Supernus at Cantor Healthcare Conference: Navigating Growth and Innovation

On Wednesday, 03 September 2025, Supernus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SUPN) participated in the Cantor Global Healthcare Conference 2025. The company discussed strategic growth areas and challenges, focusing on its central nervous system (CNS) treatments. Supernus is navigating a transition from legacy products to a phase of accelerated growth, backed by its robust financial health and strategic product development.

Key Takeaways

• Supernus is focusing on key products: KELBREE for ADHD, ONAPCO for Parkinson’s, and XERZUVY for postpartum depression.
• The company is experiencing significant growth in KELBREE sales, especially in the adult ADHD segment.
• ONAPCO shows promise in treating Parkinson’s, with early positive uptake.
• XERZUVY aims to address the large unmet need in postpartum depression, with efforts to increase awareness and diagnosis.

Financial Results

• KELBREE is in its fifth year, showing growth rates of 25% to 26% during the back-to-school season, with a current market share of less than 2% but a potential peak of 4% to 6%.
• ONAPCO, launched in April, is projected to reach a market opportunity of $200 million to $300 million, with potential for more depending on its use across patient stages.

Operational Updates

• Supernus is targeting the adult ADHD market, which constitutes 67% of the overall market. Currently, 35% of KELBREE’s business comes from this segment.
• The company is leveraging consumer education and influencer partnerships to boost KELBREE’s market presence.
• For ONAPCO, the device offers 2 to 2.5 hours of improved daily function for Parkinson’s patients. The market potential will depend on its adoption for both advanced and earlier-stage patients.
• XERZUVY’s focus is on increasing disease awareness, as postpartum depression affects 500,000 women annually, with current diagnosis rates at 40%.

Future Outlook

• Supernus anticipates continued growth, with KELBREE positioned to become a major product.
• The company is optimistic about ONAPCO’s market potential, contingent on further understanding patient profiles and usage by key opinion leaders (KOLs).
• Efforts to enhance awareness and screening for postpartum depression are expected to improve diagnosis and treatment rates.

Q&A Highlights

• Jack Kattar emphasized the significant growth potential of KELBREE, stating, "We’re still launching because the growth potential of this product is really huge."
• He noted the importance of combination therapies in the adult ADHD market, with 40% of adult prescriptions being combinations.
• Kattar highlighted the high incidence of Parkinson’s episodes in long-term patients, underscoring ONAPCO’s potential impact.

Readers are invited to refer to the full transcript for a detailed account of the discussions and insights shared during the conference.

Full transcript - Cantor Global Healthcare Conference 2025:

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Okay. Hi. Good morning, everybody. This is Kristen Kluska. I’m one of the biotech analysts at Cantor.

Very happy to be hosting Jack Kattar of Supernus Pharmaceuticals. How are doing today?

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: Good. Thank you. Thanks for having

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: me. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here. Lots to talk about, a big year for you, big commercial steps, but maybe to start, do you mind just providing an overview of the company?

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: Yeah. Sure. And good morning, everyone. And just to remind everyone, I’ll be making forward looking statements, so please check our SEC filings for all the risk factors. For those of you who may not be familiar with us, we are a CNS focused biopharmaceutical company.

We do have a portfolio of about eight to nine products on the market. We are profitable. We have a very clean balance sheet, just consumed an acquisition, Sage acquisition, which we are in the middle of integrating at this point. We started our journey actually back products in 2013 that have gone a full cycle. We just managed through the loss of exclusivity on these two legacy products.

And we are now just turned the page on that, pretty much completed that transition, and we are now in reaccelerated growth phase of the company, behind some of our key growth drivers, KELBRII, which is a novel non stimulant, GOCOVRI in the Parkinson’s space, ONAPCO, which we just launched in April, and of course, Zerzuve with the acquisition of Sage. So very exciting time, for the company, reaccelerating growth, moving forward.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Okay. Well, I wish we had a couple of hours because there are several assets there. But just for the sake of today’s conversation, I wanna touch on KELBREE for ADHD, Anapco for Parkinson’s, and Xerxuve for postpartum depression. Is that okay?

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: Yep. That’s fine. Yeah.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Okay. So first on ADHD space, you’ve had a front eye view for a couple decades now. How has it evolved over time and what have been the main treatment goals for patients?

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: Yeah. We we’ve been in this space for, you know, three decades. We used to be a CHIRE Pharmaceuticals part of CHIRE, we’ve developed four products in this space more than anybody in the industry. And for so many know, so such a long time, we had only two stimulants, amphetamines and methylphenidate, so are the main stay, you know, therapeutic regimen that everybody goes to initially. And we had a couple non stimulants that unfortunately didn’t work that well.

