Earnings call transcript: Scholar Rock Q4 2024 reveals EPS miss, stock rises

Scholar Rock Holding Corp . (NASDAQ:SRRK) reported a significant earnings miss for Q4 2024, with actual earnings per share (EPS) of -$2.47 compared to a forecast of -$0.58. Despite this, the company’s stock rose 1.84% in premarket trading, reflecting investor optimism around upcoming product launches and strategic developments. According to InvestingPro data, four analysts have recently revised their earnings expectations downward for the upcoming period, while the company maintains a Fair market valuation based on comprehensive analysis.

Key Takeaways

• Scholar Rock reported a larger-than-expected loss, with EPS missing forecasts by a wide margin.
• The stock rose 1.84% in premarket trading, indicating positive investor sentiment.
• Anticipated product launches and clinical advancements are driving future growth expectations.
• The company is preparing for a potential commercial launch of its SMA treatment in Q4 2025.
• Scholar Rock is expanding its neuromuscular franchise and exploring new indications.

Company Performance

Scholar Rock’s performance in Q4 2024 was marked by a substantial earnings miss, yet the company’s strategic focus on product innovation and market expansion seems to have buoyed investor sentiment. With a strong emphasis on its SMA treatment, Apetigramab, and the development of SRK-439 for cardiometabolic conditions, Scholar Rock is positioning itself for long-term growth. The company’s plans to launch new products and expand its neuromuscular franchise are in line with industry trends toward innovative, targeted therapies. InvestingPro analysis reveals the company maintains a healthy liquidity position with a current ratio of 3.88, while operating with moderate debt levels.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: Not disclosed for Q4 2024.
• Earnings per share: -$2.47, compared to a forecast of -$0.58.
• The company is preparing for significant product launches in late 2025.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Scholar Rock’s EPS of -$2.47 fell short of the expected -$0.58, representing a significant deviation from forecasts. This marks a notable miss, indicating challenges in achieving financial targets. The magnitude of the miss suggests potential operational or developmental hurdles.

Market Reaction

Despite the earnings miss, Scholar Rock’s stock price increased by 1.84% in premarket trading, reaching $37.50. This movement suggests that investors are optimistic about the company’s future prospects, likely driven by its strategic initiatives and upcoming product launches. The stock has shown remarkable momentum, delivering a 308% return over the past six months according to InvestingPro data. The stock remains within its 52-week range, with a high of $46.98 and a low of $6.76, indicating a degree of stability despite recent financial performance. Get access to 10+ additional ProTips and comprehensive financial analysis with an InvestingPro subscription.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Scholar Rock is focused on launching its SMA treatment in the U.S. by Q4 2025 and in the EU by 2026. The company also plans to file an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for SRK-439 in Q3 2025, aiming to address the cardiometabolic market. These initiatives are expected to drive future revenue growth and enhance the company’s competitive position. Analyst consensus remains optimistic, with price targets ranging from $39 to $57, though InvestingPro data indicates the company is not expected to achieve profitability this year.

Executive Commentary

• Jay Backstrom, CEO, stated, "2025 will be a transformative year for Scholar Rock," highlighting the company’s ambitious plans for product launches and market expansion.
• Tracy, Chief Commercial Officer, emphasized, "The future of SMA will be to directly treat both the muscle and the motor neuron," underscoring the company’s innovative approach to treatment.
• Backstrom also noted, "We’re on the threshold of establishing a neuromuscular franchise," signaling growth potential in new therapeutic areas.

Risks and Challenges

• The significant earnings miss raises concerns about operational efficiency and financial management.
• Regulatory hurdles may impact the timely approval and launch of new treatments.
• Competitive pressures in the biopharmaceutical industry could affect market share and profitability.
• Macroeconomic factors, such as changes in healthcare policy or economic downturns, could influence financial performance.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about Scholar Rock’s plans to expand into other neuromuscular indications, such as DMD, FSHD, and ALS. Executives addressed the company’s approach to preserving lean muscle mass in obesity treatments and discussed early interactions with payers for the SMA treatment. These discussions indicate a strategic focus on broadening the company’s therapeutic reach and ensuring market readiness for upcoming launches.

