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DATE

Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • Chief Executive Officer — Frank Lee
  • Chief Operating Officer — Brendan P. Teehan
  • Chief Financial Officer — Shawn M. Cross
  • Chief Medical Officer — Jonathan Slonin
  • Vice President, Investor Relations — Susan Mesco

TAKEAWAYS

  • EXPAREL Net Sales -- $143.3 million, up from $136.5 million in the prior year, driven by approximately 7% volume growth, partially offset by vial mix shifts and discounting related to a new group purchasing organization.
  • ZILRETTA Sales -- $26.8 million, representing a 15% increase, attributed to dedicated sales force investments and expanded commercial reach through Johnson & Johnson MedTech collaboration.
  • ioverao Sales -- $6.2 million, a 21% rise over $5.1 million in 2025, following rollout of a dedicated device sales team and improved reimbursement coding.
  • Non-GAAP Gross Margin -- 80%, compared to 81% in the previous year; reflects enhanced manufacturing scale for EXPAREL and ongoing process improvement.
  • Non-GAAP R&D Expense -- $25.4 million for the quarter, up from $23.1 million, aligned with advancing Phase 2 studies for PCRX201 and other pipeline programs.
  • Non-GAAP SG&A Expense -- $83.9 million, versus $76.2 million, with prior year impacted by a $5.2 million legal recovery; proxy-related activities elevated current period spend.
  • Adjusted EBITDA -- $40.2 million for the quarter, reflecting continued profitability and operational leverage.
  • Share Repurchase -- $50 million worth of shares retired in the quarter, reducing outstanding shares to 39.3 million, with $100 million remaining authorized through year-end.
  • 2026 Revenue Guidance -- Affirmed range of $745 million to $770 million total revenue; EXPAREL net product sales projected at $600 million to $620 million.
  • Reimbursement Coverage -- Over 110 million covered lives now have reimbursement for EXPAREL outside the surgical bundle due to payer adoption of NOPAIN-like policies.
  • PCRX201 Clinical Progress -- Part A of Phase 2 ASCEND study fully enrolled with 49 patients; top-line readout expected by year-end and Part B enrollment planned midyear.
  • Preclinical Pipeline -- Advancements in gene therapy and other assets, including PCRX1003 (degenerative disc disease), PCRX1002 (dry eye disease), and PCRX1001 (can90A), noted as part of strategic lifecycle management.

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RISKS

  • Winter storms disrupted product shipping and elective surgeries, causing some procedure deferrals not fully recaptured within the quarter.
  • ZILRETTA and ioverao 2026 revenue guidance assumes performance will be "largely in line with 2025" absent further visibility, indicating cautious near-term outlook despite early growth.
  • EXPAREL revenue growth was partially offset by vial mix changes and additional discounting due to a third group purchasing organization agreement.

SUMMARY

Pacira BioSciences (PCRX +1.39%) reported double-digit, year over year top-line sales growth for ZILRETTA and ioverao, and single-digit growth for EXPAREL, reflecting ongoing execution of its Five by 30 strategy and continued portfolio momentum. The company completed key enrollment milestones for PCRX201, its lead clinical gene therapy candidate, and reaffirmed full-year 2026 financial guidance, including detailed revenue, margin, and expense targets. Additional share buybacks during the quarter further reduced outstanding shares, supporting management’s stated commitment to shareholder returns.

