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Amicus Therapeutics Inc (FOLD -2.08%)
Q1Â 2019 Earnings Call
May. 8, 2019, 8:30 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Amicus First Quarter 2019 Results Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this call is being recorded.
I would like to turn the conference over to your host, Sara Pellegrino, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications.
Sara Pellegrino -- Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Good morning. Thank you for joining our conference call to discuss Amicus Therapeutics first quarter 2019 results and corporate highlights. Speaking on today's call we have John Crowley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Bradley Campbell, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Daphne Quimi, Chief Financial Officer. Also joining for Q&A are Dr. Jay Barth, Chief Medical Officer; Dr. Hung Do, Chief Science Officer; and Dr. Jeff Castelli, Chief Portfolio Officer and Head of Gene Therapy.
As referenced on Slide 2, we may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating to our business as well as our plans and prospects. Our forward looking statements should not be regarded as representation by us that any of our plans will be achieved. Any or all of the forward looking statements made on this call may turn out to be wrong and can be affected by inaccurate assumptions we might make or buy known or unknown risks and uncertainties.
You are caution not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only to the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and we undertake no obligation to revise or update this presentation and conference call to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. For a full discussion of such forward-looking statements and the risks and uncertainties that may impact them. We refer you to the forward-looking statements and Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 trials with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and with quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 to be filed tomorrow.
At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to John Crowley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Amicus. John?
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Great. Thank you, Sara, and welcome everyone to our First Quarter 2019 Results Conference Call. I am very pleased today to be on this call from our International headquarters in Marlow here in the United Kingdom, just outside of London. We opened this new office earlier this year and it's the heart of our business operations outside of the United States.
And with now over 25% of our 600 employees working outside the United States, it's a great reflection of the increasingly global nature of everything that we do. I'll begin by noting that this year is an important execution year for the global Galafold launch. The launch trends that we are driving will not only deliver immediate results throughout this year, but the very strong trajectory for Galafold is setting the basis for this precision medicine success in getting to as many patients as quickly as possible, we hope for years to come.
This is, of course, also an important year for the advancement of our expanded pipeline in Pompe and multiple other rare diseases. And we are very pleased with where we are today in terms of our goals and priorities for the year as highlighted here on Slide 3.
As you can see we have five key strategic priorities in 2019 and we are well on track to achieving or exceeding all of them. First, Galafold our precision medicine for Fabry and now one of the most successful rare disease drug launches ever.
As previously announced, we expect to nearly double annual revenue again in 2019. At the end of the first quarter, more than 800 people living with Fabry disease with amenable GLA variants also referred to as genetic mutations. We're taking this all precision medicine as their only treatment for Fabry. In the first quarter we saw the largest number of net new patients added globally, since launch. More than 150 net new Galafold patients. We saw higher than anticipated prescriptions around the world in the EU, Japan, and in the United States. We saw continued global compliance and adherence rates exceeding 90%. With the strength of our global launch of Galafold including the continued very strong momentum in the very early stages of our US and Japan launches and with our continued growth in our earlier launch geographies. We are highly confident in our full year 2019 guidance range of $160 million to $180 million.
Second, Pompe in to our AT-GAA program continues to be incredibly important for Amicus. In addition to receiving breakthrough therapy designation or BTD in the first quarter. We've seen tremendous momentum in clinical study enrollment across this program. We completed enrollment of the fourth and final cohort in our Phase 1/2 Clinical Study. In the Pivotal PROPEL study, we now have 24 active sites throughout the world. Well on track to complete enrollment again by the end of this year. Additionally, later this year, we look forward to further Phase 1/2 data from Cohort 4 and the public disclosure of the natural history data of Pompe patients and currently approved ERT standard of care.
Third, within our leading rare disease gene therapy portfolio of 14 programs, we expect very important data in the third quarter. Here we anticipate additional two year data in about half of the 12 patients in the CLN6-Batten disease clinical study.
In addition, our second clinical stage gene therapy program, the ongoing CLN3-Batten disease study has quickly enrolled the full low dose Cohort, a total of three patients who all continue to participate with no serious adverse events to date following a single one time administration of the gene therapy.
Our fourth goal is to achieve preclinical proof of concept for our Fabry and Pompe gene therapy programs. The first set of positive data for our preclinical Pompe gene therapy program was presented as many of you saw last week at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy meeting in Washington DC. We are excited at the amount of research now well under way in collaboration with Dr. Jim Wilson, and his remarkable team of scientists at UPenn. They are working together closely with the Amicus research in gene therapy team in our new global research in gene therapy center of excellence in Philadelphia.
The focus now in this collaboration is in Fabry, Pompe and CDKL5 deficiency disorder or CDD. Our goal is to present these data at medical meetings and in peer reviewed publications throughout this year. Finally, but if continued importance we will always maintain a strong financial position. Our cash runway is sufficient to fund our operating plan at least until mid-2021 advancing a several years closer toward our 2023 vision to treat 5,000 patients and achieve $1 billion plus in global revenue which would be on par with today's leading global rare disease biotech companies.
So with that overview, let me go ahead and hand the call over to Bradley Campbell, our President and Chief Operating Officer to highlight the detail behind the very successful Galafold launch. Brad, I'll turn it to you back in New Jersey.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Great. Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. Let me begin on Slide 5 with a snapshot of the continued Galafold launch through March 31. First as John mentioned, we're very pleased with the strong adoption of Galafold in the first quarter and the continued strong launch trajectory, and we remain very confident that this strength will continue throughout the remainder of 2019 and beyond. Our first quarter revenue was $34 million, a year-over-year increase of approximately 104% from the first quarter of 2018. And during the quarter we continued to see exceptionally strong momentum in new markets, including the US and Japan, as well as in our more mature markets. And as a reminder we have pricing and reimbursement secured in 24 countries around the world.