Full transcript - Scholar Rock Holding Corp (SRRK) Q4 2024:

Conference Operator: Good morning, and welcome to Scholar Rock’s Fourth Quarter Financial Results and Business Update Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After the company’s prepared remarks, call participants will have the opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. Before we begin, I’d like to point out that we’ll be making various statements about Scholar Rock’s expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward looking statements for the purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Any forward looking statements represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any future date. I encourage you to go to the Investors and Media section of our website to find our most up to date SEC statements and filings. A recording of today’s event will also be available on our website should you want to rewatch at a later date. I will now turn the conference over to Jay Backstrom, President and CEO of Scholar Rock. Jay, please go ahead.

Jay Backstrom, President and CEO, Scholar Rock: Well, thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome everyone and thank you for joining our fourth quarter twenty twenty four business update. We had an outstanding year in 2024 and we’re off to a great start to 2025. For today’s call, I’ll start by providing a review of the Sapphire results and our progress toward our regulatory milestones. Krissy Sanko, our Chief Commercial Officer, will share the terrific progress we’re making with our commercial preparation and our planning for a 2025 launch as we’re working with a sense of urgency to serve those living with SMA globally starting with The U.

S. And then I’ll follow with a review of our innovative Myostatin platform and our ambition to transform the current GLP-one treatment paradigm for weight management. Following our prepared remarks, Tracy and I will be joined by Ted Miles, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer and Mo Khattanani, our Chief Scientific Officer for the Q and A portion of today’s call. Moving to Slide four. With our success in 2024, the stage is set for what will be a transformative year for Scholarly.

And as I said, we are working with a sense of urgency to bring apetigramab to those living with SMA and we continue to hit our milestones on time or ahead of schedule. Starting with the regulatory applications for apetigramab and SMA, we submitted the BLA in The U. S. In January and we remain on track to submit the MAA in The EU in March. We look forward to sharing the Saphyr data at the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s annual meeting in Dallas on March 19, where the data will be featured as an oral presentation.

We will also be sharing our work with the murine version of apigramab in a non clinical model of DMD setting the stage for us to expand the development of apigramab into other neuromuscular indications. We also continue to make progress on our goal to expand treatment to even the youngest of those with SMA and we’re on track to open the OPAL study for those under two years of age in the third quarter. For our cardiometabolic program, we remain on track to share the top line data from Embrace in Q2 with the filing of the IND for SRK439 or highly selective anti myostatin designed for cardiometabolic indications in the third quarter. Turning to Slide five. Before I hand over to Tracy, I want to review the positive top line results for Saphon, our registration study with apetigramab, the only muscle targeted therapy with clinical success in a pivotal study in SMA, which has the potential to transform the standard of care.

Opetigumab plus standard of care delivered gains of 1.8 points improvement compared to placebo plus standard of care as measured by the gold standard SMA specific Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale at week fifty two. Gains are both clinically meaningful and statistically significant. Importantly, there was consistency across age groups two through 21 in a broad SMA population. In addition, thirty percent achieved an additional three point or greater improvement in their Hammersmith scores when compared to placebo plus an SMN therapy where only twelve point five percent achieved the same high bar. Further, as shown in the graph, displaying motor function over the fifty two week treatment period, those receiving a pittagimab achieved a gain in function, while those receiving an SMM therapy alone lost function over this fifty two week period.

With respect to safety, the safety was consistent with the TOPAS data with over ninety five percent rolling over and remaining in the long term follow-up study adding to our experience in over 200 patients and we remain the only muscle targeted therapy that has over four years of clinical experience in SMA. Together, the data support an overall favorable benefit risk with the potential to shift the treatment paradigm and usher in a new standard of care to include apetirumab, a muscle targeted therapy with an SMN directed therapy as part of the treatment regimen for SMA. I will now turn the call over to Tracy, our Chief Commercial Officer to provide an update on our commercial preparations. Tracy?

Tracy, Chief Commercial Officer, Scholar Rock: Thank you, Jay. Moving to Slide seven. Despite successes in treating the motor neuron over the past eight years, progressive muscle weakness continues to be a critical unmet need in SMA and there’s currently no approved muscle targeted therapy to treat this muscle neuromuscular disease. Patients and caregivers have described to us the debilitating impacts of progressive muscle weakness and how it significantly detracts from their independence and their ability to perform basic daily activities like eating, dressing, getting in and out of bed or their car, brushing teeth, climbing stairs and using the bathroom. This is why ninety seven percent of patients surveyed by Cure SMA identified improving muscle strength as an important need that they want to see from a new SMA treatment.

