Heron Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HRTX) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

John Poyhonen: Yes, so if you look at it, I think Barry is right. So what we have seen is additional general surgery procedures coming on board, which is very encouraging. Our initial launch was really focused much more on orthopedics. So with that, there’s a higher mix of the 200 milligram SKU, which would have a lower cost value. And then I think you can see that by some of the numbers historically over time from a demand standpoint. Also, as we gain business in 340B accounts, there will be a bit of reduction and what the net selling price will be. So there will be some sensitivity that we’ll continue to look at. I think the final piece is we took our first price increase in effective January 1. So there was a very minor buy-in that occurred at the end of last quarter probably in the neighborhood of a week or two. So those would be the factors that would impact the actual results for Q1.

Brandon Folkes: Great. Thank you very much.

John Poyhonen: Sure.

Operator: We’ll take our next question from Serge Belanger with Needham and Company.

Serge Belanger: Hi, good afternoon. Couple questions for us.

Barry Quart: Hey Serge.

Serge Berlanger: First one, Barry, can you just talk about the overall surgical volume trends? I know you’re €“ your competitor has been, as previously mentioned that the lack of full recovery has been a headwind. So just curious what you’ve seen so far this year. I know first quarter is usually slow, but usually by the time we get to March 1st to normalize. So curious what you see in terms of those trends?

Barry Quart: Yes. And I think €“ I think John can comment on and get a little more color. No question, January is very slow and we’ve seen good movement in February and strong March, which leads to overall growth over the quarter. John, do you want to give any more color?

John Poyhonen: Yes. I think that if you look at the slide that we showed based on the seasonality of the product that, that continues to hold true. Overall in our indicated procedures last year they were down 4.1% or 4.6% compared to 2021 volume. So far in the first quarter of this year, they’re running very comparable to what they were in 2022 Serge, so €“ but it’s still early. The claims data tends to run a bit behind when the actual unit volume is available. So it’s something that we can look at and report on it during our next earnings call.

Serge Berlanger: Okay. And then secondly you highlighted your plans to improve the presentation of the ZYNRELEF product. Just curious what the regulatory, I guess, implications are here. What is required from an FDA standpoint to get these improvements approved for the product presentation?

Barry Quart: It would be just like a development of any other device similar to the Luer Lock Applicator that we provide in the kit. You have to go through a normal manufacturing activities in terms of demonstration of the sterility. How you’re using radiation to sterilize the device and packaging of that device. You put all of that material together, all of that’s being done by an external manufacturer. That contract manufacturer has many, many of these type of devices that they make. They’re expert at this activity, and so they provide all that information for the filing. And then it’s really a question of two parallel paths that can be taken, filing 510(k) as a device as well as filing pre-approval supplement in order to package the product in the kit.