Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Valeo Pharma Inc. second quarter results conference call. At this time, all participants' lines are in a listen-only mode, but following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session.
If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Also note that the call is being recorded on June 15th, 2022 . I would like to turn the conference over to Frederic Dumais. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Present with me today on the call are Mr. Steve Saviuk, CEO, Mr. Frederic Fasano, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Luc Mainville, our Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer.
Before we begin our second quarter 2022 results and highlights conference call, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements regarding the company's expectation or future events.
Such expectations are based on certain assumptions that are founded on currently available information. If these assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements contained in this conference call.
The company disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, other than as required by security laws. I'd like to pass the call over now to Steve Saviuk, CEO. Please go ahead, Steve.
Thank you, Fred. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on our Q2 2022 results conference call. I will start by quickly reviewing the second quarter highlights and recent milestones. I'll pass the microphone over to Frederic Fasano, our president, who will provide more details on our commercial development and achievements for the quarter, as well as our ongoing commercial initiatives.
He'll be followed up by Senior VP and CFO Luc Mainville, who will give you a short overview of the second quarter financial results before we open the call for questions from our financial analysts. Our second quarter was another strong move forward for Valeo. Q2 revenues came in at CAD 4.8 million, up 80% over Q2 2021, and 14% over Q1.
Our gross margins reached CAD 1.7 million, up 134% over Q2 2021, and 21% over the first quarter of the year. Again, strong quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year performance. When we look at the company from the first half operating results, our revenues reached CAD 9 million, which compared to CAD 4.5 million for the same period last year, so a doubling of our revenues.
Our gross margins at CAD 3.1 million were almost triple the CAD 1.1 million that we had last year at this time. The quarter had some strong financial results and a lot of some very interesting operating results. We completed the reimbursement of Enerzair and Atectura with the announcement yesterday that both British Columbia and Newfoundland have now agreed to reimburse these two asthma therapies.
During the quarter, we also completed the reimbursement for Redesca in BC, so that makes both or all Enerzair, Atectura and Redesca approved for reimbursement in all provinces across Canada. A true milestone and a key underpinning of our commercial support needed for the coming quarters. We listed our debentures that we completed in December.
CAD 15 million of debentures were listed on the TSX, and the company shares were also listed on the TSX. We are now a full member of the Toronto Stock Exchange. When we look at our results, I'm sure some of you might have expected slightly higher numbers, and I'll explain why we were so pleased with our numbers. Really the key is how did we perform against our peers in our key drug segments?
As you know, COVID has been around for slightly more than two years now, and we see the effects of this waning. Certainly in the pharma industry, we're still feeling some of the headwinds that COVID has installed in the system. We expect to see these headwinds dissipating, and we'll give you. Fred will get into some of the examples.
Clearly one of them is in the area of prescriptions, where access to physicians is now returning closer to normal levels. I'll give you an indication that in terms of new-to-brand prescriptions in the respiratory area, these fell almost 75% from pre-COVID peaks. Here you have a lot less new prescriptions being generated for asthma therapies.
Yet, our two asthma therapies now place second in terms of new to brand prescriptions among all the established brands that are out there. We are currently seeing new prescriptions at a rate in excess of many of our competitors with significantly greater revenues. Fred will get into more of the details there.
As far as Redesca is concerned, we have a 54% market share of low-molecular-weight heparin biosimilars. We're clearly the leader, although our revenue growth isn't what we would expected there because some of the provinces are lagging in terms of their adoption of biosimilar switching. We again expect this in the coming months to change as provinces, specifically Ontario, adopt more favorable biosimilar programs. This bodes very well for Redesca in the coming months.
Lastly, before I switch to Fred, we know our research and development activities, as you know, are not. We do not perform any research and development activities, nor do we perform any manufacturing activities. These are typically done by our licensors or contract manufacturers.
The key for us, in terms of product growth, is business development activities. I can say that during the quarter we made significant advancements in trying to identify and negotiate with certain products that we believe will leverage our existing commercial infrastructure and provide us new opportunities to grow value for the years to come.
We expect that during the coming quarters, we'll be able to announce more developments on that front and hopefully the completion of certain agreements that are currently being discussed. With that, I'll give the microphone over to Fred, who will give you a little more color and detail on our key products, Redesca, Enerzair, and Atectura. Fred?