From our own market research, we know that more than eighty percent of treating neurologists agree that preserving muscle should start as early as possible in SMA. The SMA community is collectively calling for more to treat this relentless progression of muscle weakness and improve motor function in SMA. Next (LON:NXT) slide. Today, roughly two thirds of the ten thousand people living with SMA in The U. S.

And thirty five thousand individuals globally have already received an SMN targeted therapy. Yet we see from the data that Jay just presented that despite these effective therapies, progressive muscle weakness still robs these individuals of their ability to function over time. This is why seventy four percent of neurologists recognize that in the future, a combination of modalities to target the motor neuron and the muscle will be necessary to treat SMA. The future of SMA will be to directly treat both the muscle and the motor neuron to provide the best outcomes for patients. Apidigramab is the potential first approved muscle targeted therapy in SMA is leading the transformation of SMA care.

Next slide. Scholar Rock has been at the forefront of preparing the market for this potential new treatment paradigm in SMA. Last year, we introduced Life Takes Muscle, the first muscle focused SMA disease education campaign that amplifies what we’ve been hearing from patients and caregivers for years about the devastating impacts of progressive muscle weakness. Lifetix muscle has resonated with both the patient and HCP communities and led to continued strong engagement with Scholar Rock. Additionally, our MSL team has also been meeting with the leading CureSMA centers and engaging with top treating neurologists and care teams to educate on our Phase III SAFIRE top line data.

And SCOAR continues to partner and learn from our patient advocacy partners who have been so effective already in helping to bring new treatments to the SMA community. Next slide. We’re doing all this with a team of experienced professionals with deep rare disease and launch experience, including prior SMA launches, and we’re continuing to be a magnet to attract top commercial talent as we build out our team. Next slide. 2025 is an important year for Scholar Rock and we are positioned for a successful launch.

We’ll continue to build on our stakeholder engagement and education and this quarter have initiated outreach to top U. S. Commercial and federal payers ahead of our potential Q4 launch. We will also be scaling our customer facing team of roughly 50 sales, reimbursement and patient support personnel in late Q2 and early Q3 to be higher than onboarded ahead of our potential launch. And finally, Scholar Rock is building out our patient services offering and preparing to offer home infusion as an option at launch to provide excellent support and optionality to patients and treaters alike.

We have been laying the groundwork for years and now we’re putting the broader team and infrastructure in place for a successful U. S. Launch to meet a critical need in the fight to continue to improve the lives of those living with SMA. I’ll now turn the call back to Jay.

Jay Backstrom, President and CEO, Scholar Rock: Well, thank you, Tracy. And now turning to our cardiometabolic programs and moving to Slide 13. It’s impressive to see the impact of the innovation from our industry and how the approved GLP-one receptor agonists have transformed the management of weight loss. Obesity is a top global public health issue and the potential public health impact of these highly effective weight loss therapies have been incredible across a number of chronic conditions including diabetes, sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease. With an estimated forty million projected to receive treatment to GLP-one receptor agonist, the current market is anticipated to generate over $100,000,000,000 in sales.

Moving to Slide 14, with the extraordinary amount of weight loss seen with the current GLP-one receptor therapies, there is also a substantial amount of lean muscle that is also lost ranging from 12% to 40%. With the widespread use of these therapies, there is an increased awareness of the associated weakness and reduced strength that accompanies this loss of lean muscle mass and of the significant weight regain that occurs when stopping therapy with disproportionately more fat being regained than lean mass leading to a worse body composition and leading to unhealthy weight gain. Beyond strength and mobility, muscle is the main metabolic organ and plays a significant role in energy metabolism, increasing basal metabolic rate, glucose uptake and improving insulin sensitivity. Given the critical role that muscle plays in overall health, we believe our highly selective approach to blocking myostatin when added to the GLT1 receptor agonist can enhance their profile by reducing the loss of lean muscle mass without introducing additional toxicity leading to healthy and sustainable weight management. Moving to Slide 15.

