the market. We think initially that will be a switch population. for earlier lines of therapy, patients looking to switch. But we hear pretty consistently from HCPs that patients that are on oxibates, specifically Lumerize, and that are stable, like to stay on the product overall. So we do believe that there will be an impact on oxibates, but we think it'll be somewhat marginal at the beginning, and we think the category overall will be durable. In terms of IH, yeah, this is something we're really excited about. We did present the data recently at Sleep Europe. There's a lot of anticipation on the IH launch. If it's approved, we will be commercializing no sooner than March 1st of 2028. And there's a lot of anticipation there. This will be the second product potentially approved in the market. We think it's under-penetrated at this point right now. We think that Lumerize actually will compete for new starts in IH, but also there will be a switch market and that Lumerize will compete in that switch market.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Jessica Phi with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Unidentified analyst (calling on behalf of Jessica Fye)
Analyst, J.P. Morgan
Hi, this is from Jess. Thanks for taking our question. Any feedback from physicians regarding the ADHD data set? I wonder if you could tell us how the placebo group did in the recent study. or when we could see more detailed data including placebo response rates. Thank you.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Yeah, so we've had a lot of discussions with physicians with regards to the ADHD data and I think there's a lot of excitement about the fact that we're able to move a number of these different tools using orexin agonism and I think in particular folks were were interested in the fact that you were seeing consistent response across these measures and so not only the internal consistency between patient reported outcomes but also physician reported outcomes as well as objective measures and just as a reminder the the study itself was a was a safety study that was designed to look at the wide therapeutic potential that we could have in the therapeutic window we would have with an orexin agonist and I think that read out really really well As such, it's not really appropriate to have a placebo comparison. So what we rely on for that is the objective measures and the subjective measures that we included in that study that we shared in our press release.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from David Hong with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
David Hong / Alex Nakanoff
Analysts, Deutsche Bank / Truist Securities
Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask, once you are post-Vibrance III data in IH, either year-end or early 27, once that data is in hand, how quickly would you look to move into a Phase III program for IH, and what would that study design potentially look like? Thank you.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Hi, David. Thanks for the question. you know we're going to want to move as quick as we can obviously our goal is to get into the phase three following that data set what we would like to do though is meet with the agency first and so that actually will probably be our rate limiting step as making sure we get that meeting and we'll obviously hope that they'll be very responsive because this is an important patient population as for the size our expectations is probably going to be a similar size to the NT2 study but that'll obviously depend on the the signal that we see in the phase two program and so that'll help set that but ballpark wise think of the phase two is for planning purposes. Sorry think of NT2 for planning purposes.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Mark Goodman with Levering Partners. Please go ahead.
Mark Goodman
Analyst, Leerink Partners
Just back on OXAPA, could you just give us a little sense behind the scenes what you thought happened in the quarter? as far as you know was it a normal quarter of just new patient starts discontinuations the pricing just you know how the market dynamics are just shaping up you know since you've owned the asset is it generally kind of consistent with what you thought any major changes in the quarter yeah absolutely mark this is todd i'll i'll take that uh yeah again we were we were pleased with the quarter we were assuming some seasonality which you typically would during q3 and
Todd Nichols
Chief Commercial Officer, Alkermes
I think we saw a little bit of seasonal dynamics but overall you know the the growth in lumerize was really driven by by patient demand um you know we saw nice increases in overall patients for narcolepsy 4100 patients that was driven by some of the submetrics that we watch very closely which are new enrollments conversions and actually patient persistency so all three of those dynamics we believe really contributed to the nice patient growth which and then also contributed to the net sales growth, which was 16% year over year.
Mark Goodman
Analyst, Leerink Partners
And pricing?
Todd Nichols
Chief Commercial Officer, Alkermes
Yeah, we didn't see any significant pressures on pricing overall. Pricing was within our range of expectations. And as we've said before, historically, Lumerize has a really strong market access profile. We didn't see any changing dynamics there. as well, and we're not anticipating any strong changing dynamics as we head into the last part of the year. Thanks.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Joseph Tome with TD Cohen. Please go ahead.