Moving on to Slide 6. I'll talk a little bit more about the global launch metrics that we follow. As John mentioned in his opening remarks, following a very strong first quarter with our highest number of net new patient adds and positive momentum across all of our key commercial metrics. We now have more than 800 patients on Galafold globally. Let me add a little bit more color here. First compliance and adherence to this oral precision medicine dose and dose regimen continue to exceed 90% globally. This is a remarkable adherence rate for an oral treatment regimen or any regimen for that matter. We estimate our global market share for Galafold is approximately 18% of all treated amenable patients around the world which captures both more mature markets as well as our new launch markets. And it's worth noting that we're starting to see equal growth contribution from ERT-switch and previously untreated patients within the EU5 and the more mature markets.
And again, this trend is right on target with our strategy for higher initial adoption and switch patients at launch followed by increasing market growth from previously untreated patients. In the United States we saw a significant increase in patients on Galafold from a growing and very wide prescriber base. As of April 30th, more than 200 prescriptions have been written by more than 90 prescribers since launch. And thanks to the very strong work by our care team and the dedicated employees and our Amicus assist hub. We've obtained broad reimbursement coverage and are experiencing shorter and shorter time from prescription to patients receiving drug.
In Japan, we are ahead of forecast on patient numbers in Q1 with a slightly expanded commercial team. And finally across all markets we've maintained a balanced mix of male and female patients, classic and late-onset patients with both switch and previously untreated patients who have Amenable Mutations.
Turning now to Slide 7, let me comment on the quarterly trends seen in 2018 throughout the year to help provide more color on 2019. First quarter '19 with in-line with management expectations, and so far the second quarter is ahead of expectations. And consistent with Galafold adoption trends and ordering patterns in previous years, we expect that quarter-over-quarter revenue growth will not be linear so that we'll see higher growth in second quarter and fourth quarter of this year.
Turning now to our guidance on Slide 8. With the strength in the commercial metrics I just described, we remain highly confident in our current guidance range of $160 million to $180 dollars for this year. All those Daphne will highlight in a moment with the majority of our sales continuing to come from outside the United States in 2019, and with the expected modest foreign exchange headwinds. We believe our reportable revenue to come within the middle of this $160 million to $180 million guidance range. Importantly by the end of this year we expected more than 1,000 people living with Fabry will be taking Galafold as their only treatment for Fabry disease. This would be a fantastic achievement that could represent a meaningful impact on how Fabry disease is treated around the world.
And finally, while on the topic of patient numbers for modeling purposes, I'd like to remind everyone that in line with our year end guidance range we've factored in a build up over the course of the year to that thousand patient number that also includes our global average gross to net discount of around 15% to 20% and a 90% adherence rate.
Finally, on Slide 9. We continue to believe that Fabry maybe one of the most under and misdiagnosed human genetic disorders in the world. The global Fabry market was $1.4 billion last year. And with continued growth expected in the Fabry population, particularly through the increased use of newborn screening and other diagnostic initiatives as well as recent extension of our Galafold IT that covers a treatment method through 2038. We've even more confident in a $500 million potential Galafold sales by 2023, and an addressable market of over $1 billion in 2028. With the potential to impact thousands of people living with Fabry disease who are amenable to this novel precision medicine.
So with that, let me turn the call back to John to discuss our AT-GAA program in Pompe in more detail as well as our gene therapy portfolio. John?
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Great. Thanks, Bradley. So here on Slide 11 as we look to our Pompe program, I'd like to take a moment to highlight the tremendous execution of our Amicus teams around the world and in enrolling the studies within our AT-GAA clinical program. In the Phase 1/2 Study, we are now fully enrolled in all four Cohorts, including the fourth and final Cohort. Given the enrollment momentum and the availability of global sites now participating in this pivotal PROPEL study. We closed enrollment of our Phase 1/2 Study after six patients in order to focus on enrollment into PROPEL.
As a reminder, this fourth Cohort is very similar to the first Cohort in the Phase 1/2 Study having switched from ERT standard of care. Cohort 4 had been on standard of care for a minimum of seven years whereas Cohort 1 was on for two to six years. And now that this Cohort 4 is fully enrolled we anticipate the first data set from these Cohort 4 patients on track for later this year. In the Pivotal PROPEL Study, as shown in the schematic on this slide, 24 sites are currently recruiting and we plan to initiate up to 90 sites globally. Enrollment is going very well, attracting both ERT switch and naive patients. But we are on track to fully enroll the target number of 100 patients by year-end.
On Slide 12, I'd also like to remind everybody that we were granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation or BTD by the US FDA in the first quarter for a AT-GAA in Late-Onset Pompe Disease. This is the first second generation therapy as well as the first therapy for Pompe disease to receive this important designation for several key features as outlined on this slide. This BTD together with our results from the ongoing Phase 1/2 Study and the ongoing PROPEL Pivotal Study support our strategy to advance AT-GAA as quickly as possible with the potential to become the new standard of care for people living with Pompe disease. Even with this BTD though we'll remind you that our base case remains that the Pivotal PROPEL Study will be the basis to support full approval of AT-GAA.
Moving to Slide 13, I'll highlight here the key accomplishments year-to-date in this important Pompe program and reiterated number of objectives for our AT-GAA program. Since the beginning of the year we presented Phase 1/2 data out to 24 months at the world symposium in Orlando. We were granted BTD, we fully enrolled Cohort 4, and we have made significant progress with our Pivotal Study enrollment.
For the remainder of this year, we will continue to concentrate on PROPEL study enrollment. Additional Phase 1/2 and natural history data supportive studies including the initiation of our pediatric study as well as the advancement of our agreed upon CMC requirements and the very important related manufacturing work with our partners at WuXi biologics. And while we will engage with regulators frequently and even more so now with the BTD, we will not be providing any color or expectations on any pending or future regulatory interactions until after they have occurred. And only if they materially impact our assumptions from the base case.