To illustrate what can be expected from tirzepatide, this figure is from the tirzepatide SERMONT1 study and illustrates the percent change in body weight over time. The area shaded in green represents the first twenty weeks of the study, the time period corresponding to the efficacy assessment in EMBRACE, our randomized Phase two proof of concept study with tirzepatide. As can be seen, even by week twenty four, there’s an impressive amount of weight loss of 14% to 16% of body weight that continues to deepen over the course of seventy two weeks. Approximately 25% of this weight loss is lean mass, an area that we believe we can address through our highly selective approach to blocking myostatin, the master regulator of skeletal muscle. By preserving lean mass and reducing the amount of lean muscle mass loss, it can lead to healthier and sustainable weight loss and potentially change the treatment paradigm for weight loss management.

Now moving to Slide 16. So what does preserving lean muscle mass mean with respect to clinical benefit and what amount is needed to have a meaningful impact? Well, insights can be gained from a study of healthy young men who were confined to strict bed rest for one week and lost about a kilogram of lean mass as assessed by DEXA scans. Remarkably, the loss of just one kilogram of lean mass resulted in significant decrease in leg strength, exercise capacity and equally importantly in insulin sensitivity compared to baseline. Considering that adults 60 begin to lose 1% on lean mass per year with a 10% to 15% decrease in strength per decade, the additive effect of loss of lean mass associated with GLD1 receptor therapy in this age group and other subsets can be profound.

Now moving to Slide 17. With respect to EMBRACE, we had several key goals in mind when we designed EM BRAZE, our randomized Phase two proof of concept study comparing tirzepatide plus lapidigramab to tirzepatide plus placebo in obese or overweight adults. First, with respect to preserving lean muscle mass, we believe we can reduce the amount of loss as measured by DEXA scans at week twenty four with our highly selective approach to walk nyostatin. We selected week twenty four as the time point to assess since this was the steepest portion of the weight loss curve of tirzepatide, recognizing that we’ll need to assess at week fifty two for our SRK-four 39 program. As a proof of concept study, we’re looking for trends in the magnitude of effect to help shape our thinking regarding clinical meaningful improvement.

Extrapolating from the study in young men, assuming a loss of lean mass between five and four to five kilograms, by reducing the amount of lean mass loss by 20% to 40%, we can preserve one to two kilograms of lean mass, which we believe will translate into clinical meaningful benefit since every kilogram of lean muscle mass matters. Second, based on our selective approach, one of our goals was to demonstrate that we can safely combine tirzepatime and not introduce any additive toxicities that can be associated with blocking other TGF beta ligand such as acne. Third, with respect to weight loss of week twenty four, we are expecting to see comparable weight loss at this time. Fourth, based on our nonclinical data, we believe we can blunt the fat regain associated with stopping tirzepatide and have built in an additional DEXA scan performed at eight weeks after stopping treatment to assess this important question. These data will not be part of the top line results that we look forward to sharing next quarter.

Fifth, as a proof of concept study, we also included exploratory endpoints such as hemoglobin A1c and functional measures, but we did not power or enrich the study with subsets of patients that shows statistical significance for these exploratory units. And then finally, an important key goal is for us to gain experience in the setting of obesity. We’ll have the opportunity for detailed review of all the INBREYES subject data to identify subgroups and to help inform the clinical development of SRK-four thirty nine, our highly selective anti myostatin designed for cardiometabolic disorders. We’ve already shown our ability to deliver IMBRACE ahead of schedule and this experience provides us with great momentum for SRK-four thirty nine program. Moving to Slide 18, and with respect to SRK-four thirty nine, we are very excited with the data that’s been generated to date in our non clinical program demonstrating we can preserve lean mass with further reduction in fat mass, we can improve the metabolic parameters such as blood glucose, we’ve seen increase in lean mass gain and once the fat regain of fat mass after stopping the GLP-one receptor agonist therapy and we’ve demonstrated greater potency in a direct comparison with an anti ACTR2 antibody.

