Ardelyx at Cantor Global Healthcare: Strategic Growth and Market Challenges

On Thursday, 04 September 2025, Ardelyx Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) presented at the Cantor Global Healthcare Conference 2025. The company shared its strategic outlook, highlighting strengths in product innovation and market expansion while addressing challenges in market dynamics and payer access. Ardelyx remains optimistic about its growth trajectory and revenue potential despite some market headwinds.

Key Takeaways

• Ardelyx reaffirmed its revenue guidance for Ibsrela at $250-260 million, with a peak sales potential of over $1 billion.
• Xphozah’s market potential is estimated at $750 million before patent expiry in 2034, with ongoing efforts to enhance patient access.
• The company is focused on expanding its product pipeline, targeting GI and nephrology assets.
• Ardelyx aims to achieve cash flow breakeven and profitability in the near future.
• Management expressed confidence in overcoming market challenges and building a diversified pharmaceutical portfolio.

Financial Results

Ibsrela:

• Revenue guidance for the year: $250 million to $260 million
• Peak sales potential: Over $1 billion
• Gross to net discounts improved from 34.8% in Q1 to 32.2% in Q2, with an expectation of 30% for the remainder of the year

Xphozah:

• Peak sales potential: $750 million before patent expiry in April 2034
• Market access: Over 60,000 patients with approximately 30% market share

Company:

• Cash reserves at the end of Q2: Approximately $238 million
• Cost of goods sold expected to improve by 10% in Q3 due to settling obligations with AstraZeneca
• Focus on achieving profitability

Operational Updates

Ibsrela:

• Sales force expanded from 64 to 124 representatives, covering about 50% of the IBS-C market
• New physician segments targeted, including non-GI specialists and advanced practice providers
• Highest number of new prescribers recorded in Q2
• Enhanced field access manager team and exploring patient-centric programs like DTC campaigns

Xphozah:

• Ensuring patient access through assistance programs, particularly for Medicare patients
• Growth observed in non-Medicare payer segments, including commercial and Medicaid
• No changes in sales team investment despite market disruptions

Future Outlook

Pipeline Expansion:

• Focus on life cycle management and new molecules in GI and nephrology
• Actively seeking in-licensing opportunities for undervalued assets
• Targeting molecules in Phase 1b or Phase 2 stages of development

Overall:

• Confidence in achieving Ibsrela’s revenue guidance
• Optimism about Xphozah’s long-term potential, pending further data
• Aiming for cash flow breakeven and profitability soon

Q&A Highlights

Ibsrela:

• Market growth driven by earlier diagnosis and increased pharmacologic treatment
• Physicians gaining confidence, leading to some first-line use

Xphozah:

• Focus on patient access and growing non-Medicare payer segment
• Script growth stabilized, but further inflection needed
• Investment level considered sufficient but may adjust based on market dynamics

Ardelyx invites readers to refer to the full transcript for more detailed insights into its strategic plans and market positioning.

Full transcript - Cantor Global Healthcare Conference 2025:

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Alright. Hello, everyone. Welcome to day two of Cantor’s global health care conference. My name is Prakhar Dhruwal. I’m a biotech analyst at Cantor.

And for our next session today, we are very excited to host the team of Ardellix. Representing Ardellix, we have Eric Foster, chief commercial officer, and Justin Fence, chief financial officer. Gentlemen, thank you for coming in. Good morning. Obviously, great great two q and lots to talk about across your commercial products.

But maybe just start off with an overview of some of the key priorities for the company right now.

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: Hey. Good morning. Beautiful day in New York. Thank you for having us, Prakhar. A great conference here in New York City.

Ardellix was founded with a mission to bring novel mechanisms to patients with unmet medical needs, and it is a very challenging and impressive thing to do that we have done it twice. We have brought two medicines to market. We have a drug, Athrella, approved for ilevelocity with constipation in adults and a drug called Exposure for hyperphosphinemia. These are patients with end stage renal disease on dialysis and need to cascade therapy. We are very proud of our accomplishments.

