Edited Transcript of YPSN.S earnings conference call or presentation 27-May-20 1:00pm GMT

And if you look at our process internally, we have a high digital level. We have a few papers. So I think one of the most — best elements that we have seen was that we were able to bring 1,000 people into remote work within days. We’ve also high automation, a high vertical situation, so little dependency of supply chain, which was also the reason why our production, our supply chain and the supply of customers, has been and is still good and in time all the time. And over the time, we have only had 3 confirmed COVID-19 cases so very healthy situation. I’m very glad for that.

So overall, robust business model, not really critical to the disease here and safe for long term. Let us now focus on the figures, and I’m going to start with the summary of the revenues. We see here this CHF 110 million growth over the past 24 months from CHF 280 million to CHF 390 million. Roughly over 2 years, we have had this enormous growth of really new business. Yes, we no longer distribute Omnipod. That should be clear now for everybody. So we are focusing on our own product, and we see this very nice development. And if you now think the line ahead, it will not take long until we are back on where we have been with the trading business with the Omnipod, but independent on our own developed and manufactured products.

If you look at the 2 segments, it’s striking that delivery systems already now passes the figures we have — the revenue figures that we have been seeing from diabetes care. With CHF 192 million, it is now the strongest revenue driver in Ypsomed. Ypsomed delivery systems shows a growth of 45% over 2 years. We have had this 36% growth in last year only in the injection system. It’s an environment that’s been a bit weaker on contract manufacturing. This is the low-margin Sanofi business with Toujeo and Lantu pens, which is 6.5% negative, but that’s mainly due to currency effects. So from a volume perspective, we are safe for the year, and then going to 120 million units in the next year. So good situation on delivery systems side.

Also from a project revenue perspective, we see still very high income from project revenues, and this will also stay in the future. It’s an important piece of the revenue out of the delivery systems segment. In diabetes care, we have been growing at 14 — 14.4% on pumps. That’s below our expectations. We wanted to go originally for 20,000 then for 18,000 patients, now we are at 15,000-ish. It’s definitely not what we wanted, and I will explain you why.

On pen needle side, we are a bit weaker in America. On DiaExpert side, which is our trading business in Germany, which makes roughly CHF 100 million revenue, is a 12.2% growth that’s definitely a trend towards more online delivery, towards more online ordering. And it’s all — our position, we are market leader in the DiaExpert in the mail order environment in Germany.

Overall here, of course, the strong Swiss franc has been influencing it, the business, with CHF 9 million on top line.

Just one word to Ypsotec, our other segment, we have had a very tough Q3 and Q4. We have had the measures in place, and we have been able to put people on short-time work. It means that the government is paying here in Switzerland 80% of the salaries, while they are not delivering cost to the company.

At the end of the day, now we are back on track. Still despite of COVID, we have enough orders for the next 3 months. But it’s a business which is definitely not core to us, where — which we have to analyze what we’re going to do with it in the future. But for now, I think we are well set up to deliver again a positive figure.

If we go to bottom line, it is, of course, striking that we no longer have the Omnipod one-time payment element here from last time, from last year, but we are almost on the same level from CHF 11.4 million to CHF 9.3 million that’s mainly due to the cost now from the starting factory in Schwerin. That’s because of not enough sales in Canada and France on YpsoPump. That’s because we had this impairment on the FDA file for the first trial on YpsoPump, and that’s because of the negative currency effect.

And on Page 13, we actually provided you a step — a graph, which shows how this is developing. We wanted to do an organic EBIT of — in the core business of CHF 21 million, and we have this currency effect of roughly CHF 6 million. We have the one-time element of the impairment of the FDA filing. We are now doing a new attempt in May next year, which made it necessary that we basically delete this piece and make the amortization here.

