Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Valeo Pharma Inc. First Quarter Results Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. This call is being recorded on Thursday, March sixteenth, twenty twenty-three.
Bonjour mesdames et messieurs, et bienvenue à la conférence téléphonique sur les résultats du premier trimestre de Valeo Pharma Inc. En ce moment, toutes les lignes sont en mode discrétion. Après la présentation, nous aurons une session de questions et réponses. J'aimerais vous rappeler que cet appel est enregistré aujourd'hui, jeudi le seize mars deux mille vingt-trois. Je vais maintenant céder la parole à Monsieur Frédéric Dumais, Directeur des Relations avec les Investisseurs Communications pour Valeo. I would now like to turn the conference over to Frédéric Dumais, Director of Investor Relations and Communication for Valeo. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Present with me today for our 1st quarter 2023 financial results conference call are Mr. Steve Saviuk, our CEO, and Mr. Luc Mainville, our Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin our call, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements regarding the company's expectations 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 statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, other than as required by security laws.
I would now like to pass the call over to our CEO, Steve Saviuk. Please go ahead, Steve.
Thank you, Fred. Good morning and thank you for joining us for Valeo's First Quarter 2023 Financial Highlights Conference Call. Over the course of the last several years, Valeo Pharma has been transformed through the acquisition of 6 innovative drugs and commercial organization into three therapeutically focused business units, Respiratory, Ophthalmology, and our Hospital Specialty Group. Our financial operating results have been greatly impacted by these new drugs and the continued revenue growth that they are providing. This growth is positioning Valeo as one of the leading publicly traded, domestically owned pharmaceutical companies in Canada. Our first quarter of fiscal 2023 ended January 31st, 2023, saw Valeo generate record revenues of CAD 13.2 million, an increase of over 210% from the equivalent quarter last year and the fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth.
Margins increased to CAD 4.2 million, up 178% over the same period last year, while adjusted EBITDA loss increased to CAD 2.2 million, a 51% improvement from 2022. Both margins and adjusted EBITDA loss showed improvement for the 5th straight quarter. We expect these favorable trends to be continuing as our core products continue to gain prescription growth. Our robust revenue performance in the quarter reflects physician awareness and adoption of the strong therapeutic benefits of our products and the effectiveness of our 80-plus person strong field, commercial field team aligned within our three therapeutic units. With current employment at 125, we expect that expenses going forward will flatten at current levels and the door is open to leverage further strategic product acquisitions at nominal increase in operating costs.
Let's talk about our business units and the products in particular. Our respiratory and allergy business unit with two advanced asthma therapies, Enerzair Breezhaler and Atectura Breezhaler, continues to demonstrate significant month-over-month prescriber and prescription growth. At the end of the first quarter, prescribing physicians reached almost 1,600, a 39% growth from the prior quarter, while total prescriptions grew 41% during the same period. With the products having been launched only 15 months prior, we are very pleased to have attained these physician numbers and prescription levels. We'd also like to add that the products are covered across Canada, both by private and public health plans. Changing the established prescribing habits of physicians takes time and breadth of coverage. Demonstrating the compelling therapeutic benefits of our asthma drugs through physician interaction, educational programs, and extensive sampling is driving product adoption.
Our products are now amongst the leading recommendations by respiratory specialists. We are also seeing a strong increase in the number of primary care physicians. Primary care physicians generate the bulk of asthma prescriptions in Canada. The Canadian asthma market is approximately $700 million annually. We are challenging the established asthma brands and gaining increased physician adoption through our dedicated commercial field team, expected to engage in over 40,000 physician interactions this year. Despite advances in electronic technology, personal interactions continue to be the most favored and effective means of demonstrating product benefits. Our sales representative call efficiency, that is, the number of physician interactions that we engage in on a daily basis, have improved dramatically over the last few quarters, returning to pre-COVID levels.
We continue to forecast that our two asthma therapies have expected peak revenue potential in excess of $100 million. Our epinephrine auto-injector, Allerject, for the treatment of severe allergic reactions had limited impact on our revenues in the first quarter. We have developed an innovative awareness campaign in preparation for our official commercial launch of Allerject, which takes place this month, the month of March, in advance of the cyclically strong May through September months. With its voice-activated delivery device and industry-leading reliability rating, Allerject brings true change and benefit to this market segment. In late August of 2022, we acquired the license rights to two Ophthalmology therapies from Novartis Canada. Xiidra, used for the prescription treatment of dry eye, and Simbrinza, used to treat high pressure in the eye, known as glaucoma.