Yes. Thank you, Steve. And good morning, all. It's my pleasure again to report on the second quarter 2022 operational results and milestone and more specifically on where our lead products are standing on their respective market. I will also discuss, as you mentioned already, the environmental scanning particularly related to COVID-19 with regard to its impact on disease management and hospital procedures in our therapeutic areas.
Just the overall image of our Q2 sales results are showing a very nice progression. As Steve mentioned, 80% growth over Q2, 14% over Q1 of this year. Well, 80% versus Q2 of last year. It is also positioning a year-to-date growth at 100%. Even more importantly, this growth is now largely supported by the contribution of our lead products.
Redesca, Enerzair and Atectura, all three products account over 54% of our quarter revenues. Q2 is our second-highest quarter ever. If we go more specifically into the situation, first on Redesca and then second on our asthma product. Redesca continues to be our best-selling product and the dominant player on the market, ahead of the two other biosimilar competitors.
After only 12 months from the first introduction of Redesca in April 2021, all biosimilars together have captured 35% of the enoxaparin market. Redesca, as Steve mentioned, is leading the pack with 54% market share on this biosimilar market. There is still a lot of room to grow, but Redesca is already leading the pack.
More specifically, hospital and provincial listings of biosimilars have started to take place in some provinces like British Columbia or Quebec, but is still in the making in other provinces like Ontario or the Atlantics. This come as a result of COVID-19 impacting hospital personnel availability and decision-making processes.
Some GPO contract, even though already signed, have simply not started to kick in, and other hospitals are also delaying their transfer to a biosimilar up until their personnel will be available again. As we said, still a lot of room to grow on this market, but the delays have certainly limited our progression so far on this market.
Looking forward, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces are next on the list to come up with listing decisions, and our dedicated team is pushing for that to happen, of course, and they are well positioned to seize these further opportunities for us to grow Redesca. Provincial delisting of the original drug Lovenox, oftentimes being part of a broader provincial biosimilar framework, has played a key role to switch the market to cost-saving biosimilars opportunities, including Redesca.
Again, British Columbia and Quebec have done a great job with 80% and 70% of their respective enoxaparin market being now converted to biosimilar, respectively. Other provinces, as we said before, like Ontario, are lagging behind. Only 5% of their enoxaparin market is currently being transferred to biosimilars.
We expect Ontario to delist Lovenox in the coming months, and that will certainly trigger the decision of many hospitals to adopt a biosimilar like Redesca. Our CAM team, our care account manager team, is well positioned, especially in Ontario, to seize this opportunity. Another key determinant of our success so far is our ability to supply the Canadian market with no disruption in the chain, contrary to our competitors.
Hospitals are now carefully evaluating the supply readiness of manufacturers before making any decision, since the low-molecular-weight heparin products are life-saving drugs and among the essential medications for any hospital. We have been able, since the launch of Redesca, to maintain sufficient supply and avoid any shortages all along the way. Now our focus for Redesca is on consolidating our success in Quebec, carefully monitoring the situation in Ontario and in the Atlantic provinces, and be ready.
Prepare the ground for hospital using other low-molecular-weight heparin product to make also the switch to Redesca. This is what we call our secondary markets. Our respiratory franchise, Enerzair and Atectura, have also made substantial progresses on their respective market. This is despite COVID still impacting the way clinicians are managing asthma.
Indeed, healthcare providers seeing less asthma patients during the pandemic. In particular, seeing less asthma patients in person. Therefore, the number of treatment adaptation has drastically decreased, and the number of uncontrolled asthma patients has significantly increased over the same period of time. There is now a strong case for a call of action for healthcare providers to help these patients getting back to a good control of their disease.
While COVID-19 restrictions are going away, it is definitely time to reassess the control of asthma patients and adapt their treatment with newer alternative when needed. In other words, Atectura are among them. We have recorded, in terms of sales results, a substantial revenue progression, with both product generating above CAD 1 million gross revenue since launching.
Respiratory is now the second sales contributor in our portfolio after Redesca and M-Eslon in terms of top-line results. In other words, Atectura are seeing continuous growth in monthly number of prescribers, 447 at the end of April, and in total number of prescription, 8,214 at the end of April. This growth is mainly driven by switches from other asthma drugs to our drugs.
