Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript April 25, 2024

Merck & Co., Inc. beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $2.07, expectations were $1.94. Merck & Co., Inc. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Merck & Co. Q1 Sales and Earnings Conference Call [Operator Instructions]. This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Peter Dannenbaum, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Peter Dannenbaum: Thank you, Sherley. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to Merck’s first quarter 2024 conference call. Speaking on today’s call will be Rob Davis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Caroline Litchfield, Chief Financial Officer; and Dr. Dean Li, President of Merck Research Labs. Before we get started, I’d like to point out a few items. You will see that we have items in our GAAP results, such as acquisition related charges, restructuring costs and certain other items. You should note that we have excluded these from our non-GAAP results and provide a reconciliation in our press release. I would like to remind you that some of the statements that we make today maybe considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provision of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Such statements are made based on the current beliefs of Merck’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. If our underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Our SEC filings, including Item 1A in the 2023 10-K identify certain risk factors and cautionary statements that could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially from those projected in any of our forward-looking statements made this morning. Merck undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements. During today’s call, a slide presentation will accompany our speakers’ prepared remarks. These slides, along with our earnings release, today’s prepared remarks and our SEC filings, are all posted to the Investor Relations section of Merck’s Web site.

With that, I’d like to turn the call over to Rob.

Rob Davis: Thanks Peter. Good morning. And thank you for joining today’s call. We’ve begun 2024 with continuing momentum in our business. We’re harnessing the power of innovation to advance our deep pipeline and are maximizing the impact of our broad commercial portfolio for the benefit of patients. We drove strong growth across key therapeutic areas, executed strategic business development and are now launching a significant new product in the cardiometabolic space, while also preparing for the potential approval and launch of two additional important candidates in vaccines and oncology. We have significant opportunities ahead of us across all areas of our business and we’re highly focused on realizing them. I continue to be inspired by the dedication of our talented global team, which is working tirelessly to bring differentiated medicines and vaccines to patients through seamless scientific, commercial and operational execution.

In March, we received FDA approval for WINREVAIR, our first-in-class treatment for adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare, progressive and ultimately, life threatening disease. This marks the achievement of a significant milestone for our company, it exemplifies the value of our strategic priorities and demonstrates how our enduring commitment to our purpose is resulting in tangible benefits for patients. Just over two years since adding WINREVAIR to our pipeline, our attention now turns to the execution of a strong commercial launch where we have already seen prescriptions being written. We see a tremendous opportunity to positively impact the lives of people living with PAH. And further, the importance of this therapy to patients provides us with increased confidence in our ability to deliver sustainable long term value for our shareholders.

Strategic business development focused on the best external science remains an important priority for our company. We’ve demonstrated that we can leverage our deep discovery prowess to identify important acquisition targets and then add significant value through our powerful clinical research engine, our regulatory expertise and our commercial scale, which together can serve to accelerate development and enable broad global access to important medical discoveries for patients in need. Turning to our first quarter results. We achieved strong growth, reflecting robust demand for our innovative portfolio. We’re pleased to reflect this momentum in our updated full year guidance, which Caroline will speak to in a moment. Turning to our broader research efforts.

We’re focused on advancing our expansive and diverse pipeline of leading edge programs for the benefit of patients. In vaccines, we continue to pioneer new approaches to optimize disease prevention. In HPV, we’re building on the foundation set by GARDASIL to further reduce the global burden of certain HPV related cancers and disease by potentially providing broader protection with a new multi-valent HPV vaccine, and by generating data to clearly demonstrate whether or not a single dose of GARDASIL 9 provides comparable long term protection to the approved three dose regimen in males and females ages 16 to 26. In pneumococcal, we presented additional compelling data for V116, a vaccine that is specifically designed to help protect against the majority of invasive pneumococcal disease in adults ages 65 and older, and look forward to its potential approval in June.