Let me just state that -- we really could not be more excited about AT-GAA as well as our Preclinical Pompe Gene Therapy program to build what could be the largest and most valuable franchise in the industry with the potential to offer solutions to all patients living with Pompe disease globally.
Moving on now to Slide 15 on gene therapy. I'll highlight here our leading portfolio and the lysosomal disorder which strongly positions us to become the consolidator of some of the greatest gene therapy technologies, products and mines including currently Dr. Jim Wilson at UPenn, and Dr. Brian Kaspar, formerly of Nationwide Children's Hospital. To our partnership with Nationwide Children's, we have 10 programs in the neurologic lysosomal disorder, two of which are in the clinic. That's in addition to our very strong collaboration with Dr. Jim Wilson at UPenn that focuses on Fabry, Pompe, and CDKL5 deficiency disorder. That's where our team in Philadelphia now works across the street in close collaboration with Dr. Wilson's team to advance these programs as quickly as possible. And of course, we're very excited and encouraged by the data that we presented from Dr. Wilson's Labs and our Amicus team at the conference, the gene therapy conference in Washington last week.
Continuing to Slide 16, this year is very important across the Gene Therapy programs at Amicus and its R&D Engine for Future Growth. Let me highlight here a few of the key milestones already achieved. First we delivered our first set of preclinical results, again, a very compelling data set for our Pompe gene therapy, which I'll highlight in a moment.
We expect more preclinical data in Pompe as well as preclinical data in Fabry and other ongoing programs throughout the remainder of this year. Next we have fully enrolled the low dose cohort in our CLN3-Batten study with a total of three patients and we expect the high dose cohort to commence in the coming months.
And we remain on track to report additional two year data in our CLN6-Batten Disease Study, which we've previously said was midyear and which we have now narrowed to the 3Q timeframe when we expect to have two year follow up from approximately half the patients enrolled in this study. The first announcement we expect to be a top line corporate announcement with more details to follow later in the year. Again, our goal is to change the course of this Fatal childhood disease compared to the natural history. As has been seen in other neurodegenerative diseases we believe treating early will be important to maximize the benefits in this patient. These patients and we're very much looking forward to sharing this data then in the third quarter.
Turning to Slide 17, I'll remind everyone of our initial preclinical data for our Pompe gene therapy and refer you to additional data in our conference call transcript with a replay of that call from last week. These data for our Pompe preclinical gene therapy show compelling preliminary data that the Amicus technology to design construct that enhance protein targeting may be a significant platform for multiple lysosomal disorder.
Specifically our engineered hGAA those upon our experience used to successfully develop AT-GAA designed for optimal expression, secretion and targeting, which enables efficient cost correction in target tissues. And the preclinical results show that our Amicus engineered hGAA is optimized for uptake into target tissues and gets to the right cellular compartments, especially in the central nervous system.
As shown on this slide, there was robust glycogen reduction in CNS. Here in the spinal cord that was observed only with our engineered hGAA and now with naturally or the natural unmodified hGAA. Additional preclinical studies are already under way to build from these initial results to look at various doses and routes of administration. This program is advancing ahead of schedule and we anticipate selection of a clinical candidate in 2019 to move into IND-enabling studies. From the context of our broader gene therapy portfolio we plan to leverage this platform across our gene transfer programs to become a leader in treating and possibly curing rare metabolic disorders.
To summarize on Slide 19, we lift all of the expected upcoming milestones for 2019 anticipated across our portfolio. Let me now go ahead and turn the call over to Daphne Quimi, who will cover our first quarter 2019 financial results. Daphne please?
Daphne Quimi -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. Our financial overview begins on Slide 21 with our income statement for the three month period ending March 31, 2019. For the first quarter of 2019 we achieved Galafold revenue of $34 million, which is a 104% increase over the first quarter of 2018. At a constant currency exchange rate from the first quarter of 2018, 2019 first quarter operational revenue would have been $35.8 million. This implies operational revenue growth measured at a constant currency exchange rate of 114.9% offset by negative currency impact of 11% or $1.8 million. While the impact of this quarter is relatively modest, we're introducing this measure as the majority of our revenue this quarter is generated outside of the United States.
Cost of goods sold includes manufacturing costs as well as royalties associated with the sales of our product. Cost of goods sold is a percentage of net sales was 11.9% in the first quarter ended March 31, 20 19 as compared to 15.7% for the prior year period. Cost of goods sold is a percent of revenue is favorable as a US Galafold revenue is subject to lower royalties. We continue to make significant investments in R&D and manufacturing with the ongoing pivotal study and commercial step scale up in our Pompe program, as well as the expansion of our gene therapy portfolio and capabilities as we evolve into one of the leading global rare disease biotech companies.
During the first quarter of 2019, we recorded $64.6 million in R&D expense compared to $40.8 million for the prior year period. This increase was attributed to investments in our AT-GAA Pompe clinical program. In addition to the clinical and preclinical gene therapy programs that we added to the pipeline in the second half last year.
Total selling, general and administrative expense for the first quarter of 2019 was $44.3 million as compared to $27.4 million for the prior first quarter period. The increase represents the expanded geographic scope of the ongoing Galafold commercial launch, including launch activities in Japan and the United States.
Net loss for the first quarter of 2019 was $120.3 million or $0.56 per share, compared to a net loss of $49.9 million or $0.28 per share for the prior first quarter period. And as of March 31, 2019, we had approximately 230.2 million shares outstanding.
Moving on to Slide 22 a few comments about our current cash position and 2019 financial guidance. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $438.2 million at March 31, 2019 compared to $504.6 million (ph) on December 31, 2018.
Looking at the remainder of 2019 we are reaffirming our full year Galafold revenue guidance of $160 million to $180 million. Taking into the account our anticipated investments as well as anticipated net cash generated from Galafold revenue we expect to have approximately $300 million in cash on the balance sheet at the end of 2019. This projected year end cash balance reflects all ongoing investments in our operations including Pompe manufacturing scale up as well as facilities including our new global research and gene therapy center of excellence in Philadelphia.
