Exhibit 99.1
Kala Reports First Quarter 2022 Financial Results and Provides Corporate Update
- Expanded Coverage for EYSUVIS® to 92% of Total Commercial Lives and 30% of All Medicare Lives -
- Achieved 18% EYSUVIS Prescription Growth in 1Q 2022 -
- Presented KPI-012 Phase 1b Clinical Data at ARVO; Initiation of Phase 2/3 Clinical Trial in PCED Expected 4Q 2022 -
- Conference Call and Webcast at 8:00 a.m. ET -
ARLINGTON, Mass., May 16, 2022 – Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:KALA), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies for diseases of the eye, today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022 and provided a corporate update.
“Since our founding, we have been committed to developing innovative medicines that can better treat diseases of the front and back of the eye and we have advanced two products to market, which address significant unmet needs in dry eye disease and post-ocular surgery,” said Mark Iwicki, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Kala. “Securing broad market access so prescriptions can be filled at reasonable costs is of paramount importance in the success of any commercial launch. I’m very pleased that in recent months, we have made meaningful progress toward our goal of increasing payer coverage for EYSUVIS. We recently expanded EYSUVIS coverage to more than 90% of commercial lives and 30% of Medicare lives, which we believe will enable more prescriptions to be filled and support long-term revenue growth. As we have been working to expand market access, we have used patient assistance programs to help ensure prescriptions are filled and have seen increased usage in the first quarter of 2022, representing an increased demand for EYSUVIS but also negatively impacting our net revenues. With the recent expansion in payor coverage, we expect our patient assistance programs to have less of an impact on average selling price, and thus net revenue, in the future.”
Kala continues to progress the development of KPI-012, and believes it has broad potential to change the standard of care in persistent corneal epithelial defect (PCED), as well as other rare and severe ocular diseases. The Company expects to initiate a Phase 2/3 clinical trial of KPI-012 for PCED later this year, subject to regulatory clearance, and plans to provide updates on its indication expansion strategy in the months ahead.
First Quarter and Recent Business Highlights:
Commercial Portfolio:
EYSUVIS® (loteprednol etabonate ophthalmic suspension) 0.25%: Data from Symphony Health indicate that 26,518 EYSUVIS prescriptions were filled in the first quarter of 2022, representing quarter-over-quarter growth of 18%. EYSUVIS prescription growth has continued in the second quarter of 2022. As of the week ended May 6, 2022, 103,514 prescriptions of EYSUVIS, including over 17,955 refill prescriptions, written by more than 8,200 unique prescribers, have been filled since the product launched in January 2021.
In May 2022, Kala announced that the largest Pharmacy Benefit Manager in the United States added EYSUVIS as a covered brand on its commercial formularies, effective May 2, 2022. In addition, effective June 1, 2022, Humana, one of the largest Medicare health plans in the United States, will include EYSUVIS as a “preferred brand” on its Medicare formularies. With these additions, Kala has secured coverage for 155.3 million commercial lives, representing approximately 92% of all commercially insured lives, and 14.1 million Medicare lives, representing approximately 30% of all Medicare-insured lives. Kala expects this expanded payor coverage to substantially reduce reliance on co-pay assistance programs and, as a result, significantly improve the Company’s gross-to-net adjustments. Kala continues to engage in contract discussions with other health plans and expects to further expand formulary coverage in 2022.
INVELTYS® (loteprednol etabonate ophthalmic suspension) 1%: 34,691 INVELTYS prescriptions were reported by Symphony Health in the first quarter of 2022, compared to 36,695 prescriptions reported in the fourth quarter of 2021. INVELTYS prescriptions were impacted by the reduction in ocular surgeries due to the pandemic but the amount of ocular surgeries has since returned to pre-pandemic levels. Despite this trend, the market for the treatment of post-