Each of these programs are platforms where we can provide meaningful protection to broad populations on a global scale. In HIV, in partnership with Gilead, we shared promising data from our revitalized program for a once weekly combination of islatravir and lenacapavir in the treatment settings. We’re actively progressing our comprehensive clinical program, which is focused on both treatment and prevention strategies to meet the evolving needs of the HIV community. And in oncology, we initiated several late stage programs of novel candidates from our diverse pipeline as we work to expand our impact for patients and reinforce our leadership position over the long term. Finally, across our deep pipeline, we have significant clinical momentum in a range of therapeutic areas.

Cutting edge science is at the core of who we are and m confident that Merck is well positioned to deliver the next wave of important innovations and value to patients, shareholders and to all of our stakeholders. In summary, our science-led strategy is delivering compelling proof points that we are creating a sustainable innovation engine that with continued clinical success will lead to a more diversified portfolio of growth drivers over the next decade and beyond. I again want to recognize the enormous efforts across our global organization. My confidence is strong and growing that we’re well positioned to build on this momentum and drive patient impact and value creation this year and well into the future. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Caroline.

Caroline Litchfield: Thank you, Rob. Good morning. As Rob noted, we have had a strong start to the year with robust growth across our business, which reinforces the confidence we have in our outlook. We are also making strategic investments to leverage leading edge science to save and improve lives around the world, positioning us to continue to deliver long term value for patients, customers and shareholders. Now turning to our first quarter results. Total company revenues were $15.8 billion, an increase of 9% or 12% excluding the impact of foreign exchange. The impact from exchange is primarily driven by the devaluation of the Argentine peso, which was largely offset by inflation related price increases consistent with market practice.

The following revenue comments will be on an ex-exchange basis. Our Human Health business continued its momentum with double digit growth of 13%, driven by Oncology and Vaccines. Sales in our Animal Health business increased 4% across both companion animal and livestock products. Turning to the performance of our key brands. In Oncology, sales of KEYTRUDA grew 24% to $6.9 billion, driven by increased uptake from earlier stage cancers and continued strong demand from metastatic indications. In the US, KEYTRUDA grew across a broad range of tumors. In earlier stage cancers, the increase was largely attributable to non-small cell lung cancer, following the launches of KEYNOTE-671 and KEYNOTE-091. In the metastatic setting, we saw strong uptake from the recent launch of KEYNOTE-A39 in first-line advanced urothelial cancer.

Outside the US, KEYTRUDA growth was driven by continued uptake in earlier stage cancers, including high risk, early stage triple negative breast cancer and renal cell carcinoma, as well as continued strong demand from patients with metastatic disease. Inflation related price increases consistent with market practice in Argentina also contributed to growth. Alliance revenues from LYNPARZA and LENVIMA grew 7% and 10%, respectively. WELIREG sales more than doubled to $85 million, driven by the additional indication following FDA approval of LITESPARK-005 for certain patients with previously treated advanced renal cell carcinoma, as well as by increased uptake in certain VHL disease associated tumors. Our vaccines portfolio delivered strong growth led by GARDASIL, which increased 17% to $2.2 billion, driven by global demand.

Sales also benefited from the timing of shipments in China and CDC purchasing patterns in the U.S. VAXNEUVANCE sales grew to $219 million, driven by continued uptake of the pediatric indication in the US and ongoing launches in international markets, particularly in Europe. In the US, VAXNEUVANCE sales also benefited from CDC purchasing patterns. Sales in our Animal Health business grew 4%. Livestock sales growth was driven by price actions as well as demand for swine and poultry products. Companion animal growth reflects price actions. I will now walk you through the remainder of our P&L, and my comments will be on a non-GAAP basis. Gross margin was 81.2%, an increase of 4.3 percentage points, driven by reduced royalty rates for KEYTRUDA and GARDASIL, which went into effect at the beginning of this year, as well as favorable product mix.