We launched Idrella in the 2022, and it’s been successful ever since. We have given guidance of $250,000,000 $260,000,000 of net product sales revenue this year. And Exposure is doing very well. Eric will get into the details, but we believe it has potential to get the $750,000,000 at peak prior to patent expiry. We’re really excited about that.

So our goal is to grow the revenue in both products. We are very much looking for additional ancillary, if you will, indication products to in license as well as looking at some of our own internal assets to see if we can move those forward and to really build out a great company. We’re well resourced for the future, and so we’re delighted to be here and talk about our story.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Yep. Maybe we could start with it’s Rilla. And before going to some of the trends around the product, I wanted to touch on the market first because I think one sort of underappreciated fact that the market is still growing double digit. So maybe if you can provide your perspective on what you’re seeing in the IBS C market and what’s really driving that growth. Yes.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Thanks for the question. Great to be here this morning. As you said, the IBS C market has been growing double digit in the last couple of years. It’s a large established market, pretty much dominated by the Secreva gods. Lunzess is the primary bury there, primary medicine there.

And so we really feel like there’s a big opportunity there. We know that only about a quarter of patients are satisfied with what’s their current treatment. So that leaves about seventy five percent of the patients out there. They’re looking for something else. They’re looking for new relief and something different.

Ibsrela is unique in that it has a different mechanism of action, similar efficacy and safety profile, and so it affords an opportunity for those patients that are looking for additional relief or they need something different. It’s a great option. It’s a great option for them. You know, there’s a lot of, investment that’s going into that market, and I think what we’re seeing here is is recognition of the disease and the impact it has on patients. So seeing earlier diagnosis and certainly moving more to pharmacologic treatments versus over the counter, which is helping to grow the the market.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: And is this double digit growth really sustainable long term? And you talked about early diagnosis, more patients maybe cycling through therapies, like what’s your perception over the long term?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. You know, right now, we’re not really seeing any particular headwinds that might slow it. However, I would say that, you know, the way that we look at this business is really as an opportunity for those patients that are seeking something different. And we know even if there’s a limited market growth, there’s a tremendous opportunity out there for patients, tremendous size of the market. So even with limited market growth, we still feel confident in being able to hit our more than $1,000,000,000 in peak sales, which we’ve communicated externally.

So the market growth is good. I think it speaks to the investment and recognition that physicians have around the seriousness of this business being able to find the right treatment for them. So we’re very focused on making sure that as that second or third line treatment, preferably on the second line treatment after failure or treatment with lymph nodes, they have a little option for the option.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Right. And maybe on the product profile, maybe folks who are a little bit newer to the story, what’s really resonating well on the product in the patient community?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. I mean, I think first and foremost, you have to start with safety. So if you think about, the product now, it’s been out for, as Justin said, since 2022. Got a very well established safety profile. And then from an efficacy standpoint, mean, these patients are sick.

These are individuals that typically they don’t have bowel movements during a week, sometimes could be up to a month, and they know that taking the Atrele is not work. And what we’ve seen is as physicians generate more experience, they get greater confidence. We’re also starting to see some first line product as well. And it is important to note that actual remediation of the clinical trials were were first line use. So it’s well within reasonable for a physician to go to first line use.

It’s more around our strategy and our positioning and the payer dynamics that we see at youth post. So we’re very confident in the positioning that we have. Clearly, have confidence in the product, safety and efficacy profile, so we’ll give them some first line moves. But at the end of the day, it’s really the sales team, increased call activity, messaging is resonating around the safety, efficacy, a different class of medication for these patients. And it’s multifactorial.

So physicians like to have different products with different mechanisms to be able to treat their patients. And that’s exactly what Intro.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: That’s most of the users, I guess, important dynamic. So maybe, like, is this something that you’re seeing more recently as physicians are getting comfortable with the product? Or has this all this sort of share in the front line has always been there in for the drug?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yes. I don’t think it’s always been there. I mean, it’s something that we keep our eye on, obviously, as we’re looking at prescription trends. I mean, we’ve seen some growth there. It’s not significant.

