Bausch Health wants to center its attention around its ophthalmology efforts, but expects gastroenterology to remain a key driver of its business as well, according to insights presented Jan. 13 at the 38th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
Bausch Health CEO Joseph Papa and CFO Paul Herendeen presented the comments at the conference, which SeekingAlpha transcribed.
Here's what the company has planned:
Mr. Papa on Bausch Health's 2019: "It was just a year ago that we kicked off our campaign for pivot to offense, and that's really what 2019 was all about for us in terms of — as we approach pivot to offense it was — how could we grow organically. ... We've now shown seven consecutive quarters of organic growth."
Mr. Papa on Bausch's Xifaxan, a product for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea: "In IBS-D there's about 12 million prescriptions written annually for the treatment of IBS-D. … We've got a way to treat that patient with IBS-D with Xifaxan that we think could potentially, through an episodic treatment of a couple of weeks, cure the patient. That's really, we think, really exciting and a lot more opportunity for our Xifaxan product."
Mr. Herendeen on Xifaxan: "Our largest franchise is Xifaxan. Xifaxan has had spectacular growth and that's not by accident, it's fundamentally driven by excellence and execution in our Salix unit, and it's grown nicely and we expect Xifaxan to continue to be able to grow."
Mr. Papa on Bausch's future: "We're really excited about what 2019 was all about, [with our] pivot to offense, and now as we look to the future, we're all about being an eye health company, a 2020 vision."