  • Over 110 million covered lives now have expanded EXPAREL reimbursement, with expectations for continued growth as policy adoption accelerates.
  • "Gross margins continue to benefit from the improved costs and efficiencies of our enhanced larger-scale EXPAREL manufacturing process and continuous improvement initiatives at both of our manufacturing facilities," the CFO stated, confirming cost discipline initiatives.
  • Phase 2 ASCEND Part A results for PCRX201 are on schedule for later this year, with safety as the primary endpoint and secondary endpoints focused on durability and symptom improvement metrics.
  • Guidance for non-GAAP R&D and SG&A expenses was specified with anticipated second-quarter increases for R&D and proxy-season-related SG&A, followed by normalization in the back half of the year.
  • Management identified ongoing U.S. and international partnership discussions as central to the company’s strategy for revenue expansion into and beyond 2030.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • ASC (Ambulatory Surgery Center): Outpatient facility specializing in same-day surgical care, increasingly significant for EXPAREL utilization trends.
  • J-code: A product-specific reimbursement code in the U.S. healthcare system streamlining billing for injectable drugs or biologics.
  • NOPAIN Act: U.S. federal legislation enabling separate reimbursement for non-opioid pain management drugs outside the surgical bundle in Medicare settings.
  • HCAG: Human Cartilage Analog Gene therapy platform, Pacira’s proprietary tech for musculoskeletal disease treatment.
  • can90A: Pipeline gene therapy project referenced as having out-licensing potential in the transcript; company-specific term not broadly defined elsewhere.
  • WOMAC: Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, a standard clinical measure of pain and physical function for osteoarthritis trials.
  • GPO (Group Purchasing Organization): Entity that negotiates bulk purchasing contracts for healthcare providers, affecting product pricing and discounts.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Frank Lee: Good afternoon to everyone joining today's call. Just over a year ago, we introduced our Five by 30 strategy. This plan was designed to accelerate performance and position the company for sustainable growth and shareholder value creation. To remind you, Five by 30 was built to deliver measurable progress around five key goals: patients served, product revenue, profitability, pipeline, and partnerships. Collectively, we believe advancing these five goals will drive shareholder value into and well beyond 2030. Let me start by saying that I am pleased with our first quarter results and I would like to recognize our team for their remarkable efforts.

Our solid first quarter results reinforce our confidence that Five by 30 is delivering its intended business results. We are on the right strategic path. One year into execution, our progress across all five goals is clear. This is reflected in our commercial performance, financial results, and pipeline advancements. I will start with our flagship product, EXPAREL. Since our founding, EXPAREL has been the cornerstone of Pacira BioSciences, Inc.’s leadership in opioid-sparing innovation for postsurgical pain. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our team, EXPAREL is demonstrating renewed growth more than a decade after its initial launch. This is a rarity in the pharmaceutical industry and a clear testament to the strength of our commercial, medical, and market access organizations.

The accelerating volume growth we delivered in 2025 has continued into 2026. This momentum reflects a combination of fundamental improvements that are strengthening the long-term durability of our franchise, including expanding coverage outside the surgical bundle for Medicare patients following implementation of the NOPAIN Act in 2025; a new product-specific J-code enabling streamlined billing and reimbursement; growing commercial payer coverage outside the surgical bundle, which Brendan will discuss in more detail shortly; increased awareness and adoption of non-opioid stewardship programs, as evidenced by encouraging market research results; and enhanced intellectual property protection providing greater long-term visibility for the franchise. We now have 21 Orange Book-listed patents across two families protecting EXPAREL from generic challengers.

This is a dramatic evolution from the single patent previously litigated and supported a favorable volume-limited settlement in 2025. This multiyear EXPAREL patent infringement litigation began in 2021 and extended through 2024. In addition to EXPAREL’s leadership in postsurgical pain control, our ZILRETTA and ioverao positions in early interventional pain management are expanding. For ZILRETTA, the year is off to a strong start, with a 15% year-over-year increase in sales. We believe the growth initiatives we put in place last year are beginning to deliver results. These include our dedicated ZILRETTA sales force, expanded patient access programs, and extended promotional reach through our Johnson & Johnson MedTech collaboration.

From a lifecycle management perspective, we are pleased to report enrollment has concluded for a Phase 3 registrational study in shoulder OA. Top-line results are on track for later this year. The unmet need for shoulder OA is significant. There are approximately 1 million injections for shoulder OA administered annually in the U.S. despite the absence of FDA-approved products.

If this Phase 3 trial meets its objectives, ZILRETTA could become the first product with a labeled indication for shoulder OA. ioverao also had a strong start to 2026, with first quarter sales increasing 21% over 2025, as we are starting to see the benefits from last year's rollout of a product-specific reimbursement code and a dedicated sales force staffed with experienced medical device account managers. From a lifecycle management perspective, our registrational study in spasticity is on track, with top-line results expected by year-end. Here, the unmet need remains high with 6.3 million patients with spasticity seeking treatment each year in the U.S. Together, we believe our strong commercial performance and advancing lifecycle management will support durable top-line growth.