With our current cash position and anticipated net cash generated from Galafold revenue we have sufficient capital to fund ongoing operations into at least mid-2021. As we've noted in the past potential future business development collaboration, pipeline expansion and investment and manufacturing capabilities may impact our future capital requirements. This summarizes our key financials for the first quarter of 2019. Additional details can be found in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q.
I'm happy to address any questions during the Q&A. But for now, I will turn it back to John.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Great. Thanks, Daphne. So it's been a very successful first quarter here at Amicus and we look forward to continuing to provide updates on the progress throughout this year, much news to come. As a reminder, I'll conclude on this slide that we are well on our way to achieving our 2023 vision to treat 5,000 patients.
So with that operator, will hand the call over for questions-and-answers. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Your first response is from Ritu Baral of Cowen. Please go ahead.
Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst
Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to dig down a little further on the disparity between the revenue growth and the incredible patient growth and patient starts that you saw in the quarter, after you mentioned the $1.8 million in currency impact. Were there any other factors seasonality plus which is et cetera that we should be keeping in mind for this quarter and for Q1 going forward. And then I have a follow up.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. Ritu, good morning. Thanks for the question. Yeah. So again, this was an extraordinary first quarter in advancing the Galafold launch will not only contribute to achieving the range this year, but also lays a great foundation for building this product in the years ahead. I'm going to turn it over to Brad. Brad, maybe just reinforce those key trends and then specific to Ritu's question. Maybe just remind everybody the time to put people on drugs, the time for reimbursement. And then, Daphne, of course, if you can comment more on that the foreign exchange headwinds that we experienced in the first quarter. So Brad, I'll turn it to you.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, sure. Thanks Ritu for the question. No, I think, as we said on the call this was a great quarter just as you highlighted the best number of new patients starts this quarter more than 200 PRFs at the end of April in the US across that broad prescriber base continuing to see great adherence rates around the world. But really I think if you think about the quarter-to-quarter growth, it's in line with what we saw last year and what we expect to see this year. So, of course, not all of those 150 patients are starting on day 1, they come in over the course of the quarter.
We've seen last year stronger growth in 2Q and 4Q, and we would anticipate that again this year. And from everything we've seen the business is going great. And we're looking forward to continue to execute. And we did provide a little bit color that already this quarter is ahead of our expectations. So nothing unusual there. The only other thing I'd comment on is the reimbursement piece which is that we continue to see strong coverage around the United States. We've actually started to decrease that time from PRF to shipment. But you do still have patients in the queue from a US perspective who have a patient referral form who is still going through the reimbursement process. And as a reminder that, our target last year was 60 days, and now we've actually brought that down below 60 days. So we continue to make progress there.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Hi, Daphne, do you want to comment on anything with the foreign exchange?
Daphne Quimi -- Chief Financial Officer
Sure. Just to say that the majority of our revenue is still outside of the United States and currency does play a factor especially as currency compared last year to this year. And for the balance of this year we do think that there will be a stronger dollar. But I mean, we don't -- we're not in the business of forecasting exchange rates, we were just basing that comment on currency exchange rates as of today.
Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst
Got it. So (multiple speaker) Go ahead, John.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
No, no, nothing at all beyond that. I'll just highlight two pricing. I think that's important. We were very, very thoughtful I think, and how we brought Galafold to market and where we priced it around the world. And we see no pricing pressures on Galafold. We continue to see pricing 100% at the same levels at which we launched in Europe, and we continue to see very strong acceptance from payers in the United States. So certainly nothing to do with any challenges on pricing. Actually, I think we are going to get placed on the pricing with Galafold.
Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. That was very helpful. And then, actually look, my next question is on the Pompe program. As we look at Cohort 4, John, you mentioned that the Cohort 4 patients are have been on therapy cheaper seven years versus one to two years. For Cohort 1, are there any other demographic baseline differences between Cohort 4 and Cohort 1 that we should keep in mind as first clinical data emerges. And is it likely that this is going to be one of the data sets that you could potentially have at World Muscle later this year.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. I'll let Jay Barth, our Chief Medical Officer comment in a moment. In addition to these patients having been on Lumizyme much longer than any patients we've seen from an ambulatory switch study before the one thing that we did differently as well is these patients also had to have a well-documented historical baseline before they came into this study, not just a single baseline upon study entry. In terms of demographics, Jay, of these half a dozen or so patients. Could you comment on that.
Jay A. Barth -- Chief Medical Officer
Yeah, we haven't -- Hi, Ritu. We haven't shared that specifically move well and when we share the data as a whole, but generally similar. This Cohort is more of an extension of Cohort 1 other than the fact that they had been on treatment for a longer period of time with the ERT products coming into the study. We want to expand to a broader population. The purpose of Cohort 4, and we look forward to sharing it later in the year we haven't said exactly when, but we will.
Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst
Biologically speaking, is there any reason for a patient that's been on ERT longer to respond differently to your ERT?
Jay A. Barth -- Chief Medical Officer
No there isn't. In fact, I just remind you on others. Cohort 2, which is already have been in the study, we've discussed 21 month data here that. Non-ambulatory ERT experience patients have been on treatment for an average of nine years prior to coming on to AT-GAA and they have shown good responses in the measures we've assessed upper body strength for example. So clearly the capability of responding even after a longer time on ERT.
Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst
Got it. Very helpful.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Jay. Ritu, just to -- yeah, the last part. Obviously any patient study would be an important part of our regulatory submission one day. So this will be a piece of the puzzle. But again, the basis for approval we continue to believe will be the Pivotal PROPEL Study. Certainly very important how information is. Sure. Thank you.
Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst
Thank you for taking the questions.
