On Tuesday, Verrica Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRCA) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation.
Access the full call at https://viavid.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1758586&tp_key=307852c58b
Summary
Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc reported a total revenue of $5 million for Q1 2026, with U.S. Wycanth product revenue increasing by 25.4% compared to Q1 2025.
The company is advancing its global Phase 3 program for common warts, achieving over 50% enrollment in the first trial and planning to initiate a second trial by mid-2026.
Verrica is working on expanding the availability of WYCANT globally, with recent launches in Japan and plans to submit for approval in the EU.
The company introduced WycanthRx, a non-dispensing pharmacy, to improve access and fulfillment of prescriptions, which is seeing positive early adoption.
Verrica’s net loss for Q1 2026 was $9.7 million, with cash reserves expected to fund operations into Q1 2027.
Management highlighted the potential of BP315 for basal cell carcinoma, emphasizing its strong Phase 2 results and ongoing market research to gauge reception.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to our host, Kevin Gardner of LifeSite Advisors. You may begin your conference.
Kevin Gardner (Moderator)
Thank you Operator. Hello everyone and welcome TO Verica Pharmaceuticals First Quarter 2026 Corporate Update Conference call. With me on the line this evening are Jason Rieger, President and Chief Executive Officer, Noah Rosenberg, Chief Medical Officer, John Kirby, Interim Chief Financial Officer, David Zawitz, Chief Operating Officer and Chris Chapman, Chief Commercial Officer. As a reminder, during today’s call, management will make forward looking statements. These forward looking statements are based on the company’s current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Verrica’s actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in. In such forward looking statements, please see Verica’s SEC filings for important risk factors. Verica cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements and undertakes no duty or obligation to update any forward looking statements as a result of new information, future events or changes in expectations. In addition, during today’s call, management will discuss certain non GAAP financial measures. These non GAAP financial measures are in addition to and not a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with gaap. There are a number of limitations related to the use of these non GAAP financial measures compared to their closest GAAP equivalents. The earnings release that the company issued today includes GAAP to non GAAP reconciliations for these measures and is also available on the Investor Relations section of Verica’s website. I’ll now turn the call over to Verica’s President and CEO Jason Rieger.
Jason Rieger (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you, Kevin. Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us on our first quarter 2026 corporate update call. I am pleased to report that in the first quarter we saw accelerating growth in market demand for WYCANTT, setting new records for dispensed applicator units during the quarter and in the month of March. This growth continued after the end of the quarter as we observed further increased demand in April. WYCANTT also achieved another significant milestone in February as our partner, Tory Pharmaceutical launched WYCANTT in Japan for patients with molluscum following their regulatory approval last year. Our hope is that Japan is only the beginning of our global expansion efforts for WYCANTT as we are actively working to expand the availability of WYCANTT into new markets around the world. While we grow the WYCANTT business, we’re also advancing our product portfolio. As you may recall, in January we announced that the first patient had been dosed in our global Phase three program for the treatment of common warts, which represents a critical milestone in our strategy to expand into new indications. I’m proud to announce that we have achieved more than 50% of the currently targeted enrollment in the first phase 3 trial, also known as COV2, and have begun enrolling patients in the long term follow up study in this program. Our target is to initiate the second Phase 3 trial, known as CoV3 in this program by mid-2026. We also continue to advance our Phase 3 ready asset, BP315 for the treatment of basal cell carcinoma. As we’ve begun efforts to secure clinical supplies and select a CRO to support initiation of the Phase 3 program, BP 315 is garnering increasing attention within the dermatology community. Based on compelling proof of concept data from our Phase II program, I’ll now provide a detailed update on our WYCANTP commercial business. In the first quarter of 2026 we reported total revenue of $5 million, including U.S. wycamp product revenue of $4.3 million which was up 25.4% over the first quarter of 2025. First quarter, U.S. wicamp dispensed applicator units increased to 15,302, growing 51.3% over the 1st quarter of 2025. On a sequential basis, U.S. wicanth revenue and dispensed applicator units increased 15.3% and and 12.1% respectively compared to the 4th quarter of 2025. As noted in our last call in March, while demand for WYCANTT in January was likely impacted by severe winter weather across the east coast, demand accelerated sharply in February and continued into March which saw the best monthly dispensed applicator unit total since the launch of wicant. As we have now seen preliminary results for