Operating expenses decreased 4% to $6.4 billion. A charge of $656 million related to the acquisition of Harpoon Therapeutics this quarter was lower than the $1.4 billion of charges a year ago for certain business development transactions. Excluding these charges, operating expenses grew 8%. We remain committed to investing appropriately to realize the promise of our expansive early and late phase pipeline and support the promotion of our key growth drivers. Other expense was $87 million. Our tax rate was 16.1%, including the impact from the Harpoon transaction, for which no tax benefit was recorded. Taken together, earnings per share were $2.07, which includes a $0.26 negative impact from the charge related to Harpoon. Now turning to our 2024 non-GAAP guidance.

The operational strength of our business has enabled us to raise and narrow our full year revenue guidance. We now expect revenue to be between $63.1 and $64.3 billion, reflecting strong year-over-year revenue growth of 5% to 7%, including the negative impact from foreign exchange. At the midpoint of this range, operational strength in our business of approximately $600 million is partially offset by an incremental headwind from foreign exchange of approximately $400 million using mid-April rates, resulting in a full year negative impact from foreign exchange of approximately 3%. Our gross margin assumption is now expected to be approximately 81%. Our estimated range of operating expenses is between $25.2 billion and $26.1 billion, which does not assume additional significant potential business development transactions.

Other expense is expected to be approximately $250 million. Our full year tax rate is unchanged between 14.5% and 15.5%. We assume approximately 2.55 billion shares outstanding. Taken together, we are increasing and narrowing our expected EPS range to $8.53 to $8.65. This is a $0.07 increase at the midpoint despite an incremental headwind from foreign exchange of approximately $0.05 using mid-April rates, resulting in a full year negative impact from foreign exchange of more than $0.30. As you consider your models, there are a few items to keep in mind. The increase in our sales guidance is driven by the strong performance across our current product portfolio led by KEYTRUDA, which continues to experience growth from additional indications and patient demand.

For GARDASIL, second quarter ex-US growth will be adversely impacted by shipment timing to China. This year, we expect more evenly distributed quarterly shipments to China. Recall in 2023, we accelerated shipments from the second half to the first half of the year, which primarily impacted the second quarter. Over the near and long term, we remain confident in our ability to protect many more people from HPV related cancers and drive growth of GARDASIL. Sales of LAGEVRIO in the first quarter were driven by an extended wave of COVID-19 in Asia-Pacific markets. LAGEVRIO continues to be an important treatment option for certain patients with COVID-19. Though, we continue to anticipate full year sales to be lower than last year. We are excited to provide a novel treatment option for adult patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, following the recent FDA approval of WINREVAIR.

We are seeing high interest from patient groups and a range of relevant prescribers. We are also making good progress in enabling access. Several payers have already established coverage policies consistent with the label and STELLAR study criteria, while others are in the process of developing their policies. As we go forward, we intend to provide an appropriate level of transparency to enable insight into the impact we are having on patients, including prescription data and revenues. In summary, we are confident in a successful launch of WINREVAIR, consistent with our prior expectations, and look forward to providing updates on our progress. Now turning to capital allocation, where our strategy remains unchanged. We will prioritize investments in our business to drive near and long term growth.

We will continue to invest in our innovative pipeline, including the initiation of many new late stage clinical trials across multiple novel candidates, each of which has the potential to meaningfully address important unmet medical needs. We remain committed to our dividend and plan to increase it over time. Adding compelling science to our pipeline through business development remains a high priority. We maintain ample capacity given our strong investment grade credit rating and cash flows to pursue additional, science driven, value enhancing transactions. We will continue to execute a modest level of share repurchases. To conclude, we remain confident in the near and long term outlook of our business, driven by the global demand for our innovative medicines and vaccines, as well as our exceptional pipeline.

Our unwavering commitment to use the power of cutting edge science to improve the lives of the patients we serve has put us in a position of financial and operational strength. Our excellent execution and continued investments in innovation will enable us to deliver value to patients, customers and shareholders now and well into the future. With that, I’d now like to turn the call over to Dean.