Operator
Thank you. Next response is from the line of Anupam Rama with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Anupam Rama -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Hey, guys, congrats on the progress, and thanks for taking the question. Just a quick one for me on the CLN6 read out mid year. Just help us think through the level of details we'll be getting on the various -- on the end point specifically beyond Hamburg or would we get a breakdown of the different components of Hamburg in the top line release versus saving it for a medical conference a little bit later. Thanks so much.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. First of all, Anupam, congratulations to you on the birth of your child. That's just beautiful. Special time. I'll ask Jay and Jeff Castelli are here as well to comment on the data release that we'll see in Q3. Again, we expect the top line result to be shared in midyear in Q3 and we expect much more detailed information at a Scientific Congress later in the year. I think that's -- if you guys have anything to add in Cranberry.
Jay A. Barth -- Chief Medical Officer
No, I mean, at a high level that's what we have said and we look forward to sharing that in 3Q. We'll be focused on the patients who've completed the two year time point. And you point out the Hamburg that's certainly going to continue to be the primary efficacy assessment that we're going to be sharing data on.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
I'll just add on upon nearly. We put Battens at the top of the list for diseased targets for us in gene therapy. Remember when we started looking at the whole universe of rare diseases we then selected about 100 diseases, in a few months later we narrowed it to 15. CLN6 and in several other subtexts of Batten we're really at the top of that list. Because we felt that a gene therapy could substantially impact the disease. There were very few people if any in some of these subtypes working in the disease. And I've met a number of these children's and families, over the last two decades and it's just a devastating disorder. You have to remember this, and I know you know that it's a disease that is 100% fatal in children. Nobody survives childhood in this disease. And CLN6 is a really aggressive form of the disease.
And just to describe it to you, before it kills children it robs them of the ability to speak, to walk, and to think. We know that we can't reverse neurologic damage that's already done. But we hope that our gene therapy could fundamentally and really meaningfully change the course of the disease in children as compared to the natural history of this just awful disease. So we share the data when we brought these programs into Amicus last October, and the data that we've seen in the first two children that we shared at that time really gives us hope to believe that we may really have the potential here to change the fundamental course of this disease. So really excited to share the data in midyear in Q3.
Anupam Rama -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Great. Thanks so much for taking the question.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks Anupam.
Operator
Thank you. Next response is from Schwartz Joseph from Leerink. Please go ahead.
Dagon -- Leerink -- Analyst
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. This is Dagon (ph) dialing in for Joe. So, thanks for all the updates and congrats on the all the progress. I have just two quick ones -- questions, one on the CLN program and one on the cash guidance update. So, John, at the ASGCT last week, I was surprised by a presentation on a CLN5 study using the sheep model. And in this group study, they basically show that an intracerebral ventricular delivery of their CLN5 gene therapy improve the motor and the functional aspects, but the sheep still lost vision over time. And I know vision loss is a progressive symptom for a CLN patient. So, just wondering, can you provide some context around what you saw in the preclinical setting and you did nationwide or under your hands were ovine model study?
The second question is on the cash guidance for Daphne, just looking at the reported OpEx and a continued expectation of OpEx increase over the year, can you maybe put some more granularity around how we can get to that $300 million cash balance by year end? Thanks.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. Let me ask Jeff Castelli to address what we're doing in CLN6 the research that's been done and specifically that brought by a distribution that we've seen and how we've thought about the eye part of that number. We'll have Daphne comment further.
Jeffrey P. Castelli -- Chief Portfolio Officer and Head of Gene Therapy
Sure. So as a reminder we've reported data on CLN6, CLN3 and CLN8 preclinically. There are no available larger animal model to us for those diseases when we have looked in the mice. We have seen robust expression of the target field and protein in the retina. So we are encouraged by that. We are following vision in the clinical trials and more court that data out when it's available. But we are encouraged that we see the expression in the eyes and hope to have an impact on that aspect of the disease.
Most importantly, we really hope to improve survival or motor function language as well. But we'll continue to look at vision as we can. Good point on CLN5. We are aware of that model. And we're hope to looking at similar models like that in our future CLN programs where we can learn more Pompe disease.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Great. And I think you on the second part, I'll turn it to Daphne in a moment to dig on. But I think really underlying that is the confidence we have in the continued revenue growth from Galafold to offset some of the spending in the company. And then of course the judicial -- judicious management of expenses both on the research in the -- SG&A side. Daphne, I'll let you comment further.
Daphne Quimi -- Chief Financial Officer
Sure. The only other comment I'll make is our spending in the first quarter is in line with our expectation in our forecast. And there were certain discrete cash only items that occurred in the first quarter that we'll be more fully discussed in our 10 Q that we'll release tomorrow.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, I think because of that Dagon. Yeah, I think he can take the cash back. I would not take the cash spend in Q1 and just extend that out throughout the year.
Dagon -- Leerink -- Analyst
Got it. Thanks very much guys.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. Of course, so.
Operator
Thank you. The next response is from Tazeen Ahmad of Bank of America.
Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe this is a question for Brad. For the US with regards to Galafold pricing. Can you comment on any contracting you have done. I know it's early in the launch and perhaps you could talk about any kind of discounting at least directionally that on any discussions around that that you have to had to get this start covered.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Brad, go ahead please.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah. Sure. Thanks Tazeen for the question. And when we've talked about this before, so in the US we do not do any contracting with private payers. The only discounts that we give our the mandatory discounts to government payers medicaid medicare, Tricare et cetera. So the other piece to keep in mind is the percentage of the population that is -- that goes through the government channels and I think we've sort of given broad guidance that historically in Fabry that's kind of around a third of the population although it remains to be seen how much of -- how many of those patients will have a Amenable Mutations. But we effectively charge the price for Galahold in the US and the patients that are government patients have the mandatory discounts afforded to them.
Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America -- Analyst
So, is one third of your revenue coming from government payers or is this something?
