Bausch Health Companies Inc. (BHC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everybody. I'm Chris Schott at JPMorgan and very pleased to be introducing Bausch today. From the company, we have Joe Papa, the company's Chairman and CEO; as well as Paul Herendeen, the company's CFO. As a reminder, after Joe and Paul's presentation, we're going to have a Q&A session. Anyone who wants to ask a question there, can do so through the Ask a Question button that I'm sure one's been using throughout the conference. Obviously, a lot to talk about the story here between the potential separation as well as the 4Q pre-announcement today. So looking forward to the presentation. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Joe.

Thank you, Chris. I certainly want to start by wishing everyone a happy new year. I'm delighted to be here even if it's virtually. And more importantly, I want to have a chance to talk about how Bausch Health Care is planning to move forward and what we believe is great momentum as we start 2021. For 2021, our strategic focus is clear for Bausch Health Care. Number one, we want to execute on our COVID-19 recovery plan as we recover the business; number two, we want to unleash the growth drivers and key catalysts for 2021; and then number three, accelerate our strategic alternatives to drive shareholder value. Upfront, I would like to remind everyone, as Chris mentioned, that we did issue a press release yesterday evening, reviewing our fourth quarter revenue of more than $2.2 billion, which exceeded or allowed us to outperform the high end of our latest full year guidance range of $7.8 billion to $8 billion. Also this morning, at 7:00 a.m., we published or released a presentation that will complement my comments today during the presentation. On Page 3, of the presentation, we highlight our 2021 strategic focus, which, as I said, is executing on our COVID-19 business recovery; number two, unleashing growth drivers and key catalysts for 2021; and then number three, accelerating our strategic alternatives to drive shareholder value. On Page 5 of the presentation, we highlight that we had a strong finish to 2020. Revenue exceeded $2.2 billion, allowing us to outperform the high end of our latest guidance, as I just mentioned. Also, we noted a strong finish to adjusted EBITDA, strong quarter 4 cash flow. Full year cash flow from ops was plus $1 billion. That allowed us to repay approximately $900 million of debt in 2020, and I remind everyone we have no debt maturities until 2024. What I wanted to do is just make a couple of comments that are following along the presentation. I'll make specific comments now on Page 6, 7 and 8, which highlights our overall Bausch Health Care recovery and looks at each of the individual businesses, Bausch + Lomb, Salix and our Derm Solta business. Let me turn to a few of the highlights on Page 6 that really try to complement what I'm saying relative to our Bausch + Lomb business. If you look at what's happening, you clearly see Vision Care returning to mid-single to high single-digit growth. That's certainly something that we're seeing in the last several months. VYZULTA, LUMIFY, consumer B&L consumption, all demonstrating our recovery is in progress. So we're very excited about that. The surgical business challenges that we experienced in the March, April, May time frame are now showing recovery above pre-COVID levels. We commented there specifically about our Stellaris Elite. We also commented on our Salix business, where you see the recovery occurring with the TRx data for XIFAXAN and TRULANCE. So clearly, a recovery underway there, although TRULANCE, once again, continued to have very strong performance throughout the 2020 time frame. My summary there is great news. Recovery in progress for our Salix business. On Page 8, I highlight some of the activities in our Derm and Solta business. We know there's a lot more opportunity for Solta -- we're -- and for DUOBRII in our med derm business, but we are continuing to track. What I say about DUOBRII, as we think about 2021, as we are tracking a new-to-brand TRx trends, very similar to some great products like OTEZLA and Stelara. So that's the important thing that we're going to continue to track. We think there's a lot more upside as we approach 2021. Also on that page, you can see Thermage. Clearly, a great success story for the Solta business. In fact, we believe that Thermage is picking up a little bit on this, that I'll refer to as a zoom culture, as people are looking at themselves on high-definition screens and looking to continue to improve their own aesthetic. So we think that's obviously a good indication of what we've seen this year. But importantly, what we think the opportunity is for the future. If you move up to our presentation on Page 9, you see the question -- can you answer the question, how are we doing with market share during 2020 with all our key promoted prescription brands? And as many companies focus on -- when you focus on in a downturn, you focus on increasing market share. We've been able to do that. And if you look at -- whether you look at the B&L brands, VYZULTA, Luminate -- LOTEMAX SM or PROLENSA, we increased market share. Our Salix brand, XIFAXAN, TRULANCE, RELISTOR, all increased market share. And our Derm brand, DUOBRII, JUBLIA, ONEXTON increased market share. So probably to summarize our 2020, it was clearly a challenging