Dean Li: Thank you, Caroline. In the first quarter, we continued to make progress with a steady cadence of clinical and regulatory milestones across our pipeline. Today, I will provide updates from our cardiometabolic disease portfolio, HIV and vaccine programs and close with advances in our oncology pipeline. As Rob and Caroline noted, late last month we received approval from the FDA for WINREVAIR, our first-in-class activin signaling inhibitor, for the treatment of adults living with pulmonary arterial hypertension to increase exercise capacity, improve WHO functional class and reduce the risk of clinical worsening events. WINREVAIR is a novel therapeutic option that targets a new PAH treatment pathway and is indicated to treat a broad PAH population.

This approval marks a significant step towards our goal of transforming the treatment journey for many patients with PAH. WINREVAIR is currently being reviewed by the European Medicines Agency with a decision anticipated in the second half of this year. The Phase 3 ZENITH and HYPERION studies evaluating patients with more advanced disease and those earlier on in their disease journey, respectively, are ongoing, as well as the Phase 2 CADENCE trial, evaluating WHO Group 2 pulmonary hypertension, a type of left heart disease. Our commitment extends to a broad range of pulmonary hypertension. Informed by results from the Phase 2 cohort of the Phase 2/3 INSIGNIA-PAH study evaluating MK-5475, our inhaled soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator and the STELLAR trial results for WINREVAIR, we have made the decision to focus the development of MK-5475 on WHO Group 3.1 pulmonary hypertension associated with COPD and not further proceed in PAH.

PH-COPD is an area of significant need, with no specific therapies currently approved. Our HIV pipeline continues to advance. Last month, presentations at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections reinforced progress in our strategy to develop less frequent dosing regimens for managing and treating HIV. We believe these programs have the potential to help address adherence, stigma and other challenges faced by some individuals taking daily antiretroviral pills. In collaboration with Gilead, safety and efficacy findings were presented from a Phase 2 study evaluating a once weekly oral combination of islatravir, an investigational nucleoside reverse transcriptase translocation inhibitor and lenacapavir, a first-in-class capsid inhibitor, for the treatment of adults living with HIV.

At 24 weeks, the trial met its primary endpoint, and in a secondary endpoint, maintained a high rate of viral suppression. Additional longer term data will be presented at a later date. In addition, safety and tolerability data were presented for MK-8527, a novel oral NRTTI candidate, from two Phase 1 trials that evaluated ascending single dose and multiple doses in adults 18 to 55 years old not infected with HIV. MK-8527 is being investigated as a potential monthly option for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. Vaccines remain an important element of our pipeline and we are making progress across several programs. Findings from multiple Phase 3 trials of V116, our investigational 21-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, were presented at the Meeting of the International Society of Pneumonia and Pneumococcal Diseases last month.

V116 was shown to be immunogenic for all 21 serotypes covered by the vaccine, including in pneumococcal vaccine naive and vaccine experienced adults as well as those at increased risk for pneumococcal disease. If approved, V116 would be the first vaccine specifically designed to address the majority of serotypes that cause invasive pneumococcal disease in adults ages 65 and older. The target action date is June 17th. The meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled shortly thereafter. Since the initial approval of GARDASIL, a steady flow of clinical and real-world evidence has been generated to support the favorable efficacy, effectiveness, safety and long term durability of protection against certain human papillomavirus related cancers and diseases in both males and females.

Despite the proven public health benefit of HPV vaccination, the latest global cancer statistics from the International Agency for Research on Cancer indicate there is more to do to help increase vaccination rates. The latest statistics from 2022 ranked cervical cancer as the fourth most common cancer globally in terms of incidence and mortality in women and the leading cause of cancer death in 37 countries, predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa, South America and South-East Asia regions. At the EUROGIN Congress last month, we disclosed plans to build on the development of GARDASIL with a new clinical program to identify a novel multi-valent HPV vaccine candidate with the potential to extend protection against a broader array of HPV types. This includes several types known to disproportionately impact African and Asian populations and individuals of African and Asian descent.

