KNSA Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd.
$89.20
Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript
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Operator
Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Canixa Pharmaceuticals third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star 11 on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star 11 again. As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Jonathan Kirshenbaum, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Jonathan Kirshenbaum
Investor Relations
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Connexa Pharmaceuticals third quarter 2026 earnings call. A press release highlighting our financial results and recent portfolio execution can be found on our website under the Investors section. As for the agenda, our Chief Executive Officer, Sanj K. Patel, will start with an introduction. From there, Ross Moat, our Chief Operating Officer, will provide an update on ARCOS commercial execution. After that, Mark Ragosa, our Chief Financial Officer, will review our third quarter 2026 financial results. And finally, Sanj will return at the end of the call to share closing remarks and kick off the Q&A session, for which John Paolini, Connexus Chief Medical Officer, will also be on the line. Before getting started, please note that we will be making forward-looking statements today that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. A review of these statements and risk factors can be found on this slide. as well as under the caption risk factors contained in our SEC files. These statements speak only as of the date of this presentation and we undertake no obligation to update such statements except as required by law. With that, I'll turn it over to Sanj.
Sanj K. Patel
Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Jonathan, and good morning or good afternoon, everyone. Over the last 10, 11 years, we've built this company through multiple stages of growth and today, I'm as excited as ever about what the team and I can accomplish together in the years ahead. ConiXa continues to build a leading IO1 alpha and beta inhibition franchise, driven by the commercialization of Arclis in recurrent pericarditis, as well as our progress with KPL387 and KPL1161. This morning, we announced via a press release that we've raised our full year revenue guidance to between $1.045 and $1.050 billion. We continue to see robust growth with Arculus in recurrent pericarditis, driven by strong execution and strategic investments across the business. On the clinical side, we're excited about the progress of KPL387 and KPL1161. The pivotal phase three study with KPL387 continues to enroll and dose patients. We announced today that we expect data from this trial in the second half of 2027. The team and I are really looking forward to potentially launching this drug in the 28-29 timeframe. In addition to providing an important treatment option for patients with recurrent peripatitis, We believe KPL-387 could help grow the market by enabling a once-monthly sub-Q dosing. We're also on track to have KPL-1161, our quarterly IL-1 alpha and beta inhibitor, in a phase one clinical trial by the end of this year. Impulsively, Knix's robust financial profile allows us to continue to invest in penetrating the recurrent pericarditis market and growing the IL-1 Alpha and Beef Innovation franchise while also pursuing additional value creating opportunities. In the third quarter, we saw a continuation of strong Arcus momentum with Q-through revenue of $286 million. The penetration rate into the annual population of 14,000 multiple recurrence patients increased to 23% as of the end of Q3. As shown by the increased breadth and depth of prescribing over time, adoption of IL-1 alpha and beta inhibition continues to expand among the approximately 40,000 recurrent pericarditis patients each year. The underlying fundamentals that propelled our commercial success remain strong. Since launch, we've observed robust payer approval, strong patient compliance, and greater appreciation of the need to treat throughout the multi-year duration of the disease. Underpinning this growth is strong execution by our commercial organization and data-driven investments in our quest. Our AI-supported patient identification initiatives and targeted direct-to-consumer campaign, Pass Home, have positively contributed to growing patient and physician awareness of recurrent pericarditis and the important role of IL-1 alpha and beta inhibition in controlling this debilitating disease. As you've heard, we now expect Arclas to achieve over $1 billion in revenue in 2026. And we look forward to continuing to bring this blockbuster drug to more patients suffering from this debilitating disease. In order to grow the recurrent pericarditis market over the next several years, we plan to drive greater adoption in both the 14,000 multiple recurrence patients annually and the additional 26,000 patients annually that are experiencing their first recurrence. Connexa is executing against its strategy to help more patients drive more alkalis growth and advance KPL 387 and KPL 1161. This trajectory will help put the company on a path to having multiple commercial products, continued strong and profitable growth, and the flexibility to invest in future value creation. I can tell you that the team and I won't rest until we've helped many, many more patients. And now, our President and COO, Ross Moat.
