Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXSM) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 9 of 10

Lori Englebert: Yes. Thanks, Graig. So the very short answer is no what we’re seeing in terms of the trend has nothing to do with the need to expand the sales force, the sales force is purely driven by the fact that we’re seeing great adoption and that update by physicians. What we’re seeing and what we believe we’re seeing in terms of the flatness is a trend that’s pretty – that we’ve seen basically just launches where we’ll go through about four weeks and then they pop. And right now, I think what we’re feeling a little bit is the seasonality effect. Antidepressants, typically go through a seasonality effect in the summer particularly in Q3, they can sometimes drop as much as 10% Q3 versus Q2. So that is likely what we’re seeing right now. And we’re very confident in the fact that sale force will add to that. But again, the sales force should be up and running in Q4.

Graig Suvannavejh: Thanks Lori.

Operator: Thank you. Our final question today is coming from Myles Minter from William Blair. Your line is now live.

Myles Minter: Thanks. I’ll just keep it to one. I think you added 6% of commercial covered lives in the second quarter here, but you mentioned that pre-IND meetings are ongoing or will occur in the next few months. Do you have one of sight as to what proportion of covered lives in the commercial channel that those meetings would be from plans that represents? And is your ultimate goal still that 90% of couple plugs in the commercial channel that are similar to your peers?

Lori Englebert: Myles, could you maybe repeat the last part of that question, we had – you break out a little bit.

Myles Minter: Yes. It was just that is your goal still to aim to achieve about 90% of covered lives in the commercial channel that would be similar to the – ?

Lori Englebert: Yes. So I’ll chime in and start. Nick might want to add some color around how we’re thinking about it from a growth to net standpoint. But from our standpoint, our goal has always been in discussions with payers to make sure that we ensure that we are capturing the value of the novelness, the innovation that we bring to the market as well as the clinical benefit of ability But also, we want to make sure that we ensure a path to access for patients. There are 6.8 million patients who fell prior therapy, and all of those patients are typically taking 6 to 8 weeks to see any kind of response with another therapy. So the delayed onset of action current therapies, low remission rates, we believe Auvelity’s clinical profile can really bring value to both payers and into patients. So we want to make sure that we’re very careful to capture that value. Nick, you want to add anything on that?

Nick Pizzie: Yes. I think you pretty much said it, Lori – abilities – I mean it’s a truly differentiated product, and we just really want to secure meaningful access while maintaining long-term value. So pretty much you said every time.

Lori Englebert: Yes. The only thing I’ll add list the access that we have contracted with and the coverage that we have, it is very favorable. So payers are seeing the value of the products, and we want to make sure we’re being very cognizant of protecting that long-term value of the product.

Herriot Tabuteau: Yes. And then just the last thing that I would add, we’re reporting the percentage of covered lives, which is 68%, which is great – it’s a great place to be right now. But also while we can report a real time what the percentage of covered lives is, that does not reflect ongoing products. So stay tuned.

Page 9 of 10