Importantly, this momentum further strengthens our leadership in postsurgical pain control and early-intervention OA pain management. In tandem with the momentum across our commercial portfolio, through our Five by 30 strategy, we are now advancing an innovative clinical-stage pipeline. Here, we are prioritizing mechanistically de-risked assets with the potential to drive shareholder value well beyond 2030. In addition to clinical data readouts for our commercial products, our clinical-stage assets are entering a catalyst-rich period. Key upcoming milestones include PCRX201, our locally administered gene therapy for knee OA, which remains on track for top-line data later this year. With approximately 15 million people in the U.S. affected by knee OA and limited durable treatment options, the unmet need remains high.

I will talk in greater detail about PCRX201 shortly. PCRX2002, our novel hydrogel formulation of the non-opioid analgesic ropivacaine for postsurgical pain, was designed to deliver rapid-onset and long-acting analgesia from a single application at the time of surgery. We expect to begin Phase 2 development later this year. This asset has the potential to complement EXPAREL as an easy-to-use, longer-acting therapy with patent protection extending to 2042. Additionally, our gene therapy platform continues to generate promising preclinical candidates to advance our Five by 30 pipeline goal. These include PCRX1003 for degenerative disc disease, PCRX1002 for dry eye disease, and PCRX1001 for can90A, which we believe has significant out-licensing potential.

Let me briefly highlight PCRX201, our lead HCAG program, which represents a potential paradigm shift in the treatment of knee OA. Building on the encouraging durability we observed in our Phase 1 study, our two-part Phase 2 ASCEND study is on track. Part A is fully enrolled with 49 patients, and as previously mentioned, we will have top-line results from this 52-week study later this year. Like most Phase 2 studies, ASCEND is not powered for efficacy. The primary objective is safety, but we will also be looking for efficacy trends. Key secondary endpoints include changes in pain and function from baseline, as measured by numerical rating scale, WOMAC, and CUSS scores.

In parallel, we are advancing a commercially viable manufacturing process for PCRX201. This work is critical to enabling the initiation of Part B around midyear. We expect Part B to enroll roughly 90 additional patients across three arms: two different doses of PCRX201 and an active steroid comparator. While it is premature to quantify the commercial opportunity, we believe PCRX201 has three key attributes that underscore its market potential. First is durability. We believe that demonstrating a treatment effect lasting one year would represent a transformational advance in knee OA. This would be significantly longer than currently available OA treatments, which generally provide durability of approximately three to six months. Second is cost of goods. PCRX201 is locally delivered.

This differs from systemic approaches requiring much higher dosing to achieve the desired effect. Lower dose levels, coupled with efficient manufacturing, support a favorable and commercially viable cost-of-goods profile. This is an important consideration for any therapy intended for chronic high-prevalence conditions like osteoarthritis. Third is health economic value. If the durability we are targeting is borne out clinically, we believe PCRX201 could offer attractive value to the health care system. As a reminder, PCRX201 is an IL-1 receptor antagonist. IL-1 is a well-validated, de-risked target for reducing inflammation. There are currently two FDA-approved drugs that block the IL-1 pathway in other inflammatory joint conditions.

Neither one is practical for early OA intervention because their short half-life would require very high systemic doses or daily knee injections. PCRX201 is complementary to ZILRETTA and ioverao and could expand our leadership in early-intervention OA pain management. Briefly turning to partnerships, which remain a key pillar of our Five by 30 strategy, we are taking a disciplined, targeted approach to business development. We are prioritizing strategically aligned assets that are financially accretive and leverage our commercial infrastructure. In parallel, we are utilizing strategic partnerships to access new sources of revenue by expanding our commercial reach into untapped U.S. and international markets.

Our strategic collaboration with market leaders Johnson & Johnson MedTech and LG Chem are both excellent examples of our strategy in motion. These partnerships advance our goal of five partnerships by 2030 and efficiently expand our commercial coverage and geographic reach. In summary, we are pleased with our first quarter results and the momentum behind our Five by 30 strategy. With clear progress across every Five by 30 goal, we remain confident we will deliver stable growth and value creation into and well beyond 2030. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Brendan to share more details on our first quarter commercial performance. Brendan?