Ross Moat
President and Chief Operating Officer
Thank you, Sanj. As you've heard, we're pleased with the continued strength of our commercial performance with Arcanist. And we're even more excited by the substantial growth opportunity ahead. We continue to be highly focused on further increasing the penetration rate into the many thousands of recurrent pericarditis patients and continuing to evolve the treatment paradigm towards interleukin-1 alpha and beta inhibition. As illustrated on the left side of this slide, physicians continue to report an increasing consideration of Arclist earlier in the disease including at the first recurrence. Additionally, we also see a growing appreciation for ARCLIS to be utilized earlier in the line of therapy meaning after NSAIDs and colchicine and importantly prior to corticosteroids as ratified in the 2025 American College of Cardiology Concise Clinical Guidance for Recurrent Pericarditis. In fact, Approximately 50% of physicians surveyed now support this treatment approach, representing a doubling from levels over the last three years prior to the publication of this independent guidance. As we continue to build and lead this market, our team are laser focused on value-driven investments that aim to increase market penetration and help many more patients. Increasing education and awareness on recurrent pericarditis, ARCLIS, and the new treatment paradigm remain critical components of our strategy, and we've enhanced our capabilities through the use of AI and machine learning to reach a larger audience. On the healthcare professional side, we've done this through improving our data sources to inform us not only which healthcare professionals we should be seeing, but importantly, when we should be seeing them. On the patient side, we've seen encouraging early indicators from our Heart's Home direct-to-consumer campaign. Based on this initial traction, we plan to expand the campaign with additional content and outreach initiatives aimed at empowering more patients to engage with their healthcare professionals about ARC list. As a reminder, Heart's Home is a highly targeted DTC campaign where we've innovated from traditional DTC by using AI to produce and deliver a campaign that's effective for a rare disease audience. This campaign is aimed at educating an enriched population of likely recurrent pericarditis patients who are currently not taking Arclist and empowering them to discuss Arclist with their healthcare provider. As an early indicator of the impact of this campaign, we've seen a 12-fold increase in the traffic to our Arclist website compared to baseline levels prior to the campaign. Additionally, there's been an eight-fold increase with engaged sessions, meaning visits where the individual spends meaningful time on the website or interacts with the content. More importantly, Approximately 55% of patients who saw the ad strongly agreed that they are motivated to speak with their healthcare provider about Arclist. All of these indicators are strong signals that our digital strategy is reaching the right audience and is empowering action. As this disease has a very high annual incident rate of patients coming into the labeled indication, This DTC initiative is nicely supplementing our robust execution in the field and helps us to address the substantial opportunity that we have ahead to help many more patients. As previously mentioned, our interleukin-1 alpha and beta inhibition franchise is growing, is profitable, and has significant opportunity in the months and years ahead. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark to review our financial results.
Mark Ragosa / Anupam Rama / Paul Choi / Peter (for Roger Song)
Chief Financial Officer / Analysts
Thanks, Ross. Our third quarter delivered continued ARCLIS sales growth, advancement of KPL 387 and KPL 1161 development, and a solid financial position. This morning, I'll review our financial results and key performance drivers. Detailed financial information is available in today's press release. Starting with the income statement, ARCLIS revenue grew 58% year over year, to $286 million in the third quarter, driven by continued gains in patient and physician adoption. Operating expenses increased year over year, driven by higher ARCLOS revenue, which resulted in additional cost of goods sold and collaboration expenses, advancement of KPL 387 development, which drove additional R&D investment, and support of ARCLOS commercialization to reach more patients, which led to additional SG&A investment. Operating income rose to $54.2 million and net income to $47.3 million, both up significantly year-over-year. Turning to the calculation of ARCLIS collaboration profit, which drives total collaboration expenses on our income statement, ARCLIS collaboration profit increased 67% year-over-year to $211.6 million, outpacing sales growth and reflecting disciplined commercial investment. We ended the third quarter with $568.8 million in cash, reflecting approximately $43 million in net cash generation during the quarter. Looking ahead, in addition to our updated 2026 ARCLOS sales guidance of $1.045 to $1.050 billion, we are providing full-year R&D and SG&A expense guidance. We expect full year R&D expenses of 160 to 170 million in 2026. This range includes continued development of KPL 387 and KPL 1161, as well as significant fourth quarter KPL 387 pre-commercial manufacturing costs. We expect full year SG&A expenses of 270 million to 280 million in 2026. This range supports continued ARCLIS commercialization including additional personnel and promotional activities in the fourth quarter to further build disease awareness and enhance patient and physician targeting. In closing, our third quarter results show the strength of our operating plan, a growing and profitable Arclist business funding the advancement of key development assets and positioning us to create value in the near and long term. With that, I'll turn the call back to Sanj for closing remarks.
Sanj K. Patel
Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Mark. As you've heard, Connexa is jolly well positioned to build significant future value as we grow our IL-1 Alpha and Beta inhibition franchise. The team and I are on it and focused on helping as many patients as possible with Arclist and to advancing the development of our clinical portfolio in order to bring additional therapies to patients. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for questions. Thank you.