With existing revenues of approximately CAD 23 million, these two patented drugs have strong established therapeutic benefits and have formed the backbone of our newly formed Ophthalmology Business Unit. The business unit is currently optimally staffed, fully trained, and commenced commercial activities in late November. The resumption by Valeo of promotional activities for these two therapies using conventional as well as innovative outreach strategies is expected to yield continued product growth in the quarters to come. As our Ophthalmology unit has become functional and we assess the competitive landscape, our expectations for our current product portfolio and the opportunities to broaden our Ophthalmology portfolio have increased dramatically. We have targeted and expect to acquire additional ophthalmic therapies, thus leveraging our commercial capabilities and build the broader product portfolio that benefits our target physician audience.
Our specialty business unit centers around Redesca, a hospital-based anticoagulant which delivered a record revenue quarter in Q1. Redesca is the number one enoxaparin biosimilar in Canada. That growth is expected to continue as the province of Ontario adopts a policy favoring biosimilars. This policy is to come into effect April 1. Ontario represents 45% of the Canadian enoxaparin market. While we expect the biosimilar conversion to take place over a number of quarters, Redesca is well positioned to capture share in this provincial market opportunity. In addition, our medical team has been engaging with hospitals across the country to educate them on the benefits of adopting Redesca over other anticoagulant biologics, principally dalteparin and tinzaparin, which would more than double the addressable market for Redesca.
Valeo has a diverse and innovative drug portfolio, broad commercial capabilities, and an experienced management team. With a current annualized revenue run rate in excess of CAD 50 million, we expect that revenues for fiscal 2023 will reach CAD 60+ million at over 100% increase from 2022. I would like to wind up my portion of the call by paying tribute to the over 125 entrepreneurial women and men whose daily efforts continue to make Valeo one of the fastest-growing healthcare companies in Canada. Valeo brings innovation to Canadians, innovation means better healthcare. With that, I'd like to turn the microphone over to Mr. Mainville, who will continue on with some of the financial metrics of our quarter.
Thank you, Steve. I will start my review with some general comments. During our first quarter of fiscal year 23, the combination of growing revenue has led to record quarterly margins. This, coupled with strict control over OpEx, has contributed to a fifth consecutive adjusted EBITDA loss reduction since Valeo implemented its new corporate and commercial infrastructure at the end of fiscal year 21. That new infrastructure was required to support our expanding product portfolio, which now represents peak sales potential north of CAD 200 million, 4 times our current level. The last quarters have clearly demonstrated our ability to take advantage of our corporate and commercial platform to generate improved top line and margins without adding OpEx. We look forward to continuing down that path.
Our financial results for Q1 23 also show the full impact of two financing transactions completed during fiscal year 22. Both transactions have provided Valeo with the capital required to acquire rights to Xiidra, Simbrinza, and Allerject, and to fund operations and working capital requirements associated with those new products. I'll now cover our results in more details. The corporation achieved record revenue for a third consecutive quarter in Q1 2023 at CAD 13.2 million, compared to revenues of CAD 4.2 million in Q1 2022. Revenues in Q1 2023 increased for the fifth consecutive quarter at 210% over the first quarter of 2022.
The increase resulted mainly from the addition of Xiidra, Simbrinza, and Allerject, but also from the continued growth of our core products, Redesca and Enerzair and Atectura. Revenues from the respiratory and allergy business unit have grown more than 1,500% between the two periods. Note that while we experienced strong revenue growth in Q1 2023, some of our products underperformed due to seasonality or timing issues. Our gross profit contribution in Q1 2023 was up 165% over Q1 2022 at CAD 3.7 million. Despite the strong growth of our gross profit percentage, our gross profit in Q1, our gross profit percentage has declined.
Due to the amortization costs for products acquired during the Novartis and Kaléo license signed in Q3 2022. After eliminating the amortization charges on intangibles, our adjusted gross profit for Q1 2023 increased significantly over Q1 2022 at CAD 4.2 million compared to CAD 1.5 million, representing a 178% increase. Adjusted gross profit margin percentage has decreased from 36% in Q1 2022 to 32% in Q1 2023 as a result of the change in product mix, with Xiidra, Simbrinza and Allerject contributing to more than 40% of our Q1 revenue.
