Seres Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRB) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Eric Shaff: Stephen, maybe I can ask Terri to hit the first one, and then I’m happy to answer the second one.

Dr. Terri Young: Sure. So with respect to reimbursement, again, I keep emphasizing the outcome we’re so pleased with that the vast majority of patients can get access to VOWST via their insurer today. We’re very pleased with that exceeded our expectations. With respect to inpatient and outpatient use, even the inpatient segment that we are focusing on — the hospital team is focusing on creating access for those patients receive VOWST through the outpatient drug benefit. So they’re really in terms of reimbursement and the drug benefit, they don’t behave any differently than a true outpatient who is both diagnosed and fully treated in the outpatient setting, the same set of insurers. So that patient access, again, we continue to be very pleased with.

Eric Shaff: And then, Stephen, on the second question, maybe I can just share how I think about this. And certainly the notion that we’re not pleased with the productivity in the R&D side of things is absolutely not the case. And I think VOWST is our best example of why. We did not have a straight line with VOWST from Phase I to Phase III, but we had incredible science, incredible commitment, perseverance through adversity, including a pandemic. And ultimately, we believe that we’re changing patients’ lives and their family’s lives because of that. So we absolutely believe that there is utility of our technology well beyond recurrent C. diff infection. And the next step of that, we believe, is 155 with some really interesting early data that we saw earlier this year, but we are in an incredibly challenging environment.

And we think that the responsible thing for us to do as a team is to ensure that we’re focusing on VOWST, which, by the way, we think has a particularly attractive return profile given the launch trajectory and also being really cautious and careful and focused as to how we’re deploying finite resources. And perhaps when the environment improves, we’ll think about broadening the aperture but we think that’s a responsible thing to do right now for shareholders and for patients. So that’s the underlying thinking behind our action.

Operator: The next question comes from John Newman with Canaccord Genuity.

Eric Shaff: John, I think it sounds like we’re having some trouble with audio, but we’re happy to connect with you and take your questions anytime.

Operator: All right. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Eric Shaff: Well, thank you, Dave, and thanks to everyone on the line for your attention this morning. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. We hope everyone has a good week. Thanks very much.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.