So we saw a major need for a non stimulant, put it very simply, that that works and works for a lot of folks, in hyperactivity, inattention, but as importantly, that works fast. So the existing older non stimulants, like Strattera for example, Atomoxetine, sometimes would take four, five, six or even eight weeks into the school year and you still as a parent don’t know whether the drug is going to work or not. For me as a parent that’s like eternity, you know, dealing with suspension letters, bad reports, issues at in the classroom and so forth. So that’s why a lot of parents end up resorting to stimulants and that’s why 90% of the market is stimulant. So with the introduction of KELRI, which is very differentiated versus the Strattera molecule, etomoxetine drug, this is a product that works as early as week one.

We can sample it, you know, people can get a two week sample so they can see whether it’s really working for their child or even as an adult as well because now it’s indicated for both pediatric and adult. And the reaction has been really phenomenal. We’re now into year five into the launch. We’re always in the mindset. We’re still launching because the growth potential of this product is really huge.

It’s a huge market, 100,000,000 prescriptions a year in both pediatric and adult, and we’re just scratching the surface.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: So you mentioned part of developing this product was knowing that the market needed better options for non stimulants. What

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: do

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: you think triggered a lot of patients in general to want to make the switch to go to a non stimulant? And why is it that with KELBRE, you think that could potentially improve even further?

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: Well, while while stimulants work, they don’t work for everybody. A lot of people forget about, you know, fifteen to twenty percent or even higher. Sometimes you see numbers like thirty percent don’t really respond well to stimulants. So stimulants are not like the magic bullet. However, that’s been the treatment guidelines for a long time.

Physicians go to stimulant one, stimulant two, maybe stimulant number three, and then they consider non stimulants. Well, they’re recycling with the same molecules, amphetamine and methylphenidate, and they’ve been doing this for decades. Parents, they don’t like to give their kids controlled substances, for the obvious reason. I mean, these are scheduled substances like heroin and cocaine. I can’t believe, you know, we’re giving them as a first line treatment for children, But they can be used in the appropriate environment with the right, you know, cautionary, manner.

And then adults, they don’t like how they feel a lot of times with the stimulants because of a lot of the side effects. And stimulants also are contraindicated with comorbidities, especially in mood disorders, which tends to be the case on a lot of ADHD cases. You have comorbidities, anxiety, depression, and so forth. Stimulants are contraindicated because they exacerbate these mood disorders and make them worse, and therefore we need very good non stimulants that can really work for a lot of these patients.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Okay. Something we really like doing at Cantor is looking at patient stories and anecdotes because I think that tells you a lot about how a drug is doing. So I was wondering if you have any that you could share what you hear about KELBRE.

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: Yeah. I mean, the the biggest pleasant surprise for a lot of folks, especially, like, in the adult space because adults, they don’t like to give up their stimulants. A lot of them like the even take the immediate release. They supplement the extended release or the immediate release later in the day. But they are struggling with the side effects and so forth.

So when they wanna switch to a non stimulant, they try to do it very gradually so the physician doesn’t take them off the stimulant abruptly and suddenly because there are withdrawal issues. There are a lot of issues with it. So they add Calibri over time. They titrate Calibri up and then they titrate down or taper off the stimulant. And what they find out that actually they don’t need to take an extended release stimulant and then supplement with an immediate release to get a twenty four hour coverage because Calibri gives you a true twenty four hour all day control, and that’s truly been a big surprise for a lot of adults that they can get rid of these stimulants and they can get on Calibri just one, capsule a day and that really works for them.

So it’s been a great addition to the therapy. And we have about 40% of our adult prescriptions are actually combination therapy, because of this dynamic in the marketplace.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: One I’ll I’ll share one that stood out for me. It was a mother on social media saying that prior to Calvary, their child got in a lot of trouble at school. They threw a chair and got detention. And fast forward to being on Calvary, they became the student of the month. So

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: No. It’s it’s it’s incredible, the stories we hear, and that’s what really we always tell our employees. That’s what really keeps us going every single day. You know? It’s it’s truly amazing.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: So you’ve been on the market for five years. Would love to hear how you think the next five years might look like both in terms of switches, a combination.

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: We we certainly continue to push in the adult segment. The adult segment is 67% of the market, so that’s the biggest segment. So we’re making a big a big push there. A lot of consumer education, patient education. We have couple really great influencers who are working with us on the female side and the male side.