But again, as we look at where this growth and where this utilization is coming from, like I said, it’s as we’re expanding that rider base, as we’re getting more depth prescribing physicians are getting more confident, they’re seeing the benefits, therefore, they’re going to it sooner than they are. Okay.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: And in 2Q, you raised guidance. So what really drove that confidence on making that guidance? I just want to try this one.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yes. I’ll just take everybody back to kind of Q4 twenty twenty four. So we did raise guidance from $240,000,000 to $250,000,000 We raised it from $250,000,000 to $2.60 You know, in q four, I was really that was the first quarter after our Salesforce expansion. But we knew that with a full team out there, it was gonna make a difference, and that was our highest demand quarter that we that we’ve ever seen. Move to q one.

I think we communicated it was our second highest, but not by far behind Q4. So the what that told us is the underlying fundamentals are really strong for the business. And then we start to see the sales force as they generate momentum, they build relationships. They’re getting into the offices. They’re starting to establish their reach and frequency.

We also expanded the field access manager team in q two. So all of that came together in q two, increased activity with the sales team, focus on prescription pull through, the bill access manager team. And what you saw there was our highest demand quarter that we had seen to date. Of course, translated into a great net sales quarter. And

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: on sales for the expansion, how much was the expansion, If you can remind folks.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. So we went from 64 to a 124. So in essence, we we doubled the sales team. And the reason why we did that was to increase our reach to greater to greater part of the market. So right now, we’re covering about 50% of the total TRx market for IBS C.

It allowed us to expand into high riding non GIs, APP, so advanced provider, but nurse practitioner physician’s assistance, we know play a critical role in diagnosing and treating patients with IBS C. And then also the the GIs, the high riding GIs,

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: I think most people are. Right. And so how are you tracking metrics internally for this ROI for the same store expansion? You mentioned some of the new position segments. Anything else that you can help us with the process of this?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. I mean, certainly, we look at the demand generation. And so that’s that’s kind of the ultimate measure. But some of the more leading measures that we looked at are new riders. So we saw in Q2 our highest new rider total.

So highest new riders, highest total number of riders in addition to the call activity. So we’re seeing increased activities. It’s leading to increased number of prescribers, and it’s leading to record new and total refills for the product. So when you put all of that together, there’s a great theme of indicators that tell us that our strategy is working. It’s executing well.

And then on the field access manager, some of the things that we look at there are resubmission rates and approval approval process or approval metrics, and we saw improvement in both of those. Very early, I think, for the field Access Manager, too, but enough to give us confidence again to raise that guidance for 2025 to $250,000,000 to $260,000,000

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Right. As we look towards second half of this year, what could be the headwinds and tailwinds? Say that. What could be the headwinds and tailwinds? Yes.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: So from a tailwind standpoint, I do feel good about the commercial momentum, the implementation of field access management team and really the momentum that they have. When you think about headwinds, just kind of thinking about seasonality in the business and kind of the ebbs and flows or the rhythm of the business. Typically, Q1 is kind of a slower quarter. Lots more challenges there with reverifications, patient renewals, insurance challenges. And this is not just specific to, Ipsrel.

This is a market dynamic, but I’ve actually seen this in other therapeutic areas as well. And then you get a nice rebound in in in q two. As you move into q three, you’re working off a bigger base, so potentially slower rate of growth overall. And you’re also dealing with the summer months, and, you know, here we are now in September, everybody’s back to school. You start to see things pick up and and then things kind of rebound again in q four.

So, you know, that that’s that’s typically what we’ve seen in the market. It’s probably now starting to generate enough momentum where it’s starting to act like the market. You know, I think early on, we were able to push through some of those headwinds, but now we’re starting to see some signals that we’re acting more like the market. But nonetheless, you still have a lot of confidence that we’re to raise that guidance for the year.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Yes. I mean the scripts look continue to look really good even in 3Q. So I guess the seasonality impact for the market overall, is that similar to what you would expect in prior years? Or has there been any change for us?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yes. Yes. I mean I think when you go back and you look historically at how the market has acted, I mean it’s been fairly consistent, certainly, the time that the Trail has been around the past two to three years. So we feel confident in the direction that we’re going. Whether or not our demand will follow that, we don’t quite know.

