Q4 2023 Phathom Pharmaceuticals Inc Earnings Call
Participants
Eric Sciorilli; Head of IR; Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Terrie Curran; President & CEO; Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Martin Gilligan; Chief Commercial Officer; Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Molly Henderson; Chief Financial & Business Officer; Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Yatin Suneja; Analyst; Guggenheim Securities LLC
Joseph Stringer; Analyst; Needham & Company Inc.
Paul Choi; Analyst; Goldman Sachs
Umer Raffat; Analyst; Evercore ISI
Matthew Caufield; Analyst; H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC
Chase Knickerbocker; Analyst; Craig Hallum
Presentation
Operator
Hello, and welcome to the Phathom Pharmaceuticals Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the presentation there will be a question and answer session to ask a question. During the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. With that, I would like to turn the conference over to Eric separately, SatCon's Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Eric Sciorilli
Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning to discuss Falcon's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 results. This morning's presentation will include remarks from Terrie Curran, our President and CEO, Martin Gilligan, our Chief Commercial Officer, and Molly Henderson, our Chief Financial Officer, renewable C, our Chief Operating Officer, will also be joining the team during the Q&A portion of today's call.
Just a couple of logistical items. Before we get started earlier this morning, we issued a press release detailing the results we will be discussing during the call. A copy of that press release can be found under the News Releases section of our corporate website further, the recording of today's webcast can be found under the Events and Presentations section of our corporate website.
Before we begin, let me remind you that we will be making a number of forward-looking statements throughout today's presentation. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Valmont's control. Actual results could materially differ from the forward-looking statements and any such risks can materially adversely affect the business, the results of operations and trading prices for filings common stock. A discussion of these statements and risk factors is available on the current Safe Harbor slide as well as in the Risk Factors section of our most recent Form 10 K and subsequent SEC filings. All forward looking statements made on this call are based on the beliefs of Phathom as of this date, and fountain disclaims any obligation to update these statements. Also included today are non-GAAP financial measures, which should be considered only as supplemental to and not a substitute for or superior to GAAP measures to the extent applicable. Please refer to the tables at the end of this morning's press release. For reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.
But that I will now turn the call over to Terrie Curran, Darden's President and CEO, to kick us off. Gary.
Terrie Curran
Thank you, Eric, and thank you to all those joining us on today's call. This is our first earnings call as a commercial company. I'm excited to report on the progress we've made during both the fourth quarter 2023 and the start of the calendar year 2024. In that short period, we've achieved many regulatory manufacturing, financial and commercial milestones, demonstrating the significant experience and dedication of our teams. In November, we set out with three initial goals for the early stages of launch to communicate equivalence, clinical superiority versus the PPI. drive awareness with physicians and build access to commercial patients. Today, I am proud to share that with delivering on those goals, prescribers have quickly recognize the Quest is differentiated and novel mechanism of action. Our reps are even sharing stories of physicians echoing the craziness, rapid potent and durable acid suppression profile. Excitement is translating into demand with thousands of scripts being written since product became available after over 30 years since the first PPI. was approved, very strong demand for something new further, the number of patients who have used the questioner is growing daily. To me. This is one of the most rewarding elements valuable, which surround reps, employees and sometimes even the friends and family. I'm hearing stories of long-suffering patients who are experiencing noticeable improvement with the questioner. We're working hard to ensure as many patients as possible can access for Christmas and share that experience. In fact, with our recent Express Scripts win. We're well on our way to securing widespread coverage for commercial patients. These early indicators, along with our present massive commercial success in Japan, have reinforced my belief in the closeness bright future here in the US with an erosive good market of approximately 7 million US adults, positive feedback from physicians and patients and anticipated label expansions. We remain confident in our belief that because that has the potential to reach annual peak revenues of greater than $3 billion.