Jacob (calling on behalf of Joseph Thome)
Analyst, TD Cowen
Hi, this is Jacob on the line for Joe. Thanks for taking my question. On the MDD study for 7290, I was actually just curious if we might expect any kind of pre-specified subgroup analysis by excessive daytime sleepiness or like stratification by excessive daytime sleepiness and whether we might expect powering to be sufficient to determine any differences between those patient populations or whether we could have an endpoint like ESS where we could see if the effects on mood were being mediated by sleepiness. Thanks.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Hi, Jacob. Thanks for the question. Yeah, as I said in the prepared remarks, actually, we do have a pre-specified subgroup which is a group that has excessive daytime sleepiness. And our goal here is to look at the two populations, both the all-comers MDD versus the group that has the excessive daytime sleepiness. And you know one of the goals there is to see do we see an enriched signal within that group and and you may expect to see that because as you look at the madder scale for example there's some questions there that specifier are highly related to you know sleep or or or the anhedonia associated or lack of urgency and things like that that people get so you know we want to see that we want to test that in this study and then that will allow us to then determine our development path moving forward
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Alex Nakenoff with Truist Securities. Please go ahead. Hey guys, thanks for taking the question.
Todd Nichols
Chief Commercial Officer, Alkermes
Another one on ADHD. For the phase 1b portion, could you explain your rationale why you utilized an inpatient setting and possibly how that may have impacted, if at all, baseline characteristics and if those baseline factors or the inpatient setting may have led to an outsized or suppressed treatment response?
David Hong / Alex Nakanoff
Analysts, Deutsche Bank / Truist Securities
and just curious if you think you had a representative ADHD population where you believe the results will translate in future clinical studies. Thanks so much.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Yep, thanks Alex for the question. So as we looked at the ADHD program, we had two programs that are studies that we were running at the same time. We have first and foremost our large phase two outpatient study that we're running that is placebo controlled, multiple doses, et cetera. What we wanted to do in the phase one B study was to ensure that we had some information that we would inform on, one, what are some of the types of signals that we would see, and two, whether we were in the right dosage range overall. In order to do that, what we needed to do is learn a lot about how patients respond to orexin agonism. Because remember, this is actually the first asset of this mechanism that's ever been tested outside of hypersomnia indications. we needed to learn what we were doing and that meant we had to put a lot of different tools within the phase one program and in order to do that if you tried to do that in an outpatient type setting that would be exhaustive for the patients it would be very hard for you to operationalize that so that's why we chose an inpatient setting what it allows us to do is put those patients in a clinic look at those different outcomes in a more in a more staggered pace that that's appropriate for the patients and we don't think that has any change on the overall baseline characteristics. I think overall when we looked at the incoming baseline characteristics that's consistent with what we see with other ADHD studies. I think where inpatient settings tend to have an impact on some things is on your safety outcomes because sometimes what you tend to see in inpatient settings is those patients talking about their side effects and that can sometimes amplify side effects here and there. again we saw a very good AE profile from this program so I think all in all we got exactly what we wanted from this study and I think it validates the approach and as we've always said the phase two study that's ongoing is going to be the one that's going to determine what's the characteristics or what's the signal size related to this drug treatment in this population.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Great, thanks so much. Our next question comes from Umar Rafat with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.
Umer Raffat
Analyst, Evercore ISI
Morning, guys. Time to take my question. I wanted to touch up on 7290 as well and a couple of points. First, I saw you guys used split dosing when conducting the inpatient ADHD trial. Do you think split dosing could be driving placebo response? And are you intending to continue using split dosing only in your ongoing Outpatient ADHD as well as the MDD trial. And then secondly, the fact that you used up to 50 milligram dose of 7290, what does that tell us about the potency relative to your narcolepsy program? Thank you very much.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Hi, Umar. It's nice to hear from you. I think on the first question on the split dosing, so as we went into the ADHD study, one of the things we wanted to do as we're trying to learn on the signals is we didn't want to confound Some of the PK differences of single-day dosing versus split dosing, we wanted to take that out of the equation. So we used split dosing just because it just allowed us to standardize. I think as you look at our ongoing phase two study, we're actually using both once daily and split dosing. And I think that's important because as you know, in the ADHD population, it is a bit of a lifestyle drug in some respects in that it patients have different needs according to what whether they're working whether they're students what's happening in the evening what happens in the morning etc and so I would envision that we'll probably introduce other dosing types maybe PRN and other things in the future after original registration but we're going to do both moving forward single day dosing as well as split dosing through the development program with regards to um The upper dose is 7290. It's actually, you can't really use that to relate to narcolepsy. This is fundamentally a different drug. It has a different potency. It has different pharmacological characteristics. And then also keep in mind that the pharmacologic dose level that you need to activate the ADHD circuit may be different than what you need to activate, say, a wakefulness circuit. And so there's a lot of dynamics that are going on there that don't really allow you to make that comparison.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Ash Verma with UBS. Please go ahead.