But yes, I mean, I think that’s something we’ve seen overall in the market.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: So can you talk about the gross to net discounts for 3Q and what could be the evolution for the rest of the year?

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: Sure. So INZRELA just to go back to the first quarter. The first quarter is traditionally our least favorable orders. So we were just under 35%, around 34.8%. We have a general generous commercial co payment program where we always try to take it negative lease financially painful as possible to the patients.

So we offer this co pay assistance. As you might imagine, Medio plans have high deductible amounts related to them. And so it’s least favorable in the first quarter and improves over the course of the year. So the second quarter of gross to net was close to 32%, around 32.2%, and that 2.5%, 2.6% difference is primarily the commercial co pay. So we have the usual deductions that everyone else has, that is our biggest variable quarter to quarter.

And so for the rest of the year, you know, I think it will be slightly declining, say, closer to 30%. So all in, we’d like to say it’s 30 plus or minus five. Okay. And that’s been consistent since now.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Got it. And how should we think about the growth to peak, especially as you’ve said, your ambition and to get to make a $1,000,000,000 in peak sales. What are some of the assumptions that we have to get up there?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Again, we feel very confident in being able to reduce that greater than $1,000,000,000

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: in terms of what we’ve made.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: We’ve expanded the sales force, which is helping drive more patients into the top of the funnel, which is absolutely important. The next part of that is we need to make sure that every patient that the physician feels needs to go on actually has access and go on its route. And that you’ve seen our commitment to the field access management team. So again, that’s relatively early, just Q2. We’re now in our second quarter there.

So really making sure that we can pull through those patients that have been identified and we continue to improve there is going to be really important. The other thing that we’ve really just kind of scratched the surface that we’re really looking at moving forward is really how do we engage with these patients. We know that it’s large patient base. They’re very active, very engaged. They’re seeking treatment.

We know that they’re responsive to some of the media that competitors have put out to the market. So taking all those factors into place, I mean, we certainly feel like there’s probably more that we can do there. And I think as we think about the rest of this year and moving into the future, certainly planning to focus more on the patient, how do we engage them and kind of pull them.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: And is is that direct to consumer something that we can say more of? Like, we obviously see that’s if that’s all. Right? Yeah. Is is GTC campaign or a more focused social media targeting the channels?

I think that we could explore, like maybe skip some anything else.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. And and it’s really not even exploring. We’re actually out there doing that right now more on the social media side, less on the the DTC and and linear TV. But we we certainly you know, we’re certainly out there social media. Again, when you think about this demographic patient, 35 to 55 year old female, very engaged in social media, highly responsive.

We’re seeing good metrics there. So we already have a presence there, search and other omni channel media that we’re focused on. So we’ll continue to do that. And then in terms of exploring a broader type strategy for our media to be able to engage more patients, definitely something that we’re looking into. No commitments and no firm investments at this point in time, but always trying to find a way to reach more regions.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Okay. Maybe we can move on to exposure now. Obviously, a lot has happened in terms of dynamics in that market. So what’s the latest thinking on the market first, the hyperphosphatemia market, what you’re seeing?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. I mean, has been probably one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in my career, but certainly one that’s very rewarding. If you think about being able to make sure that these patients that need access to exposure, that it that we focus in a way that continues to provide that access, that’s that’s exactly what we’ve done. You know, it’s a fairly large market, five hundred and fifty thousand patients are on dialysis, on an annual basis. You know, if we think about sixty percent of those are in Medicare.

So if you take that off, it gives you a TAM opportunity of over 220,000. We know that, in our internal research with regards to share, looking at around 30% or so. So that’s about 60,000 patients who we’ve communicated to be able to hit our external guidance of around seven fifty one patients. So certainly, we feel like that is a sizable business. For us in Q1, it was about ensuring that our strategy is working.