Today, more patients are switched to either Enerzair or Atectura than to other key, very well-established brands. Here I'm thinking about Breo Ellipta, Advair, or even Xarelto. That is talking about the growing recognition of the clinical value of those products, as well as the very positive early experience from a clinician and a patient standpoint.
In other words, Atectura are fast-growing asthma product in their respective segment, triple segment and dual agent segment, and feedback from patients, doctors, and caregivers are continuously positive. A doctor told us, for instance, "Atectura and Enerzair in a Breezhaler are a game changer to my patients with polypharmacy." Another one in Quebec said, "It's simple. My triple therapy of choice is Enerzair.
It works so well. Last but not least, as Steve mentioned also, we recently obtained the provincial listing for both products in British Columbia and a bit earlier on in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is therefore completing the market access process. Now, Enerzair and Atectura are both covered all across Canada.
To conclude on our respiratory franchise, while physicians' doors are reopening as the pandemic restriction are withdrawn, our focus now is on accelerating the uptake in terms of number of prescribers and number of prescription per prescribers. It is also on focusing on a core list of prescribers, including key specialists, and also on implementing new educational programs to share basically the early experience and early clinical results on those products. As it was said, we are proud for all our three lead product to have completed the market access process.
It is done. The public and private reimbursement is now completed across Canada. Redesca and other Atectura are now covered in all Canadian provinces with the recent addition of British Columbia. Redesca and other Atectura are also already covered by more probably 90%-95% of all the private payers. It has been done in a record time, as compared to the industry standards.
Our Q2 results are moving to the right direction, and we are now focused on time to break even for our company. We have to build on the current momentum behind our lead products to consolidate our performance and to reach our financial objectives. Accelerating our commercial performance on our strategic product will definitely help us getting there.
Our new corporate structure and commercial team is now well in place and performing well, even though the medical environment has been challenging over the last few months. Major opportunities, as I said before, are presenting themselves for all three products, and the team is well-positioned to seize these opportunities in order for us to maximize our growth.
With the team and structure now settled and running smoothly, Valeo can now accommodate bringing new products on board to leverage our current medical and commercial platform. We are looking to add immediately accretive products as well as strategic franchises, which will support Valeo's growth also in the midterm.
On the business development front, advanced discussions for potential additions to the existing product portfolio are currently taking place, and we hope, by doing so, to continue consolidating Valeo as a leading Canadian specialty pharma with these additional products.
I want to thank, as usual, all our employees at Valeo for their commitment, dedication, and hard work. This concludes the product and operational review section of our call, and I will now pass it over to Luc for a brief review of our quarterly results. Thank you.
Thank you, Fred. We continue to experience strong growth of our revenues and margins in Q2 2022. The sequential growth of our three transformative products, Redesca, Enerzair, and Atectura, has contributed to expand our margins and improve our operating results during the second quarter over prior quarter, while our base business has contributed lower than expected revenues and margins due to timing issues.
Already the next quarter is evidencing continued growth of our lead products as we leverage our strong working capital position to support the execution of our plan. Operating expenses are under control and slightly decreasing compared to prior quarters as we continue to take advantage of our cost control opportunities. During the quarter, we continued to leverage our commercial and head office infrastructure to support the growth of our revenues and assess opportunities to expand our commercial pipeline.
Now I'll go into a little bit more details on each of these, financial, highlights. Net revenues in Q2 2022 increased significantly over Q2 2021 at CAD 4.8 million compared to CAD 2.6 million, representing an 80% increase. For the year-to-date period, net revenues also showed a significant increase over year-to-date 2021 at CAD 9 million compared to CAD 4.5 million, representing a 100% increase.
The quarter-over-quarter and year-to-date increases resulted mainly from the strong contribution of Redesca, which has contributed to the full period in fiscal year 2022, compared to only one month in 2021.
The increase in revenue also reflected the continued commercial progress of Enerzair and Atectura. Since the last quarter of fiscal year 2021, sales of Enerzair and Atectura are growing monthly and are now having a material impact on our results.
With private reimbursement now exceeding 95% and public coverage being secured in all provinces, demand for these products is accelerating rapidly and fueled by a growing number of patients switching from other asthma therapies.
As more prescribers and patients adopt our drugs as their treatment of choice for their chronic indication, this growing pool of patients provide a strong base of revenue that will drive continued quarter-over-quarter revenue growth and margin expansion.
