Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Unidentified Analyst: Yes, I’ve got one more for you if we may. You also talked about the pivotal phase 2 olutasidenib data published in blood advances. Can you talk a little bit about having this publication in hand is influencing the awareness in addition to, of course, the data on the label when you were going in and talking to these physicians?

Dave Santos : Sure Rick. Happy to take that one, as well. And that’s a great, great question. And I’m thrilled to be able to answer because, when that publication came out, first of all I did increased awareness, among hematologists, who treat leukemia, it was important to them. But more importantly for us and the marketing team did a fantastic job creating a visual aid just around that publication. And when you look at, their new core visual aid, that has, that has now been rolled out with our new campaign, Transform Your Expectations, we really talked about a number of key messages that were in that publication, which are important to get across. And number one is that, it’s almost half the patients responded like I said in my prepared remarks.

Previously, we have been focused on the 35% CRCRH rate with those patients. But really when you add in other responders, you get the 48% overall response rate. So that was a key piece that we’ve now been able to really talk about a lot in addition to that other than aside from our duration of response that publication also contained in it that estimated 18 months survival rate for CRCRH responders of 78%. That is a clear differentiator for REZLIDHIA and it does definitely ring true to leukemia treaters particularly in the relapse setting when they are just not used to that. I mean, you’re talking about median survival in many relapsed/refractory studies of less than four months. And so, to hear that 78% of those CRCRH responders are alive at 18 months.

That’s a very important message for us. So that – those two things really helped us to I think get that efficacy message out there and truly differentiate REZLIDHIA. But definitely that publication helped us a lot. And that just came out as you know, this quarter, or in first quarter.

Unidentified Analyst: Great. Okay. Thank you for taking our questions.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Kalpit Patel with B. Riley. Please proceed with your questions.

Kalpit Patel: Yeah. Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe one starting for REZLIDHIA. Is there any additional color on the prescribing behavior for selecting REZLIDHIA versus tips hobo in the real world? And, maybe how is that choice being made for the 29 prescribers that started REZLIDHIA?

Dave Santos : That’s a great question, Kalpit. And I wish I could be more precise. As you can see in our slides, much of our business is being directly shipped to accounts. And so, we don’t have that prescriber insight that we would have if they’re filled through the specialty pharmacy network. And so, our team goes back and follows up. But I can’t really say what are the drivers specifically for those who prescribed it, for using it, other than they really have looked at the data. They believe it’s compelling and they decide they’re going to start a patient on REZLIDHIA. We have had one institution already started more than actually three patients on REZLIDHIA in the relapse setting and they have made a conscientious decision based on reviewing the data that it will be their therapy of choice.

So, I think, it’s still early. We’d love to provide more specifics on why people are choosing it. But all I could say now is that anecdotal evidence is clinicians see the value of a long duration of response. And of course, when they respond a high percentage of patients surviving for a long period of time and so that’s why they’re choosing it.