TELA Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:TELA) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Tony Koblish: We have our own program going, right? So we’re in the process of completing some large animal models that are designed to get us into the IDE game. We are collecting a solid, good size amount of retrospective clinical data, which will allow us to retrofit or cure fit into whatever the situation that emerges with an FDA decision one way or the other. And we have a wide array of programs after that include anything from continued retrospective collection of data, surgeon-engaged studies and IDE studies. So we’re in the game, Dave, and we intend to be part of that dialogue over time. Right now, we feel like it makes sense given the chaotic nature of this to figure out exactly what the best pathway is based on how it breaks with an FDA decision. And what we’ve chosen to do is have all those activities moving forward, so that we can pick and choose from our menu whatever best fits what happens with the decision. Dave?

David Turkaly: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. One moment please for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Kyle Rose of Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst: Hey this is George on for Kyle. I have a couple of questions. So the first one concerning reps. So you noted that you have about 75 reps currently. What – how should we think about cadence in terms of rep adds towards the back half of 2023. And then maybe a little bit on like what territories you’re looking to expand into?

Roberto Cuca: Sure. Thanks, George. This is Roberto here. So we – as we said at the beginning of the year, our goal is to get to 70 – 75 to 80 reps by the end of the year, obviously, being at 75 reps today, it should not be that difficult for us to get to 80 although I will point out that as we bring in new reps, some of them will exit. So it’s not just five that we may be needing to recruit to get to that 80. We’ve also talked about the fact that if we identify more than 80 reps that we feel like would be good fits here; we would be willing to go beyond the 80. So we’ll continue hiring at the same rate that we have so far and could get beyond that 80 before the end of the year, but we feel pretty confident about getting to pretty close to 80 if not a bit over.

Tony Koblish: Yes. What I’ll add to that too, George, is that of the $75 million that we have now, I think approximately seven or so have just been hired in the last week or so. So we were in the high 60s really for the bulk of the quarter. And I think that speaks very strongly to the productivity that’s capable here. And we very much look forward to having the 75 reps be more impactful in the second half of the year. And as Roberto said, maybe even beyond, we’re not going to really lay out where we’re hiring the reps for competitive reasons. But it’s generally where the three GPOs have strong footprint. It’s almost all over the country at this point. So we’re very optimistic that of the five factors both rep productivity and the headcount are heading in the right direction for the second half and beyond.

Unidentified Analyst: Great. Awesome. And then just my other question would be on the long-term resorbable product. Just kind of where are you at in terms of the rollout of that product? And then because of the OviTex based product, is that included in the current GPO distribution strategy? Or is that something that will have to be negotiated later.