Due to the growing revenue, our gross margin contribution in the second quarter of 2022 more than doubled over Q2 2021 at CAD 1.7 million compared to CAD 0.7 million, representing a 134% increase. Gross margin contribution for the year-to-date period increased significantly over the year-to-date 2021 period, at CAD 3.1 million compared to CAD 1.1 million, representing a 180% increase.
Gross margin ratio for the same periods also increased due to the improvement of our product mix as Redesca and Enerzair and Atectura capture a greater percentage of our revenues. Now turning to operating expenses.
As we continue to experience growth of our revenue and margins, we continue to monitor and control our operating expenses. Total operating expenses in the second quarter and the year-to-date period stood at CAD 5.6 million and CAD 11.9 million, compared to CAD 2.3 million in Q2 2021 and CAD 4.3 million for the year-to-date 2021 period.
Our total OpEx have increased in the later part of fiscal year 2021 to support the growth of our commercial platform and head office infrastructure, but providing significant leverage to grow our revenue and add new products to our commercial portfolio.
Since the fourth quarter 2021, our ratio of total OpEx to revenues is declining as we take full advantage of this operating leverage. For the second quarter 2022, the ratio of total OpEx to revenue stood at 117%, compared to 149% for Q1 2022 and 229% for Q4 2021.
We expect the ratio of total OpEx to revenue to decline sequentially over the coming quarters as we continue to execute our commercial initiative and take advantage of the market opportunities for our lead products. As part of our OpEx, our Q2 2022 and year-to-date 2022 general and admin expenses benefited from a CAD 0.4 million gain following the recovery of part of the loss incurred in the last quarter of 2021 and associated with a bank fraud.
Now turning to financial expenses. Our financial expenses were CAD 1.2 million in Q2 2022 compared to CAD 0.2 million in Q2 2021, representing a CAD 1.0 million increase. Financial expenses for year to date were CAD 2.2 million compared to CAD 0.4 million in 2021.
The increase for each of Q2 2022 and year to date was due to a series of debenture financing closed over the past year, including a CAD 25 million convertible debenture financing in December 2021. The increase between the two reported quarters also included incremental lease interest charges, which resulted from the expansion and extension of our head office lease, as well as an increase in non-cash effective interest costs on the various debentures outstanding.
In Q2 2022, the growth of our revenue and margins have contributed to reduce our quarterly loss compared to the prior Q1 2022 period by 13%. Despite continued commercial gains, our net loss in Q2 2022 was CAD 5.1 million compared to CAD 1.9 million in Q2 2021.
Our net loss for year-to-date 2022 was CAD 11 million as compared to CAD 3.6 million in year-to-date 2021. Our net loss for the second quarter and the year-to-date period reflect the increase in financial costs, incremental costs involved in the creation of our commercial and head office infrastructure since the second part of 2021. These initiatives were required to capture the market opportunities for transformative products.
Considering the bulk of our OpEx expenses remain flat as a percentage of revenue, we expect that the continued growth of Redesca and Enerzair Atectura will drive quarterly sequential margin expansion and eliminate operating loss over time. EBITDA loss for the second quarter was CAD 3.7 million, compared to CAD 1.5 million in Q2 2021.
EBITDA loss for year-to-date 2022 was CAD 8.3 million, compared to CAD 2.9 million and for year-to-date 2021. Same as for our net loss analysis, our EBITDA loss for each of the periods reflected the net impact of the creation of our new commercial and corporate structure. EBITDA loss was up in Q2 at 2.1, but was down CAD 1 million compared to the prior quarter, an improvement of 22%, which is indicative of our progress made towards our objective of achieving EBITDA profitability.
Adjusted EBITDA loss in Q2 2022 was CAD 3.8 million compared to CAD 1.1 million in Q2 2021, representing a CAD 2.7 million increase, but down CAD 0.6 million or 14% compared to the prior Q1 2022 quarter. The adjusted EBITDA loss for year-to-date 2022 was CAD 8.2 million compared to CAD 2.2 million in 2021.
For the second quarter, our adjusted EBITDA loss also reflected a CAD 0.4 million negative adjustment for the partial recovery of the bank fraud, which was booked as a positive adjustment in Q4 2021. Cash used in operations for Q2 2022 was CAD 6.2 million compared to CAD 1.6 million in year-to-date 2021.