And then the CHF 3 million Ypsotec element, which is very sad, which leads then to the CHF 9 million. Interestingly, on net profit, we are CHF 2.5 million above EBIT, and that’s mainly due to the Swiss tax reform. You may have read that Swiss people have voted positively on the tax reform earlier this year. And this means that we now are no longer allowed to have tax optimized holdings in Switzerland. This is OECD rule that is now applied in Switzerland. So we have to sell all our IP, our patents and brands from a tax holding into the Ypsomed AG for CHF 242 million. And this then, in the end, had a positive tax effect of CHF 5 million, which then in the end, led to a tax income of CHF 4 million. So it’s a one-time effect. But quite interestingly, overall, we are very happy that the tax reform comes into place. It brings us on a low tax level of below 12% here in Switzerland. So a very attractive place.

I think the Swiss people understood that investing money in companies that do innovation, that do R&D and development, is a positive. So such companies can use these innovation costs and reduce the tax level. We stay on the same level with our dividend policy with 35%, which leads to CHF 2.5 million or CHF 0.20 per share.

In order to reach our midterm targets, we have decided to look into our various areas, which are not core to us. We are turning every stone. We want to look at profitability, at the bottom line and really focus on elements which are important to us. There are a couple of businesses which are not core. So we want to look at them, we want to analyze them and decide on how we proceed strategically. First decision is on our attempt to go to America with YpsoPump.

We have explained you for over one year now that we are analyzing the situation. We have looked at founding, opening an own enterprise with our own sales force of a couple of hundred people. We have explained you that we look at partnerships by acquiring a mail-order company. And now we have decided to go for a third way, which is a distribution partnership way, a white label approach where Ypsomed is shipping YpsoPumps and infusion sets from Europe to America, and a strong partner is going to distribute the product. We have not signed a deal yet, but we are in negotiations. We are quite far proceeded. We cannot name yet the company, but it is a strong player in the field of diabetes, very well networked, very interested in the product proposition, very well set up to do this business and much better than us. And I think the most important element here is that we are derisking our bottom line, I mean, by opening a new office by starting as a small player. Ypsomed against Medtronic against Tandem, it is definitely a difficult challenge, a difficult task.

But having a big company with a good and strong name, it’s a totally different proposition, and we can protect our bottom line. So what are the effects of COVID-19 for the future? On delivery systems side, it’s really minimal. We have been able to deliver product from day 1 of COVID crisis, and we still do. We have a couple of delayed clinical study trials, but this will not be felt in our revenue over the coming years. It will be washed out by other businesses coming.

On diabetes care though, it is — and it’s also what others have reported, it’s a difficult and challenging situation because pump companies can no longer see patients. Yes, we have remote training tools in place, we have demo and training apps in place, and they work, but it is a different thing. And we cannot put as much patients on the pump as we wanted. So we lose at least one quarter now. And yes, we have a certain wave. To some extent, it actually helps us here because Tandem has delayed their launch in Europe, which now means that patients have time to make the decision and as they know now that Ypsomed has a closed-loop elements as well in the near future, it puts us in a different position.

So I believe in the end, it has a positive effect, this crisis for us, because we don’t lose patients to Tandem. But we lose one quarter. And this is why when we look at the outlook, this is why we want to give a guidance as following.

For the financial year 2021, we expect a growth in turnover and an increase in profitability. It is difficult for us to say where we are landing because of the amount of patients we can put on the pump over the coming years — over the coming months. It is really depending on potential second wave, a second lockdown here, and then we can still not see patients.

In Switzerland and Germany for now, we can start again. But in Eastern Europe, for instance, it’s not sure yet when our sales reps can see patients and doctors again. From today’s perspective, we still consider a medium-term EBIT target of CHF 100 million absolutely achievable. We have a very clear view on delivery systems. We’re now already at the level where we are going to reach the CHF 100 million all in that segment. So our goal must be to make diabetes care profitable, and that’s only due to the YpsoPump. YpsoPump made over CHF 40 million negative this year. So we have to bring it positive. It will take another 3 year for sure, but it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. And that’s why we are now focusing, and we are closing the gap, and I want to show you that a couple of slides later.