April, I am pleased to note that April dispensed applicator units also increased from March’s then record level and our team worked diligently every day to help more healthcare providers treat molluscum with what we believe to be is the best treatment available. Licamp as we’ve noted in prior quarters, as we continue to prioritize the ease of access for healthcare providers and their patients, we continue to make substantial investments in our copay assistance program which is impacted during the first few months of each year by the annual reset of insurance plan deductibles in January. To ensure the broadest access to WYCANT for healthcare providers, we launched WycanthRx, our non dispensing pharmacy, in the fourth quarter of 2025. WycanthRx simplifies the process for both the healthcare provider and patient by performing an initial benefit investig and then triaging to an in network dispensing pharmacy based upon the patient’s unique healthcare coverage. Although ycamp Rx is still in the early stage of rollout, is being well received and in our view will help further drive demand and coverage for wicanth. We would again like to congratulate Tory Pharmaceutical, now a subsidiary of Shinogi, on their February commercial launch of WYCANTT in Japan for patients with molluscum. This milestone reflects the culmination of significant efforts by many team members from both companies. The launch of WYCANTT in Japan means that the commercial supply we provide to Tori has begun to offset Erica’s portion of the clinical costs for the CommonWART program. As we announced in February. We also brought on board Chris Chapman as our new Chief Commercial Officer in the first quarter. Chris and his team are already doing an outstanding job in optimizing our resources to maximize the productivity of the WYCANT commercial efforts. Finally, as noted on our fourth quarter call, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency provided positive feedback that supports the filing of a marketing authorization application for WYCANT as a treatment for Molescam. With no further phase 3 clinical trials required for product approval, we are actively progressing through the next steps for submission in the eu. The EU represents a substantial market opportunity for wycamp and we look forward to evaluating potential commercialization partnerships in this large and underserved region. With respect to our pipeline, the Commonwealth and basal cell carcinoma clinical programs include continue to move ahead, representing what we believe can be multi billion dollar opportunities. As I mentioned, in December 2025 we dosed the first patient in the first phase 3 trial. CoV2 evaluating Wycan for CommonWARTS, which continues to enroll patients. The second phase 3 trial in the CommonWART program, CoV3 with sites in both the United States and Japan, is targeted to be initiated by mid2026. If the Phase 3 program is successful, Wicanth could become the first therapy ever approved in the United States and Japan to treat common warts, a condition that impacts over 22 million people in the US alone. As a reminder, Verica and TORI will split the cost of the program 5050 with Tori funding the first $40 million of trial costs, representing approximately 90% of the current trial budget. We expect to repay our portion by offsetting future transfer payments, milestones and royalties relating to wicant sales in Japan. As a reminder, all of the efforts we are undertaking for the commercialization of wicant for molluscum lay the foundation for ultimate commercialization for the Commonwealth indication if approved, and there will be significant overlap in the clinicians treating both molluscum and commonwealts with the ability to access the same applicator through the same distribution channels. With respect to VP315 for basal cell carcinoma, our program continues to drive strong interest with clinicians and patients alike as potential alternative approach to the existing surgical and non surgical options. In our phase 2 study, treatment with VP315 demonstrated a 97% objective response rate and an 86% reduction in overall tumor size, with more than half of the treated lesions achieving complete histological resolution. We continue to share additional data from the ongoing analysis of the results from the Phase two at scientific conferences. As reported last week, we will formally be presenting at the 2026 Society for Investigative Dermatology, or SID, at their annual meeting in Chicago later this week and will be sharing additional data regarding the abscopal like observations from the phase 2 study. With a strong scientific foundation from our phase 2 results and regulatory engagement. We have also recently completed several market research activities to better understand how VP315 would be received by various stakeholders. This work supports broad potential utilization and acceptance across general dermatologists, medical oncologists and MOHS surgeons as well as office managers and payers. We also conducted market research to evaluate the patient perspective which indicated that a substantial majority of patients would elect to try VP315 before other existing therapeutic options regardless of whether they had previously been treated for skin cancer. While the best outcome for patients is to completely eliminate the tumor, which we have observed in many patients, in our phase 2 study overall tumor size was reduced on an average by 86%, which we view as clinically meaningful. This highlights the potential for VP315 to improve the patient experience by reducing the size …
This post was originally published here