Overall, the data suggests the best in class profile for SRK439, which has been featured at key scientific conferences in 2024 and we look forward to bringing SRK-four thirty nine to clinic later this year. Moving to Slide 19. In summary, to address the important emerging problem of loss of lean mass associated with weight loss therapies, we’ve taken a parallel path with our innovative industry leading portfolio of highly selective anti myostatin therapies by conducting a proof of study proof of concept study with epitograph and BRACE and at the same time advancing SRK-four thousand three hundred and ninety two IND, are highly selective novel anti myostatin designed specifically for cardiometabolic indications with the ambition to transform the current GLP-one receptor agonist treatment therapy. This strategy has resulted in two important milestones in 2025 and we look forward to the readout of the top line data from Embrays next quarter and the filing of the IND for SRK-four thirty nine in Q3. In closing and moving to Slide ’21, ’20 ’20 ’5 will be a transformative year for Scholar Rock.

We are off to a great start. We’ve submitted the BLA for opitogramab in The U. S. In January. We’re on track to submit the MAA in The EU in March.

We were well on our way in our preparations to bring apigramab, a muscle targeted therapy, potential new treatment option for those living with SMA globally starting in The U. S. In Q4 with EU to follow in 2026. As we continue to work to expand our reach for the youngest of those with SMA and to other rare neuromuscular disorder, we are on the threshold of establishing a neuromuscular franchise starting with SMA. We look forward to reporting on our progress toward achieving our twenty twenty five key milestones as we drive to commercialize and expand the development of opidogram and advance our cardiometabolic programs.

Overall, a very, very exciting year for Scholar. And operator, that closes the prepared remarks. We’ll now open up the call

Conference Operator: Our first question comes from Allison Bradshaw with Piper Sale. Your line is open.

Allison Bradshaw, Analyst, Piper Sale: Hi, good morning guys and thanks for taking the questions. Maybe one on SMA just with Saphyr data being presented next month at MDA. Can you just your sense of what additional data points are going to be most meaningful to patients and docs when you present that full data? Just maybe help frame that update for us. And then one on obesity, just maybe help us understand what you need to see on the primary endpoint to be confident in taking April forward?

I think in the prepared remarks, you discussed a 20% to 40% improvement in lean mass as being clinically meaningful. Just did I hear that right? And then what are you hoping to see on additional endpoints like A1C and body composition? Just curious to get your thoughts there. Thank you.

Jay Backstrom, President and CEO, Scholar Rock: Yes. Good, Ali. Hey, good morning. This is Jay. So first starting with SAFIRE.

We’re really excited to have the opportunity for those data to be presented at a Congress and particularly the MDA conference where there’s a lot of interest and a lot of investigators who have a chance to see the data beyond what we could share on the top line results. And as we shared previously, I think what’s really important is the overall consistency and impact of the totality of the data. We’ve shared, we’ve got effect across age groups and we’re going to share additional endpoints and you’ll see that again, I think there will be interest in seeing the consistency and the impact we have across those additional endpoints. So I think that’ll be a really nice opportunity to really underscore that we really are on the threshold of bringing I think a really nice new effective therapy to change standard of care in SMA. And then with respect to ABRAISE and four thirty nine, right, I said we have a very unique opportunity.

We’ve got a really, I think, highly innovative platform of entomyostatin therapies. We took full advantage of titerumab being in clinic to study EMBRACE. As we’re looking, I try to put some context around what is clinically meaningful with lean mass loss because that’s the question that comes to us us constantly. I do think there’s insights gained from that study of young men who were confined to bed rest that lost a kilogram because that was a significant amount of strength loss even in a young healthy person, right? So as we think about going forward, that one kilogram, that translates to about a 20% effect.

We can double that, that’s two kilograms. So I think we’re in that range of signal seeking that will give us insight that will allow us to continue to really think deeply about how we develop four thirty nine. But I want to make a caveat. We’re studying this at week 24 on the steepest part of the slope of the curve of tirzepatide. And of course, we’ll do a fifty two week study as we get into four thirty nine.

So there’s a potential for that effect on lean mass to deepen over time. So we’re looking at a snapshot with 24, if we can show a nice effect. And in that range of 20% to 40%, what we can think we have meaningful incremental benefit, I think we have a really clear dose signal to move forward with four thirty nine. But we’ll also be developing four thirty nine and we’ll have to establish its own dose, etcetera. So lots to come with this total program, but very exciting time for us.

Allison Bradshaw, Analyst, Piper Sale: Excellent. Thank you.

