Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. Operator instructions. Your first question is from Greg Gilbert of Merrill Lynch.
Q – Greg Gilbert, Merrill Lynch
Thanks, I have a couple. First for Jim O’Shea. Jim, you mentioned that the 9% price increase for LUNESTA was offset by a couple of factors, I think inventory reduction and I think you said something about contracting. Can you flesh that out a little bit?
A – William O’Shea
I probably can’t flesh out all the things in terms of contracting, but you’re right. The two elements that really meant that we really didn’t enjoy too much of the 9% price rise this quarter, although we do expect (inaudible) that that could be over the normal returns (inaudible) to be given to us going forward. The two principle ones were to the normal buy-ins that are associated with a price rise with wholesalers, and in many ways one-time contracting charges in Q1 related to the business.
Q – Greg Gilbert, Merrill Lynch
Is there anything different about the contracting strategy in this new year compared to last year?
A – William O’Shea
I think principally it’s the background environment of the access to the drugs, basically. Nothing different in terms of players, nothing different in terms of aggression, it’s really that we’re trying to make sure that we get appropriate (inaudible) which we believe is very important going forward.
Q – Greg Gilbert, Merrill Lynch
But just to be clear, you do expect the average price per Rx to be higher in Q2 and going forward versus?
A – William O’Shea
Yes we do. Yes, we do.
Q – Greg Gilbert, Merrill Lynch
Jim, can you also talk about how the LUNESTA marketing message has evolved to date and perhaps what you retrained or refocused the reps on when you last had them together?
A – William O’Shea
Yes. Two things. One is, I think, in terms of a bundle of information, we’re a year in the market now so we know a lot more. But also, we’ve done – I think I outlined on the last webcast – a pretty extensive ACU study, which showed that we’ve got very good awareness and that the long-term use of LUNESTA is well ingrained and actually understood by the doctors. We do need to upgrade, I think, the message around maintenance and that’s what we’ve been really doing, ensuring that the clinical data which really I think differentiates us around maintenance, and indeed long-term effects is actually being delivered to the doctors. And that message on differentiation versus our competitors will be really hammered home by our sales force.
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