First-in-human studies are scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of this year. In addition, we announced plans to conduct two randomized, double blind, multi-year clinical trials in females and males ages 16 to 26 years to examine the short and long term efficacy and immunogenicity of a single dose of GARDASIL 9 versus the currently approved three dose regimen. The goal of these studies is to generate data that clearly demonstrates whether or not a single dose of GARDASIL 9 provides comparable long term protections to the approved regimen, while also satisfying the high standards required by regulatory authorities. The clinical trials are anticipated to start enrolling in the fourth quarter. In oncology, we continue to focus on our three pillared strategy comprised of immuno-oncology, precision molecular targeting and tissue targeting agents.

In immuno-oncology, September 2024 will mark a decade since the first approval of KEYTRUDA in metastatic melanoma. KEYTRUDA has since amassed approvals for 39 indications and continues to reinforce its reputation as a foundational therapy for certain types of cancer. Building on the recent FDA approval for KEYTRUDA in combination with chemoradiotherapy for the treatment of FIGO 2014 Stage III through IVA cervical cancer, we recently announced that the pivotal KEYNOTE-A18 trial met its primary endpoint of overall survival, potentially providing a new standard of care for these patients. Our commitment to providing better options to prevent and treat cervical cancer remains strong. Also in women’s cancer, the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-868 trial, known as NRG-GY018, was granted priority review by the FDA for the first line treatment of patients with primary advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma.

The agency has set a target action date of June 21st. Outside of the US, the European Commission approved KEYTRUDA in combination with platinum doublet chemotherapy as neoadjuvant therapy, followed by adjuvant KEYTRUDA in adult patients with non-small cell lung cancer at high risk of recurrence based on the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-671 study. This marks the first approval in Europe for an anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy as part of a treatment regimen for the neoadjuvant followed by adjuvant treatment of resectable non-small cell lung cancer based on positive overall survival results. Next, to precision targeting. Building on the success of KEYTRUDA for certain patients with non-small cell lung cancer, earlier this month, we announced the initiation of the Phase 3 clinical trial for MK-1084, an investigational oral selective KRAS G12C inhibitor, in combination with KEYTRUDA for the first line treatment of certain patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

The decision to proceed to Phase 3 was based upon early, promising evidence from a Phase 1 study showing anti-tumor activity and a manageable safety profile. KRAS is one of the most prevalent oncogenes in human cancers and G12C is the most common KRAS mutation in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. In the tissue targeting space, we are moving with speed and rigor to advance a broad pipeline of antibody drug conjugates with multiple planned and ongoing Phase 3 trials. In just over six months, we have made remarkable progress in our collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo. Recently, we announced that the first patient has been dosed in the Phase 2/3 REJOICE-Ovarian01 trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of raludotatug deruxtecan, an investigational CDH6 directed DXd ADC in patients with platinum resistant ovarian cancer.

We are poised to begin a Phase 3 study evaluating ifinatamab deruxtecan, a B7-H3 directed ADC in small cell lung cancer, a notably difficult to treat tumor type. New treatment options are desperately needed for these patients where the prognosis remains poor. We are pleased to have recently completed the acquisition of Harpoon Therapeutics, which provides novel T-cell engagers, including MK-6070, an investigational delta like ligand 3 targeting T-cell engager, also being evaluated in certain types of small cell lung cancer, as well as neuroendocrine tumors. Finally, please mark your calendars for the evening of Monday, June 3rd where we will host an investor event at ASCO in Chicago, and provide an update on our diverse portfolio of immuno-oncology, precision molecular and tissue targeting agents.

Looking forward, June promises to be a busy month with three regulatory action dates including V116 for prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease and pneumococcal pneumonia in adults, KEYTRUDA for primary advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma and patritumab deruxtecan for advanced EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer. We continue to execute on our strategy with a focus on operational excellence and look forward to providing further updates on our progress throughout the year. And now I will turn the call back to Peter.

Peter Dannenbaum: Thank you, Dean. Shirley, we’re ready to begin Q&A. We do request that analysts limit themselves to 1 question today to get to as many different questioners as possible. Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Terence Flynn with Morgan Stanley.