As a reminder, the structure of the Xiidra and Simbrinza deal with Novartis includes lower margins in the first couple of years of the agreement to compensate for lower upfront payment when acquiring the commercial rights to these products. The net transfer price on Xiidra, Simbrinza will reduce throughout the term of the agreement, thus leading to expanded margins. Gross margins for Allerject is also expected to materially improve over time. Our total OpEx for Q1 2023 stood at CAD 7.6 million, compared to CAD 6.4 million in Q1 2022.
Our total OpEx increased in the later part of fiscal year 2022 to reflect the addition of the Ophthalmology Business Unit. Despite the addition of this third Commercial Business Unit and the corresponding impact on our sales and marketing expenses, as well as a non-recurrent CAD 0.4 million severance expense included in our G&A, our ratio of total OpEx to revenue in Q1 2023 has declined from 150% in Q1 2022 to less than 58% in Q1 2023. We expect our total OpEx to remain flat over the coming quarters and for the ratio of total OpEx to revenue to decline sequentially as we continue to leverage our commercial and corporate infrastructure and take full advantage of the market opportunity for our lead products.
Our financial expenses were CAD 2.5 million in Q1 2023 compared to CAD 1 million in Q1 2022. Financial expenses for Q1 2023 included the full impact of the CAD 25 million convertible debenture financing completed in December 2021, as well as the $30 million USD debt financing completed in July 2022. As detailed in note 21 of our quarterly financial statements, financial expenses in Q1 included interest and effective interest on the convertible debenture and long-term debt, as well as a CAD 0.2 million payment of royalties on the Sagard loan.
Financial expenses in Q1 2023 have been offset by a CAD 0.7 million net foreign exchange gain resulting from the conversion of our US dollar-denominated Sagard loan. In Q1 2023, our net loss was CAD 6.3 million compared to CAD 6 million in Q1 2022, representing a 5% increase. The increase in net loss was due to the increase in sales and marketing expenses as well as financial expenses between the two periods, which was partly offset by the significant increase in our gross profit. EBITDA loss in Q1 2023 was $2.5 million compared to $4.7 million in Q1 2022, a 48% increase. Adjusted EBITDA loss in Q1 2023 declined for the fifth consecutive quarter to $2.2 million compared to $4.5 million in Q1 2022, representing a 51% improvement.
Our cash balance at the end of Q1 2023 stood at $11 million. During Q1 2023, $11.5 million was used to support our activities, including a non-recurrent $5 million payment to Novartis, representing the second and last license fee payment for acquiring the rights to Xiidra and Simbrinza. During the quarter, our inventories also increased by CAD 4.5 million to position Valeo for growth. We believe our current inventory level to be adequate to support our top-line objectives for fiscal year 2023. With growing margins, strict control over operating expenses is rapidly translating into reduced operational requirements. Our cash position at the end of the quarter, as well as access to an operating line of credit, which is permitted under the Sagard Agreement, will help us continue implementing our growth strategy.
This concludes the financial part of our call, and I will now turn the call back to Steve.
Thank you, Luc. We are now ready to open the call up 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 that they may have, and we will endeavor to get back to you as quickly as we can. Operator, you may now proceed with the questions part of this call.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touch tone phone. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press the star followed by the two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from Stefan Quenneville from Echelon Wealth Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys, thanks for taking my question, congrats on the strong quarter. I have a few questions for you, some kind of specific and one sort of more of an essay question, so I'll save that for the end. First, on your asthma drugs, can you describe if you're seeing any differences in prescribing patterns between specialists and GPs?
Sorry. Clearly the early adopters for Enerzair and Atectura have been the respirologists. They're the really the top of the food chain in terms of asthma treatment in Canada. We were currently number 1, I believe, with against all our other competitors in terms of new prescriptions from this group. What we have done in terms of our marketing activities, in terms of our awareness activities with the GP population. As you know, the general practitioners do supply the bulk of the asthma prescriptions in Canada. We've done a lot of learnings and roundtables with these respirologists to impart their knowledge upon general practitioners and advise them as to which circumstances they should prescribe Enerzair and Atectura.