So we’ve had significant push in that segment and some really early successes behind it. We reported recently that we’re up to 35% of our businesses in the adult segment. So clearly, years moving forward, we continue to see the brand continue to grow. I mean even the last four weeks, rolling four weeks, now we are into the back to school season, we’re seeing growth in the 25%, 26%. So the brand continues to be very healthy, growing at 20% plus.

And as I said earlier, we’re only scratching the surface. There is so much potential out there. We’re not even a 1% to 2% market share. And, easily we can be in the four, five, 6%, you know, potential from a peak perspective. So we’re we’re very excited about KELBRI.

KELBRI can be a very huge product for Supernus and and a very successful ADHD product.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Yeah, the influencer side of things is great. I would imagine when you started your career in this space, there’s probably still stigmas and people didn’t want to be as open about their diagnosis.

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: That’s right, that’s right. Especially in the adult space, we forget it’s not just about school. Yeah. ADHD is not just about focus. It’s about their social life.

It’s about a lot of being able to hold a job, being able to have a relationship, being able to do a lot of things that a lot of us take for granted, and these patients really struggle through a lot of these things on a daily basis. So it really helps to have folks, you know, like Busy Phillips and Jay Glaser, you know, talk about these things and their experiences, and what they go through. Yeah.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Cool. Thank you for that. So Parkinson’s, another space you’ve been following quite closely. We’ve seen a lot of innovation, but why do patients still experience these OFF episodes and why is it so disruptive for their lives?

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: The disease itself, I mean, it’s progressive disease. So over time as patients progress through it after so many years in diagnosis, actually statistics are somewhere in the ninety, ninety five percent of patients end up getting OFF episodes. And it is unfortunate because off episodes, we think you know, it sounds like it’s not a big deal. But, for a lot of folks, when they get up in the morning, they’re stiff, they’re rigid, they can’t move, they can’t even get up and get dressed. Some of the basic things that, again, we take for granted, they can’t even do.

They can’t go down and have a breakfast or meet a friend or go to a wedding or whatever. So it’s very disruptive, for their life, especially as they progress. And that’s why a lot of the products are steered towards off episodes and the treatment of the off episodes. And then there’s a lot of other complications as you progress through the disease, you start getting dyskinesia, triggered by a lot of the medications that you are taking. And that’s where, for example, GOCOVRI, which is one of our products, is very unique from that perspective because it’s indicated for both OFF episodes and dyskinesia.

And of course, we’re very excited about our NAPCO, which is our most recent product that we just launched in April. This is the first time, a new device infusion, continuous infusion of apomorphine is ever introduced in the market in The US. So we’ve been very excited about the launch and the initial response that we’re getting from it.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Okay. Parkinson’s is obviously quite common. What percent of patients are experiencing these episodes and at what point do they go to their doctor and ask for help about it?

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: It is in the ninety percent plus if you have been diagnosed five years or or more. So certainly, as you progress through it, it’s a very high incidence of of episodes. And typically that’s most of the focus of the discussion with your doctor. It is about the off time, and it’s all about how can I convert that into a good on time? On time meaning I can function.

But we also say it’s a good on time because you want to be on, you want to be able to function but without the dyskinesia. And that’s where a lot of the balance is. But a lot of the discussion is on the around the off time. Yeah.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Okay. So you mentioned the two products that you have in the space. There’s also other ones available including Vialev. What how should we be thinking about these key differences and which scenarios might one medication be more appropriate than another?

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: Yeah. So we have Apoquin, which is for acute injection for an acute episode, for example, and it works within minutes. It’s great, great product for as needed type of therapy. And some patients take it once, probably one injection a day, they don’t need more than that. Others that are more progressed, they might take up to four or five different injections a day of Apoquin.

We also have Onabco, which we just launched, which is also Apomorphine, but that’s a continuous infusion device that you can wear it all day or less than depending on how your situation is. And that’s more for continuous dopaminergic activity. So it really continuously gives you apomorphine. And that’s a very unique device. And again, the receptivity so far has been great.

So two different positioning of these two products. And then GOCOVRI is our third product in space, which is for OFF episodes and dyskinesia. It’s the only product in the Parkinson’s space which is indicated for dyskinesia. So we have very three distinct products with three distinct positioning.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Okay. I think you surprised a lot of us on your last earnings release because the metrics looked really impressive out of the gate. But can you help us understand how we should be thinking about the peak market opportunity and how that cadence might take place? I mean, you quite literally just launched it.