Conference Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Michael Yeeb with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Michael Yeeb, Analyst, Jefferies: Hey guys, thanks for the question. Good morning. Just following up on thoughts around the obesity readout in the second quarter. I appreciate that the expectation is that you should preserve lean muscle. I was just wondering about how you guys are thinking about the biology or the effects of what would happen on the actual weight loss.

There shouldn’t be any material change, but I’m just wondering if there could actually be maybe more weight loss because of the metabolic effects of myostatin in building muscle or there could actually be headline a little bit less weight loss just because you’re actually preserving the muscle. So just thinking about the biology there certainly in the first twenty four weeks and how to put that in the context of preserving muscle? Thank you.

Jay Backstrom, President and CEO, Scholar Rock: Yes. Mike, thanks for the question. I tried to frame that a bit in the prepared remarks. So for week 24, given the magnitude of weight loss that’s already occurring with tirzepatide, really don’t expect at that time point to see we think the weight loss will be comparable between the two arms, recognizing that there’s a potential with increasing muscle potentially affect weight, but the magnitude of the weight loss with tirzepatide is probably going to make that a wash. And so we think it will be comparable week 24.

But to add to your point, now that’s a week 24. If we look at effects over time and the potential effect on basal metabolic rate and maintaining, there absolutely is a potential to see some additional incremental weight loss over a period of time on treatment, but I want to set the expectations for week twenty four we’re expecting to become.

Michael Yeeb, Analyst, Jefferies: Got it. Thank you very much.

Conference Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Tessa Romero with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Tessa Romero, Analyst, JPMorgan: Hi, good morning, Jay and team. Thanks so much for taking our questions. I look forward to seeing you guys at MDA. So what is the right way to think about the exploration of additional neuromuscular indications where a pidegrimab could have potential here? What framework can you give us with respect to those decisions?

In other words, how you will best allocate capital while also ensuring proper investment in the launches for SMA and also the cadence and timelines with which you could or would start these clinical studies? Thanks so much.

Jay Backstrom, President and CEO, Scholar Rock: Yes, Tess. Thank you for the question. Very important question. We’re going through that work right now. As I indicated at the JPMorgan conference, with the success of opidogram and SMA, I mean, I almost feel obligated for us to take a look at the adjacent neuromuscular indications to see if in fact we can have an opportunity to impact and improve lives for those that have other diseases like DMD, FSHD, Becker’s and even ALS.

So, what we’re showing at MDA is a bit of the work and thinking behind our approach to this. I’m very keen on translational models to the extent that they can give us insight and I feel very fortunate with Moe and his team to be able to do these models. And so we’re going to start showcasing how we’re beginning to think about, for example, DMD, a little bit of that non clinical data. We’re actively engaging experts across these indications to really begin to think about how we can take a look at both not only the opportunity in terms of the unmet need, but the probability of technical success and can we understand and enrich a patient subset of patients that we can really show meaningful benefit. We’re doing all of that work.

And as we put all that together, that will set the framework as we think about further investment in those indications, which as you can imagine is going to be function of technical success, unmet needs, potential opportunity, etcetera. So we’re doing all that work now over the course of frankly, we started that work even last year. So that work continues. And as we get closer to that, we’ll certainly share how we think. With respect to our ability to do this in addition to doing our launch, we have a clinical team that really has demonstrated their ability to execute clinical trials.

Sennifier is finished. We have the ongoing study in the long term follow-up, but we’re positioned to be able to take on an additional clinical study, if not two, but certainly one as we think about going forward. And again, what I tried to share at JPMorgan was if you think about what we’re trying to build here and the value we’re trying to create at Scholar Rock, it starts with SMA. And as we said, we think that there is a potential $2,000,000,000 plus opportunity for us in SMA alone considering what we believe will be a paradigm shift in treatment. And then if you start to build around at these additional neuromuscular indications, we’re on the threshold assuming execution and success to build a multibillion dollar neuromuscular franchise.

And I think at the end of the day, if we do that properly, we’ll definitely increase shareholder value, but importantly extend our reach to those in need.

Tessa Romero, Analyst, JPMorgan: Thank you.