year, but we grew market share, we exited 2020 well positioned for '21. And importantly, we have momentum, which I think is probably the most important thing I'll say on that page. On Page 11, we wanted to highlight some of our 2021 business growth drivers, our catalysts. Clearly, the global launch of Silicone Hydrogel Daily is an important comment. And that's certainly -- I'll spend a little bit more time on that in a couple of pages. But clearly, that's going to be important. The other thing I wanted people to think about for a second is the cataract surgery tailwind. I have data here on the U.S., but it's very -- if you think about it, annually, in the U.S., there's about 4 million cataract surgeries annually. In 2020, about 650,000 of those surgeries were delayed or not accomplished in 2020. So it was about 3.4 million surgeries. As you think about 2021 and beyond, we clearly believe there's a tailwind for those surgeries that did not get done in 2020 that will get done in 2021 and beyond. And importantly, we'll return to the normal rate. The comment about a cataract surgery. If you have cataracts prior to COVID and you couldn't get the surgery, you still have cataracts, you still need to get that resolved. That's something that we're tracking very closely. And ex-U.S., the numbers are even bigger, 22 million to 23 million cataract surgeries, about 20% were delayed ex-U.S. That means there's, once again, a 2021 and beyond tailwind as we return to normal post-COVID. And certainly, there's a catch-up for those that were delayed in 2020. On Page 12, we also highlight some R&D important milestones. Amiselimod, our S1P modulator, clearly is an important project. Our NOV03 are -- we have -- we'll have Phase III results in our first trial, and we just actually published some Phase II data in cornea that's online now, but it will be in print publication soon. NOV03 product that we have for dry eye disease met the primary endpoint with signs and symptoms of dry eye disease, and we got rapid results starting in the first 2 weeks and then continuing to improve from there. So we're making good progress with that dry eye product. Also, we're making progress with our rifaximin life cycle programs with sickle cell disease and SIBO, and we've also advanced in a COVID world, some of our COVID-focused treatments. To be clear, we're not a vaccine company. But we have found ways to help the COVID issue in Poland. Our DEXAVEN was approved for a new indication for the treatment of COVID-19. We have in vitro data, demonstrating that LUMIFY and BESIVANCE inactivated the COVID-19 virus and, therefore, we're going to work more on this to decide what are the potential implications, how we can help in the COVID pandemic. We also have ongoing an important study with our IVEXTERM. IVEXTERM is an ivermectin product. It's ongoing in Latin America. We'll get top line data for our IVEXTERM in the next few months. Importantly, this is an opportunity to potentially help patients before they get access to vaccines, especially those in Mexico and Latin America. So we think that's an important initiative, and we look forward to getting that data sometime in the next month or so. We're excited about what it potentially can mean for patients. On Page 13 to 16, I highlighted some of the important aspects of our B&L growth driver of SiHy Daily lens. And I won't go through these a lot, but I will just try to hit a couple of highlights. First of all, I think everyone knows, but I'll just say it. It is -- the SiHy market is clearly a big market for contact lenses. Today, we think it's about $1 billion. We expect it to get to probably around closer to $3 billion in the next 10 years. So big market. Is there a positioning opportunity is a question I often get. We believe the answer to that is yes. And why do I say that? The most challenging issue with the current SiHy Daily lens is that 53% of the patients still experience contact lens dryness. 69% of them trade off the dryness for the need to wear them all day. So that's clearly one thing that is happening. They're making trade-offs. And 82% of these patients in our survey would be interested in a lens that can reduce contact lens dryness. So that's where we think there is a really nice opportunity for us to position our product. And Page 15 in our presentation highlights the INFUSE breakthrough, what we referred to as our ProBalance Technology. We've paired the lens with osmoprotectants, electrolytes and also we've been inspired by some of the data that came out of the dry eye disease. They have a society that put forth the data and what we can do. It's very early data. We've now had a chance to launch this in Japan, the U.S., we've got Hong Kong, Australia, Canada coming on board and Europe next year. But the early data is very promising. We know that about 73% of our patients are coming from contact lens switching of other brands. On Page 16, you can see that 94% of the patients that are taking the product or using the product agreed that INFUSE helps patients with contact lens dryness. That's obviously a big thing for us and one that we're very excited about. We also saw that 94% of the patients agree they can wear INFUSE all day, which is what they've been trying to achieve with previous contact lenses. And 97% agreed INFUSE provides clear vision, the optics are good throughout the entire day. So we think we've solved some of what we think are some of