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Q&A Session

Terence Flynn: This is probably one for Dean. Obviously, you guys have been focused on building out your cardiometabolic franchise now. You have the sotatercept launch underway. You’ve got an oral PCSK9 in late stage development. You have a GLP glucagon also moving forward for NASH, I believe. But I guess I’d just be curious how you think about the opportunity in obesity broadly as on one hand it seems like it could align with your current footprint, but on the other hand it seems like Merck has gone more towards specialty markets and away from primary care. So maybe just would love your thoughts there, Dean, as you think about building out.

Dean Li: Yes, we are excited about the build out that we have in cardiovascular metabolic. You pointed out the programs that have the most visibility right now. But let me assure you there will be other programs that you will have more visibility over the coming years. In relationship to your question about GLP and obesity, I think there’s two ways to look at it. You can look at it from a GLP angle and you can look at it from an obesity angle. If you look at it from a GLP angle, there has been really important work showing its impact in diabetes and weight loss more recently and cardiovascular outcomes, most recently in sleep apnea. And you’re right, we’re very interested in relationship to NASH. We think that’s an also important outcome.

And we also think that there will be distinct populations whether you call it obese or whether you call it NASH or within that GLP space. And in those distinct populations, it will be important to give a benefit of a molecule that really takes care of the primary concern. And that’s our play, for example, in NASH where we think we have a very tolerable drug that has significant reduction in liver fat and also gives a weight loss of 10% to 12%. When you look at that, I think these different outcomes may need different molecules. More generally, if you’re talking about obesity, I do think that there is important work going on right now. But I think that there could be another wave where people start thinking about orals, how tolerable they are, the accessibility they are and combinations, how do you maintain, how you preserve muscle and also additional outcomes.

And it may not be that the same molecule is the best molecule that wins out in every one of those subpopulations. And so I would just — I wonder if there will be some fractionation of the patient population when you say the word, for example, generally obesity and we wonder if there is opportunity there.

Operator: Our next question comes from Evan Seigerman with BMO Capital Markets.

Evan Seigerman: I wanted to touch on some of your work in lung cancer, specifically with KRAS G12C, echoing Dean’s comments. So this space is becoming increasingly crowded. Maybe walk me through what you believe differentiates your assets, say, from the currently approved one or from the PAN-RAS assays in development?

Dean Li: So this is one of my more favorite projects. So I appreciate that you actually asked a question about it. When you look at KRAS, as you point out — it’s one of the most important driver mutations in multiple cancers. And if you say more broadly not KRAS but PAN-RAS that is also true. In relationship to KRAS G12C, that’s a small percentage of all the KRAS mutations and all the RAS mutations. But where KRAS C12C is especially prominent is in non-small cell lung cancer. It’s depending on the percentage 12% to 15% in that patient population. And I will also emphasize that we have a lot of data in relationship to that patient population in non-small cell lung cancer. It’s KEYNOTE-189, it’s KEYNOTE plus IO. You need a potent compound with a KRAS to move it into first line, that’s the game that we’re trying to play.

So it is crowded. But what you’re looking for is a potent compound that has tremendous monotherapy efficacy. But most importantly, when you combine it with for example, pembro, you maintain the dose, you maintain the ability to not have dose modifications. And that’s the data that made us excited about this because I think we reported an ORR of 71% in combination. So that’s why we’re advancing that. The race for us is to get it in first line and then to think about other KRAS indications and IL sensitive, insensitive and also other molecules that are coming through in the lung cancer space, and some of them are related to antibody drug conjugate. So we are very excited about our KRAS G12C program 1084, which is moving to Phase 3.

Operator: Our next question comes from Chris Shibutani with Goldman Sachs.

Chris Shibutani: Maybe focusing on the pipeline on areas that you do not highlight as often, specifically immunology? And then a lot of the discovery work that you talk about in CNS, with immunology with the TL1A. Can you just help us understand where we are on the Crohn’s study there and also the Pandion acquisition, I think there’s Phase II? And then CNS, you highlight how many folks you have doing discovery research. How do you feel about the distribution of your efforts with CNS there? So just two areas not highlighted in the press release but I think are important to your overall portfolio.