Conference Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Mark Farr with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Alex, Analyst, TD Cowen: Hi, this is Alex on for Mark. Thanks so much for taking my question. So the FDA recently issued a draft guidance on obesity clinical trials, which appear to reinforce the agency’s focus on BMI and overall weight loss rather than shifting the focus to body composition changes and preservation of lean muscle mass. What do you view as the potential implications here for your cardiometabolic program, namely four thirty nine? Thanks.

Jay Backstrom, President and CEO, Scholar Rock: Yes, it’s a good question. We’re obviously following this with great intent and seeing and looking carefully at FDA’s updated guidance. From my perspective, kind of watching FDA over the years, they tend to move slowly. They tend not to go as fast as the field is trying to get them to go in terms of endpoints. So we were not surprised that they retained BMI.

The things that we took of interest though from that guidance, which I think further reinforces why I think we’re actually on the right track here, is it now very clearly in that guidance, they’re asking all sponsors to include within their clinical development, very least a subset of their patients to understand the amount of lean mass loss on their treatment. So it’s recognizing that the loss of lean mass has the potential to not be a good thing. So let’s assess that at baseline and understand that across programs. So I think that further reinforces the question around lean mass. They clearly indicated in that guidance of if there’s an interest in body composition, come talk to us.

So that to me is a bit foreshadowing where they may be tilting, but clearly that’s not within the guidance now. The body composition matters and the field is declaring that as a really important event or endpoint. So I think that’s something that we’ll continue to follow with great attention, but also which I believe we will affect positively if in fact we preserve lean mass. So we’ll have a nice impact on that. But then they also said what is very clear is that if you’re doing a combination program, then you need to demonstrate some additional benefit from our drug, for example, SRK-four thirty nine.

And what I was trying to showcase in today’s discussion to bring further clarity to that, but what I said pretty consistently across our entry into this is that those endpoints that could be regulatory approval endpoints are metabolic parameters such as further reduction in hemoglobin A1c. Clearly, there’s a potential for that given the role of muscle. And there’s clearly an opportunity to find a way to demonstrate that losing this amount of lean mass really results in functional loss that’s significant. And we have the potential within a subgroup of patients to show those functional measures and improvement, which ultimately I think will be sustainable. And then there’s other ways that we can look at how we can manage through mitigating weight regain, maintenance approaches, etcetera.

We have a lot of ideas of how to move this forward when we get into clinic. But I think the guidance to come back to it are consistent, but I think also we’re pointing the way and I feel very good about back to where we’re in this space. Great. Thank you.

Conference Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Gary Nachman with Raymond (NSE:RYMD) James. Your line is open.

Gary Nachman, Analyst, Raymond James: Thanks and good morning. So back on EMBRACE, if you hit the one to two kilograms of lean mass preservation with apetegramab, then how would you expect four thirty nine to perform based on that? So how much better could it potentially be than apetegramab based on the preclinical data that you’ve seen since the space is getting a lot more competitive, so trying to think from a commercial marketing perspective as well. And then just with SMA, maybe just a bit more on how the initial payer discussions are going and any update on how you’re thinking about pricing as a combination drug, how that’s going to be received in the market? Thanks.

Jay Backstrom, President and CEO, Scholar Rock: Yes, Gary, thanks for the question. I’ll start with the four thirty nine question and then I’ll turn to Tracy to address the question on our interaction so far with payers. It’s interesting, it’s like having two children and you’re going to say which one is better, right? I think what I would say to you, Gary, on four thirty nine, I really like the profile that we’re developing. I really do.

I think the work that Moe and his team are showing is this is performing beautifully. It has greater affinity for the target and that could potentially help us certainly at least with a very much with the Dosing, such that we can then go in with this low dose CellQ formulation. So that is a clear, clear advantage and we’re looking forward to that. Now with respect to how much different and how much better, that’s a really interesting question, Gary, because what I was trying to say is a pitigramine is like signal seeking, yes, we can show this. Four thirty nine is the program and we will need to further explore four thirty nine how we optimize the dose of four thirty nine and how we begin to get some better insight into how its impact across these functional measures.

So that’s part of our thinking on the IND opening studies. So it’s more to come with four thirty nine at the very least. It’s going to have similar effect. I do think though it’s designed to be low dose kind of subcu presentation, which in this highly competitive space I think is something that we need to do. And so more to come, but we’re really moving rapidly on that toward IND.

And then Tracy, you want to make a comment on the payer interactions today?