the big issues on what was needed in the contact lens SiHy Daily market. Clearly, that is what we think a very important growth driver and one that we're going to spend a lot of effort on over the next weeks, months and years ahead. The final slide I want to talk about is our strategic focus. Chris, you mentioned it, and I want to clearly try to spend some time on that. What I want to highlight there is how we will accelerate our strategic alternatives to drive shareholder value. But I think it's probably important just to step back for a second and say, what is the company and management trying to do as we think about the business. We believe there's significant upside in our business. We believe there's an opportunity to unlock shareholder value, especially versus our peer companies. For example, if you look at B&L peers, we looked at some of the Alcon -- multiples -- Alcons trading at 30x 2020 EBITDA; Coopers around 25x, 26x 2020 EBITDA; ZEISS near almost 40x 2020 EBITDA. So our peers are trading at some significant EBITDA multiples. We look at that and say, is there a way we can unlock this value? So in August, we did announce the spin of B&L to unlock value for shareholders. We wanted to be very transparent. We knew it was going to take us about a year to get through the requirements, and we are making good progress on that, and I'll talk about that. But the point is that we are going to continue to complete the internal operating structure, legal entity to be tax efficient, the org design, all of that. And we can get that done, we believe, by the third quarter of 2021. But I want to talk about what else happened when we announced this. When we announced the spin, we also announced we hired advisers from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to help us. And as we expected, when we made this announcement, the spin announcement created a number of inbound calls to Bausch Health Care into our advisers about the interest in our great businesses and created ways to unlock value for all of our stakeholders. The spin is certainly one way to unlock value. But to be clear, we are evaluating other alternatives as well. And clearly to be -- as we think about it, we know we need to decrease our leverage to move the spin forward and that is one of the considerations we have. And we obviously think how are we going to do that. The best way is to grow EBITDA, and that's clearly something we're focused on. We believe, obviously, by increasing EBITDA, well, first and foremost, increases cash, allows us to pay down more debt. But also as EBITDA goes down, our leverage ratio goes down -- I'm sorry, as EBITDA goes up, our leverage ratio goes down. The second thing that I want to make clear that we're thinking about is asset divestitures. I can't comment and will not comment anything specific, but I know several of you have asked me the question about the Bloomberg article and the speculation about our [ moon ] business. The [ moon ] is a great business and growing very well. So we're clearly going to be considering any inbound questions of an interest that if we think there's an opportunity to accelerate the spin, we're certainly going to look at it. And then also others that had commented and questioned me about the Solta business. Once again, I'm not going to comment about Solta. But Solta is a very strong business. It grew by 55% in the third quarter of '20 and about 45%, I think, in the total 2019 time frame. So clearly, we think that's a great business. And based on other speculation out there, I'm sure that's a business that's worth several billion dollars. So clearly, we think that, that's a great opportunity for us. Finally, we are taking steps to reduce working capital. We believe by reducing working capital, that can also help us to increase cash, decrease debt and, of course, if we do a B&L spin with an IPO process, that's also going to accelerate the timing. So we've got a couple of bit things there underway to try to accelerate the spin timing. We're going to move expeditiously on that to pursue all those opportunities. What I want to be clear on what I will not do is to issue Bausch Health Care equity at these levels. When the company is trading where it is today, we -- our shareholders and -- we're very much aligned with our shareholders, we can work through these debt issues. We will work through the debt issues. But we don't see issuing equity, which is another question we often get as the way to do it. So if I summarize the business in total, what we see for 2021 is: number one, we will execute on our business recovery from COVID-19, and we see great measures of that great metrics, especially as I mentioned, on things like increasing market share; number two, we'll look at unleashing growth drivers and growth drivers for me are all about the momentum we have with these products as we come into 2021, and then importantly, some of these R&D milestones that we'll see that will show up during the year and the new products that we'll see during the year; and then finally, we'll talk about accelerating the strategic alternatives to drive shareholder value. Anything we can do to expedite these strategic alternatives, we think, will unlock value and that's where we're dedicated to make sure we do that. So that concludes what I wanted to say on the presentation. Happy to take questions, Chris. And Paul and myself will be available for any questions.