As for our early launch data, I'm happy to report that over 3,800 prescriptions have been filled for the quote new products. For clarity. This includes scripts captured by our QBO as well as those that were filled through Blink Rx. We specified fill because we have simultaneous leading monitoring and estimate of total demand, which we believe paints a comprehensive picture of the early and growing physician interest in writing because new products we estimate upwards of 14,000 total prescriptions have been written to date. We're pleased with this magnitude of total demand and see it as an indicator of what's on the horizon for the business as we continue pursuing broad payer coverage. Last month, the questioner was added to Express Scripts national formularies for commercial patients. In line with our goal. We secured placement with a single step edit through our generic PPI. As a result, the question of bottles access expanded to an estimated 60 million commercially covered lives. We believe our ability to obtain commercial formulary placements with one of the nation's largest PBMs. So quickly after approval indicates that our pricing and access strategy is resonating well with payers. We remain actively engaged with other major PBMs and health plans, and we expect further expansion of commercial coverage throughout 2020. For ultimately, as this coverage comes online, we anticipate the gap between total demand and FieldScripts will narrow significantly as we continue to execute on the launch, our R&D team remains focused on advancing pipeline opportunities for them. At present in December, we announced that the FDA had accepted our nano roasted good daily dosing NDA and assigned to produce a target action date of July 19th, 2024. We are now only four months away from that decision date, not erosive. Good represents the largest subcategory of good with an estimated 15 million U.S. adults diagnosed and treated for the disease annually. If approved, this indication will significantly broaden the quickness addressable population and we believe further accelerate uptake. Thorough review of the application is proceeding as expected, and we continue to plan for July launch in a sizable indication as for further development. We anticipate initiating a Phase three trial for as needed, nor are so good and a Phase two trial for eosinophilic esophagitis later this year. We believe the not present unique MOA bodes well for success in these two trials. If approved, these additional label extensions will further differentiate but not present relative to PPI.s and continue to expand the total addressable market for the credit and the products. We're excited about these programs and anticipate sharing more information about our progress in the future. Later in the call. Molly will further detail our fourth quarter and full year 2023 financials for which we reported revenues of $682,000 and ended the year with $381 million in cash. Overall, we believe our strong balance sheet will enable us to continue delivering on our launch and development strategy. I've previously stressed several foundational dynamics that are necessary for a potential blockbuster drug. These included a significant addressable market, clear unmet need among patients demonstrated superiority and physician demand. The qualitative feedback from these early months of launch has bolstered our belief that these elements are present in the good market. It now comes down to us executing on our strategy, and this team is poised to deliver. These are exciting times at time as we continue to make progress on both the commercial and development fronts this year is sure to be filled with new milestones and will set the foundation for the future of the Quinsa, our pursuit of becoming the number one prescribed and the person in the US is off to a strong start. And we remain steadfast in delivering on our strategy of driving blockbuster potential through continued market expansion.
I will now turn the call over to Martin to dive deeper into our launch progress. Mattson?
Martin Gilligan
Thanks, Terry, and hello, everyone. I'd like to first echo Terry's comments that we're very happy with how the launch of a question I have started. We're progressing as anticipated, and our prelaunch research is being validated by the feedback we're hearing from physicians and patients during today's call, I'll touch on both quantitative and qualitative elements from our launch, but I know many of you on this call are most keen to hear about our script data. So let's start there today. We're reporting script data as of February 23rd from both the QBO AmpLink Rx, which represents our latest available information with the second half of our sales force entering the field in early January. This reflects about seven weeks of our full promotional efforts. This has translated to achieving over 38 hundred filled prescriptions, which have reach patients' hands. As our reps continue to promote to physicians and garner the backing of strengthened commercial coverage. We expect positive script momentum to continue. Additionally, our KPI.s indicate that over 1,200 unique prescribers have written of a question of scripts that has ultimately been filled among those writers. We are already seeing repeat prescribing, which builds our confidence that physicians recognize with business value for patients. We are encouraged by the initial breadth of this prescriber base and anticipate it will grow as we further engage with high volume targets.
Another important metric that Terry mentioned was total demand. We estimate that upwards of 14,000 prescriptions have been written since the start of launch, we believe the significant amount of demand to be indicative of the high level of unmet need in the market and demonstrates that patients are interested in trying something new and physicians are willing to wait for questions.