Tracy, Chief Commercial Officer, Scholar Rock: Yes, sure. Payers have been very receptive to hearing from us even as a new company and are very interested in learning more about our innovation as the first muscle targeted therapy in SMA. They are familiar with SMA and recognize that there’s still a continued need to treat this relentless disease. And we know today that there are already a third of lives covered of U. S.

Commercial payers already have policies covering what I would call combination treatment of an SMN targeted therapy post gene therapy. So that’s a reflection of the openness to address this recognition of unmet need. Ultimately, we expect U. S. And European payers alike to enable access reflective of the value of opidogramab brings in SMA and our data and overall profile are really strong.

We have a clear added benefit across all cohorts and highly favorable safety profile. So it sets us up for really strong discussion.

Gary Nachman, Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. And just pricing, any latest thoughts there, just typical like in line with the other SMN treatments?

Tracy, Chief Commercial Officer, Scholar Rock: Yes. I mean, at this point, we’re not in a position to share pricing, but ultimately we expect that access to be covered reflective of the value we bring. And we do have a sense of what the pricing is in the FMA market today.

Gary Nachman, Analyst, Raymond James: Okay, great. Thank you.

Conference Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Kripa Devarkanda with Truett Securities. Your line is open.

Gary Nachman, Analyst, Raymond James: Hi. This is Alex on

Alex, Analyst, Truett Securities: for Kripa. Thanks for taking our question. So talk about the future development path for the muscle preservation drug. To be a little specific, because we know that overall, we definitely see the benefit of more muscle is better. But when it comes to the regulatory review and the specifics on the endpoint, you mentioned a couple of different avenues that you could explore with the HbA1c and to mitigate weight regain.

But when it comes to the strength endpoints, we know we’ve seen GRIP or STAIR CLIMB. Are these endpoints that are on the discussion table or are there other strength related functional outcomes that come to mind as potential options going forward for the program? Thanks.

Jay Backstrom, President and CEO, Scholar Rock: Yes, really good question. As you can imagine, we’ve given this a lot of thought as we think about how to then really meaningfully move four thousand three hundred and ninety four beyond just identifying the right dose. And what I’ve to kind of add color to your point. So I think about once we establish the dose, can envision that we would then have subgroups of patients in our proof of concept efforts to demonstrate the impact we can have on, for example, hemoglobin A1c. And in that context, we would definitely enrich for a subset of patients where we think we can meaningfully show that difference.

So that’s a very clear regulatory pathway. That’s the metabolic value, the additional benefit of preserving that lean muscle. So that’s one example. And the other example that you touched on, which comes immediately to mind, we’ve demonstrated functional improvement in SMA. So clearly functional measures and functional improvement are interesting.

We’re not wed to GripStrength and Staircoin. We’re giving a lot of thought around this. I think there’s a lot of insight that we’re gaining from our work and our review and discussions. And we’ll have a really good opportunity when we open up the IND with April and begin to meaningfully engage FDA in our thinking around the development program, thinking around meaningful functional measures and endpoints, and at the same time get some sense of how we impact those functional measures as we build the program from SAD, MAD into those early POCs, so that we’d be in a really strong position to know exactly how to run-in a registration program. So that’s our thinking.

I feel really good about it. It’s like stair stepping, right? I love the fact that we’ve got embrace coming in, the INDs going into April. I mean, we’ve really taken advantage of our platform. Those are both coming, got this momentum at April and now we’re already beginning to see what the next couple of steps are.

So I tell you, I can’t wait to share all that with you. One step at a time though, we’re driving to get the IND open. We’re doing all this nice work. More to come, but I feel really good. We’ve got great momentum running into this IND.

Alex, Analyst, Truett Securities: Yes, that’s great. Thank you for the color.

Conference Operator: And I’m not showing any further questions at this time. I’d like to turn the call back over to Jay for any further remarks.

Jay Backstrom, President and CEO, Scholar Rock: All right, but just to close this and thank you for your interest. I mean, it really is an exciting time. I try to put energy into my voice when I do those prepared remarks. I feel like I have more energy when we get into the Q and A period. But honestly, this team is hustling.

Thank you for your interest and we look forward to sharing the updates and progress over the course of the year. And then we’ll close the call.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.

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