The CAD 4.6 million increase came from a CAD 3.2 million increase in net loss and a CAD 1.4 million increase in non-cash working capital mainly due to the reduction of trade payables and accrued liabilities. Cash used in operations was CAD 15.4 million for a year-to-date period compared to CAD 4.3 million in year-to-date 2021.
The CAD 11.2 million increase came from a CAD 7.4 million increase in net loss and a CAD 4.6 million increase in non-cash working capital utilization. Cash used in investing activities during Q2 2022 was CAD 0.1 million compared to CAD 2.1 million in Q1 2021. Cash used in investing activities was CAD 0.3 million in year-to-date 2022 compared to CAD 2.2 million in year-to-date 2021. There were nominal investments during the last quarters.
However, in 2021, we've spent roughly CAD 2.2 million to acquire the rights of the product rights on Atectura and Enerzair. Now turning to financial activities. During the second quarter, CAD 0.6 million was used to repay part of the non-convertible debenture issued in July 2020. During the year-to-date 2022, financing activities provided cash of CAD 18.7 million compared to CAD 7.4 million in year-to-date 2021 period.
In Q1 2022, Valeo secured a CAD 25 million gross proceeds financing from the convertible debenture, less, you know, CAD 4.8 million repayments on, in conversion of prior existing debentures. Cash and liquidity at the end of April 2022 stood at CAD 5.2 million as compared to CAD 2 million at the start of the year, representing a CAD 3.2 million increase.
Our working capital at the end of Q2 2022 stood at CAD 9.7 million as compared to CAD 3 million deficit at year-end, representing a CAD 12.6 million improvement. Following a series of successful financing in fiscal year 2021 and 2022, we have secured significant capital to strengthen our balance sheet and our cash position and provide liquidity to capture the significant market opportunities for our lead products.
Leveraging our commercial assets as well as securing other business development opportunities that can contribute immediately to our results and allow Valeo to reach EBITDA profitability over the coming year is of the utmost importance for Valeo's management. The corporation anticipates that the licensing of additional product rights and/or the commencement of additional product distribution agreements currently under advanced negotiation would materially impact Valeo's results.
Should Valeo be successful in completing such transaction, which is still uncertain at this time, they would significantly increase our existing revenues and margins, as well as provide material operational synergies by leveraging our existing head office and commercial platform. These initiatives would contribute to accelerate our profitability.
Historically, Valeo has been very successful in entering into licensing agreements and securing product rights by limiting funding requirements for such transactions. The existing and projected profitability of product rights currently being considered provide significant flexibility for deal structuring and to use licensing terms as a means of funding the deal economics and covering the bulk of the licensors' expected financial returns. This concludes the financial review part of the call, and I will now turn back the call to Steve.
Thank you, Luc and Fred. We are now ready to open the call for questions. Although this portion of the call is reserved for questions from financial analysts, we invite any of our shareholders or any other interested parties to contact us directly with any questions they may have, and we will try to get back to you as quickly as we can. Operator, you may now proceed with the questions part of this call.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. You will then hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request. If you would like to withdraw yourself from the question queue, please press star followed by two.
If you're using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you do have a question. Your first question will be from Scott McAuley at Paradigm. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, gentlemen. Congrats on the quarter. A few things from me. In terms of the, you know, cash flow or EBITDA breakeven goal kind of by the end of the fiscal year, you were kind of pretty emphatic last quarter on the call. Just wanted to check in that is still kind of in place and that goal is still kind of you see that goal as still being achievable by the end of the fiscal year. Maybe if you could take that.
Yeah. Thanks, Scott, for being on the call and, of course, always good questions. Yes, we're committed to break even in the near future. I think we've been clear on our intentions to leverage our existing assets, and, you know, maybe with the support of the combination of the existing asset growth, some cost, you know, control initiatives and also business development initiatives that have been on, you know, on the table for quite some time. We're committed to reach break-even profitability and not having to go back to the market to fund the operation. Right now, this is still our plan, and we feel good about the prospects.
Great. Kind of related to that on the balance sheet, you know, you're saying CAD 5.2 million in cash. Again, the kind of expectation is the current balance sheet should be able to fund you to that break-even point.
Yeah. One of the things that needs to be understood about the use of cash to support operation is that we need cash to support, of course, the OpEx, I guess, the negative burn associated with our operations. The bulk of the proceeds that have been raised over last year has been committed to supply chain requirements to position the company to, you know, to grow its top line.