Conference Operator
Operator
Certainly. Thank you. And our first question for today comes from the line of Anupam Remo from JP Morgan. Your question, please.
Mark Ragosa / Anupam Rama / Paul Choi / Peter (for Roger Song)
Chief Financial Officer / Analysts
Hey, guys. Thanks so much for taking the question and congrats on the quarter. I just wanted to ask a quick KPL 387 question. I think the guidance for pivotal data in the second half of 2027 is new today. Can you tell us what you're seeing in terms of enrollment dynamics and where you are on site initiation that give you confidence to laying out this timeline? Thanks so much.
Sanj K. Patel
Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Anupam. I think I'll let John Paolini answer that. Suffice to say that our execution crosses not just commercial but also the clinical development organization. And as I've said before, we are enrolling and dosing patients to global clinical study with global sites. And both myself, John, and Ross take pride in meeting with investigators and just getting them excited about the future so there's been some massive momentum both internally and with our investigators and as with ever we go out things with full force and that's what the guidance is around us and having results in the second half of next year. John?
John Paolini
Chief Medical Officer
I think that's excellent guidance from Sanj. The only thing that I would add is that on clinicaltrials.gov you can see the extent of the global nature of our program and so the sites that are involved in the program across the world are all listed there and so you can see the scope of effort and as Sanj mentioned, we are on the ground and engaging with clinicians and we can feel the excitement about the program and so we continue forward.
Sanj K. Patel
Chief Executive Officer
I'd also say we have a crack clinical operations team and having run clinical operations for many years at Genzyme before I ran commercial, I've got a very high bar for clinical research and clinical operations. And after many, many years, I feel like we've really got the best team to do the job. Thanks so much for taking our question, and congrats again on the quarter.
Conference Operator
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Edward Nash from Canaccord Genuity. Your question, please.
Edward Nash
Canaccord Genuity Analyst
Hey, good morning, guys. I'm really, really excited to see that over 1 billion number now for the guidance, so congratulations. I just want to ask now, you're at 23% active penetration. That's 2% higher the last quarter, which is really, I think, impressive. Can you maybe give us an idea of how we should think about the shape of the penetration curve from here? Is there anything structurally different about the next quartile of patients? versus the patients you've already converted. You know, you're going up on the SG&A number, which makes a lot of sense, and you've put a lot of focus on the DTC campaign, which clearly seems to be paying off. Just kind of curious as to how many extra dollars need to be put in to kind of achieve greater uptake of scripts.
Ross Moat
President and Chief Operating Officer
Thanks, Edward. This is Ross. Thanks very much for your comments, and yeah, we're pleased to announce that We're around 23% at the end of the quarter in terms of penetration into the multiple recurrence group, which is the patients that have suffered for two or more recurrences. And that's without allocating anything to the first recurrence group, which we've got about 20% of our prescriptions in the first recurrence group also. So the opportunity is very significant. While on one hand, we're happy with the 23%, and that's obviously showing A couple of percent growth versus the end of Q2 number when we shared it. The time before that, the last time we shared the penetration number, I think it was at the end of Q4, which was 18% at the end of last year. So that's been growing relatively nicely, but I think more importantly is the opportunity that's ahead. I mean, clearly there are a lot of patients in the 2-plus recurrence group that we've still got to help, and as I said, not allocating for even those who are in the first recurrence, and as we shared from some of the market research today, the propensity and the desire for physicians to look and treat patients with IL-1 alpha beta inhibition in the first group has also been growing quite substantially over time. So we think the future is very bright from that perspective. In terms of kind of different patient groups, aside from the recurrence number, there's really not much else to report. We're not seeing significant change necessarily Demographics of the patients or severity levels or anything else. It's just that, you know, this is a rare flaring cardiovascular disease. There are a lot of patients out there relative to a rare disease. And, you know, we're trying to get out and reach as many patients as possible. We know that they are widely dispersed around the country and that takes a certain effort, as you have alluded to from our kind of our sales and marketing spend and so on. but our efforts are ultimately on value-driven investments that can make sure we reach those physicians and switch more and more of them on to this new way of treating and ultimately get greater penetration into this opportunity to ultimately help more patients.
Edward Nash
Canaccord Genuity Analyst
Thanks a lot for that. I'm sorry, go ahead.