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
We haven't been so specific that I would say by the time we get to steady state that should be a reasonable expectation. We have said that so far we have had government patients be reimbursed. So we've seen, of course, broad coverage both in the payer and the private payer universe as well as the government payer universe. So we feel very comfortable about the receptivity in the coverage from payers. And then the other thing which I think is another kind of another way of looking at this is we continued to shrink that time from prescription or PRFs to shipment, which I think clearly shows that that we're getting on plans -- all the payers and we're getting patients through the reimbursement process at a higher -- faster and faster rate which is fantastic.
Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America -- Analyst
So in the early stages of the launch, if you have to talk about what's the rate limiting factor right now, what would it be?
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
I think it's going -- anything better than expectations. So we're out there in front of all the docs. I think one of the questions is, are you going to be able to get a broad adoption among prescribed prescribers. We had a nice start in the US with clinical trial sites, but we now have over 90 prescribing physicians. The way we think about it there's about 50 top KOLs in the US and about 250 total prescribers. So that's a great penetration in less than a year of launch so that's really strong. Payer coverage is always a question mark. But again, we feel very good about that. So I think it's really continued to execute as we have and the numbers bear out that we're having great adoption and hopefully that reflects a great experience by patients positions.
Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Okay. And then maybe one question -- yeah.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
And I just comment Tazeen -- it maybe I've been just add that, I have been in Europe for about a week now traveling to many of our offices here visiting with our country team. And what I said you a continued remarkable enthusiasm from physicians, patients. And what struck me and all my business reviews was how much more opportunity exists that we really just are in the growth curve in the early days of the growth curve of getting Galafold to patients. And that's what really gives me confidence that this is going to get to thousands of patients and ultimately be a $500 million to $1 billion opportunity. There are just so many people continuing to be diagnosed with Fabry disease more and more people choosing Galafold as their therapy for Fabry whether switching or having been diagnosed for some time coming on. So I think much, much more room to go.
Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks, John. And maybe just one quick question on Pompe.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Please.
Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Sorry. Yeah. So you mentioned about the natural history study update coming in later this year. Is that going to be something that you would present at a medical conference or would you talk about it for example on an earnings call?
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Unclear. Yes. I think as we get closer to it and get into the second half of the year we'll think about what the right forum is. Certainly, it would be presented at a medical conference. I think it would be a very important piece of contribution to the field whether it's presented first in any top line announcement. We're not quite sure yet. But once we share it publicly we'll talk more.
Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Your next response is from Mike Ulz of Baird. Please go ahead.
Michael Ulz -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe just a follow up on the Pompe program and the natural history study. Can you just give us a sense of what data point you'd -- you plan to share and then how we should be thinking about that data in terms of what's the key end point, what would be the format of the data would it be. For example six minute walk test over a certain period. Any color there would be helpful thanks.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
I'm sorry Mike that's for the Natural History Study?
Michael Ulz -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
Yep.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, the Natural History. Jay, maybe you want to fill that place.
Jay A. Barth -- Chief Medical Officer
Yeah, we have collected the data and we'll be analyzing it across the range of endpoints certainly six minute walk test is a key end point and we'll be focused on that, but we will and have been gathering whatever available data are -- there are for these patients who have been on ERT treatment for whatever period of time they've been on it. And we look forward to sharing that data later in the year.
Michael Ulz -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
Got it. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Your next response is from the line of Mohit Bansal of Citigroup.
Mohit Bansal -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Great. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe if I could delve deeper into this 200 referrals who have talked about. I remember you reminded us you talked about roughly 20% of them at the last time point when Naive versus Switch. Can you please update that metrics for us and the related question is that what they do actually get incremental uptick in those naive patients come into us. Thank you.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. So this is in the 200 prescriptions we've seen across those 90 prescribers in the United States. Brad, I'll let you comment on the -- this split that we're seeing ERT treated a switch versus naive. Then, however, continuing to see substantial opportunity to help ERT treatment naive patients in particular.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah. Thanks for the question. So we do continue to see, I think, a similar rate of uptake in naive patients in the United States. And the color we've given there is that slightly faster than in most of our markets outside of the United States. I think there are structural elements that we've talked about before that allow us to drive awareness in the patient population as well as in the physician population. I think certainly you can infer that with the high adherence rate that we're seeing over 90% adherence rate with the broad prescriber base. And with that trend that you can infer that patients and physicians seem to be having a positive experience with the product which is great and we hope to continue to follow that over time. We do globally though see the diagnosed untreated population is a very important growth segment for us. And that's been our strategy all along which is start with the switch patients who are more in the system ever -- every other week for their infusion, so they're sort of available in the system. But anticipate market growth and diagnosed untreated patients and we're starting to see that which is great.
Mohit Bansal -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Very helpful. And then if maybe I can switch back, switch on the manufacturing part of gene therapy. Given that its importance and you are in a unique position where you have cash to invest in that plan. How are you thinking about the manufacturing so that, at this point, so that going forward you don't have to make much changes as you get to the market.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
No it's an incredibly important part of what we focus on, Mohit. I mean, everybody in gene therapy does. I think at Amicus we really, really are uniquely positioned to be a manufacturing leader in gene therapy. And again, we have in the last five years solved fold designed and executed on making the world's most complicated glycosylated protein with AT-GAA ATB200 or Pompe enzyme. We've done that with our partners at WuXi we've scaled it successfully, multiple times now produced it at the thousand leader point which is our commercial scale.
So when I look at that, of our 600 people we have about 100 people at Amicus in manufacturing technical operations and quality focused on biologics manufacture. So our strategy with gene therapy is to work on relationships with the very best of the contract manufacturers and we expect in the months ahead to be able to announce who those partners are in the scope and scale of those collaborations which will be quite significant. In addition, we think we could translate our Amicus success into Biologics business. Now to the biologic gene therapies. And we absolutely expect to have and to build our own manufacturing capacity and capabilities at Amicus.