As you've heard us say, historically, providing access to patients is key to converting demand as with all new products, negotiating coverage with payers as an essential step in achieving a successful launch, and this process often takes time in anticipation, we established a patient support program, SuperLink Rx, which has meaningfully expanded patient access, resulting in an increased number of filled scripts. Early data shows the use of Blink Rx growing consistently accompanied by positive feedback. However, there are still physicians sending scripts to their patients. Long-established retail pharmacies. Although this has led to a proportion of earlier question, the prescriptions not being filled, we believe we are well positioned to convert more of these scripts over time in the near term, our sales force continues to emphasize the availability of Blink Rx to physicians as it often represents the best option for getting the question that into patients' hands and ultimately future contracting with PBMs and health plans will increase payer access and narrow the gap between total demand and fill scripts. In fact, we'd have a question now on formulary at the first of the three major PBMs. We are already making progress on that front. First major PBM contracting with Express Scripts often referred to as ESI. about three weeks ago, we announced the positioning of Aquasana on ESI's national formulary. This was a key accomplishment for Fathom expanding requests as availability to roughly 23 million additional commercial lives. Our team was able to secure a nonpreferred brand status with a single step edit exactly as intended. Single step is with respect to use of generic PPI prescriptions within the last 130 days. These criteria will be evaluated at the pharmacy counter electronically, avoiding any administrative burden for physician or office staff. Alternatively, if a patient use over the counter PPI.'s instead of prescriptions during that time period. I think it also satisfies a single step by means of a prior authorization with attestation by their doctor. This latter avenue for access is a significant development as it means ESI patients could potentially access request as a first line treatment as intended. This formulary position provides physicians a straightforward path to accessing book business for the broadest patient population for questions. Total commercial coverage now reflects an estimated 60 million commercial covered lives. Achieving this level of commercial access less than three months into product availability is fantastic, but we know there is still work to be done. We believe our progress so far bodes well for our other ongoing negotiations where we remain focused on securing frequency coverage with similar formulary position. We are confident in our strategy and believe it will continue to yield expanded coverage, resulting in an uptick in filled prescriptions throughout the remainder of 2024.
Shifting to our promotional efforts. The sales reps continue to report back that the question is generating enthusiasm with prescribers, physicians articulating patients' unmet need and recognizing for Quest, this value as a treatment option. The reps are focused on their reach and frequency among our full call panel of approximately 52,000 targets. In parallel, we are working diligently to reach patients suffering from the conditions for which the question is approved in these early days, we are happy to see that we appear to be making an impact to date. We've had over 185,000 visits to our consumer website, and we're hearing from physicians offices that patients are asking about for questioner. Patient requests are a key component of our demand strategy and market research conducted with 200 of our target physicians, almost 80% stated, they were graphic questions upon request for their erosive bird patients. With this in mind, we plan to initiate a new branded consumer campaign, which has been met with positive and motivating feedback from test audiences. This campaign speaks directly to erosive current patients and their symptoms. Most notably, this will include TV commercials and popular streaming services. So if you suffer from erosive guard, keep an eye out for a request to ads on your devices starting later this month and closing, I'm extremely happy with the commentary we're hearing from prescribers and how it translates into demand. We are successfully executing our launch strategy with continued promotion of physicians, a broadened consumer campaign and expanded commercial coverage. We anticipate significant growth in filled prescriptions over the course of 2020 for our teams are energized and committed to our belief in the blockbuster potential for requests.
I'll now pass it off to Molly to walk through our financial results. Molly?
Molly Henderson
Thank you, Martin, and hello to everyone on the call. I'm happy to share our fourth quarter and full year 2023 financial results with you today is a momentous earnings call for Fathom as it is the first time we are reporting net revenues for our requires new products. Other revenues reflect about a month of launch activity. We are pleased with the initial results. I'd like to note two items before going into the numbers. First, during this call, we will not be providing financial guidance regarding projected annual revenues spend or earnings as we are still early months of launch. Additionally, I will be commenting on both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures, supporting schedules with detailed reconciliations between non-GAAP measures and their most directly comparable GAAP measures will be discussed later in my section and can be found in this morning's press release.
Now turning to the numbers for the fourth quarter 2023, we reported net revenues of $682,000, driven by the initial stocking of wholesalers in December. This reflects a partial quarter of sales, given that a question of bottles became commercially available as of November 28th and request and Apax as of mid-December. Additionally, we reported gross profit of $515,000 for the fourth quarter 2023, which equates to a gross margin of approximately 76% cost of revenues includes royalties owed to Takeda and exclude certain inventory costs which were expensed prior to receiving FDA approval. Note that the royalties owed as part of our revenue interest financing agreement are not captured in cost of revenues, but rather in other interest expense.