Ross Moat
President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, no, Edward, maybe just to add the final part as well is that The DTC spend and field team spend that we have and we've announced in our guidance looking forward as well is ultimately very efficient. We are very focused on this as a rare disease market and for the DTC side of things, this is not kind of broad spectrum, massive spend DTC. It's very efficient, very targeted type of expenditure to address appropriately the market that we have.
Edward Nash
Canaccord Genuity Analyst
Great. Thanks for that additional color and really great quarter. Thanks again and congratulations.
Conference Operator
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Paul Choi from Goldman Sachs. Your question please.
Mark Ragosa / Anupam Rama / Paul Choi / Peter (for Roger Song)
Chief Financial Officer / Analysts
Hi everyone. Congratulations on the great quarter and congrats Ross as well on the new title.
John Paolini
Chief Medical Officer
I want to ask on the 387 And I was wondering, you know, if you could just sort of provide a little more color on where you are with progress on that. I guess what the ultimate data you are looking for there to support 387 from an insurance perspective. And my second question is on 1161. Maybe, you know, just, you know, where are you thinking in terms of indication selection, I guess, at this point, and a little bit more on the criteria that you're considering for the next, for the first indication there for 1161.
Mark Ragosa / Anupam Rama / Paul Choi / Peter (for Roger Song)
Chief Financial Officer / Analysts
Thank you so much.
John Paolini
Chief Medical Officer
Thank you, Paul. I appreciate your questions. This is John. So, with regard to the KPL387 transition to monotherapy dosing and administration study, I mean, this study is designed primarily is what we call a posology study. So it covers dosing administration specifically for informing the label. So it's designed, as you can see in the slides, for looking at how patients are coming from stable therapies, whether they're oral or biologic, and then transitioning to KPL387 monotherapy at the 300 milligram subcutaneous monthly dose level. And so that's really what that study is designed to do. It follows very similarly the precedent of what's in the Arculus label, which similarly describes the transitions from NSAIDs, colchicine, corticosteroids, and anakinra. So this is just really following in that tradition. So that's how the study is designed and the data that will be generated. But I'll turn it over to Ross to talk about ultimately other elements of transition.
Ross Moat
President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, thanks very much, John. I mean, I guess, you know, just to say that obviously, we're very excited about the potential for KPL 387. But, you know, everything's kind of data dependent as we as we move forward. But when we tested the target product profile for KPL 387, both with healthcare professionals and patients, We were really, you know, very encouraged by the feedback that we had back. And while we believe that Arclis has a lot of growth left in it to address the recurrent pericarditis opportunity, with KPL387, patients did tell us that around 75% of them would prefer the KPL387 target profile being a monthly liquid formulation, potentially auto-injector over current commercial or other investigational therapies. They also reported a propensity for a greater number of patients to start on therapy with that target product profile as well as staying on therapy longer. And then when you looked at the healthcare professional side, 92% of healthcare professionals indicated a high likelihood to prescribe KPL387 with that target product profile over available commercial or other investigational therapies. So, you know, that I think reads quite positively about the future, but ultimately we are focused on conducting the clinical research and awaiting the data.
John Paolini
Chief Medical Officer
And then with regard to your question about 1161, so we're very excited about this program. which has the potential for once quarterly dosing again targeting the IL-1 alpha and beta signaling by targeting the receptor. And so this program we expect to begin a phase one program by the end of the year and to that extent we have not yet announced or disclosed our plans with regard to development You know, indications. Suffice it to say, though, that with that longer duration of action that really unlocks a lot of potential for, you know, for disease states, especially those that are, you know, chronic or lifelong in nature by virtue of the once quarterly dosing. Ross, anything to add?
Sanj K. Patel
Chief Executive Officer
No, that's great, John. Thank you. That's great.
Conference Operator
Operator
Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Roger Song from Jefferies. Your question, please.
Mark Ragosa / Anupam Rama / Paul Choi / Peter (for Roger Song)
Chief Financial Officer / Analysts
Hi, this is Peter. I'm calling in for Roger. Congrats on the good quarter and thanks for taking our questions. Just a couple quick ones from us.
Jonathan Kirshenbaum
Investor Relations
For third quarter, can you tell us what share of the new patients came from first time versus repeat prescribers? And can you also share whether or how much growth you've seen within the first recurrence patients as well for this quarter?