We'll have more on that to say in the months and quarters ahead. But I think you'll see by the end of this year we not only have one of the very best pipelines and scientific capabilities in gene therapy. We also increasingly will have one of the greatest capabilities to manufacture. So it's something we're hyper hyper focused on.
Mohit Bansal -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Got it. Very helpful. Thank you.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Your next response is from Whitney Ijem of Guggenheim. Please go ahead.
Whitney Ijem -- Guggenheim -- Analyst
Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. Just curious on CLN6. Wondering if you can remind us what you've said around next steps once we get the data. Is your plan to sort of wait for the full 12 patients worth of data before not taking any steps in terms of regulatory discussions or anything like that or how do you thinking about the evolution of this program on that front this year.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, we've not said anything about kind of a regulatory path forward. Let's get the data out mid-year in Q3 within. And once we see that, they are hopefully strength in that data will be able to talk more about a path forward. But we are planning everything internally to move that program including manufacturing planning and regulatory planning to move that to patients as absolutely quickly as possible. So we'll have more to say on that in the second half of the year.
Whitney Ijem -- Guggenheim -- Analyst
Great, thanks.
Operator
Thank you. And the next response is from Elemer Piros of Cantor. Please go ahead.
Elemer Piros -- Cantor -- Analyst
Yes. Good morning. John, may I please ask whether it's safe to assume that the 150 plus patient adds in here in the first quarter. The majority of those may have come from the US.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
That's actually not correct. Elemer, I'll let Brad comment on it. But just as a high concept we continue to see really strong growth in new patient prescriptions in Europe, in Japan, and in the United States, all at or above our target numbers for the quarter. Brad, you want to add some more color?
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
No, I think, that's exactly right John. While the US is a large and growing contributor to that number still a majority of our patients come from outside the United States. Over time if you look at the market the Fabry market broadly, I think the US is about a third of global sales. So I think that's a good metric to think about in this sort of steady state. But right now US is still growing. And again, the majority is from outside the US.
Elemer Piros -- Cantor -- Analyst
So the 200 new PRFs during the quarter. Would that change this ratio in the second and or third quarter you think?
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, sorry. Let us be clear there. So that 200 PRFs number is actually since launch. So that's 200 patient referrals by them since the launch of last year. So that may be part of the question there.
Elemer Piros -- Cantor -- Analyst
Yes. Thank you for clarifying that. Thank you very much.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah. And that's also -- sorry, one of the thing that's also through April 30th. So it's a slightly apples to oranges comparison.
Elemer Piros -- Cantor -- Analyst
Thank you.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well we thought important to share that continued strong trend. We began the year with a little over 650 patients on Galafold. We ended the quarter at the end of March with more than 800 patients. So remarkable growth in product adoption.
Elemer Piros -- Cantor -- Analyst
Yeah. Thank you.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Thank you, Elemer.
Operator
Your next response is from Yun Zhong of Janney. Please go ahead.
Yun Zhong -- Janney -- Analyst
Hi. Thank you for the question. So the first question is on the diagnosed untreated patient. And I believe the burden of IV infusion is a major reason for patients to postpone treatment initiation. And is there anything that's preventing the uptake in diagnose untreated patient to be even faster than the pace that you're seeing currently. Anything besides patient identification payer coverage.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Bradley, go ahead please.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah I think there's really two different dynamics going on there outside of the United States. As we've said before, it's very restrictive in terms of how you can educate or interact with patients who really have to go through physicians and because diagnosed untreated patients aren't necessarily seeing their physicians very frequently, maybe once or twice a year only. I think it takes more time to get to those patient segments we are seeing increased growth there now that we've been on the market for up to three years in some countries. And that's why I think it was important to provide the color on the call today, but the rate of growth in those more mature markets is starting to be roughly equal this year in terms of continuing to switch patients but also driving adoption those diagnosed untreated patients.
In the US, if you caught the answer a little bit earlier the dynamic is slightly different. There is an ability to educate patients directly. And so there is perhaps a chance to interact with them more frequently than you can versus having to go through the physicians. And I think there is an opportunity to that and drive a faster adoption rate. We also of course, I think, in part because of the longer timeline to get approved here in the United States there perhaps was more awareness built up in that segment, which could drive faster adoption as well.
Yun Zhong -- Janney -- Analyst
Okay. And in patient diagnosis, and I think you said in the prepared remarks that Fabry is very well known to be difficult to diagnose. Is the company doing anything to help patient diagnosis so that the diagnosis can be faster and more accurate.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah we're doing a lot on diagnosis and finding people living with Fabry. Bradley, please.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Sure. So as you might imagine this has been something that some of the other folks in the lysosomal disorder space have been working on across all diseases. I think you could safely say that most like this own disorders are under diagnosed and misdiagnosed Fabry, as you look at the newborn screening reports and the other more recent population screening you can see in fact that could be the most under diagnosed of the lysosomal disorder.
We are looking at pilot programs, everything from screening populations in MS and IBS and other kinds of of potentially high risk populations for misdiagnosis. We're looking at other ways to drive newborn screening, here in the United States and elsewhere. So I think you'll see over the coming months and years that we begin to take a real leadership role in that effort, which I think is important for everybody to really start doing appropriately diagnose this disease.
Yun Zhong -- Janney -- Analyst
Okay. Last question. You mentioned that pediatric study in Pompe disease and we are able to provide any additional details. If not and when do you think you will be able to provide that information.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Jay, please.
Jay A. Barth -- Chief Medical Officer
We haven't discussed it in too much detail. But we do look forward to sharing more information in future communication.
Yun Zhong -- Janney -- Analyst
Thank you.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
It's just. Yeah. It is such an important priority for us and for others in the field to be able to get this medicine to children as well. In my travels in Europe over the last week I've had the chance to meet with a number of people living with Pompe and their families of all ages. And they remains really significant interest in the potential for a new therapy. And that's obviously is something that we are just absolutely hyper focused on.