What we are seeing, and maybe if I answer your question more directly. We're seeing a growth in the number of family practitioners, general practitioners, and this is key. Our target is approximately 11,000 family practitioners, which make up the bulk of asthma prescriptions in Canada, well over 75%. Really the important thing is to use the knowledge base of and the respect that the respirologists have to impart that on the general practitioners, change their prescribing habits, which I have indicated do take time as they've been used to prescribing some of the others or other asthma medications for maybe the course of the last 10 years. The compelling therapeutic benefits are leading that charge, that change.
As you know, sort of the paradigm of how this happens is a general practitioner will prescribe for several patients a new therapy. They'll wait, the patients come back, talk about how it's working, and that'll expand that therapy within his practice. We're very pleased with the fact that we're up to about 1,600 doctors in 15 months, and we're growing with, you know, 150-200 doctors per month, and we expect that to grow. We also, this year, have what we call our . Really we want to double the number of prescribers. Also within that prescriber group, we want to be able to help them in identifying the types of patients that they should be switching on to Enerzair and Atectura.
I think that's gonna help, and that should lead to significant prescription growth in the last three quarters of this year. We're already seeing it in the first few months of Q2, where our asthma therapies are definitely stronger than they have been in the past.
That's great. Thanks for that color. I have, maybe a bit of a question for Luc now. There was a bit of an inventory build in the quarter. How should we think about inventory levels for the balance of the year?
Well, Stefan, first, thanks for joining the call and good job on launching coverage on Valeo last week. Happy to have you in the group of analysts. Regarding the inventory level, you know, what we've done is we made sure that we anticipated the growth in fiscal year 2023. Due to minimum order quantity and timelines for, you know, for supply chain, we've really built up the inventory at this point in time. We expect that from here to the end of the year, I actually don't anticipate that my current inventory level will be growing. Turning that into, you know, no further investment in working capital to support the growth in fiscal year 2023.
That is despite, of course, the quarter-over-quarter growth that we're anticipating.
Got it. Thanks for that. Then the finally is, I guess more of the essay question. I doubt you guys are gonna answer this directly, as you guys are probably aware, there's been some, you know, news about Novartis looking to perhaps sell or divest of its Ophthalmology business or certain Ophthalmology drugs. It's sort of out there. It was, you know, you know, there were rumors for months and there was some articles earlier this week in Bloomberg and elsewhere. Very credible information out there about that process with Novartis. You know, obviously you're quite close to the company.
With, you know, that background, can you maybe talk about your, you know, business development efforts and what we might be seeing from you guys in the next couple quarters?
Yeah. Well, we certainly have, as you know, a very good relationship with Novartis, and I think it's an open and frank discussion. Then, we've also been made aware of those of the, you know, rumors circulating around Ophthalmology. We feel very secure with the assets we have. We look forward to potentially expanding our relationship with Novartis with on Ophthalmology assets. We continue to believe that Ophthalmology and in my my sort of dialogue earlier, we're getting more and more optimistic about the opportunities in Ophthalmology with Novartis and with other companies. We really see an opportunity to build an Ophthalmology portfolio in Canada that is really innovative, that's bringing new solutions.
I mean, the solutions we have with Novartis are actually have been already launched in the market. For our opportunity there is to really increase awareness and support. Some Ophthalmology products, specifically in dry eye, need that support. Without the support, the sales tend to stagnate. We also see great opportunities with new therapies for whether it's presbyopia, the retina
Elsewhere, we're quite excited about what Ophthalmology could become for us in the future.
Oh, that's great. Thanks for that. That's all from me.
Thank you, Stefan.
Thanks.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one. Your next question comes from Scott McAuley from Paradigm Capital. Please go ahead.
Morning, gentlemen. Congrats on the quarter.
Morning, Scott.
Great to see the growth and kind of OpEx being flat. It's exactly what you guys have been talking about. I just wanted to dive a bit deeper into kind of the balance sheet. Luc, that was kind of great color on the expectations for inventories. Just kind of looking forward across either the cash on hand and the operating line of credit, kind of do you expect to have kind of enough cash to reach that break-even point, that I know you're kind of targeting in the next few quarters?
