Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: EGRX) Q1 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc (EGRX) Q1 2020 earnings call dated May. 11, 2020

Corporate Participants:

Lisa Wilson — Investor Relations

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Pete A. Meyers — Chief Financial Officer

David Pernock — President, Chief Operating Officer

Adrian Hepner — Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer

Analysts:

Tim Lugo — William Blair & Company — Analyst

Dan Busby — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

Brandon Folkes — Cantor Fitzgerald — Analyst

Presentation:

Operator

Good morning and welcome to today’s program. My name is Keith and I’ll be your conference operator. At this time, I’d like to welcome everyone to Eagle Pharmaceuticals’ First Quarter 2020 Earnings Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, May 11, 2020.

It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Ms. Lisa Wilson, Investor Relations for Eagle Pharmaceuticals. Please go ahead.

Lisa Wilson — Investor Relations

Thank you, Keith. Welcome to Eagle Pharmaceuticals’ first quarter earnings call. This is Lisa Wilson, Investor Relations for Eagle Pharmaceuticals. With me on today’s call are Eagle’s Chief Executive Officer, Scott Tarriff and Chief Financial Officer, Pete Meyers. This morning, the Company issued a press release detailing financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The press release and a webcast of this call can be accessed through the Investors section of the Eagle website at eagleus.com.

Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that any statements made on today’s conference call that express a belief, expectation, projection, forecast, anticipation, or intent regarding future events and the Company’s future performance may be considered forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to Eagle Pharmaceuticals’ management as of today and involve risks and uncertainties, including those noted in this morning’s press release and our filings with the SEC. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Eagle Pharmaceuticals specifically disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law.

A telephone replay will be available shortly after completion of this call. You’ll find the dial-in information in today’s press release. The archived webcast will be available for one year on our website at eagleus.com. For the benefit of those who may be listening to the replay or archived webcast, this call was held and recorded on May 11, 2020. Since then, Eagle may have made announcements related to the topics discussed. So please refer to the Company’s most recent press releases and SEC filings.

And with that, I’ll turn the call over to Eagle’s CEO, Scott Tarriff.

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Well, thank you, Lisa, and good morning everyone. Let me begin by acknowledging that the world is a very different place from what it was just two short months ago on our last earnings call. COVID-19 has had a profound impact on all of us, the way we live our lives and the way we must conduct our business. We’ve had a lot of news lately. Obviously, we had a very good quarter. We had the ODE affirmation, had a favorable BENDEKA patent ruling, and we’ve had good news on fulvestrant. And still this year, we have a lot going on with vasopressin and the potential to bring it to market this year. We have our EHS PDUFA date in July and we’re still expecting to file for brain damage secondary to nerve agent exposure, if not this year, then early next year. We still expect that we can have five launches in the next three years; EHS, fulvestrant, vasopressin, our collaboration with Tyme Technologies for their oncology product, SM-88, and finally, PEMFEXY; a truly remarkable lineup. On top of all of this, there are our other remaining projects for acute radiation syndrome, EA-111, which is a new chemical entity for dantrolene, Alzheimer’s, and traumatic brain injury, for a total of 13 key initiatives. If it all shakes out the way we hope, as I said on our last earnings call, 2020 could turn out to be the best year in Eagle’s history in terms of total revenue and gross profit. In fact, we expect that the aggregate RYANODEX revenue we generate for the balance of 2020, even in the absence of a label expansion, will exceed aggregate revenue for RYANODEX in all of 2019.

I’ll touch on all of this, but let me start with the quarter. We had a great first quarter, generating EBITDA of $15.2 million and diluted non-GAAP EPS of $0.84. The balance of 2020 will continue to be very active for the Company as we advance numerous programs across the board. Our strong capital position allows us to apply our best scientific talent to address some of the most challenging and underserved therapeutic areas. Q1, we invested $10 million or $0.55 per share to advance our pipeline, including legal expense.

Let me start with our oncology business, leading off with our fulvestrant product candidate, EA-114, for estrogen receptor positive advanced breast cancer. Last quarter, we shared that we were refining our program. As announced last week, we have conducted our pilot work and we met our internal objectives. We will be requesting a meeting with FDA to determine what the next steps are and we look forward to updating you on the progress of this potential best-in-class treatment for HR-positive advanced breast cancer.

