Steve Parsons: Yes. The interaction with payers has been — has exceeded our expectations. We’ll have P&T formulary meetings and decisions made with a couple of the biggest Medicare Part D PBM plan combinations in November, and they don’t have to do that. They’ve all scheduled expedited meetings. Typically it’s 3 months, 4 months, 5 months. We’re getting — we were just approved in October, and we’ll have meetings, P&T decision meetings in November and more in December. Before we launch in Q1, we’ll have formulary decisions, and we expect those to be positive. All indications are that they’re going to be positive. They recognize the unmet need. They see the cost effectiveness of this product relative to the alternative, which is going to ER and hospitals. So yes, we’re pretty bullish about it.
John Tucker: Yes, Doug. And I’ve been following this. I think we’re really bullish on the fact that they’re scheduling these meetings so quick, these P&T committee meetings. I’m not waiting for a script or anything. They’re going. So we’re very encouraged by what we’re hearing.
Douglas Tsao: Okay. And any sense of where in terms of what — is it going to be a prior auth? Are they going to ask for approval on the label to be failure of oral furosemide first?
John Tucker: Well, they might on the oral, but that’s fine because that’s how the product’s indicated. If they fail oral, they’re going to — this is why they need it. Because our goal, again, is to get them back on that generic oral as soon as they can without them being hospitalized. So we don’t think that’s an issue for us at all because all of these patients would have failed oral diuretics to be there.
Douglas Tsao: So I guess the — and no other sort of burdensome requirements in terms of step edits for you?
John Tucker: Not that we’re hearing, no.
Douglas Tsao: Congrats on the —
John Tucker: Thanks.
Operator: Our next question is from Naz Rahman of Maxim Group.
Naz Rahman: This is my question. Those 10 payers that you’re meeting with, could you give us some color on how many covered lives they represent, and like what percentage or what amount of the market opportunity represent relative to the total?
John Tucker: So what percent of the total lives have we met with on those plans? Boy, that’s a big number, Steve.
Steve Parsons: Yes. What I can say is there’s about 10 plans that cover about 85-plus percent of Medicare Part D beneficiaries, and we’re meeting with all of them. We’ve had meetings with all of them. We’ve had clinical presentations. We’ve submitted bids. So I can’t speak to how much of the commercial. There’s really not much commercial. It’s only 10% commercial for our product based on the age of the patient who have heart failure and then another 8% that are Medicaid. So yes, I’d have to say when we’re done with this, we’ll have talked to people responsible for 85-plus percent of the Medicare Part D lives.
Naz Rahman: Got it. So I guess on that point, do you guys also plan on addressing the commercial side of the market opportunity? And when do you think those conversations could happen?
John Tucker: Yes, we do. In fact, I’ll let Steve talk about it. We’ll have a copay card for the commercial to make sure we’re buying down patients’ copay. But Steve, do you want to talk a little bit about the commercial payers?
Steve Parsons: Yes. No, we haven’t targeted the regional commercial plans just yet. But when you’re talking to the big PBM plan combinations like CVS Caremark and Aetna Optum and United, ESI, Cigna, we’re talking to them about the commercial side of their business as well. What we haven’t done is gone down to every state level or Blue Cross Blue Shield of this state or that state. That’ll happen before we launch. We’re not planning to not do that. But our priority clearly has been the Medicare Part D lives. As I said, commercial will make up 10% of the total opportunity for FUROSCIX.