Hi, Scott, and thanks for joining the call. Well, you know, I think the cash is clearly number one priority for the company. People look at cash and the runway to reach break even. As we know, cash is being used for, you know, two main reasons, actually three main reasons: acquiring assets, but on the operational side, it's working capital to support the growth and, of course, the support the operations when you're in a loss situation. I think I've made enough statements about the fact that we've had to build our inventory level significantly over the last couple of quarters following the acquisition of a couple of products, and also to position for the continued growth of Redesca and Ozurdex Tura.
I did mention that I don't anticipate any further build in the inventory going throughout the year. Made comments about the, you know, the improvement of margins translating into lower operating requirements. Now that we're roughly at $2.2 million EBITDA loss and going down, you know, sequentially, the runway for $11 million plus access to cash gives us a good position to fund the growth. However, We recognize that the, you know, this is not... Our balance sheet could be stronger, and we're looking for non-dilutive ways to improve our flexibility to reach that break even. We have solution. We have strong financial partners that are working with us.
We're comfortable now, Scott, but of course, you can always have more flexibility. At this point in time, we feel good about the situation and we feel good about the strategy that we're implementing to make sure that this doesn't cause a, an issue.
Absolutely. Oh, I appreciate that extra color. Just on the, you know, you have Sagard and Investissement Québec as part of your partners on some of your loans, are there any covenants related to those? I'm assuming kind of all those are in the clear and, you know, as said, they've been kind of supportive of this plan for quite a while now.
First of all, we have no covenants with Investissement Québec. Don't forget, Investissement Québec has been given us money as part of a CAD 25 million debenture. They rank pari passu with the others on that. Nothing specific on that. With regards to the Sagard loan, we have financial covenants that will kick in in the third year, first quarter of the third year, which is a Q1 of calendar 2024. We do have a cash reserve that has to be kept. However, the cash reserves also allows for the implementation of a line of credit. Right now we're working on implementing that line of credit.
We have in excess of close to CAD 20 million of working capital assets that can be put towards implementing a line of credit, and there's a carve out under the Sagard loan for that. That's basically what we're working on right now. We have no other financial covenants to respect.
Fantastic. That's wonderful. Just kind of maybe lastly, the, you know, as you say, the growth in prescribing docs has been fantastic, kind of month over month over month. Are you seeing them kind of switch kind of one or two? Like if they're looking at Enerzair and Atectura, are they kind of switching over one or two, kind of still testing it out? Are you seeing some of those docs really kind of embrace it and looking to switch over their entire portfolio? I know you had highlighted kind of working with them to help identify which patients might benefit best. But are they still in that testing phase, or are there some that are really kind of going down the road with it?
I think it's a combination, Scott. If you look at it as a matrix right now, if we look at respirologists, for instance, I think that you'd see that, you know, they do have patients which are performing well under their current meds, and obviously there's no reason to switch those patients. You're looking at that.
A fairly large percentage of Canadians, approximately 50%, that don't feel their symptoms are being controlled. In that case, we're starting to see where overall respirologists were the number 1 brand that they're switching patients to. That's continuing. And general practitioners, likewise, they'll start with a couple of patients, and then they'll add as they see the those number of patients return with improvements in symptoms. We get it almost on a weekly basis from the field where you get comments like, "I can sleep through the night. I can take my dog for a walk without any issues.
Why didn't you prescribe me this drug or, you know, years ago? That's the kind of, I sort of say anecdotal comments we're getting back. These resonate with physicians because ultimately, you know, in clinical trials, you measure symptoms, you can measure them quantitatively. Practically speaking for a patient that's, you know, the average person such as yourself and myself, although I don't believe we either have asthma, but I would say for an asthmatic in Canada is moderate to severe. I mean, they're living with just the fact that they don't feel good. They don't feel they can breathe as much. As those patients, as we get that information back, doctors are more and more comfortable.
That goes to our program where we say, for a doctor that, let's say, is writing five prescriptions per month on average of Enerzair, how do we get him to identify more patients? We are doing things like spirometry clinics, where we actually provide physicians with a device where they can actually measure patients' lung capacity and see from them and be able to be proactive with the patient, saying, "I know you're not complaining, but your lung capacity isn't where it should be. Therefore, you should move to a new medication. This Enerzair product is providing that with my client base." It's really a question of the new doctors trying it on a few patients and then having that wait-and-see and then being, you know, more having that patient confirmation.