Moving down the P&L to our spend, we reported non-GAAP R&D expenses of $6.1 million for the fourth quarter 2023 compared to $14.3 million for the same period in 2022. As for SG&A, we reported non-GAAP expenses of $39.7 million for the fourth quarter 2023 compared to $25.7 million for the fourth quarter 2022. On a full year basis, we reported non-GAAP R&D expenses of $37.6 million for 2023 compared to $65.9 million for 2022. And for SG&A, our non-GAAP expense was $85.2 million for 2023 compared to $82.4 million for 2022 on a full year. In quarterly basis, the decrease in R&D expenses was primarily related to lower clinical trial costs as we concluded our Phase three non erosive guard daily dosing trial during 2023.
Regarding SG&A, our increase in spend was driven by the build-out of our commercial infrastructure and initiation of marketing activities in support of the commercial launch of a questioner. Additionally, the most significant reconciling item between GAAP and non-GAAP OpEx expenses for the period was noncash stock-based compensation, largely associated with the vesting of performance shares upon the approval of erosive Gertz. Other non-GAAP reconciling items include non-cash interest on our revenue, interest financing liability and non-cash interest expense related to the amortization of debt discount.
Turning to EPS, we reported GAAP net loss for the fourth quarter 2023 of $79.6 million or $1.39 loss per share, compared to $55 million or $1.33 loss per share for the fourth quarter 2022. Non-gaap adjusted net loss for the fourth quarter for 2023 was $46 million or $0.80 loss per share compared to $42.2 million or $1.2 loss per share for the same period in 2022. As of December 31, 2023, cash and cash equivalents were $381 million. This includes $175 million received during the fourth quarter of 2023 from our revenue interest financing agreement upon the approval of Rose Garden. Also during the fourth quarter, we announced the expansion of our existing term loan facility with Hercules Capital. The amendment provides access to more favorable terms and an additional $100 million in non-dilutive capital subject to achievement of certain revenue milestones. With this amendment, we now have a total of $160 million available via our debt facility. We believe we are in a solid financial position and reaffirm our expectation that we have cash runway through the end of 2026. Based on our current operating plan, expected product revenues and funds available under our term loan. Lastly, as we shared previously, we expect nominal revenues during these first couple of quarters of launch, while payer coverage is materializing.
Additionally, I mentioned our fourth quarter 2023 revenues mostly represented inventory stocking by wholesalers. We expect to sell through of the stocking to take place during the first quarter of 2020 for reinforcing our previous comments regarding nominal revenues during these first couple of quarters of launch.
With that, I'll now turn the call back over to Terry for closing comments. Terry?
Terrie Curran
Thank you, Molly, and thank you again to everyone joining us on today's call. Adam's accomplishments in 2023 with nothing short of amazing, and I'm extremely proud of this team as we round at Q. one and approach Q2, our primary focus has been on securing formulary placement with payers. We've made great progress on that front so far and anticipate expanded commercial coverage throughout the year.
As for the back half of 2024, we believe the planned launch of noninvasive good daily dosing in July, pending FDA approval will serve as another key catalyst for driving adoption. We believe acquisitive represents a blockbuster opportunity, and this flow launch is off to an exciting start. The enthusiasm here at A.D.A.M. is tremendous, and there is much to look forward to in 2024. Thank you again for joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest and support. I'll now turn it over to the operator to facilitate a 10 minute question and answer session. Operator?
Question and Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Withdraw your question, please press star one one again, one moment while we compile our Q&A roster. And our first question comes from the line of Yatin Suneja with Guggenheim. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yatin Suneja
Okay. Thank you for thank you for taking my question. A couple of a couple for me. Could you just talk about the reason for not filling the script other than the coverage and how long does it takes for blank on Rx to get a blank on patients? Forget get the coverage Yes.
Martin Gilligan
So Yatin, this is Martin. I'll take that question. So in terms of the coverage, you know, I'll just reiterate how happy we are with the Express Scripts win from as we've talked about in the past, our objective was to get one step through IPPI., which opens up the broadest market. And I think the additional thing here that we walked away with is that if a patient has only been in an OTC, the physician can do it attestation and then they should have access to the plasma. So we anticipate that since it was just announced and just became available, we'll start to see an increase in the number of scripts that are getting through the system. And then we would also envision that given this win and it seems to fit with our strategy, we're very far along in negotiations with other major payers. So we would start to see that coming on board probably during as we enter into Q2 and then going into on the rest of the year.