Dean Li: So I’ll first touch immunology and specifically in the TL1A space. So that TL1A, we think that it will be a highly effective, higher end efficacy and also not just in terms of efficacy, in terms of tolerability. That ulcerative colitis program Phase 3 is started already and is recruiting. We are hopeful that we will be announcing the opening of the Phase 3 and patients coming in for the Crohn’s disease over the next few months. So we are very excited about moving TL1A eagerly and appropriately aggressively, move it in Phase 3 to really sort of outline the really differentiated profile that we have seen for TL1A, and specifically our compound. I should also emphasize that we also are looking at TL1A, not just within sort of inflammatory bowel disease but we’re also interested in other diseases.

And one of the things that’s really interesting about TL1A, it is blocking inflammation, but there is reasons to believe that it can have profound effects on fibrosis and that’s our interest in Crohn’s disease. But there are other diseases, for example in the lung where fibrosis is a really important component and we’ll be interested to see those. We have other assets moving forward, both from the Prometheus acquisition that is not the TL1A, as well as other internal that are moving forward with alacrity. In relationship to neuroscience, we hope to be getting the readout with MK8189. We have other programs that are moving and advancing. And we have made some commitments in the early discovery space in a BD standpoint to accelerate some of our works that have been made public.

I think over the next one to two years, we’ll see readouts, Phase 2b, Phase 1s moving to Phase 2. But I think at that point, we will be able to speak more fully. But I think the investment in neuroscience, I think is critically important. From a healthcare unmet need, you’d have to list from an economic value to the healthcare system and populations, especially in the United States. Neuro disease continues to be a really important place. And I would say neuro disease, not just in terms of degenerative but not just classic neuro disease but in the psychiatry arena as well. And you’ve seen others advance business development in that space. We’re interested in continuing in business development there but also importantly moving our own internal program, the lead program being MK8189.

Operator: Our next question comes from Dana Graybosch.

Dana Graybosch: I want to ask some on pneumococcal vaccine. You mentioned several times V116 is customized for adults 65 and older. In the ACIP meeting, they discussed a recommendation in adults 50 or older. And I wonder if you could comment on where you think that ACIP recommendation will end up for V116? And on V117, I wonder if you could talk about how this vaccine, which I believe is now in Phase 1, is customized for pediatric patients?

Rob Davis: Maybe I can start, Dana and then Dean can add. Obviously, I would just start by saying we were very pleased with the overall tone and tenor of the discussion coming out of the ACIP meeting. And as you look at what we have with V116, we continue to believe if you look at the strength of the data behind that, and we’ve talked about — Dean mentioned some of the clinical readouts that have come, but recall we cover 83% of the serotypes causing disease in adults, that’s 30% higher than PCV 20. So it’s significant and that was how it was specifically designed targeting those serotypes, which are most prevalent in adult disease. As a result of that, we continue to believe the value proposition of V116 is very compelling.

If you look at the cost effectiveness, it’s going to be a very cost effective vaccine. And as a result, I think that’s why you started to see the ACIP ask questions about the 50 to 65 age cohort, as well as the 65 plus. So I don’t want to get ahead of the ACIP in their recommendation. But I would say our belief and conviction in the value of the data and the value of this vaccine will bring for patients in the pneumococcal space is significant. And I would expect overall that we’re going to see broad coverage coming out of the ACIP.

Dean Li: I would just add, again, we want to be respectful of ACIP and the FDA. But you did point out something that I think is something that clearly we took notice. When Rob talks about that 83% versus 50% and 30% more, in the specific question that’s just asking about 50% to 64%. I would remind everyone that dropping that age for universal vaccination had been considered previously for other vaccines. And they could not come to a situation where they thought that it would be a good idea based on cost effectiveness and the such. And by increasing it from 50% to 83%, we believe that we changed the calculus and that may be why there is renewed interest in lowering that age based on the broader coverage given for V116.