Multiple analysts
Includes representatives for Paul Matteis (Stifel), Akash Tewari (Jefferies), Rudy Lee (Wolfe Research), Ashwani Verma (UBS), Andrea Newkirk (Goldman Sachs), and Ben Burnett (Wells Fargo)
Hi, this is Leona for Ash. Thank you for taking our question. For the IH study, is it fair to assume that the baseline ESS scores are similar to what you had in the NT2 study? Also, is it fair to assume that the placebo arm in this IH study could closely resemble how the placebo did in the NT2 study?
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Yeah, I mean, look, we've established very similar entrance criteria as in IH versus NT2. Now, who ends up enrolling in the study depends on the study and which patients show up. So we'll know that as we look at the data moving forward. I think as we look at this area overall, I think We feel pretty good that we're controlling placebo. Obviously with wakefulness, one of the things to keep in mind is you don't tend to see such a big placebo response like you see in neuropsychiatric indications. So you tend to actually, it really depends more on the treatment arm than it depends on the placebo arm. But again, we do what we can to control that. And we've done that in this program by really trying to standardize how we do the tests really making sure we have high quality control on our clinical sites.
Multiple analysts
Includes representatives for Paul Matteis (Stifel), Akash Tewari (Jefferies), Rudy Lee (Wolfe Research), Ashwani Verma (UBS), Andrea Newkirk (Goldman Sachs), and Ben Burnett (Wells Fargo)
Got it, thank you. And if I may have a follow-up, I think you alluded to the long-form IH patients earlier. Can you talk about roughly what percentage of your IH patients would be the long-form IH?
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
So in our study, we haven't disclosed what that is. I think as we look at the general population though within IH, typically you see something in the order of around 25% of patients can be can be deemed long sleepers.
Multiple analysts
Includes representatives for Paul Matteis (Stifel), Akash Tewari (Jefferies), Rudy Lee (Wolfe Research), Ashwani Verma (UBS), Andrea Newkirk (Goldman Sachs), and Ben Burnett (Wells Fargo)
Thank you so much.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
You're welcome. Our next question comes from Amy Fabia with Needham and Company. Please go ahead.
Ami Fadia
Analyst, Needham & Company
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. With regards to the upcoming IELTS study readout, I'm trying to understand how you're sort of thinking about the outcome of the results, especially in the split-dosing arm. As we think about the trade-off between efficacy of having split dose and maybe potentially implications on safety, are there any guardrails in terms of those trade-offs beyond which you may decide not to pursue a split dosing? And then secondly, is there some process within the study of determining which patients may be best suited for a split dosing versus not? that could inform your next clinical trial.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Thanks. Thanks for the questions. I think with the split dosing, we have a wide therapeutic range with this drug. So we remember when we went into our programs before, we studied in the NT2 trial up to 18 milligrams. And we have an ability to go higher if we want to. So split dosing, We don't see sort of a safety question as to what's going to determine whether we move to split dosing. Now obviously the data will tell us that. When we look at the NT2 data, if we see something unexpected, we'll adapt accordingly. But a priori, we don't anticipate that being a gating factor. What we're really looking for with the split dosing is really a comparison to the once daily dosing. And in the subset of patients who require additional efficacy in the afternoon do we see a difference and if we do see that difference that's going to add additional flexibility for physicians to provide that dosage option to the patients and remember you know in our NT2 study we normalized I would say about 70 percent of the of the patients on the ESS scale using the once daily dosing so we anticipate even in IH that that um We're going to see a good response on both dosage forms. But we want to have that added flexibility and that added efficacy for patients and that added flexibility that split dosing would provide. The second question was which again? Sorry.