While some doctors who've been prescribing it for six months, they're very active now. We would expect to see the number of prescriptions grow exponentially vis-à-vis the growth of physicians in this year. You know, you remember, we've been out there 15 months. You know, if you looked at the numbers of physicians, an 800% increase year-over-year was because a year ago, we had very few doctors prescribing, and we had a few hundred, probably. Now we're at 60. I think it takes time, but the trends are very, very positive. We're very optimistic that we're seeing the prescription growth.
As I've said, we are seeing it now on a month-by-month, even week-by-week basis, where the we see it ex factory in terms of how much product we ship out, but we also see it in terms of TSA data, which is how much product is coming out of the drugstores or the pharmacies into patients, and both are increasing. That's everything's confirming that our strategies are working, and we just. It's really a game of perseverance. We really. You just have to get out to see those. Our target audience is about 12,000-14,000 doctors. We're gonna make 45,000 or 40-plus thousand doctor calls this year. You know, as statistics show, it takes on average six calls to get the first script, six to 10 call.
you know, we're still in the infancy of this drug. I think, internally, we're very satisfied with the uptake. The uptake is as a result of its clear, strong clinical benefits, not statistical benefits to a patient, real-life benefits that we're seeing.
That's great. Appreciate that, Steve. Congrats again, and I'll hop back into the queue.
Thank you, Scott.
Thanks.
Your next question comes from André Audet from Research Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, Steve and Luc. Nice to see you both.
Hi, André.
Just.
Hi, André.
Guys. Just, I'm looking at your Sagardd loan and just had a couple questions really. If you're gonna in-license a drug or acquire a drug, would you still be able to tap that CAD 10 million Sagardd loan? What would be the contingencies around that to be able to take that line in?
Luc, maybe you could.
Thanks, André, for your question. Well, when we did the Sagardd transaction, I mean, it was clear that Sagardd was not only investing in 2022, but they were looking to become a partner to support our growth, hence the $10 million additional commitment. The way to see that $10 million additional commitment is $10 plus because, you know, typical transaction that Sagardd has done historically is north of $50 million USD. We're at the bottom, actually lower than their entry point in most of their transactions. Sagardd will be supportive, assuming, of course, the assets that we present are, you know, in line with expectations. They'll be supportive for $10 plus a million-dollar commitments.
We really take that into consideration in our business development efforts that we can tapping into that CAD 10 million. You know, we know it's available, but of course, we've got to put the deal together, present the deal, and make sure that they value those assets the same way they value the rest of our portfolio. If we match those criteria, we believe that will be available. The way to consider the additional commitment, it will be on top of the existing structure. With probably piggybacking on the same kinds of covenants in terms of repayment schedule and leveraging the same interest rates.
You know, maybe I'll add just one thing, Luc, you know, Andre, the type of opportunities we're looking at right now in the course of the next, 6-plus months are immediately accretive. We're not buying or we don't anticipate engaging in development assets. We're looking at assets that can drive revenue and may have revenue already. Anything that we would do with on a debt basis would be accretive from a cash flow perspective from day 1. I think that makes those, you know, those opportunities and for funding much more realistic because you're actually positive cash flow after financing costs. That's the criteria we're using for the assets that we're looking at right now.
Maybe a last comment, André, to go back on the structure of the, you know, the how they're being compensated for the loan. There's of course an interest component, but there's a royalty component, and should we attract additional assets, of course, the royalty will be on net sales that comes with those assets. On top of the interest on additional financial commitment, they'll get the royalty kicker for the incremental revenue. That's the way it's been structured.
That's useful. That's useful. I know you're going around in circles a little bit. Just in terms of business development, how close would you say you are to bringing in an additional product to top that extra CAD 10 million there?
Well, it's, you know, that's a, it's, you know, I, everyone, I guess, would prefer to say until it's done, it's not done, right? I guess, we've learned that over time. All I can say is we're in advanced discussions. We've identified some assets that meet our criteria. You know, I would like to think that we will get something done in the next couple of quarters. That's what I'd like to think. Again, it's one of those things that, you know, the for want of a screw, the house will fall kind of thing. You never know until the deal is signed. We're optimistic. We, you know, we've, as you've known, we've done a number of deals over our history.