Brendan P. Teehan: Thank you, Frank, and good afternoon to all joining us today. I am pleased to report that the upward momentum we observed in the second half of 2025 has continued into 2026. Our commercial execution is on point, demand trends are strong across the complete portfolio, and we are delivering top-line growth consistent with what we previewed in February. I will start with our flagship product, EXPAREL, where we are outperforming last year's first quarter volume growth and continuing to expand patient and provider access. We continue to see excellent momentum in hospital outpatient and ASC settings, where an increasing number of EXPAREL-assisted procedures are taking place and where our customers are seeing favorable reimbursement.

Our focus, beyond sharing excellent clinical outcomes, is demonstrating the enhanced economic value of EXPAREL. To support this, we recently presented data from real-world studies highlighting EXPAREL's compelling value proposition, along with several health economics and outcomes studies at key congresses that include the Orthopedic Research Society, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy. These real-world data demonstrate both the clinical and economic value EXPAREL delivers. We look forward to reporting additional data readouts as the year progresses. Our initiatives include the comprehensive real-world IGORD registry, which now has more than 3,500 OA patients enrolled and is providing valuable information for EXPAREL, ZILRETTA, ioverao, as well as other treatments.

These data are helping guide best practices for knee OA patients across their treatment journey. Importantly, commercial payers continue to recognize the EXPAREL value proposition and implement NOPAIN-like policies that reimburse outside the surgical bundle. We have now surpassed 110 million covered lives with reimbursement outside of the bundle for EXPAREL. With a growing critical mass of coverage, we expect accelerating change in the market throughout the remainder of the year. In short, we are extremely encouraged by the progress made in the first quarter. Building on the momentum from 2025, demand is being driven by a powerful combination of expanding reimbursement, growing protocol adoption, and compelling real-world evidence, all supporting each other and growing our business.

With a strong finish to 2025 and a solid start to 2026, EXPAREL continues to gain share as institutions commit to best-practice opioid-sparing care. We remain confident in our ability to deliver durable, sustainable growth for EXPAREL as access widens and best practices evolve. Turning to ZILRETTA and ioverao, both products are off to a strong start to 2026, as valuable commercial investments we made last year begin to bear fruit. As you know, last year we rolled out a dedicated Pacira BioSciences, Inc. sales force for ZILRETTA to ensure a focused promotional impact. In addition, we essentially tripled our U.S. commercial reach for ZILRETTA through a strategic collaboration with Johnson & Johnson MedTech.

For ioverao, we are benefiting similarly from a dedicated sales force onboarded last year. Looking ahead, we believe both ZILRETTA and ioverao have significant upside potential to become more meaningful sources of revenue. In summary, we are pleased with the strong start to 2026 across our three commercial products, and we believe we are well positioned to deliver a successful year of sustainable top-line growth. With that, I will turn the call over to Shawn for his financial review.

Shawn M. Cross: Thank you, Brendan. I will start with an update on sales and margin trends. First quarter EXPAREL net sales increased to $143.3 million versus $136.5 million in 2025. Volume growth of approximately 7% was partially offset by a shift in vial mix and discounting from our third GPO going live last year. In addition, first quarter sales were also impacted by winter storms disrupting shipping and triggering returns. As we move forward in 2026, we expect the delta between volume and revenue growth for the second quarter to be similar to 2025 and then narrow as we anniversary our third GPO agreement midyear.

For ZILRETTA, first quarter sales improved by 15% to $26.8 million versus the $23.3 million we reported in 2025. As Brendan mentioned, this was largely attributable to the growth initiatives implemented last year, including our dedicated ZILRETTA sales force. For ioverao, sales increased 21% to $6.2 million compared to $5.1 million in 2025. Again, as Brendan mentioned earlier, this was largely attributable to the growth initiatives implemented last year, including our dedicated ioverao sales force. Turning to gross margins, on a consolidated basis, our first quarter non-GAAP gross margin was 80% versus 81% for last year.