The other thing I'll just say is what we've actually been able to do is in terms of supporting that is with Blinkx Rx. I think you heard me mention that a couple of times, our goal there was really to make sure that first of all customers had a good experience. We wanted to address the lack of coverage early on. We also wanted to make sure that commercial patients and the question I got on the question as a physician intended.
And then the other thing that was really important to us was that the program that we set up, that the refills were realized that once a patient converted from patient support over to commercial coverage that went through normal channels.
Yatin Suneja
Got it. And then just maybe a follow-up and really quick one. I understand you are in the early phase of launch and not providing sort of guidance, but could you just talk about your comfort with the consensus out there, which is around $40 million , $45 million and then also if you can talk about the GTN. dynamics where we are and how do you think it's going to evolve? And where do you expect to end up in 2024.
Molly Henderson
So hi, Yatin. I'll take that. It's Molly. And so overall, as you said, we're not providing specific guidance as it relates to our revenues other than reinforcing our previous commentary that we expect very nominal revenues for the first couple of quarters of launch as we're building payer coverage and working through the stocking that we that I alluded to in Q4.
As it relates to GTN, we are not commenting necessarily on where we are. We are based upon the discussions we have ongoing with the payers and but what we have said previously, and we'll continue to provide some frame of guidance around just the run rate from. And what we've said is that we expect to between 50% and 65% on a normalized basis about from a steady state. So and those are the only pieces that we're providing guidance at this point as we're still early in the launch Thank you.
Operator
And one moment as we move on to our next call, Ken. And our next question is going to come from the line of Joseph Joseph Stringer with Needham & Company. Your line is Ben. Please go ahead.
Joseph Stringer
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking our questions of gave some very helpful in filling the contribution to FieldScripts from Blinkx Rx since launch but just curious if you can comment on the relative proportion so that Blinkx IQVS. split, was it higher or lower in 4Q '23 than what it is in the first quarter of this year to date? And maybe as a follow-up to that, can you provide any qualitative guidance on how you see that relative split trending as the launch goes on, in course, more coverages. Curious, would you expect that to trend down and reached a steady-state level at some point?
Martin Gilligan
Yes, good morning, Tom. Good morning, Joey. So I'll take the first part of your question, I think there were there were two parts there.
Yes. So what we see is that the utilization of Blink Rx is growing over time which is exactly what we intended and we communicated to you all and are strongly communicating to physicians that it's the best opportunity for ensure patient gets access to both plasma. So you wouldn't you would assume that since the launch that continues both in 2023 up until this point because the utilization of Blink Rx grows?
I do just want to clarify that though, for you an important point in terms of the filled scripts. So as you take a look and you think about the scripts that you're seeing in the QBO does were actually filled at retail or anything else that we're saying above and beyond. That was actually part of the fills out took place at link Rx. So we would envision to the second part of your question is that that's split will remain consistent and then we'll start to change and shift more over to retail as we get more wins in Great.
Joseph Stringer
Thanks so much for the color.
Operator
Thank you. And one moment as we move on to our next call, Ken, and our next question is going to come from the line of Paul Choi with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Paul Choi
Great. Thank you and good morning, everyone. I just wanted to maybe follow up a little bit on the previous question with regard to the pace of conversion between Blinkx and FieldScripts and so forth. I'm just I guess, as you think about that ratio over the course of the next 12 to 18 months. You do all that expected to evolve more more linearly? Or do you sort of see step function changes as coverages as added here, including like wins such as the recent Express Scripts add? And then I had a pipeline question.
Martin Gilligan
Yes. So Paul, I'll take that question again. So I think that you'll see that change over time based on access. So early on in the very early weeks of launch, obviously, we had no access. So what went into Blinkx was clearly filled from a patient. They received a prescription and they used our patient support program going forward as we have more access and there's more in wins with payers with no scripts come in, they'll be immediately identified as having a commercial coverage and will be filled at retail.
Paul Choi
Okay, got it. And then a pipeline question on the EUV program is really interesting. I noticed in the press release you guys referenced PPIS. off-label or unapproved treatments. But I'm just curious how you're thinking about the study population, particularly in the recent light of budesonide being being approved for that population as well as our Dupixent. And so I'm just curious, are you thinking about this study as a treatment naive population or post steroid post biologic population as your initial U.S. study study population and maybe subsequent studies and other populations down down the road.
Thank you very much, Paul.