Let me also touch briefly on another important and somewhat overlooked contributor to our oncology portfolio. SymBio, our Japanese licensing partner completed clinical trial enrollment for their rapid infusion bendamustine product. SymBio intends to file an NDA in Japan with the expectation of obtaining regulatory approval in the second half of 2022. Last September, SymBio also filed an NDA for the bendamustine ready-to-dilute product with an expected approval later this year. As you may recall, Eagle is entitled to a $5 million milestone payment upon approval of either of these NDAs. And starting this year, the royalties could be meaningful, roughly $10 million to $25 million per year for SymBio, first launching the 500-ml bag and then the 50-ml bag.

And now turning to BENDEKA, two weeks ago, the courts upheld our patent infringement claims is valid, meaning the defendants in the case will be enjoined from launching their ANDA products before 2031. This important protection looks [Phonetic] the value of our bendamustine assets and enable us to continue investing in our active research and pipeline programs. In addition, we had an appellate court victory confirming orphan drug exclusivity for BENDEKA. As a result of FDA’s decision regarding the scope of Eagle’s orphan drug exclusivity, no bendamustine products, including generic versions of TREANDA, may launch in the U.S. before December 7, 2022 unless clinically superior to BENDEKA. We see this as another driver supporting our growth and our active research pipeline going forward.

In January, we also added to our oncology portfolio through a strategic collaboration with Tyme Technologies to advance SM-88, a late-stage novel therapeutic aimed at difficult-to-treat cancers. Our initial investment of $20 million gives us a co-promotion right on SM-88, as well as 10 million shares of Tyme’s common stock, along with the opportunity to increase our investment under certain circumstance. Tyme may also buyout Eagle’s rights under the co-promotion agreement at any time for $200 million. We look forward to providing further updates on this collaboration.

Finally, in Q1, we received final approval from FDA for PEMFEXY, following our settlement with Lilly. With an initial market entry of a three-week supply of ALIMTA on February 1, 2022, followed by an uncapped entry on April 1, this launch period represents another significant opportunity for us.

Turning now to our critical care business, starting with vasopressin, as noted on our last call, the trial is scheduled to begin this month. Due to the COVID pandemic, the trial has been delayed and a new date has not yet been set. The court agreed to allow Eagle to file a letter requesting summary judgment of non-infringement for which we believe we have a strong position. Our letter was submitted on April 17 and parts responsive letter was submitted May 8. This request is currently under consideration and the parties have a joint status call with the court for May 18, at which we [Technical Issues] trial date and summary judgment request. Vasopressin is a very important product to us. We are the first to file an ANDA referencing VASOSTRICT, 20 units per 1-ml, and anticipate having a 180-day regulatory exclusivity. As we await further guidance from the court, we anticipate that we will receive tentative approval and time to launch the product later this year and take advantage of this market opportunity.

Now let’s turn to RYANODEX. We have our EHS PDUFA date coming up on July 8. We expect [Technical Issues] will be our last study for the treatment of brain damage secondary to nerve agent exposure this year and to have it filed shortly thereafter. We are still hopeful we can submit an NDA for this indication, if not by year-end, then early next year. Our animal studies of RYANODEX for the treatment of traumatic brain injury in collaboration with NorthShore University Hospital are progressing nicely, albeit somewhat more slowly due to the current COVID environment. Our newest RYANODEX program is for COVID-19 with its potential to reduce the impact of the life cycle of the virus. In mid-April, we announced that RYANODEX for injection suspension inhibited the growth of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic controlled in vitro laboratory tests. Working in partnership with Hackensack University Medical Center, we have submitted an investigational new drug application with FDA for a Phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of RYANODEX in infected patients. We’re meeting with FDA shortly to discuss our proposed trial, and we’ll report back following that meeting.

As I mentioned at the outset, these are unprecedented times for our country, for the world, and for our industry. As you can see, this is an important time for Eagle with multiple near-term inflection points, and we are certainly excited about our prospects.

With that, I’ll turn the call over to Pete to discuss our first quarter financials. Pete?

Pete A. Meyers — Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Scott. In the first quarter of 2020, total revenue was $46 million compared to $49.8 million in Q1 of 2019. Product sales during the first quarter increased by $3.2 million year-over-year, totaling $17.7 million compared to $14.5 million in Q1 2019, primarily driven by a $7.4 million increase in RYANODEX product sales due to a historically large expiry cycle and a $1.3 million increase in BELRAPZO sales, partially offset by a $5 million decrease in BENDEKA pass-through sales to Teva due to the timing of inventory deliveries.