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: A a big factor in determining whether this product is gonna be half a billion or a billion, and I know people throw different numbers around. We’ve said 200,000,000 to $300,000,000 and maybe that is conservative, but it remains to be seen because we’re really trying to get our arms around what is the patient profile. Now if you go literally per the label, the label is for advanced progressed patients. However, we’ve seen in Europe, because this device has been available in Europe for many years, the treatment kind of migrates and a lot of KOLs start using it for earlier stage patients, more moderate or even mild earlier in their, you know, life cycle. And if that does happen, that means the opportunity is going to be open, you know, more wider and a much bigger potential versus if it only gets restricted to very advanced patients.

So that’s where the big difference between some of the estimates or some of the thinking that you see around the product. So until we have a good feel and we’re still early, we just launched in April, until we have a good feel as to what that patient profile is and how are the KOLs using it, then we can update our estimates for peak potential. But certainly, the early uptake has been very encouraging, and we’re very excited about it. I mean the product really works, works very well and gives patients on an average around two, two point five hours a day of good on time, which is could mean the world for a lot of these patients. It’s a great product.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Okay. So XERZUVY was the first oral medication approved for postpartum depression, something that affects one out of every seven people. Unfortunately, we all know somebody that was impacted. So considering how massive this is, why did it take so long for somebody to get it right?

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: Yeah. It it’s and we’re learning more about this. Obviously, we’re new to the space, but it it looks like the disease awareness education hasn’t been a lot, you know, over the years. And actually, about 500,000 women, you know, related to the one out of eight, as you said, you know, they they experience these symptoms. But diagnosis has been only around the forty percent up and confused with, you know, typical fatigue, lack of sleep that that typically a mother experiences, you know, after birth, and they don’t make too much out of it.

And it’s also the extra, you know, workload that you have. Now you have a a newborn, you know, there’s a lot of work and you’re not used to it. So it’s a great change time for family, which should be the happiest time, but unfortunately, a lot of mothers go through a lot of these symptoms, which is can be on the extreme side, could lead to suicide or really behaviors that could harm the baby or the mother. So with education, I think the awareness around the disease itself, the importance of screening, the importance of diagnosis, whether you’re an OB GYN or you’re a psychiatrist, whatever is the touch point when the mother comes back for, you know, the well-being visits of the child and so for the check ins, I think it’s very important. And I think, you know, Sage and Biogen has done a great job since they launched the product about a year and a half ago in starting with that market education, you know, really doing a lot of the training, helping OB GYNs to be attentive to these issues during these visits to help them screen for these situations.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: Is it your understanding that, are women now going to their their doctors and explaining their symptoms and wanting to seek help? You know, you had mentioned part of it was they may not even realize they’re going through it because of all the other emotions and duties that come with being a new parent.

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: No. That that’s exactly what it is. I mean, a lot of times it is the they’re not even even women who are diagnosed with PPD, fifty percent of them say, what is that? Yeah. They don’t even know what is that.

So that really tells you a lot of lack of awareness and education that has to occur for that discussion to happen. And also in a lot of these visits as well, a lot of the attention is on the on the newborn. You know, how’s the baby doing? How’s the you know, versus the mother. Unfortunately, I mean, it has to be both.

So that has to change over time, and it is changing. You know, there is more and more attention to it. I even learned from one of our colleagues who just had a child that even pediatricians are screening for PPD these days, which I was, you know, surprised to see that when a mother walks in with a child, to the pediatrician, the first thing they give her is a screening survey looking for signals or anything that could lead to p you know, the PPD diagnosis. So I think there is more awareness now, and it’s coming. Yeah.

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: That’s great to hear. I didn’t know that either. So how are you working with OBGYNs? This is a new space for you as well to to help with the screening and potentially seeing if someone’s a good candidate.

Jack Kattar, Supernus Pharmaceuticals: We have a lot of programs that, you know, focuses on education, training of the physicians from a health care provider perspective as well as there are efforts to educate patients, the public about these issues. So you really need both. You can’t just do it from one side. You you need to encourage mothers to be attentive also to what they’re going through and and encourage them. That’s something that a lot of folks go through.

That’s okay to talk about it. It’s, you know, it’s nothing to be ashamed about. Something that does happen and there is a treatment for it. So please open up and discuss it with your doctor and look at these for alternatives. So a lot of these efforts are built into marketing programs, of course, and the way we push education for the product itself.

And what we see, which is very encouraging, is once an OBGYN

Kristen Kluska, Biotech Analyst, Cantor: or

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.