Terrie Curran
Thanks for the question. I'll kick it off and then I'll pass over to Anthony. So we're finalizing the protocol for that. If we can sort of guide us as Phase two, we're really excited about that. And as you know, PPI.'s utilized first line, but another approved and stopped positioning in the treatment paradigm would be pre-biologic first line, um, as and so that's what we're pursuing there. And we intend to initiate that Phase two by year end, but maybe as maybe you have any other comments.
Martin Gilligan
Yes. I mean, we're definitely targeting first-line. We're looking at the broader population because remember, this is a Phase two. So we need to understand the performance in different population segments, but the intent is to be first line. Prebiologic patients will start with a similar treatment. Hopefully, we'll be able to show it's effective.
Paul Choi
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And one moment as we move on to our next question. And our next question is going to come from the line of Umer Raffat with Evercore. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Umer Raffat
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I have a couple here, if I may. First, could you remind us there was some confusion on whether the uptake in IMS especially was observed in January. And was that a function of IMS just doing a better job capturing Blinkx? Or was that completely exclusive, maybe a different way of answering that is the significant sort of acceleration we saw almost tripling in TRx heading into January February. Was that also seen in the prescriptions to date you guys saw and I have a couple of follow-ups.
Martin Gilligan
Yes, good morning number. So I think what your question was specifically asking about the IQVIA data and any anything uptake or anything else in January. What that is any script that has gone through a retail channel is being picked up by QBO. So that's all scripts realized through normal retail channels it's all good.
Umer Raffat
But I guess my just to clarify, the acceleration seen in prescription pickup, which is over a doubling of TRx, was that something also observed in the prescription fill rate you guys are seeing as well of the overall prescriptions?
Martin Gilligan
Yes. Yes, we're seeing that. We're seeing the same patterns, um, between blink and anything that's filled by blink and anything that's filled by the QBO. But what you're seeing on a weekly basis through a QBO are all scripts that are filled on through retail means.
Umer Raffat
Okay, got it. That's great. Now the next one is really around some of the stuff, the data points you guys here. So we know by IQVIA, the total prescriptions reported so far are just under 2000 or so, and you guys implied 38 hundred have been filled. So it's reasonable to assume that the IQVIA to Blinkx ratio is about one to one right now is that reasonable?
Martin Gilligan
Yes, I think I think it's a pretty a pretty good assumption number.
Umer Raffat
Got it. And I guess the last point would be how do you think about how do you think about the prescriptions being filled up. Is that because of some payment issue? Because presumably through Blinkx, people are able to pay $50 or $75 and get it. So why would there be 10,000 or so prescriptions not picked up?
Martin Gilligan
Yes. So um, you know, physicians have obviously when they're writing a prescription, have the ability to send it anywhere and that's a really important point that presence available at all retail pharmacies on Blinkx overall is a new service we are creating change. At the same time, what we're seeing is utilization growing of bling. We're seeing on a weekly demand on growing it linked, meaning there's new physicians coming in and there's repeat physicians coming in. So we would expect over time as more physicians start to use Blinkx, you might see that gap start to narrow simultaneously. As we have more wins, the gap is also going to narrow. So there's, you know, we're in the early weeks of the launch tumor.
So there's a lot of variation there. We're seeing in the midst of a launch and then a very positive side, we'll see more variation and things such as this going forward.
Umer Raffat
Okay, excellent. Thank you very much.
Martin Gilligan
Welcome,
Operator
and thank you in one moment as we move on to our next call. Yes, and our next question is going to come from the line of Matthew Caulfield with H.C. Wainwright. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Matthew Caufield
Great. Hi. Good morning, guys, and congrats on the launch progress. So based on the current erosive labeling, do you have a sense of whether any non erosive patients or patients that are possibly unconfirmed if their disease is erosive or non erosive are included in the current script launch numbers, either QQQ via equity via the TVL. were of the Blinkx Rx numbers.
Martin Gilligan
Yes, thanks for the question of you know right now, well, it's not even right now. We're not tracking by indication. But I guess what I should make really clear is we're also not promoting for non erosive And so at the same time, we're not measuring any not erosive utilization.
Matthew Caufield
Okay, that's helpful. And then just one quick follow-up. So with the range of the 14 K. scripts written to date and the 3,800 plus that were filled on, is that spread at least at this stage in line with what you would have expected for this part of launch yes, just to clarify, just say nationwide.