Ross Moat
President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, Peter, thanks very much for the questions. We don't share some of that data directly externally, but of course it's the type of thing that we look at a lot internally in the business. What we have shared is in the Q3, clearly we've seen a substantial uplift in the number of patients representing the strong growth of 42, nearly $42.5 million a quarter on quarter. and ultimately that's driven by strong prescriber growth. What we have said is that when you look at the total number of prescribers launched to date of ARC lists for recurrent pericarditis, in Q3, or I should say at the end of Q3, we had around 5,450 total prescribers. Now that's an uplift of around 450 quarter on quarter. So again, it's really showing very strong growth. and now we have around 30% of that group who are repeat prescribers which is up by around 170 prescribers. Historically we've said that the split between the first and second recurrence is about 80% of prescriptions in the second plus recurrence and 20% in the first but we haven't updated that data on a very frequent basis as a lot of it comes from kind of ad hoc market research that we do. But clearly we're showing pretty strong growth in Q3 and a lot of that is down to the refined targeting that we have with our field team, the DTC campaign in a very targeted approach and also just broader dissemination of the ACC concise clinical guidance and really just empowering physicians on this new way of treating the disease.
Mark Ragosa / Anupam Rama / Paul Choi / Peter (for Roger Song)
Chief Financial Officer / Analysts
Got it. Thanks so much for the additional color and congrats again on the quarter.
Conference Operator
Operator
Thanks Peter. Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Jeff Meacham from Citi. Your question please.
Jeff Meacham
Citi Analyst
Hey guys. Great job on the quarter. Thanks for the question. Just have a couple of quick ones. The first on 387, I know convenience angle obviously is a big differentiator. But beyond that, is there a patient maybe on our class today that you think is particularly suited to transition to 387? Just beyond convenience, I know clinically, maybe those that live further away or what are the attributes of the patients I guess is the question that would maybe more rapidly switch and then bigger picture question just on the you know cash in the capital deployment you guys have been consistently you know profitable you're you're building some cash on the balance sheet um I don't know just trying to think of ways to maximize value um from a balance sheet cash flow context. What are you thinking about from a BD perspective? Where does this fall in your priorities? Thank you.
John Paolini
Chief Medical Officer
Thank you, Jeff, for your question. I'll tackle this first part with regard to the transition, if you will, from ARCLIS to KPL387. I think that our position with regard to the management of the disease is that blockade of IL-1 alpha and IL-1 beta is critical to maintaining disease control and to gaining the disease control as a monotherapy. And so in that sense, we're particularly excited about the KPL-387 program because it adds to the optionality of what's available to patients and physicians in terms of treating this disease. And so that efficacy ultimately remains to be demonstrated in the phase three pivotal trial, which is ongoing. but importantly what we have going on as well is the 212 study or the KPL387 transition to monotherapy dosing and administration study which is really designed to look at how the mechanics of how to transition from one existing therapy to KPL387 monotherapy at the 300 milligram monthly dose level and so that includes NSAIDs and colchicine, corticosteroids, or IL-1 pathway inhibitors, including anakinra and rolanacept. And all of those different transition regimens are studied or evaluated in the study and then go on to over a 16-week primary endpoint period. So it's really about that transition. And that then informs the label with regard to informing physicians how they can make that transition. But in terms of the patient profile, it's really about the optionality for the patient and the physician to choose which therapy, which effective therapy, you know, is considered to be best for them.
Sanj K. Patel
Chief Executive Officer
And Jeff, in regards to your question on maximizing value and cat physician, I mean, I can tell you what drives us each and every day is the potential to increase that overall maximum value. There's so much kinetic energy within the company. Let's focus on that. We talked about, obviously today, the growth with Arculus, and we continue to be very excited about the future potential there. We talked about the latest penetration rate being, in some ways, only 23%. But equally, obviously, across the development portfolio with KPL 387 and 1161, as we've talked about, we're moving now into the phase three pivotal study for 387, being very excited about being in the clinic with 1161 later this year. But as you see, those last two programs were homegrown, so we continue to look at other additional value-creating opportunities, both internally but also externally. I think we've been very judicious and very thoughtful about capital allocation. We do look at BD opportunities, but as you can imagine, with our commercial products, with our pipeline, the bar is exceedingly high. That said, we're a very pragmatic bunch, and we do look at where the value could come from all the time. It's what drives us. essentially so rest assured we know how to capital allocate we know it best to drive value and we'll continue doing that and ultimately keep executing it great thank you thank you this does conclude the question and answer session of today's program i'd like to hand the program back to Sanj K Patel CEO for any further remarks Thank you very much. Thanks everybody for dialing in today. Clearly a lot of excitement, ongoing execution, and very excited about the future. The team and I will keep driving for future success, for patience, and for creating that additional value. Thank you.
Conference Operator
Operator
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.