Gross margins continue to benefit from the improved costs and efficiencies of our enhanced larger-scale EXPAREL manufacturing process and continuous improvement initiatives at both of our manufacturing facilities. Non-GAAP R&D expense for the first quarter increased to $25.4 million from $23.1 million reported last year. This increase relates to our advancing Phase 2 study of PCRX201 as well as our label expansion studies, all of which have anticipated top-line readouts later this year. In addition, we are supporting three promising HCAG-based preclinical programs. Non-GAAP SG&A expense came in at $83.9 million for the first quarter versus $76.2 million last year.

You may recall that last year's SG&A expense was positively impacted by a favorable outcome to litigation and subsequent recovery of $5.2 million in legal fees. Taking this into account, we are largely in line with last year. As we discussed last quarter, we are now leveraging our existing commercial infrastructure, which is well equipped to support top-line growth. All this resulted in another quarter of significant adjusted EBITDA of approximately $40.2 million for the first quarter. As for the balance sheet, we continue to be in a position of strength and ended the quarter with $[inaudible] in cash and investments.

With a strong balance sheet and a business that is producing significant operating cash flow, we believe we are well equipped to advance our Five by 30 growth strategy and create shareholder value. With respect to capital deployment, we will continue to maintain a disciplined and strategic approach focusing on three key areas. First, driving top-line growth by leveraging our existing commercial infrastructure. Second, advancing an innovative pipeline and becoming a leader in musculoskeletal pain and adjacencies. We are prioritizing accretive in-market assets to leverage our established commercial footprint and de-risked clinical-stage programs. Third, opportunistically returning capital to shareholders. During the first quarter, we executed another $50 million in share repurchases.

As a result, we retired approximately 2.2 million shares of common stock. Since last year's start of the plan, we have decreased our share count by a total of approximately 9 million shares and reduced our outstanding common shares to 39.3 million. As of March 31, we had $100 million remaining under our share buyback authorization, which runs through the end of this year. Going forward, we remain committed to maintaining favorable operating margins while advancing our Five by 30 strategy. This brings us to our full-year financial guidance for 2026, which we are reiterating today as follows: total revenues of $745 million to $770 million; for EXPAREL, net product sales of $600 million to $620 million.

With respect to quarterly trends, we anticipate the remainder of 2026 will largely follow historical patterns. For ZILRETTA and ioverao, our guidance assumes 2026 will be largely in line with 2025. While we are encouraged by both products' start to the year, we will wait to gain more visibility before updating our assumptions. The final component of our 2026 revenue guidance relates to $7 million in expected revenue from our licensing agreement for the veterinary market. Non-GAAP gross margins of 77% to 79%.

With respect to quarterly cadence, we expect the next two quarters to continue to benefit from the sale of lower-cost EXPAREL inventory; for the fourth quarter, we expect margins to be slightly below our full-year guidance range due to the sale of higher-cost inventory as well as shutdown-related costs and other expenses. Non-GAAP R&D expense of $105 million to $115 million. As we prepare to initiate Part B of our Phase 2 ASCEND study of PCRX201 and certain EXPAREL and ZILRETTA product development efforts, we expect an uptick in R&D expense during the second quarter followed by a slight decline in quarterly spend in the back half of the year. Non-GAAP SG&A expense of $320 million to $340 million.

With respect to the timing of SG&A spending, we expect the first half of the year to be higher than the second half as a result of proxy-related activities. Stock-based compensation of $54 million to $62 million. Lastly, for those modeling adjusted EBITDA, we expect our 2026 depreciation expense to be approximately $30 million. With that, I will turn the call back over to Frank.

Frank Lee: Thank you, Shawn. In closing, 2026 is off to a strong start. Pacira BioSciences, Inc. is operating with momentum, clarity, and discipline. Our Five by 30 strategy is driving strong execution and reinforcing our leadership in postsurgical pain and early-intervention OA pain management. We look forward to building on this momentum and positioning the company for sustainable growth and value creation through and beyond 2030. Thank you again for joining us today and for your continued support and confidence in our mission. We will now open the call for questions. Operator?