If we spend a couple of minutes on COVID-19, I think it’s quite important to understand what it means for our industry, what it means for the environment. And if you look at some of the global mega trends, such as cocooning, home care, digitization and affordability, Ypsomed is very well set up. I mean self-care is clear. You don’t want to see the doctor, you don’t want to go to the hospital, it’s clear that these things have to happen at home. And this is what we do. We are a self-care company that takes care of chronically ill people at home.

Second point is digitization. That’s why we are investing heavily. We are now already 100 people in our software and hardware team, and we are growing heavily. We have just decided to open up an office — software development center in Barcelona with 40 people to even strengthen this organization. So digitization health care is a trend and we hear it from all big pharma that they want to make their devices smart, to have the data from the pen, from the autoinjector into the cloud, and this is where we are working on with a large team and a the great effort.

And then affordability, I mean the Economist just mentioned the 90% society. I think that’s quite a good comment here. I mean the — it’s clear, people will look at the money, and the pressure will also come to the health care industry, and that’s why it’s important that we continue to focus on cost, cost, cost that we think twice what we spend that we look at our lean processes and that we try to work on affordable medical devices, and that’s what we are doing already for many years. I think that’s a critical element also from our pump business perspective.

If an Insulet takes 160,000 patients to become profitable, if a Tandem takes 150-I-don’t-know-how-many-thousand patients to get profitable, it will take us just 50,000 patients. Our breakeven is around 50,000 patients. This is definitely also because look at the cost and we design products from the very beginning with a cost element in mind, and that’s an — definitely a strategy which is going to pay out now. Ypsomed is well positioned our business is sustainable. We have very, very long-term contracts, both in B2B and in diabetes care.

In B2B, of course, these pharma contract, it’s combination product, it’s married. So we have these long contracts together with our big pharma partners, 5 to 10 years. And then on the pump side, once you have a pump, you order your sets for 4 consecutive years. So this is a very sustainable calculatable business. With a solid equity base — we need some money from banks at the moment because we have built some factories, and we are growing with equipment, but we have a solid equity base with an equity ratio above — well above 50%.

Let us move to business segments now and look at the two pieces in a bit more detail. As you know, we are active in B2C diabetes care and B2B delivery systems. Diabetes care is 10 needles, black logo monitoring systems, infusion pumps, pump infusion sets and, of course, the whole digital things with the apps and clouds.

And delivery systems is pens, autoinjectors, patch injectors and smart services, products we sell to pharma companies in a OEM manner.

Let us start today with delivery systems. In delivery systems, next to this global mega trend of self-medication, of home care, we have 2 other important things to understand, and this is new drugs and biosimilars. And I mentioned that before, but it’s so obvious now. A large amount of new drugs in the development, in the pipeline of big pharma biotech have to be injected. You have to bring them parentally into your body. So it’s no longer pills, it’s no longer IV, it’s no longer hospital visits. It’s parenteral, subcutaneous injections at home.

And this is a mega trend, which we feel, which we see in the pipelines of big pharma biotech where we are the main profiting company in the medical device space. And then biosimilars, I think corona and COVID actually is even supporting that. We have a nationalism in some countries. Countries want to become less dependent from international suppliers. They build up their own pharma environments. Let’s take Bangladesh, let’s take Indonesia, large countries, countries that have own pharma industries that are now governed, backed that are developing their own insulins.

One of the pens that we actually launched a couple of months ago was to the (inaudible) company in Indonesia, which has own biosimilar insulin factory now, which are independent from Novo Nordisk or Eli Lilly or Sanofi. And so for us, basically, it is growing the cake. We have more and more customers that demand product in the biosimilar space.