Right now, as it stands, our operating cash flow are growing monthly and they're positive before supply chain requirements. Our working cap is, you know, has improved significantly and now stands roughly at CAD 10 million at the end of April. We're not planning on executing any additional product ordering until fiscal year 2023.
Also, we've added in the past, and we still continue to have access to non-dilutive financing such as supplier financing as well as our line of credit. We're actually currently under discussion to increase our line of credit to four-fold to take advantage of the increase in working capital assets. When you put all these pieces together, you know, we feel good about our cash position. Clearly, we'd like to have a stronger balance sheet, but you know, we're addressing the situation as we go.
Yep. No, that totally makes sense. Just a clarification on the BC reimbursement. Do you have a sense of when that will come into effect, in terms of a date?
Fred, maybe you can
Yeah. Scott, just very straightforward. The coverage of those products have started to take place in BC as of yesterday, the fourteenth of June.
That's great. That makes sense. Excellent.
We're covered across Canada on all three products. Again, with private, we didn't talk or maybe mention the private insurers, we're up over 95% on all three products also. The reimbursement side is very solid.
Definitely. In terms of the geographic concentration of prescriptions, is that kind of related with the reimbursement? Kind of seeing the most prescriptions in kind of those earlier provinces that signed on, or is it relatively even across the board?
That's definitely linked to the coverage. BC was clearly underperforming, even though BC has a very interesting private path due to the structure of the healthcare system over there. Definitely, where we have seen, you know, provinces not covering in the early days, we have been lagging behind. The bulk of growth is definitely coming from Ontario now, Quebec as well.
Alberta is doing well. We expect BC to contribute to, you know, to accelerate our performance. Keep in mind, BC is still in between the third or the fourth largest market in Canada, going along very close to Alberta after, of course, Ontario being the first and Quebec being the second.
Definitely is linked to the ability to get public.
Definitely. Just lastly from me, for now, in terms of the pipeline for Redesca, and, you know, upcoming provincial or hospital contracts, 'cause my understanding is these can be relatively lumpy, you know, as one province or hospital kind of makes that biosimilar switch.
Kind of within this quarter and kind of the coming months, are you expecting or are you seeing kind of good movement? You know, you'd highlighted that it's a bit slower than you had expected, but, are things still progressing, as those provinces switch, like you have some good contracts kind of in the pipeline?
Yeah, Scott, of course. You can imagine we are monitoring every, you know, progress every week with our field team. We are expecting the Atlantic provinces now to move forward in the coming weeks, which will again represent a first opportunity for now for us and for Redesca. I would say there is a bit more uncertainty in Ontario. The key point to understand is it will definitely be linked to the ODB, the Ontario Drug Benefit plan, deciding to delist Lovenox.
That's quite, you know, making a compelling story here with provinces having moved forward with the delisting and now enjoying, you know, an over 70% share of the biosimilar as part of the enoxaparin market and Ontario just lagging behind.
Again, less than 5% is owned by biosimilars. The case is quite compelling now to accelerate. To be honest, they are now out of the election mode. We expect that really as a key next step in Ontario, again to support, you know, the decision-making process for hospitals. That, when is that coming to take place? We are not very clear on that, but we expect that in the coming months for sure.
That's great. Thank you, gentlemen. That's it for me for now.
Thanks, Scott.
Thanks, Scott.
Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. Your next question will be from Chelsea Stellick at iA Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hello, good morning. Congrats on the TSX listing there. I just have two or three questions. My first one is just some clarity on the dip in the market share for Redesca. I know last quarter was 61% and this quarter is 54%, so just some color on that would be great.
For Chelsea, good morning. In terms of the evolution of our market share is a reflection of the progression of towards us. Keep in mind, we were the first one to introduce Redesca on the market. Our volume in sales is growing, but market share is now distributing itself in between the three biosimilars.
That's coming as a result of having these numbers getting down, but volumes themselves have really in a very nice way as the biosimilar market is eroding the Lovenox market. For that, I think this is the point of again, it's the fact we were owning in the early days even 100% of the market up to the two other biosimilars being introduced. Now we have this kind of distribution in market share that is stabilizing around those numbers as a result again of the other growing and as a result of biosimilars eroding the Lovenox share of market.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. And then my second question, I might have missed this, but could you just give me a picture, I guess, in terms of magnitude of how many patients are switching from existing treatment towards Atectura and Enerzair?