Operator: To withdraw your question, please press 11 again. Our first question will come from the line of Douglas Tsao of H.C. Wainwright. Your line is open, Douglas.

Douglas Tsao: Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I have two questions. Maybe, Shawn, just as a starting point, if you could help us walk through a little bit about the cadence for R&D spend through the rest of the year. Just to confirm, it sounds like we are going to have a step up in 2Q followed by then sort of a step down in the third quarter, just as we see 201 ramp up. Should we think then more spend in 2027? Thank you.

Frank Lee: Hey, Doug. Frank here. Thanks for the question. Let me turn it over to Shawn, and he can walk us through that a little bit here.

Shawn M. Cross: Thanks, Frank, and thanks for the question, Doug. Happy to provide a bit more detail on the R&D cadence this year. As mentioned in our remarks a few minutes ago, we are preparing for initiation of Part B of the ASCEND study for PCRX201, which we are excited about, and certain EXPAREL product development efforts. From the $25.4 million in Q1 that we spent, we do expect an uptick in Q2. To provide a little more detail, we expect it to be in the low $30 million range, and then we will come back down closer to the Q1 levels in Q3 and Q4.

That is how we see it playing out, and we will obviously provide more updates as we get through the year.

Douglas Tsao: Okay. Great. That is very helpful with that specificity. And then just at a macro level, one thing that I have been curious about is the expiration of the Obamacare subsidies, and we have started to see some decline in terms of enrollments. I think if we look at results for some of the medtech companies in the first quarter and even some of the hospital names, it has not shown anything dramatic. But I am just curious what you are hearing from the hospital channel in terms of how they are thinking about the rest of the year playing out? Thank you.

Frank Lee: Thanks, Doug. We stay close to this. Let me turn this one over to Brendan to give his perspective.

Brendan P. Teehan: Doug, thanks so much for the question. Obviously, we are always looking at the broader macro environment, and I am sure people are taking a look at what those changes will mean to them individually. We will keep a close eye on those procedures where EXPAREL is favored, and we will continue to provide updates as we see it play out. I think it is just too early to say.

Douglas Tsao: Okay. Great. Thank you very much, and I will jump out for now.

Operator: Our next question will be coming from the line of Dennis Ding of Jefferies. Your line is open, Dennis.

Analyst: Hi. This is Cynthia on for Dennis. Thanks for taking our question. Earlier this week, we saw data from a cell-free regenerative therapy for knee OA with a headline efficacy of 93% of patients demonstrating clinically meaningful improvements in mobility and pain reduction. There is not a lot of information on that trial, so I am curious how you are framing that data and how 201 will differentiate from that product. And then any additional color on what promising efficacy trends would look like for PCRX201's readout would be helpful as well. Thank you.

Frank Lee: Thanks for the question. I did not get the name of the company you mentioned. What was that?

Analyst: I think Creative Medical Technology.

Frank Lee: Okay. There are a lot of different cell and regenerative therapy companies out there, with various studies of differing rigor. Let me turn it over to Jonathan to see if he has any perspective on that.

Jonathan Slonin: Thanks, Frank. Not commenting on any specific company, we are confident that the HCAG platform is the right modality for sustained relief of knee osteoarthritis. We have made tremendous progress in scaling up and are finalizing our commercial-scale manufacturing for Part B, as we have articulated before. Our anticipated enrollment is right on time. To answer your second question, we are expecting the top-line data from Part A to read out at the end of the year. Just to remind you, the primary endpoint is safety, and we will be looking at the totality of the data to understand how PCRX201 performs in a randomized controlled trial with an active comparator.

We will also be looking at the secondary endpoints around efficacy, including pain and function measures. We will review those data and assess where we are, but the trends we are looking for are trends consistent with durability and efficacy from our Phase 1 trial.

Analyst: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question will be coming from Truist Securities. Your line is open.

Analyst: Hey. This is Jeevan on for Les. Thanks for taking our questions. How would you characterize elective procedure trends exiting March? Any lasting impact from the winter storms? And then, separately, how should we think about potential upside from ex-U.S. partnerships across the portfolio? Thank you.