Great. So why don't we open up the Q&A. I appreciate the comments there. First thing I wanted to dig into was the 4Q results. And maybe just elaborate a little bit more on the COVID dynamics that you're seeing. And we clearly have a second way of playing out. We are seeing some players across the industry having some 4Q impact to their business. It seems like from the trends you're seeing, it was a strong quarter. So help us just build a little bit of context of what you saw in 4Q relative to maybe 2Q where you obviously saw a much more severe impact from some of the shutdowns we're seeing, et cetera.

Sure. So I think the -- first and foremost, we think that the data we presented today start to really give you a sense of what we're seeing. We are clearly seeing business discomfort, dude, make no doubt about that. We are seeing the prescriptions continue to recover across our -- to be fair, XIFAXAN has not particularly recovered, but we are seeing that continue to move up, track upwards in terms of what we're seeing. We are monitoring everything we're hearing about COVID from -- in the United States and for all the countries, the 100 companies that we do business in. And I'd characterize it as all the different COVID issues we're seeing today tend to be more regional in nature. So it's going to be more of a state driven or an accounting driven. But we don't see the national lockdowns, at least at this time that we saw before. That's allowing the elective surgeries to go forward, which is a part of our B&L business, and we expect that will continue to allow the remaining parts of our business to recover. Importantly, our sales teams have been able to make in-person call. I think we've looked at the data from IQVIA and relative to the averages for ability to make in-person calls. We think we're above average in terms of the percentage of calls we've been able to make in person. Well, let us not say we only make calls, we do make virtual calls, to be clear. But we have been able to get back and see our physicians with important information, especially as we launch our new products. So on balance, we're very pleased with the momentum we have coming into '21. Importantly, as good companies do during downturns, we focused on market share. So we have increased market share. So we think that as the markets recover, the higher market share we have will just be an advantage for us as we go forward. And we, once again, are continuing to launch new products, notwithstanding the COVID pandemic, we are able to do that, which we think is going to, once again, help us as we approach 2021. Clearly, though, we're looking at the COVID issues. But in some cases, as I said, 2020 COVID problems will turn into a tailwind for 2021, at least as we see it today on the areas such as cataract surgeries because people are returning for cataract surgeries. And if you had cataract before COVID and still have it, if you didn't get it taken care of, you're going to need to take care of it.

So can you just elaborate on that cataract surgery point? I think you mentioned 650,000 delayed surgeries in the U.S. We're seeing in some markets that there isn't necessarily position capacity to immediately deal with backlog. How does that dynamic work with cataract? Is there an ability for physicians to effectually catch up as the world normalizes in '21?

So I'd phrase your numbers are absolutely correct, 650,000 approximately in the United States. It's actually closer to about $4 million that got delayed outside the U.S., so even a higher number. And we are a global company, so we look at all of them. But our view on this is that we are seeing -- we saw -- and if you look at our data, you saw acceleration of our Stellaris Elite in the last months of 2020. With that data point, it is meant to capture is our Stellaris Elite is a medical device that's used for cataract surgeries. It helps us -- we get that data every week. And it comes to us, allows us to look either geographically within the United States or as the United States. So what's happening with XIPERE? We have seen an uptick. So that today, we are above the '20 or the pre-COVID levels of procedures. So there have been some ramp upward, yes. To your point, though, I expect that it's going to take more than 6 months to offset the lag from 2020. Answer is absolutely yes. So I used the words, I expect this tailwind for 2021 and beyond. I don't think we're going to be able to catch up overnight. It's going to take some time, but we do believe this will be a tailwind for us going into the future.

Great. And the other growth rate I want to talk about on just the 4Q trends is XIFAXAN. It seemed like we were definitely seeing some recovery. I think December just till the holidays, it seems like it's a little harder to interpret. So I guess, what are you hearing in terms of the impact the second wave's had on GI visits? And should we continue to expect to see XIFAXAN recovering? Or could that take a little bit of a pause here with what we're seeing in the U.S. in terms of high infection rates?