We were an in-licenser by basically business model. We, we kinda get a good feeling when things are going the right direction and wrong direction. We feel optimistic that we're gonna have something to add that will help, you know, help us in the next couple of quarters. Our overall, like one of the basic everyday discussions I have with the team, management team and Luc and I when we sit around is how do we gotta get to breakeven cash flow quicker. What are the types of opportunities? How can we expand margins? How can we reduce inventory carrying costs or global inventory value? Anything to get us to that cash flow breakeven point, because we know that's a tipping point in many investors' eyes.
Our focus is there, and these opportunities we're looking at will help us get towards that number quicker. It's not about can we get there with our existing portfolio? Yes, but we wanna get there quicker.
Useful, Steve. Just in terms of looking at strategically, if you look at your portfolio, are there any non-core assets, products, like older products that you could divest to possibly raise some cash as well?
You know, it's. We're, you know, very. If you look at us, 2 years ago and look at us today, we were, now we're in respiratory slash GP. It's, we really like those asthma assets. We think they're the real cornerstone of our company. Ophthalmology is quickly in the last 9 months, become a big revenue generator. Not only that, as we sit back and look at that competitive landscape, we see even greater opportunities for Ophthalmology in Canada. There's really no mid-tier player in Canada. There are a lot of either older assets or potential new assets that are there. Do we have? Yeah, we have some smaller products and that may not be core. If we, you know, if we see fit, we would...
We're not obtuse or adverse to making to doing something that makes us a stronger company from a cash position and even from a focus position. There that's probably the most I could say right now.
Okay. That's fair. One last one. In terms of your balance sheet, how much more debt would you take on for working capital without another acquisition?
Luc, you wanna?
Well, I mentioned that, you know, we don't anticipate further working capital increase for next couple of quarters. If you read between the lines, André, is we're committed to add assets before the end of the current fiscal year. Those assets will be accretive. We'll of course, the intent is that for those assets to bring margins that will eliminate or the gap, which is declining quarterly, but, you know, we'll accelerate that.
With the plan basically is not to add additional debt to cover working cap, but to add additional debt to go after assets that will be accretive overnight. We do believe that, you know, we, you know, because of our quarter-over-quarter growth, should we add debt to acquire, you know, additional assets, that debt would not be long-term debt. Would be probably, you know, a bridge to profitability, or to break-even cash flow. You know, the, there's no expectation to bring debt to increase inventory receivable, but only to acquire assets.
Yeah, that's great. Thanks, Luc, and thanks, Steve.
Thank you, André.
Presenters, there are no further questions at this time. Please proceed with your closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. Well, in summary, I really appreciate everyone being here and certainly our analysts for asking those questions and supporting us with coverage. I think that's key. We're very fortunate as a relatively young company to have you guys help, you know, getting, feeding or developing and presenting our information and your insights into our into the opportunity that Valeo presents. We've had a good first quarter, fifth consecutive quarter of growth and loss reduction. These are really some of the boxes we wanted to tick in sort of looking at our operational plan for this year. Cash flow break even is now at the top of the list. We're working towards it. It's coming.
As I mentioned, just earlier, we'd like to see it arrive quicker. That can happen both by the existing products we have and certain things we're doing there, and also by potentially acquiring other products that leverage our portfolio. When I say leverage, again, leverage to us is increasing revenues, increasing margins, not increasing costs. We think we have now with that strong sales team out there, specifically in the Optha area and in the hospital area, that's where we have probably the most room in terms of adding products that can be accretive to us immediately. We're definitely looking very strongly at those areas. Our core products continue to grow. Asthma is very encouraging in terms of prescription growth and physician growth.
These are really good, relatively earning early signs, 15 months post-launch that we're starting to see that. That's really encouraging when we talk about a drug or a couple of drugs that we expect are gonna pierce that $100 million mark. You need to get the physicians behind you, and certainly we're seeing that. Again, looking forward to revenues this year exceeding $60 million. It's, you know, and, you know, our products, as we said from the outset, there's grow at different paces. There is some seasonality. Allerject in the summer is a big time. We're really looking forward to the next few quarters and being able to give you more information on our business units, and also on our other development activities.
Again, thanks for your continued interest and support. We'll continue to keep you up to date. Just really appreciate you guys following Valeo and asking the questions you do. You know, as tough as they could be, you know, it may cause us to reflect also. That's, I think, just positive challenges for us. Again, thanks for being there and I look forward to our next interaction.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for joining, and you may now disconnect.