Rob Davis: And I think there was a second question you had, Dana, about V117. I’ll just maybe give a general answer, which is obviously if you look at the strategy of V116, it’s the same strategy with V117. How do we develop an investigational PCV vaccine that is targeted specifically to those serotypes that cause disease in children in peds without hopefully causing unfold effects. And so it’s a model that follows that we’ve not given any details to the additional serotypes or our thinking. But just understand that if you look at the model of V116, V117 is the same thing in peds.

Operator: Our next question comes from James Shin with Deutsche Bank.

James Shin: Firstly, I know Merck does not provide product level guidance. But given WINREVAIR’s importance and investor focus, can you provide any color on WINREVAIR’s contribution to guidance? And then second one is for Dean on REJOICE-Ovarian, and I suppose precision oncology in general. But does the field know how much overlap there is between Cadherin 6 and FR alpha? And then for patritumab, I know the data for HER3 shows high expression in advanced patients, but there’s a lot of development in advanced [patients]. So how does Merck envision patritumab be positioned or sequenced?

Rob Davis: Maybe James, I’ll start, and thank you for the question. The short answer is unfortunately we don’t provide product level guidance. So I don’t think we want to get into trying to tell you what we see WINREVAIR as being a contributor in 2024. But with that said, I think it’s important to make few points just so you understand how we’re seeing it. First of all, we’re very excited to provide this novel treatment for patients with PAH. As you know, we think this will be a game changer in that space. We were well prepared for the launch and I can tell the launch, although, very early, is going well so far. We’ve seen an increasing number of prescriptions being written, we’ve seen repeat prescriptions. And that’s coming both from the COE space, from the Centers of Excellence, which is about 150 in the United States, as well as from non COEs, which is a good development.

We have already begun making shipments to patients’ homes and hopefully, we we’ll have patients being dosed very soon, if not already. And then I think the other thing I’d note is the prescribers as well as the locations are both from the Centers of Excellence and also non-COE, so that’s something to note. And then finally, from a payer perspective, we’re seeing good access, no real limits. In fact, we already have several payers who have established coverage policies. And I think as Caroline pointed out in the prepared comments, very consistent with the label and what we saw in STELLAR. But the fact that we’ve seen policies enacted giving coverage to patients already this quickly after launch, we see as a good sign. It’s obviously early, but everything so far looks quite good.

So our confidence in a successful launch has not changed. We continue to see this consistent with our expectations. And as we move forward, we’ll give you appropriate level of tranparency. But I just want to give flavor, even though we can’t give the specific guidance you were asking for. Dean, I’ll let you take the second part of the question.

Dean Li: So I’ll just add a little bit in relationship to WINREVAIR. I think it’s important to emphasize that the indication or the label that we have is a broad indication and is based on STELLAR. And there will be potential data flows that will continue to inform and strengthen the field. We have STELLAR and Soteria, which is open label. We have ZENITH, which is advanced and that will look at mortality and morbidity and HYPERION, which is in more earlier in the journey. We have the European action that will happen in the second half of 2024. And I would just emphasize that this is something that healthcare professionals and self administration is possible. And in relationship to that, there will be a demand for innovation and we hope to provide that innovation as this becomes even more used in a self administration standpoint.

You asked a number of questions and many of the questions related — and some of it — we got blurred out, but some of it related to ovarian, but more broadly speaking tissue targeting and ADCs. So I’ll just give you an overview. When we look at the field, we look at cancers where there is IO and chemo and that combination. And where will we see that, we ask ourselves can you combine an IO agent with a chemo agent? And we think about KEYTRUDA but we also think about next gen tissue targeting IO agents, such as the recent immune engagers that we have from Harpoon. And then on the other hand, we think about chemo, we think of precision targeting like RAS, how can it combine and we also think in terms of ADC. In the specific case that you’re talking about, you have HER3, patridumab, that’s moving along in EGFR and non-small cell lung cancer.