Yes. So I think that it's a great question, and it's one we spend a lot of time, as you can imagine, on XIFAXAN. There's a couple of points I want to make on it because there's things that you have to say, your general comment is absolutely correct. But the other thing that's happening is we're seeing more 90-day prescriptions. So what that means for XIFAXAN as people look at 90-day prescriptions for certainly the hepatic encephalopathy. You're going to have some impression because they were previously getting 30 days, that's now moved to 90 days. So the actual unit numbers are not as low as the prescription changes. So that's the first point, just from a metric point of view. I want to make sure I'm clear on it. But the other point that you're raising is absolutely fair. What we have -- as we talked with gastroenterologists, we believe gastroenterologists are focusing their time -- a lot of their time on colonoscopies, endoscopies, things that they do to help patients in a more acute situation and catching up on those. So -- and they're spending a little bit less time on the patient that has IBS-D. But in the long term and as we think about that recovery that we're seeing, we do think physicians will move towards the IBS-D category because we think we just have a best solution for IBS patients. The current situation is there's about 12 million prescriptions written annually for products that just mask the IBS symptoms, the antispasmodics, antidiarrheals. We believe our product XIFAXAN with an episodic treatment of a couple of weeks can have -- give lasting relief for patients for a chronic disease. That we think is a better solution. We will continue to promote the IBS-D indication, and we think that physicians, gastroenterologists, especially, as they return to their practice as they have more time available once they get beyond the need to catch up on the colonoscopies, they'll spend more time for the IBS-D patient, and that's where we'll see that ramp up. We IBS-D grew minus 1%. Clearly, we're back in the right direction.

Yes, yes. So it's not a real step down, but some impact, but not dramatic, I guess.

And we expect it to continue. And as I said, the other thing to remember is the TRx size has -- or you're seeing more 90 days TRxs, I guess, versus 30 days on the EG side.

Okay. Great. And then just one other on the product side. The Daily SiHy product. Can you just talk about any initial market share expectations you have for that? And maybe as part of that, I guess that, should we think about this more as an ability to kind of upsell the product and expand your presence with kind of loyal customers today? Is this more about bringing new customers into the fold? Do you think that's more in the kind of higher end of the market versus lower end? Just help us a little bit about how -- what segments of the market you're really focusing in with that asset.

Sure. Well, first and foremost, we always focus all of our comments on how we can help improve patients' life. And our view is that while SiHy Daily lenses are certainly very good, there's still some opportunities, as I've mentioned, that really make it different in our positioning for SiHy Daily by approaching this issue of contact lens dryness and I won't go through that data again, but that is the positioning opportunity, we believe is an opportunity. Second comment. Is there an opportunity? These products are more expensive, to be clear. We believe that approximately the INFUSE product will be approximately $2 a patient. The Biotrue ONEday is a hydrogel, SiHy. We sell that for approximately $1.22, and we have an Ultra or a lens, that's $0.50 a day. So this product is positioned at a higher price point, to be clear. That is true, but we also think it has important benefit to the patient along the lines of contact lens dryness. So those are the things that will continue to move forward. We think the market is large. It's $1 billion today. It's going to $3 billion. So there's going to be a nice opportunity for us to grow our position. And we've invested and what's required in terms of the capital expenditure. So we think that's already on board. We now look to expand our position there. And at least the initial data is very, very positive. We're now selling, I made the comment, I think, into the second quarter results that in Japan, for example, we're selling more than $1 million a month over the last 5 months. Clearly, we're seeing a ramp-up there. We think United States is still very early. It's going to continue to ramp -- continue to ramp pretty nicely. And as I said, we're launching it in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada and then Europe next year. So absolutely every reason to believe that we have a really big opportunity here as we think about the future of our SiHy Daily lens.

Great. Okay. When I think about 2021, I know you're not giving guidance today. A lot of moving pieces, I guess, we've gone through 2020. Just help us frame the pushes and pulls we should be keeping in mind as we think about the company's outlook for this year.

Yes, sure. So I'll start, and Paul may want to add some other things. But I think what we tried to do on that and talk about the key drivers that I may mention of is that we have good businesses. We focused in 2020 on increasing market share, but as you were expecting, we did that. So we entered 2021 with good momentum. That's got to be the first comment, you see it from the TRx approach. In addition to that, we think on the consumer side, our PreserVision, our LUMIFY continue to perform well and that's another driver for us. In the Vision Care business, I talked about SiHy Daily lens. So I won't say more about that. But our Biotrue Daily has continued to perform well for us. The surgical, I made mention -- I showed the Stellaris Elite. They're showing we're now at above pre-COVID levels. But importantly, there is a tailwind on the cataract surgery, but it is going to help 2021 and beyond. The VYZULTA growth was clear right through COVID. Our expectation is we've got good market access positions there. That's going to continue to be a strong part of it. But for Salix, it's XIFAXAN, we talked about that. Ortho Derm, it's JUBLIA, Solta that's experienced the Thermage. But across the board, we're seeing really good growth driver opportunity. We've got still to execute. But I view our -- as I said, I view that 2021 story about executing on our ability to demonstrate the growth driver for our company. I'm going to ask Paul, if you want to add anything to that comment here, please?