Yun Zhong -- Janney -- Analyst
Great. Thank you for the answers.
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Your next response is from the line of Salveen Richter of Goldman Sachs.
Maryana Breitman -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Yes. Hi. Thank you for taking our questions. It is Maryana Breitman for Salveen. Congrats on the progress to date. I had a quick question on CLN patient identification especially for CLN3. I was just wondering if -- how you got to thinking about patient identification given how quickly those -- the clinical pipeline seems to be going forward. And I had a follow up.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, incredibly important to find these kids as quickly as we can. We're working with all the world's experts and the leading centers in CLN6. So where there are patients existing today as new patients are referred to these centers. We have a really open almost day to day dialogue with those centers.
In addition, over the mid-term to long term it's just going to be Maryana so vitally important that we find these kids as soon as we can. You can't reverse neurodegenerative damage. So to get these kids as soon as we can to put them on a gene therapy for what we believe could be a cure is just remain it's going to be an enormous responsibility and obligation for us the community and real more broadly society for these disorders particularly diseases of neuro degeneration. So do you have anything else to add. Any particular efforts. But I think that's really our focus today working with the world leading experts and the top centers.
Maryana Breitman -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Got it. And I had a quick three (multiple speaker).
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yes please.
Maryana Breitman -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
I had a quick question on the Pompe gene therapy. I was just wondering how you're thinking about the sector because that will be a very important part of the -- of the inclusion.. And what are you thinking about community like how you basically like thinking about choosing the vector both in delivered to the tissues and then B, diluted immunogenic.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. Very important point actually a highlight as we came into the gene therapy field, why we chose to partner Brian Kaspar initial my children, Kathrin Meyer and their team, but also why we chose to partner with Jim Wilson in the UPenn team. And why earlier this year we moved all of Amicus science to Philadelphia. And why we're building out 75,000 square foot state of the art gene therapy and Global Research Center of Excellence in Philadelphia. It's because we believe we bring the expertise in protein engineering in understanding disease biology half of physiology, pharmacology and the ability to develop these medicines.
We're combining that with Jim Wilson and it's more than 250 scientists in his gene therapy an orphan disease center where Jim is bringing the expertise in gene therapy and 30 years of experience. And we're leveraging that as we just did in Pompe, but also Fabry, CDKL5 disorders as well. And it's been an extraordinarily positive seven months. Hung is on the phone here as well. Maybe hung and we can conclude I think then that at the end of the questions in the queue maybe find a good place to conclude -- why we're so excited about our potential with Pompe gene therapy. But even more broadly, our potential to be successful in gene therapy science.
Hung Do -- Chief Science Officer
As before I making my comment already, what we bring to table is clearly our understanding of the disease and our true ability with regards to engineering the protein. So that's better targeted.
Specifically, to vision must be sort of captive proteins. The expectation is that, when introduce into the body, the body will mount and may response to any AV capsulate. So I think that's something that we recognized very clearly. But it's something the way we really will surgeon like Dr. Wilson's expertise to help us deal with that issue.
But to be clear, I think that the expectation is that where the AV will induce any real good response. So I don't know of any AV vector to-date that's actually able to get around that problem. Jeff, do you have anything to add to that?
Jeffrey P. Castelli -- Chief Portfolio Officer and Head of Gene Therapy
No.
Maryana Breitman -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
That's very helpful. I have a quick follow up. At the meeting and then, the 1934 Gene and Cell Society Meeting. There was some presentation that showed that was very high easy concentrations can cause oncologists diseases. What you thinking about that like how do you think about going forward especially given that in kids, you have to be basically thinking about the sort of risk benefit.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Absolutely. And again, it's important to remember in gene therapy if you're somebody living with Pompe ultimately any of these. You have one chance likely in your life to get a gene therapy. So we'd better be the most complete effective and safe approach. Safety is something that we design from day one into what we built it. Obviously top of mind for Jim and his team you can as it is for Hong, Jeff and our teams as well. So we spend a lot of time thinking about the importance of designing this to be as safe as possible it's one of the great advantages of working with Jim Wilson and the technologies he has developed and continues to develop again. Is that good. We used a proprietary. You can vector for Pompe and what we developed.
So for us that continues to be an incredibly important to focus on safety as well. And we think -- with a better targeted enzyme coming out of the gene therapy expression. It'll give you potentially more ability to deliver that product at a lower dose. And of course, that could be the greatest way to manage, the safety profile going forward. And it's why the targeting of these protein understanding, engineering and characterizing that is just so vitally important to what we do and one of the great advantages that we bring. So I think it's really going to be an advantage for Amicus going forward to solve that important problem. Maryana, thanks very much.
Maryana Breitman -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Got it. Very helpful. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Great. Operator, are there any other questions?
Operator
I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to John Crowley, Chairman and CEO.
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Great. So everybody thank you for listening to the call this morning. It was great to deal with from here in the United Kingdom in great to spend a week and a half or so visiting our teams throughout here in Europe. It was a great first quarter of execution and much more ahead in the year to follow and much more news to share. So thank you everybody for listening. Have a great day.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for participation and have a wonderful day. You may now disconnect.
Duration: 66 minutes
Call participants:
Sara Pellegrino -- Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
John F. Crowley -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Bradley L. Campbell -- President and Chief Operating Officer
Daphne Quimi -- Chief Financial Officer
Jay A. Barth -- Chief Medical Officer
Jeffrey P. Castelli -- Chief Portfolio Officer and Head of Gene Therapy
Hung Do -- Chief Science Officer
Ritu Baral -- Cowen -- Analyst
Anupam Rama -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Dagon -- Leerink -- Analyst
Tazeen Ahmad -- Bank of America -- Analyst
Michael Ulz -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
Mohit Bansal -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Whitney Ijem -- Guggenheim -- Analyst
Elemer Piros -- Cantor -- Analyst
Yun Zhong -- Janney -- Analyst
Maryana Breitman -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