Our strategy is really to ensure patients have access regardless of who their payor is. So if a patient comes in and they’re a Medicare patient, they can go through our patient assistance program, physician has confidence that that’s working. And then if they have coverage through their pharmacy benefit through Medicaid, through commercial or potentially a VA, there’s coverage there

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: as well.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: But at the end of the day, the physician can feel confident regardless of who the payer is, the patient has access. So we were able to establish that in Q1. And in Q2, the question was, can we now grow? And what you saw was we were able to grow that. We saw growth in our non Medicare payer segments.

We saw growth in new riders and total riders, and that led to growth in new and refill prescriptions. So in a relatively short amount of time, we’ve been able to establish the strategy that’s working, and we can start to grow that. Now I will tell you the market is still experiencing some disruption there, and we just need to continue to put our best foot forward, repetition, frequency of messaging, and making sure that physicians have that confidence and access, and that’s where our team is focusing.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Yes. Maybe you could elaborate on that, since it’s been two quarters now. Yeah. On, like, what what are the key elements of the strategy that’s performing well that you can be seen more of, as well?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. You know, I think for for me, one of the important things to look at is the non Medicare peers. So here I’m talking about commercial Medicaid. You know, you think about q one, just some of the dynamics that we talked about with the Ipsrel patients have to get reverification. They change their commercial plan.

But a lot of that still has to be worked through in Q1, and that’s what we saw this year in a disrupted market. And so it was probably heightened a bit more for exposure in Q1. One of the things that we saw in Q2 was we started to see growth in that non Medicare payer segment. So again, the commercial and the Medicaid. So that’s really important, I think, for us because that is the paid opportunity for us, and that’s what’s going to get us to that $750,000,000 So for us, that’s probably one of the bigger metrics.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Got it. And maybe a similar question as I asked for this product. What are some of the key product attributes for Xmuva that maybe, you know, is resonating well with the patients?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. Mean, Exposen is a great product. It’s an innovative NHE3 inhibitor. It’s in a class by itself that’s considered a blocker, whereas the others are considered a binder. So it has a unique mechanism of action, phosphorus absorption inhibitor.

And for patients, it’s one pill twice a day versus the binders that they have to take with every single pill. And we know that when Exposa is given in addition to a binder, it can even further lower their phosphorus levels. And this is important because about seventy percent of patients have been shown to not be able to achieve their target phosphorus levels. And so again, think about that total addressable market, seventy percent of them are not able to reach the target levels with their current therapy. So adding Exposit to it, they’re able to then reach those target levels.

It’s really a phenomenal medicine, and it’s one that we have a lot of confidence in, and that’s why we decided the strategy that we put forth because we want to make sure that patients have access to it because we know the vast majority of them need something else.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Yes. And on the exposure scripts, you talked about the strategy. We just you know, obviously, the scripts have stabilized, but we haven’t still seen of the inflection point, right, in script. So it’s will it take if it’s just a is there a timeline? Or is there anything else that has to happen for that inflection in scripts?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. It’s a really good question. I mean, I think Make sure you have the time. You know, it it does take time. And and trust me,

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: I mean,

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: I’m working hard with the team to to get it to happen sooner rather than later. But it does take time. It takes repetition. Representatives need to continue to be out there, making sure that they’re messaging around the access, identifying the right patients. You know, there are plenty of patients out there that continue to have elevated phosphorus levels.

And then working with the with the with the DOs. But, you know, in the current environment, you know, the the DOs, in terms of how they have access to binders, is very different than it is for Exposa right now. We have a bit of a headwind in terms of, you know, being different, something you can think in a different way of going about it. So we just need to make sure that we’re continuing to be in front of our customers. They’re starting to write the product or they’re continuing to write their product.