BELRAPZO product sales were $4.6 million in the first quarter compared to $3.2 million in Q1 of 2019. Eagle recognizes BELRAPZO revenues on shipments by Eagle to wholesalers. Based on IMS data, Eagle’s market share of bendamustine wholesaler shipments to end users was 7% of the U.S. bendamustine market for the first quarter. Social distancing measures and shifting priorities of patients and healthcare providers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in reduced utilization of many physician-administered oncology products. Beginning late in the first quarter, we have observed this impact on the bendamustine market and that impact has continued through April. We anticipate this trend abating as we move through the second quarter.

First quarter RYANODEX product sales were $11.4 million compared to $4 million in Q1 of 2019. Orders for RYANODEX were cyclical, driven primarily by product expiry. First quarter of 2020 saw the greatest number of expiries of RYANODEX since its launch. Despite the challenges to our commercial efforts and accessing our current and potential customers precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the second quarter, we continue to expect record sales for the product for the full year. Given the expiry cycles in Q1, we anticipate that the first quarter 2020 will be the high watermark for the year. In the first quarter, RYANODEX had a 54% market share of normalized dantrolene injection units.

Q1 2020 royalty revenue was $28.3 million compared to $26.3 million in the prior year quarter. BENDEKA royalties were $28 million compared to $26 million in the first quarter of 2019. Eagle continues to receive royalties from Teva at a 30% royalty rate following our amended license agreement until October 1, 2020, while the rate will increase to 31% for the following 12 months and to 32% on October 1, 2021, where it will remain for the life of the product.

Gross margin was 83% during the first quarter of 2020 as compared to 74% in the first quarter of 2019. Expansion in gross margin in the first quarter of 2020 was driven by an increase in RYANODEX sales, lower BENDEKA product sales in the period to our marketing partner on which Eagle earns no profit, and the increase in BENDEKA royalty revenue.

On the expense front, R&D expenses were $9.4 million for the first quarter compared to $6.4 million in the prior year quarter. The year-over-year increase is largely attributable to spending on fulvestrant and payroll expenses. Excluding stock-based compensation and other non-cash and non-recurring items, R&D expense during the first quarter was $7.8 million. We are reiterating our 2020 guidance that R&D expense on a non-GAAP basis will be $46 million to $50 million as compared to $31 million in 2019. The anticipated 2020 R&D expense includes: One, the EA-114 pilot trial and CMC initiatives; two, the RYANODEX trials for the treatment of nerve agent exposure, acute radiation syndrome and COVID-19; three, EA-111 IND-enabling toxicology studies and CMC scale up activities; fourth, EA-112 Phase I development and additional preclinical work at the University of Pennsylvania and NorthShore University HealthSystem; five, regulatory advocacy for RYANODEX EHS; and six, launch preparedness for vasopressin and PEMFEXY. SG&A expense for the first quarter 2020 increased to $24.8 million compared to $18.1 million in the first quarter of 2019. External legal spend, external sales and marketing spend, stock-based compensation expense, as well as a $2.5 million charge related to the Tyme collaboration account for most of the year-over-year increase. Including stock-based compensation and other non-cash and non-recurring items, first quarter 2020 SG&A expense was $15.5 million. We are reiterating our 2020 guidance that SG&A expense on a non-GAAP basis will be $61 million to $64 million as compared to $56 million in 2019. The year-over-year increase is largely attributable to higher sales and marketing payroll, partially offset by lower external legal spend. If the RYANODEX EHS label expansion is approved, we will revisit 2020 operating expense guidance accordingly.

Net loss for the first quarter was $2.9 million or $0.21 per basic and diluted share compared to net income of $9 million or $0.64 per basic and $0.62 per diluted share in the prior year period. Adjusted non-GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2020 was $11.7 million or $0.86 per basic and $0.84 per diluted share compared to adjusted non-GAAP net income of $14.6 million for $1.05 per basic and $1.01 per diluted share in the prior year quarter. For a full reconciliation of non-GAAP net income to the most comparable GAAP financial measures, please see the tables at the end of our press release. Our EBITDA for the first quarter of 2020 was $15.2 million compared to $18.8 million in the prior year quarter.