Ami Fadia
Analyst, Needham & Company
What I was trying to ask is, is there a way to learn from the study? as to a priori which patients may be best suited for a split dosing?
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Yeah, no, thank you. Thanks for the reminder. So, you know, it's interesting. It's a priori what we don't know when patients come into the study is would you be better on a split dose or would you be better on a single dose? And patients obviously in our study are going to be randomized randomly into those categories. We'll see if we learn anything from this study of whether or not there are any patient characteristics that drive that. I think it would be surprising. I think one of the challenges when you get into NT2 and IH populations is, you know, the science underlying the ideology of the disease is a little unclear. And so, you know, in many ways it's hard to, you can't just use a standard biomarker to say a patient's going to be responsive or non-responsive or need an afternoon checkup. and Andrea Newkirk with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Multiple analysts
Includes representatives for Paul Matteis (Stifel), Akash Tewari (Jefferies), Rudy Lee (Wolfe Research), Ashwani Verma (UBS), Andrea Newkirk (Goldman Sachs), and Ben Burnett (Wells Fargo)
Hi, this is Morgan on for Andrea Newkirk. Thanks for taking our question. For ALK 7290 in MDD, given antidepressants typically fail to address residual fatigue and anhedonia, what magnitude of difference on matters do you consider clinically meaningful for this novel mechanism? Thank you.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Yeah, you know, it's interesting that as you look at the Madras scores and you look at things that are out there, I mean, I think typically people see a change versus placebo of somewhere between, you know, two and five as being a meaningful difference on Madras. And in fact, the drug that's out now, Velody, which, you know, it only had a three-point change, three-and-a-half-point change or so relative to placebo. has strong uptake because it has unique characteristics. And so it has A, a different mechanism, and B, it has a rapid onset. And I think as you look at the MDD space, there's a number of areas where you can provide improvement, cognition, anhedonia, fatigue, as you alluded to. And we've seen things like cognition and fatigue benefits in some of our other trials. And so I think the goal for us is to be able to show a statistical difference between placebo as part of madras, understand the domains of where we see response, and if we can show something that's different that provides a different, a broader profile than you see with the SSRIs, SNRIs, I think there's a lot of opportunity there. Because remember, this is adjunctive therapy. About 40% of these patients have an inadequate response. I think there's a lot of room for improvement for these patients.
Multiple analysts
Includes representatives for Paul Matteis (Stifel), Akash Tewari (Jefferies), Rudy Lee (Wolfe Research), Ashwani Verma (UBS), Andrea Newkirk (Goldman Sachs), and Ben Burnett (Wells Fargo)
Thank you.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Jason Gerberry with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Chi (calling on behalf of Jason Gerberry)
Analyst, Bank of America
Oh, hey. This is Chi for Jason. Thanks for taking our question. I have a follow-up on the expectation for Vibrance 3. What do you expect to see from the data for advancing the program to Phase 3? Is it driven by whether the study meeting the primary endpoint? And what do you want to see as differentiated relative to our market offerings such as Oxibay? Do you want to see sort of magnitude of benefit on ESS or IHSS for the IH study? And just quickly as a follow up on your earlier commentary around expecting to see a similar response As in the Vibrance 2 study, is that commentary related to QD dosing in ESS scale as we think about the overlapping elements between Vibrance 2 and Vibrance 3? Thanks so much.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot in your question there. I think as you look at the Vibrance 3 study, as you look at it, obviously our endpoints are ESS and IHSS and we want to be able to show a benefit within there and for us a phase two study remember is about is about trying to ensure and understand your signal it's trying to understand your signal relative to your safety profile and can you design your phase three trial in order to get over the line show the statistical significance show a benefit to those patients obviously we want to hit statistical significance as part of our phase two study if we can If we were to fall a little bit short, does that mean we would stop the program? No. As long as we feel that we have an appropriate signal that trial design would be able to overcome. That being said, when we look at our early treatment within this patient population, remember we had a once daily dosing similar to what we did with the NT2 population. We saw a similar effect size between NT2 and IH. So our hope is is that we see something similar. We hope that we'll provide additional benefit through the split dosing and that we'll be able to then design our phase three, meet with the agency and then move that into our phase three program. So with regards to my previous comment, with regards to Vibrance 2 versus Vibrance 3, what I'm really just trying to say is that there's a lot of heterogeneity in the patient populations, both in NT2 and IH. there's also a lot of overlap between diagnoses patients move between an NT2 diagnosis and an IH diagnosis sometimes frequently so I would expect that there's an overlap of population there and and that if you have a similar population that the the once daily drug would perform would perform similarly with the caveats that I mentioned earlier that you have this other patient group in there that we're going to be learning about that long the long sleepers so again what I'm What I'm hoping is that we've designed the study in a way where we can learn what we need to from this program and move forward quickly into phase three.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Luke Herman with Baird. Please go ahead.