Yes. Thanks, Joe. Yes, I'll just add a couple of things is as we look ahead to 2021, one of the things that we need to do, we -- I think we talked about this in our Q3 call, it's -- we need to reprime the pump on promotional activities that we're engaging because right now, we're sitting with a number of very strong growth opportunities for a variety of our products. And so we spent 2020 adapting to change and finding ways, and hats off to our commercial team. They did a terrific job of getting us settled and moving in the right direction through a very difficult Q2, great rebound in Q3. And as we have disclosed last night, strong performance in Q4 heading into 2021. But I'd just call your attention that we need to get back to supporting through effective investment in promotional activities for the various products that we have that are either continuing to be in growth phase or in early launch phase like INFUSE. So that's something to bear in mind as we look forward to 2021. As long as I have the floor, I do want to just say one other thing because it came up a couple of times, Chris, in your remarks, and it's thinking about with the second wave of COVID. Importantly, Joe said this, but I want to buttress that's the statement is it's different now. It's different. If you're thinking about the United States back in the middle part of March, we shut down and things ground to a halt. Here, even in markets where you're seeing an increase in a number of cases. Frankly, myself, I look at hospitalizations and ICU and incidence of folks on respirators -- not respirators, but being in -- seeing in -- anyway, you know what I mean. When I think of that as the key thing, but what we're seeing even in markets where that is the case and you're seeing kind of a second wave or in the case of some they are all like a significant wave, or for example, like in California, people are continuing to go to the doctor's office. It's different. It's not the same as what you saw in late March and April and May before we start to find our footing. So bearing that in mind. Recovery, as we say it, very clearly, is underway. Very pleased with the pace of recovery in Q4, very pleased with the pace of that recovery. And you should think about it as well as XIFAXAN has some -- has a little bit of a way to go. We're not back at pre-COVID levels. We strongly believe that we can get back to pre-COVID levels and then return to a very strong growth trajectory with XIFAXAN over time. How quickly that occurs? Well, that's good material for debate, but we are well on our way.

Great. And maybe just a follow-up on that investment comment you made. How do you think about the timing of when you start to reprime the pump, I guess? Is this something that you're doing now? Or do you give it a little bit more, I guess, separation from where we are and that's more of like a, yes, 2Q of that or 3Q of that? I'm trying to get a sense of like how you're determining when is the right time to start kind of revisiting these growth drive initiatives that you've had in the B&L?

Sure. I mean, I'll start, and Joe, you may want to jump in here as well. I said, we started in the latter part of Q3 and into Q4, just not with the intensity that we might if we were in a normal air quotes around that, a normal situation. We need to spend to drive. I mean that's what drives our business. And I think we were very good at pulling back on those expenses in the challenging time of 2020, preserving both cash, but preserving operating income. But as we entered into latter part of Q3 and into Q4 and certainly looking at 2021, we've opened that back up. I mean, right now, as recently as yesterday, Joe and I had a meeting with one of our business unit leaders. And if you went back even 2 or 3 months ago, the request for travel were almost 0. As we're sitting here right now, we've got our sales forces that we're very proud of our sales forces and how resilient they've been now actively looking to get back in -- fully back into the game, and that is a very encouraging sign, at least for us.

It's great.