They have the confidence that it’s there. They have access to it. I think over time, you’re starting to see that confidence build. And, you know, I think we saw a little bit of that in q two.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Got it. And maybe if you can talk about level of investments that you’re making for Exposure. Obviously, let’s say, for Exposure, we did a sales expansion. Yeah. Anything that we can talk about in this one’s.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. It’s a good question. I mean, especially given that 60% of the market from a paid standpoint went went away. But remember, we’re still focusing on that full physician panel that we were focused on before. And we want to make sure that any patient, regardless of their payer, has access to exposure.

So we have not made any changes from an investment standpoint. We still have a full sales team that’s covering the same nephrologists that were riding last year, and they’re continuing to focus on them this year. You know, we’re always assessing and looking at things whether it’s up or down and, you know, how to refine and optimize. But right now, we feel confident with what we’ve got out there in the build and again, starting to get some of that momentum. It’s giving us more

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: more confidence. And is this level of investments enough to get to that $750,000,000 peak sales that you hope to achieve with that?

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. It’s a really good question. I mean, it’s hard to answer that right now. I mean, you know, if you think about patent experience, it’s April 2034. So we’ve got a little bit of time.

Markets are going to change. Dynamics are going to change. Payers are going to change. So right now, I think we feel comfortable with what we have. We’re continuing to look at different ways, different levers.

And I think, you know, over time, if we have to make some different decisions and some investment allocation, I think we will. It’s nothing that we take for granted for sure. I wouldn’t say that we’re gonna be stagnant here until, you know, patent expiry, but it but it’s something right now that, you know, we’re responsive to the market just like we showed that we were this year, and we’ll continue to do that really for you.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Yep. And on that peak sales number, $750,000,000, obviously, the street is way below that. I mean, my model is below that as well. So there are obviously assumptions around share that you make. Pricing is pretty standard.

I don’t think that’s enough for the rate. So what what is the speed missing? Is it the population around the diagnosed patients, share number that, like, what what’s driving that confidence that you have around the numbers versus more conservative of putting myself, like, into the Yeah. Pizzas.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. And

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: just in general, we need to be executed. As Eric said, we are always been thoughtful about our investments, and it’s important to note that in our Yggdrall, and are both wholly owned assets and they don’t. So we are really excited about our our opportunity to get there on our own. And so we have made incremental investments in Yggdralla. We’re going from 34 to 64 to a 124.

Exposurely launched with 60. Eric has added the team with feedbacks and things of that nature to make sure that we have the support your team needs. We always look thoughtfully at marketing, so we make sure samples are available for all physicians to have As Eric said, the safety and efficacy profile is fantastic, so we really just need to really drive more and more awareness. You know, it’s still relatively new.

Exposure was approved in October 2023. That’s not even two years ago. So these things take time, and Derek said we have almost nine more years left. So there’s great opportunity for us to get there. We need to just make you and others more confident that we can do it.

You know, it’s a small company, you know, with big aspirations. And, you know, we try to deliver quarter over quarter. Q q was an excellent print, and I think we just need to keep them demonstrating that we can do it and get you and others to believe in this.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Yeah. I mean, I would go as far as turning the question around you. You tell me. What do you what is it that you need to see? I mean, I think our position is we are undervalued.

When you think about Ibsrela, it’s a sizable market. We’ve got a winnable position. We’ve got a nice runway all the way until LOE for that is August 2033. We’ve communicated more than a billion dollars, and the market is there. And so we’re very optimistic and confident on that side of the business.

On the Exposure side of the business, I mean, we’ve put together a couple of quarters here. We’ve got been able to show some growth in q two, showing good signs in terms of new riders, total riders, new prescriptions, total prescriptions, that non Medicare payer segment starting to grow. I realize it’s early on, but clearly, I mean, you can see with almost $50,000,000 in Q1 and Q2, there is

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: a business there. Yes. I think the scripts and the steady growth in scripts is probably what really will drive to upscaled to reimburse across the board. Yes. Yes.

Maybe on the financials, how are you thinking about cash flow breakeven and profitability program?