Frank Lee: Thanks for the question. I will ask Brendan to comment on what we are seeing now. He mentioned it a little earlier. Then I will comment on ex-U.S. partnerships. Brendan?

Brendan P. Teehan: Jeevan, thank you for the question. If we look at the moving annual total for procedures where EXPAREL would assist, that is largely flat year-over-year, despite EXPAREL being up over 7%. If we look specifically at the first quarter, market procedures are up in the mid-single digits, I would say 4% to 5%, as opposed to EXPAREL, if that gives you some sense. We will look to see how that progresses here in the second quarter.

Frank Lee: On ex-U.S. partnerships, this is an important part of our Five by 30 strategy in terms of signing five partnerships both in the U.S. and ex-U.S. As you know, ex-U.S. we have signed a partnership with LG Chem. They are a leading company in Asia-Pacific, and we have plans to sign similar partnerships in other major geographies. It is premature to provide guidance on these partnerships and top-line impact, but I would say it is not insignificant. These will be important partnerships that will drive revenue not only through 2030, but well beyond 2030. The first partnership’s intention is to file in the not-too-distant future, and we will be updating you on guidance around that starting in 2027.

Operator: Our next question will be coming from the line of Serge Belanger of Needham. Your line is open.

Serge Belanger: Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. The first one is a follow-up to the previous question around the impact of winter storms. I think you were expecting a potential softer 1Q because of those storms. It looks like all three of your products had some pretty solid year-over-year growth. Did you see any impact, or were you able to recapture it over the remainder of the quarter? And then my second question regarding NOPAIN: if I remember correctly, the NOPAIN Act has a three-year term ending in 2027. Is there any legislation in development to extend or modify that term? Thanks.

Frank Lee: Thanks for your questions, Serge. Regarding the winter storms, we can provide a bit more color. I will turn to Brendan for that, and then I will speak to NOPAIN.

Brendan P. Teehan: Thank you, Serge. The winter storms did have an impact. They affected both the ability to ship and, as you would expect in those geographies, the surgeries did not happen, which led to rescheduling not necessarily within the quarter. There is some carryover as patients look to be rescheduled for those procedures. Despite that, we are very pleased with the performance of EXPAREL volume vis-à-vis the total available market. We believe we are past that and are looking forward to the second quarter.

Frank Lee: And Serge, with regard to your question about NOPAIN, initially it is scheduled to expire in 2027. We have been staying very close to CMS and other stakeholders. We are very encouraged by not only the uptake of NOPAIN, but also the expansion of coverage to commercial lives. As Brendan mentioned earlier, we now have a total of 110 million covered lives outside the bundle, and growing. As you know, NOPAIN primarily covers Medicare lives. We are encouraged by the discussions we have had and the uptake we are seeing. We will confirm a lot of what we are seeing through claims analysis.

NOPAIN is doing what it is intended to do, and commercial payers are also coming on board, which is highly encouraging.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question will be coming from the line of Hardik Parikh of JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Hardik Parikh: Hey, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. I just want to ask about SG&A. I think I heard you say you expect SG&A to be lower in the second half. Can you talk to the magnitude of the step down you are expecting in the second half? And then, SG&A seems to have been elevated the past five quarters relative to 2024. I am trying to get a sense of what the normalized run rate is going forward.

Frank Lee: Thanks for that, Hardik. Let me turn it to Shawn.

Shawn M. Cross: Thanks for the question. We reported $83.9 million in SG&A this quarter. Without providing super specific detail, you can look at the information we filed in our proxy this week that provides some magnitude of what we anticipate spending during the proxy season that would be above the typical course of events. We anticipate coming back down in Q3 and Q4 to perhaps a little bit below where we spent in this quarter. That is generally directionally correct for the second-half step down and normalized run rate.

Operator: I would now like to turn the conference back to Susan for closing remarks.

Susan Mesco: Thank you, operator, and thanks to all on the call for your questions and time today. We are excited about the opportunities ahead and remain focused on executing our Five by 30 growth strategy with discipline and purpose. As we look to the remainder of 2026, we are confident in our ability to build on our momentum and position Pacira BioSciences, Inc. for long-term success. Thank you again for your continued support. Good night.

Operator: This concludes today's program. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.