As of March 31, 2020, the Company had $202 million in cash and cash equivalents and $54 million in net accounts receivable, $34.5 million of which was due from Teva. Company had $148 million in outstanding debt, including $110 million drawn on our revolver. Therefore, as of March 31, 2020, the Company had net cash plus receivables of $108.5 million. Since March 31, the Company has repaid $110 million revolver. In the first quarter of 2020, we purchased $1 million of Eagle’s common stock as part of our $160 million share repurchase program. From August 2016 through March 31, 2020, we have repurchased $172.9 million of our common stock.

With that, operator, please go ahead and open the line for questions.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We’ll go first today to Tim Lugo with William Blair. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Tim Lugo — William Blair & Company — Analyst

Thanks for taking the question. And Scott, as you mentioned in your comments, these are kind of unprecedented times. Can you maybe just outline what you’re expecting sequentially quarter-to-quarter over the next few quarters given kind of a macro environment and what are you hearing from maybe distributors or your own hospital contacts, given the broader COVID environment for just use of hospital-based products and BENDEKA and the availability of chemotherapy to oncology patients? Maybe just broadly, what are you expecting Q2, Q3?

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Sure. Thank you, Tim. I also remind everyone that also in the call with us today is David Pernock, our President and COO, and Dr. Adrian Hepner, our Chief Medical Officer. And so, Pete, maybe you can chat a little bit about the quarters and then David a little bit about what we’re seeing in oncology. But Tim, thus far, our business, relatively speaking, seems pretty healthy because of lineup of products that we have. But Pete, do you want to add something?

Pete A. Meyers — Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Hi, Tim. Good morning. On the revenue side, we did note that there is some diminution in April in infusion. Of course, that has not yet impacted on our revenue because we book revenue when we ship product to wholesalers. So, we’re keeping an eye on that and we hope and expect that that trend will abate as we move through the second quarter.

Tim Lugo — William Blair & Company — Analyst

And so — and maybe on the expense side, are there areas where — which you obviously control a little bit more which could offset some of that April issue?

Pete A. Meyers — Chief Financial Officer

So fundamentally, we think our business is healthy as we mentioned earlier. The R&D in our business is not linear, SG&A is, as we move through the quarters. As we look at our R&D spend, you will note that we are maintaining our guidance for the year, which is essentially noting that the back-end of 2020 will be heavier in R&D as it was last year just in terms of the timing of external clinical spend. But we believe that the business is fundamentally healthy and so we are comfortable with our cost structure.

Tim Lugo — William Blair & Company — Analyst

Understood. And David, did you want to add to that?

David Pernock — President, Chief Operating Officer

Yeah. Basically, I agree with what Pete said. We expect that always a slight downturn in oncology visits in the month of April was seen. I think across — every company is experiencing that just because of the situation, but we expect that that will start to return back to normal as more and more states begin to reopen. So, I think all in all, we’ll be — we should be in good shape there.

Relative to RYANODEX, basically, we have seen hospitals ordering more RYANODEX in a situation and particularly where emergency rooms were expanded outside their typical setting to — because of the COVID situation. So oftentimes, what happens is emergency room might need to do an intubation and oftentimes that requires volatile gas. Therefore, there is the risk of MH. So we’ve seen that that occur as well. And likely what will happen we think in the ambulatory surgery centers and in surgery centers, in general, a lot of the elective surgeries were delayed because of COVID. Once things improve, there’ll probably be a huge surge in terms of those types of surgeries. And so we probably see some additional stocking due to that. So all in all, we’re hoping to basically do — everything will kind of balance out at the end of the day.

Tim Lugo — William Blair & Company — Analyst

Thank you for that color. And Scott, maybe one last question. You mentioned five launches kind of over the near to intermediate term. The pipeline has kind of struggled productivity wise in the past, call it, few years or so. Can you maybe just outline your opinions on — of those five launches, which are kind of the most highly likely for success and what will be the most meaningful to the economics of – for Eagle?

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Sure. Tim, it’s hard to predict some of this, but we are — we feel good about our projects. I think if you just look at where they are, PEMFEXY has a high degree of certitude, obviously, and that could be a very valuable product since we have the settlement with Lilly and we have a final approval. In the case of vasopressin, we feel pretty confident that we’re going to wind up receiving our tentative approval in time. And then we think we have an excellent position in terms of our litigation. And then as you move down the line, I will say that fulvestrant is really exciting and very important to us on a whole number of levels. We believe that we have something that’s very important for the patient population, postmenopausal metastatic breast cancer patients, and that there could be a significant paradigm change if we’re able to get that product. And what we see so far in our pilot study, we’re very encouraged. And so that’s a strong possibility coming up as well.