Luke Herman
Analyst, Baird
Hi, team. Thanks for the question. So just a follow up on the erection and oxidate dynamic. given the view that erections and oxidates can be complementary by HCPs and you know that's intuitively sound that they can be complementary but I guess what is your early thinking on payer dynamics if a set of patients could theoretically be in position to step up from one to two branded therapeutics yeah Luke this is uh Todd I'll take that um yeah we're spending a lot of time right now uh talking to to payers overall um as you know the
Todd Nichols
Chief Commercial Officer, Alkermes
Access profile for oxibates and for lumerizes is quite strong at north of 80%. And we don't see that changing over time. There's a significant value to HCPs and to patients. I think a lot will be determined pretty quickly here when we see what the pricing dynamic looks like for the Takeda product overall. As you know, there's a lot that goes into pricing and one of the considerations that we will be thinking through is not only just the overall value of Elixir Extin with a very broad label and how we plan to differentiate, but also making sure we take into consideration what the reimbursement profile looks like. So our expectation is that we will put forward a profile in a pricing dynamic that will allow broad access to both products.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our next question comes from Douglas Sal with HC Wainwright. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning.
Douglas Tsao
Analyst, H.C. Wainwright
Thanks for taking the questions. I'm just on 7290 in term into MDD. I was just curious. It sounds like you were looking into how the drugs effect on sort of some of the specific domains of the moderate. So I'm just curious, are you looking at things like chaps? Because I think there is a rationale to think that a, Thank you.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
Yeah, I mean, I think as we move forward in the program, we're going to be looking at a lot of different things. I think for the ongoing study right now, our primary is really on the madras. We're really, yes, are we looking at the individual domains? Of course we do, but we're designed to look at the overall response overall. So, Our goal here is to really show whether or not we see an overall effect size, understand the patient population, and as we move into the next phase of the program, we'll dive deeper into some of the areas that we see.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
Our last question comes from Ben Burnett with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Multiple analysts
Includes representatives for Paul Matteis (Stifel), Akash Tewari (Jefferies), Rudy Lee (Wolfe Research), Ashwani Verma (UBS), Andrea Newkirk (Goldman Sachs), and Ben Burnett (Wells Fargo)
Good morning, Jim. This is Orpheus On for Ben. I had another question on oxidase plus orexins. You described this as complementary and we've also heard similar feedback from KOLs. With that in mind, could you remind us of your plans to generate data of an orexin agonist in combination with an oxidate? And if you do run such a study, would your oxidative choice be lumerize or valoxidate? Thank you.
Blair Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Alkermes
I think... It's a great question, and actually we do want to generate a lot of data with oxibates and orexins together because just like you're hearing, we're hearing from our patients that that would be desirable to be able to have a nighttime treatment with an oxibate and a daytime treatment with an orexin. And we want to be able to support that. We want to support patients and doctors in how to use it, how to use it safely, and also to prepare to support it and show those benefits. That being said, what we want to make sure is that we do those studies as we're further along in the registration program. We don't want to put our core registration program at risk, so it'll take a little time, and we will move to that, and of course we will use Lumerize as the comparator. We think that's the dominant drug moving forward, and that's what we'll want to show.
Sandra Coombs
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, Alkermes
Thank you.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Sandra Coombs for closing comments.
Sandra Coombs
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, Alkermes
All right, thanks everyone for joining us on the call today. If you have any follow-up questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us as a company. Thank you.
Dylan
Conference Call Operator
This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Performer / Hamilton audio excerpt
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