I know the NBRx measure in the IQVIA, that one is. You know, I know you give that one. I'm just more curious on the magnitude of switching and sort of where this data comes from. Like, does it come from the physicians? Do they see any reasons for the switch or anything like that?
First off, Chelsea, the first reason to switch is really lack of control. Then you go downstream, where is the lack of control coming from? Probably to a certain extent, the lack of efficacy of the ongoing treatment is one. The lack of compliance is another one. COVID-19 has also kind of put another gap in terms of patient care.
Basically, it is definitely when you see a lack of control, meaning increasing symptoms, you know, you can have, you know, under a chronic treatment, you may have symptoms that could come once a week or once every two weeks, and suddenly you have more frequency of symptoms that are coming out. Or you may also be assessed from your lung function standpoint by doing a spirometry.
It is showing a reduction of your lung function. Those are the main. Last but not least, of course, the worst event you can have is patients accumulating all worsening of symptoms at the same time and therefore going to an exacerbation of asthma.
Those are the main reason why a physician would consider switching. This is true for us, this is true for any treatment. To give you a sense of how many of the flow of patients switch to our product, we are monitoring for that the NBRx. The number we are sharing our rolling quarter number. The last one we had in April was around 4,000 NBRx in the previous three months.
Meaning that you would have a flow probably of around 1,000-1,500 patients every month at the current pace. Pace is growing, but at the current pace, this is the number of new patients that are going either to Enerzair or Atectura.
Perfect. I guess my last question is more, I think I just missed it. In terms of, I know that in the press release, you said that revenue was impacted, mainly timing issues is. I know you said that was COVID related. Just give a little bit more clarity on that.
I'll take that one, Steve. Hi, Chelsea. Nice to have you on the call. I guess that.
Hello.
Hi. I guess the timing issues that we're referring to here is that as you know, our base business, the main product that is driving the main business is M-Eslon, which is growing annually, but has a quarter-over-quarter sort of fluctuations that are based on, you know, hospital contracts, supplies and stuff like that.
It just happens that if you miss a significant order in one month and it carries into the next quarter, you will have these dips and swings from one quarter to the next. I think the graph that we've included in the MD&A illustrates that, you know, the business has gone down.
As of today, I can say that the M-Eslon was above budget in May and recovered most of the, I guess, negative variance that we saw in Q2. Nothing to do really with COVID. It's more a question of when these orders take place for products that are mature in contributing quarter over quarter to our numbers, but without, you know, significant growth.
Perfect. Okay. Thank you. You know, rebound next quarter is what we can expect then?
Yeah.
Perfect. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Chelsea.
Thank you, Chelsea.
Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question at this time, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. At this time, gentlemen, we have no further questions. Please proceed.
Thank you, operator. Well, thanks for being on this call. You know, we all realize what's going on in the markets and in the world these days. It's a very difficult situation, moving out of COVID now into higher interest rates. A lot of headwinds. We still feel very confident about Valeo's place in the Canadian healthcare system and healthcare landscape. We're showing strong quarter-over-quarter growth.
That's a key metric for us, as well as increased margins and decreased loss. Our asthma drugs are fast growing, and as Fred mentioned earlier, are placed number two in new-to-brand prescriptions. It's a significant. We're actually generating more new prescriptions than drugs that are doing CAD 75 million, CAD 100 million as our competitors.
We clearly think that these two drugs are gonna become among the lead therapies in Canada in the coming years. We are focused, and we've said this on pretty well every call, that there's a dedication to getting to cash flow break even. We know what that means to our balance sheet and our financial results. We know that, what that means to our shareholders, the reduction of dilution. Clearly, as we continue to have said also, that management board and employees continue to own well over 50% of the company. Dilution is a pain that all of us feel, and our efforts are very much along the lines of trying to get to that cash-positive cash flow position and ensure that dilution remains in check.
What I'd like to thank, again, as Fred did also, our employees, all the stakeholders around Valeo and our shareholders, many of you have been with us since our initial public days. We thank you for your support, and we are committed to rewarding you for that support. Again, thank you for the continued interest and support. We look forward to keeping you up to date on all our exciting developments, whether through press releases or calls of such nature, and look forward to speaking with you all shortly. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines. Enjoy the rest of your day.