And then beyond that, nerve agents will run another animal model. There is no reason to believe that that next model won’t be similar to the other models that we’ve run previously when we get that product to the market. Tim, you would think who thought we’d be living in a pandemic the way we are and who wants to think that one day there could be a nerve agent attack on U.S. soil, but I think the country’s preparing forward and concerned about it. The state of the world is the state of the world and that could be a pretty significant product. And then we have the EHS PDUFA date coming up in a couple of months. So we’ll see where COVID leads us. We think we have a good chance, maybe all 13 projects that we’re working on, maybe they don’t all come to the market as typical in our industry, but we feel good about our future.

Tim Lugo — William Blair & Company — Analyst

Thank you for the color and my best to the team.

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question is from Randall Stanicky with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Dan Busby — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

Hey, good morning. This is Dan Busby on for Randall. I’ve got a few questions. First on EHS, can you talk about your launch strategy since the approval in July? And how do you see COVID-19 potentially affecting that launch, especially as hospitals are still focused on the pandemic?

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Yeah. Thank you, Dan. So, EHS launch, PDUFA date coming up on the — in July. You’re right, the — you have to look at the two programs, COVID and EHS in tandem and if in the event that we have products — product for COVID eventually coming into the market, that’s going to be a lot of RYANODEX movement and then obviously when you get into next year, the potential of nerve agents as well. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. As far as the launch of EHS in the summertime, David, you want to make any comments about how we’re handling that between now and the potential launch date?

David Pernock — President, Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, sure. So basically, very good question, we understand. So largely when you step back and take a look at the big picture, basically EHS is approved and actually COVID turns out to be positive as we hope. There is going to be an awful lot of reasons for hospitals to want to stock RYANODEX you can imagine. So, we would expect potentially a very big surge in orders as we try to serve as many people as we can. So I think overall, that’s the important point to keep in mind. On a granular level, regarding EHS, there remains to be very high interest from emergency room physicians in trading EHS because of the unmet need and the inadequacies of the current treatments that are available. So we think we’re still going to fill a major need.

Obviously, there is not as much sports going on as we all know. So basically, to be a little bit of less — little less of that happening and hopefully it will return to normal at some point, but there is some impact there. We’re going to basically proceed business as usual. We expect that basically our sales force will be able to contact emergency room physicians through a variety of different methods. We found podcast, in particular, to be particularly successful vehicle for emergency room physicians and we’ll be planning on attending most of the emergency room, specialty conventions, etc. to build word. So, we’re very excited about it, because we’ve been working on it for a while, as you know, and still remains a very big unmet need. And again, we think combined with this with our other indications, we’re going to open up a situation where there is a huge need for us for the hospitals to stock RYANODEX. We think that could have a positive impact on even MH businesses, right? Because, as Pete said, in the first quarter, we had 54% market share. But as the — as more — as the value proposition for RYANODEX grows, we expect that our overall market share of the MH market to grow as well.

Dan Busby — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

Great. That’s helpful. And then one on vasopressin. Let’s say the court doesn’t reach a decision before October, but you do receive tentative approval before then and that presumably places you in a position where you could launch at risk. Is that a decision you’ve given any more thought to?

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Yeah, that’s an interesting scenario, isn’t it? I think what’s probably is going to happen, I believe that the court is very well aware of the timing situation. Nobody expected again to be in this pandemic. Let’s see what happens in the next couple of weeks with our summary judgment motions. I don’t think this is a particularly difficult case to decide, at least that’s our view of things, and depending on when the trial gets delayed to, if we wind up having a trial, then it would be up to the court to see if they can get a decision put together around that 30 months date without delaying things too much.

And so, when you look at the whole situation, we still think there is a pretty good chance of getting to the market before this year is over and that’s what we’re planning for.

Dan Busby — RBC Capital Markets — Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We’ll go next to Brandon Folkes with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

Brandon Folkes — Cantor Fitzgerald — Analyst

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I’ve just got three here. Maybe — can you talk about your capital allocation and sort of the share buyback, but just in light of the potential launches, how are you thinking about additional business development over the coming years? Maybe secondly, on RYANODEX for COVID, can you maybe just elaborate in terms of the patients you will be targeting and where in the treatment paradigm we should think of RYANODEX kicking in? And then lastly, I think, late last week, we saw BELRAPZO judgment with Slayback, should we be thinking about a generic TREANDA and BELRAPZO coming to market when BENDEKA ODE runs out? Thank you.