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: Yes. Thank you for asking. So we finished the second quarter with around $238,000,000 in cash. We’re very well resourced to drive our operations. Be always thoughtful about how we raise capital and and how we spend capital.

And I think we’re in really good shape as you saw in q two. Our our loss narrowed compared to q one, and so we’re getting closer and closer to that that breakeven moment. We now have and I mentioned this just a minute ago. We have fully paid off our prior obligation as for Zeneca. And so our cost of goods sold will improve by 10 free versus q two, which is fantastic.

So another lever that is getting us closer and closer profitability. So we’re getting there. We’re not gonna give a specific date yet, but we know we’re getting close and shareholder value creation is very important to us. So probably be thoughtful about that. We wanna just not give guidance till we know that we’re gonna be consistently, prospectively profitable.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Right. And maybe on the guidance part because you have a guidance for Xperla. Seeing well, for Xperla, is there anything that you would hope to see before sort of start giving out guidance for that product as well? I

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: think we just need a little more time. Right? And as Eric said, the the market reset on January 1, and so the team is out there doing everything they can. You know, q one was disruptive irrespective of Excloser, and Excloser lived that. Q two was definitely an improvement.

We’re getting there. I think we just wanna see a little more more data, a little more information to be sure because when we give guidance, we really, really, really want you to hold us to it. We talked about analysts’ expectations and estimates, and we want you to believe in our our information we give you. And so we wanna have a little more information that we’re fully confident.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: We know it’s been delivered. Okay. Great. And we have spoken about building the pipeline as well beyond these two products. Let me just talk about that.

What what are you

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: hoping to see?

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: Absolutely. So in 2021, when we had the unfortunate Zeppeg delay as the original CRO for Exposa, we basically stopped research. But we had a number of molecules in our refrigerator proverbially to look at. And so now we’re finally at that point. You asked about cash resource probably.

And now we can start looking into that. So we are looking at life cycle management. We’re looking at some new molecules and next generation ideas internally. And then externally, we’ve really built a fantastic corporate development business development team, and they are really combing the world looking for undervalued assets that we can really supplement our pipeline with. And so there’s a number of active work streams on that.

And we’ll probably start off with, I’ll say, GI adjacent or, you know, nephrology adjacent because that’s where our team’s expertise is. And so we’re actively looking at a number of molecules, and we wanna be thoughtful. So how we deal with, I’ll call, a string of pearls, a situation where we’re not gonna do any, you know, large bet the farm deals at all. We wanna be thoughtful given our asset allocation, capital utilization. So look for us to, you know, have more to share with you this year.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: And it’s GI and nephrology. Will those be the therapeutic categories that could be I mean,

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: that’s that’s our primary idea. But, again, to the extent it’s a novel mechanism with unmet need, we have a lot of really talented people that can pivot to, you know, adjacent indications. Yeah.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: I I would say, you know, we have deep insights in both of those therapeutic areas. But we also know that we have strong commercial execution as well. And so, you know, if you think about GI and nephrology, they’re actually very different. What brings them together is the commercial team, the strategy, positioning, and execution. So I think as we think about business development, definitely gastroenterology, nephrology, we’ve got deep insights there.

But we also feel confident in commercial side of things. Of course, I’m a bit biased there, but certainly feel like if we did go adjacent to any of those, we could be successful.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Right. And so what about the stage of development? Because you have this commercial infrastructure already, there should be a lot of synergies in terms

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: of value. So make again, shareholder resources, company talent, and the novel mechanism and and unmet need of that particular molecule that we’d be looking at. So, you know, it’s likely to be more earlier in the phase one b, phase two stage right now. But, we we try to be as very pragmatic and open minded as we’ve been able to.

Prakhar Dhruwal, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Right. Pleasure speaking to with you both. That’s all the time we have today. Thank you for joining us, and thank you to the audience for listening in.

Eric Foster, Chief Commercial Officer, Ardellix: Thank you for calling. Thank you for

Justin Fence, Chief Financial Officer, Ardellix: having us.

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