Anaheim-based Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. has decided to report less-frequent updates about its sole drug.
The drug maker has been reporting prescription numbers for its H.P. Acthar Gel on a monthly basis during most of the year but has decided to move to a quarterly report, Chief Executive Don Bailey told analysts and investors on the company late October earnings call.
“Prescriptions and sales have now reached a level where the company believes that the more traditional approach of providing financial information and related analysis of results on a quarterly basis is appropriate,” Bailey said.
Questcor was told “by virtually every shareholder” that it was one of only a few companies providing monthly information, and some long-term investors suggested switching to a quarterly basis, he said.
David Moskowitz, an analyst with the PropThink investor website, wrote that decision may turn off some investors.
“However, in doing so, the company may simply be reacting to the negative onslaught on the stock by short sellers and could opt to release prescription trend data at less-regular intervals going forward,” Moskowitz said.
Questcor’s stock price has taken some hits this year after short-seller scrutiny.
It had to respond to a critical story published on TheStreetSweeper.org in January that sent its shares down 15%.
The website called rapid prescription growth “potentially unsustainable.”
Bailey told the Business Journal earlier this year that Questcor was “concerned about the website’s tactics, [and] we decided that responding to its questions and publicly disclosing the contents of the questions and answers was in the best interest of the company’s shareholders.”
Separately, Questcor disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it’s the subject of a government investigation of its marketing practices.
Citron Research, another short seller, put Questcor under its microscope in September after it revealed that Hartford, Conn.-based insurer Aetna Inc. decided to narrow its coverage for Acthar to the relatively rare condition of infantile spasms.
Steve Cartt, Questcor’s chief operating officer, addressed the insurance matter in the call.
“I’ll close by noting that insurance coverage for Acthar has remained very good overall, and it’s been consistent with payer coverage patterns we have seen with Acthar over the last few years,” Cartt said.
Prescriptions for Acthar “are being carefully handled on an individual basis following our normal and well-established business practices,” he added.
Acthar is an injectable drug that Questcor sells for several indications.
The most prominent are for nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder, and to treat multiple sclerosis flare-ups.
Questcor also has a commercial pilot project to sell Acthar for rheumatology.
Cartt later said that Questcor is “beginning very early evaluation of the potential for Acthar in other indications not currently on the Acthar label.” Acthar is approved for 19 different uses.
Sapien Study
Edwards Lifesciences Corp., the Irvine-based heart valve maker, released data from a clinical trial of its Edwards Sapien transcatheter heart valve showing the survival benefit with the valve widens three years after implant.
Edwards said the study looked at 358 patients who had severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis and were deemed inoperable for traditional open-heart valve surgery.
Participants, it said, received either the Sapien valve or standard therapy.
It showed that three-year, all-cause mortality rate for the patients who received transcatheter aortic valve replacement was 54.1%, compared to 80.9% for those who received standard therapy, according to Edwards.
The company noted that the study showed a higher stroke rate in the transcatheter patients as compared to the standard therapy patients, but “the two additional events between the second and third years of follow-up were adjudicated to not be related to the procedure or the device.”
Edwards presented the data from the study during the Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s 24th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific symposium in Miami.
CalOptima CFO
Michael Ewing is the new chief financial officer at Orange-based health plan CalOptima.
Ewing had served as interim chief financial officer of CalOptima for the past six months, overseeing the plan’s finance, human resources and facilities departments.
He will continue overseeing all of CalOptima’s financial matters in his new job.
Mike Engelhard, who had served as CalOptima’s chief financial officer for four years, is now chief executive of the Gold Coast Health Plan, which serves Medi-Cal beneficiaries in Ventura County.
Ewing’s background includes serving as a healthcare consultant for Irvine-based Resources Global Professionals. He also has been president of SCCI Hospitals, a specialty hospital operator that was later acquired.