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Thanks, Brandon. Let me take those in order. On the capital buyback and how we see things financially, I’ll turn it over to Pete for a moment, but business development continues to be of interest to us. As we outlined today, we have so many internal projects. There’s nothing more efficient than having organic growth, if it works. And as we outlined earlier, we believe that much of this will. Having said that though, we think we are in great shape with our balance sheet and the cash we’re generating, especially if we start to get some of these products to the market. And so, I believe that we’re still poised, if we find the right opportunity to move our business forward with both organic growth and by licensing in products along the way. And so, we want to grow the Company, we’ll do it in both ways and we’ll see where it takes us.

In terms of BELRAPZO and then I’ll turn it over to Pete and then over to Adrian on the COVID question, but in terms of BELRAPZO, I think you’re right. I believe in December of ’22, the way things look right now, we’ll have a generic competitor for BELRAPZO at the same time we have generic competitors for TREANDA.

And with that, anything you want to add Pete to the capital side of things?

Pete A. Meyers — Chief Financial Officer

Well, I would just — I would note that we have since March 31 repaid the revolver. Brandon, I’m sure you’ve noticed on our balance sheet, our cash and our debt balances are larger than where used to seeing. At March 31, we did draw down $110 million revolver in March. We did that as we observed the drawdown in the equities market and that was certainly accompanied by considerable disruption in the credit markets at the time as was manifest in credit spreads expanding dramatically. And so, as a hedge against the potential for Interbank liquidity constraints, having lived through the last crisis, we did decide to draw the revolver on March 12. As I said, we have since repaid the revolver in full. And so our existing balance today on the revolver is zero. Of course, we have still the term loan outstanding for $38 million.

And so, we have a net cash position, as you know, the same net cash position essentially we had at the end of March. And of course, we continue to generate cash. And so, we do intend to opportunistically buy back stock, we intend to pursue external business development as we’ve done recently in the case of Tyme transaction. And we have the flexibility from a balance sheet perspective that we believe is a real competitive asset.

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Thank you, Pete. And then on the RYANODEX for COVID, where we think it may fit in the paradigm of treatment if we are successful and the patient population that we expect to explore initially, I’ll turn that over to Adrian for a brief summary.

Adrian Hepner — Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer

Thank you. So based on our research, we understand the mechanism of action of RYANODEX as impacting some of the need that virus have, especially to maintain the life cycle. Because of that and the ability of RYANODEX to impact the needs of calcium that the virus require to replicate and to get released from cell to another, we envision RYANODEX to be an addition to standard of care as we know these patients require multiple therapeutic approaches, depending on the stage or depending on the underlying conditions. We got — as I said, we anticipate RYANODEX to be an addition to establish a standard of care, which also continues to evolve and hopefully that addition of RYANODEX to impact the needs of calcium that the virus require to replicate until that’s released from one cell to another. We envision RYANODEX to be an addition to standard of care. As we know, these patients require multiple therapeutic approaches depending on the stage or depending on their underlying conditions.

With that, as I said, we anticipate RYANODEX to be an addition to establish standard of care, which also continues to evolve. And hopefully that addition of RYANODEX helps impacting the life cycle of the virus and ameliorating the viral load.

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Thank you, Adrian. Brendon, did that answer your questions well?

Brandon Folkes — Cantor Fitzgerald — Analyst

Yes. Very well. Thank you very much and congratulations on all the progress.

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Thank you.

Operator

It does appear we have no further questions. I’ll return the floor to Scott Tarriff for closing remarks.

Scott Tarriff — Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Thank you, Keith. Well, let me close today by reiterating that 2020 has the potential to be the best year in Eagle’s history in terms of total revenue and gross profit, followed by an accelerated period of growth over the next three years. By building on our strong bendamustine franchise, we remain dedicated to advancing our pipeline programs that are bringing new and important treatments to the public. We continue to focus on addressing underserved therapeutic areas, growing our Company both organically, as I stated, and through strategic relationships, and delivering value to our shareholders. So once again, thank you for your time this morning. We hope that you and your families remain safe through these difficult times. And we’ll speak again shortly. Thank you again.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]