Martin Gilligan
Yes, yes.
Matthew Caufield
Yes.
Martin Gilligan
No, we're seeing we're seeing some uptick, similar uptake similar across the US. We're not seeing differences by area of the country regions. And so we have the representatives are calling on 52,000 physicians, and they're all getting very similar positive feedback receptivity. And we're seeing uptake across all of the all of the different targets that we're calling out. And we're really pleased with the demand when we see 14,000 scripts from. And as I mentioned earlier, or I should say, written scripts when as I mentioned earlier, that we only had our full sales force in place only seven weeks ago. It really shows that the unmet need is there. We're hearing feedback from physicians that they're seeing patients already who were quickly within hours of healing healing results that happened in a very short period of time.
Matthew Caufield
Okay, great. Thank you. And congrats on the progress.
Operator
Thank you. And one moment for our next question. And our next question is going to come from the line of Chase Knickerbocker with Craig Hallum. Your line is open.
Please go ahead.
Chase Knickerbocker
Good morning, everyone. Yes, obviously, great to see with the ESI win. And I guess, Martin, what's your confidence level in kind of recreating the structure there, particularly around how the PA structured pretty simple PA process. If it's a simple, you know, automated poll, if they were on our XPPI.'s the last six months or so. And then simple attestation on the OTCPPS., is that something that you think you can recreate kind of broadly in all your contracts?
Martin Gilligan
Yes. So the answer Chase um, I would say that the confidence that Scripps will go through for Express Scripts' national formulary is we're absolutely confident of that. What I'll also say is and I believe Terry mentioned this in our opening remarks, and we've really progressed with the large payers in terms of getting access for of Aquasana. And all of those discussions are centered around the same strategy as one step through on the PPI. and I think as we've always spoke about before, is that is the largest segment, given that the majority of patients are already on a CPI. and there's a lot of switching from one PPI. to another. There's a lot of OTC add-on.
So we see that this is a and we really were successful in getting the broadest population possible,
Chase Knickerbocker
but then particularly around that kind of the PA, the structure of the PA there and how it functions. That's something that you think you can recreate on the other large formularies? And then yes, also, I just wanted to dig in a little bit on the characteristics of the early writers. So far are they largely GI docs, you know, should we think of them as higher volume? Obviously, it's just a couple scripts filled per prescriber today. Just some color there would be helpful.
Martin Gilligan
Yes.
So I'll take the first part of the question in terms of the OTCPA. associated with that. So listen, this is clearly something that's on the table for discussion and our best case was and will always be one step through IPPI. I would take that addition of a PA for DOTC. patient is beyond the best case. So I feel really confident about our best case and very hopeful that we can also get that additional PA in terms of in terms of utilization. Thus far, our sales force has been very focused on calling on the highest volume of physicians in the category. And as you can imagine, when you lay all that out the majority of them whose fit in the highest volume of gastroenterologists. So as a result of what we're seeing out of the gate is our largest group of prescribers or GI.s. However, I'll say what's really nice and there is they've got a real real strong base in those offices of nurse practitioners or physician assistants. We're seeing uptake among them. They're actually often both the first line prescriber as well as those who are accountable for switches. And then we're just starting to see on prescriptions someone's primary care as you start reaching out to that group.
Chase Knickerbocker
Got it. That makes sense. And then lastly, just one for Molly. Um, go up quite a bit of stock based comp in the quarter. Is that kind of one-time new employees sort of stock comp? And then that's it for me.
Molly Henderson
Thank you, Jason. Yes. So that related to the PSUs associated with the approval of erosive goods of 19.3 of that was I'd characterize as a one-time event.
Chase Knickerbocker
Great. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. And one moment for Arnd, Ken. And our last question is going to come from the line of your teams anyhow with Guggenheim. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yatin Suneja
Thank you. Just one follow up, which is around the spend rate, obviously with DTC campaign. Just curious you can articulate how should we model the spend in 2024?
Molly Henderson
Yes. So we're not providing any additional commentary as it relates to guidance and spend Yatin, but what we can say with confidence is that the spend that we're anticipating for DTC. is well within our guidance for the cash runway, and we feel comfortable that we still have runway through 2026.
Yatin Suneja
Thank you in queue.
Operator
This does close today's question and answer session. Ladies and gentlemen, this also does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating and you may now disconnect. Everyone have a.