The only thing I'd add -- I think a good answer there. But the other thing I'd add, this is one of the things we're doing just to try to highlight it, and we're doing it. We first did it with the B&L ophthalmology prescription business. We made investments to go after XIPERE. It's an investigational treatment for macular edema. We made an investment with NOV03, that's a dry eye disease product that we -- as I mentioned in the presentation, it was just went online on cornea. We think that results there -- we have both signs and symptoms treatment for dry eye disease, and it starts early within the first couple of weeks. So that we think is a major advancement, and it's going after some products that, as you know well, are $1 billion product over there. We invested in Luminate, a product investigational compound that potentially you're going to start the Phase III trial soon for going after dry macular degeneration, which is a big unmet medical need. We've worked with Eyenovia, to go after a product, the atropine product with a much better formulation and dose for the patients. But we rebuilt a portfolio in our ophthalmology eye product -- prescription product. We're doing the same. We're doing -- looking at the same type of things for our gastroenterology business, our derm business, et cetera. But those are the things that we've been investing in, and I think are going to deliver the long-term value for shareholders.

On the separation, I think you had previously talked about maybe a base case time line of something second half of 2022 that you'd be in a leverage position to be able to enact that. You clearly talked about on the call, in your presentation today, some inbounds on some interest in monetizing assets that could accelerate that. I guess where do you sit today, 6 months or so, if I guess, 5 months after you announce this? Should we anticipate that there is a likely path of either divestitures or maybe some larger kind of B&L IPO that pulls that forward? Or would you still be kind of pointing us towards second half 2022 is the most likely time line for this occurring?

I think the best way I can answer it, and Paul, I'll ask you to also put comments on it is that what we are doing today is we're going to get everything done. We need to get done from an [indiscernible] point of view to be ready to do this in the third quarter of '21. So all that activity will be ready. The issue, as you appropriately point out, is the leverage issue. We're doing everything we can to expedite that leverage question. One of the things, let's say, as you grow EBITDA, that's one solution to help you pay down your debt. And the second thing is we're going to look at the asset divestitures. We've got great businesses at a number of inbound expressions, like I'm not going to give you specifics there. But clearly, there are opportunities for that to help accelerate the path to the spend. And then clearly, the comment I made about the working capital as we reduce some working capital, make more efficient working capital, we think that's going to unlock some value for us, but also pay down debt. All those things are absolutely targets that, that should. But we also would have to look at the opportunity if we spin B&L with an IPO spin, that could raise some capital as well. Those are all things that are on the table for us to expedite it. And as a shareholder myself, I absolutely want to get this moved forward as expeditiously as possible. Paul, anything you want to add to that commentary?

No, I actually think you covered that very well, Joe. I'll leave it there.

A good -- I know you're not going to talk about specific assets, but certainly, Solta, international pharma have been talked about a lot. I guess maybe broadly, is there anything that's off the table in terms of the divestitures? Are there other businesses that you view as kind of core that either B&L or Salix wouldn't be able to kind of stand along without them that we should kind of rule out is something that you'd be looking at? Or is this pretty much anything on the table is to the extent there's a good price you have to be paid?

So I think what I would -- the way I'd answer that is as management looks at this, we're open to any consideration because we believe our role, our mission is to unlock the value for our shareholders. And that's the focus we have. So if we have a good offer on any of our businesses, we're going to have to listen. And we like the businesses that we think they're great businesses. We think they clearly have growth potential in all of them. But we've listened to anything because we do believe these are great businesses, and we want to unlock this value. But we look at -- I mentioned the peer multiples that I mentioned on the eye health businesses. We have a product for sickle cell disease. There are sickle cell companies out there with a $2.5 billion market cap, and that's embedded within our Salix business. That's another example of places where we think we can unlock some value.

Absolutely. Great. Well, I think we're just about out of time. Maybe just on that sickle cell comment, can you just remind us when we should expect kind of more data on sickle cell? And so as we kind of think about that maybe becoming a more front and centerpiece of the story?

You'll hear more from us later this year on sickle cell disease. We think it's very good. The ability for us in a very small pilot trial to get data that is statistically significant, it's impressive. So there's clearly something about the ability for rifaximin to produce circulating activated neutrophils. And with that production, circulating activated neutrophils, you get a corresponding reduction in vaso-occlusive crisis as well, the need for injectable opioids. We think that's really powerful. The thing that is to be fair, an important question for us is which formulation do we use. As you know, we have an SSD formulation that is a new -- next-generation formulation. We also have formulations. If you go to clinicaltrials.gov, you'll see the formulation ongoing single ascending dose, multiple ascending dose in Australia and New Zealand. So we're waiting for that data to make announcement, as the -- which is the best pairing for this indication with this formulation to make the best contribution for shareholders and the patients.

Great. Well, we're out of time. Thank you so much for the comments. I look forward to catching up with earnings.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you.