Just to remind you, why we are so welted up in delivery systems, that’s the platform strategy that we are executing for almost 10 years now. And I think the main piece that we have to understand, again and again, this is a derisking. It’s derisking for our partners, derisking in terms of time and money and also IP risks. So we go and start with an executed, robust product platform. It is tested. It is IP-wise checked, and it’s even industrialized. So if a big pharma biotech is now coming to us and needs an autoinjector, it’s a matter of months, and we can deliver a solution, and they can then start their process with studies, et cetera, et cetera. So this has put us in an excellent position.

And as you see on the next slide, we are actually growing this family of devices. We are investing more money, especially on the autoinjector and patch injector side and in the smart environment. So the pens are mainly for hormones, so for variable-dosed drugs. And the autoinjectors on the right side are mainly for monoclonal antibodies, more complex drugs that are injected weekly, every 2 weeks or even monthly fixed dose. So that’s the main differences, pens with cartridge, autoinjector with syringes. And if you see what we have achieved last business year, it’s 14 new pens and autoinjectors, 10 in the first half year, 4 in the second last year — second half year.

And it’s not only insulin. It’s not only diabetes. It’s asthma, it’s osteoporosis and it’s migraine. Migraine, very important, our relationship with Teva. Teva is a very important player in the field, and they have been very successfully launching AJOVY. AJOVY is a migraine product for heavy migraines. As you may know, 1 out of 7 people living on the planet has some kind of migraine. And this is for heavy migraine attacks, you take the drug twice a week, and you get much fewer of these migraine attacks. So a big, big game changer for people with migraine and a great relationship here with Teva that we were able to start and we have interesting drugs coming apart from Copaxone that we have launched already.

And also on the SmartPen side, I mean we are now having the first UnoPen and Ypsomed customers that are asking for SmartPilots. So we are putting these dongles, these add-ons, on the pen, and they are connected directly with our cloud system. So we collect the data, the data of the device. We are able to manage the device, we know exactly what the status of the device is, and if the device fails, we can act and we can give the information to the pharma companies. There are various models. Some pharma companies only want to have management as a service features for the device. Some want to have a data cockpit, and this is growing more and more, as I’ve said in the beginning now, especially with this COVID crisis. Every big pharma biotech wants to make their devices smart, they must understand what happens at patients’ home. We cannot be blind. If we want to make adherence benefits, if we want to have a better therapy, we must have data in the hand of pharma company. And in the end, of course, of payers.

Now that’s for now, delivery systems, very pleased of how it went. Let’s move us to diabetes care. In Diabetes Care, just want to remind again and again where we are at. We are mainly focusing at type 1 patients. We must be clear here, type 1 patients are the ones that really require a more complex therapy. We have some of type 2s which are quite close to a type 1 diabetic. But the main target is type 1 diabetics, where we have roughly 50 million people in the world, and roughly 10% are now on a pump. So just to remind you on our pump, and I think it’s always important to mention, and it’s also important to understand in the context of our success and our situation where we are at and why we have not been more successful. So I think it is important to understand.

Our pump is small, it’s lightweight. It’s easy to use. It’s half the size and the weight of a Tandem or a Medtronic pump. But it is not intelligent enough yet. I think that’s something which has kept doctors away. In Germany, for instance, we see, I would say, 50% of doctors that said, let’s wait until you have a connection with a center. So this Dexcom partnership was missing. We love your pump, but it cannot talk to a sensor. So this is something definitely we have to change. And I will show you in a minute how we are going to do that.

On the sales side, we have to look at Canada and France less — the other countries have been quite okay but Canada and France. In Canada, we have been very unlucky in British Columbia has not opened yet us to sell pumps.

And then when we were very, very close to signing, COVID started, corona crisis started, and now they are basically sleeping, and we have to wait until we can open. But we are quite, quite hopeful that we can start selling British Columbia in later this year. In France, we see a totally different effect. In France, we have been extremely successful with putting patients on an Omnipod a couple of years ago. Now we have been successful with putting patients on YpsoPump. And then we have seen Abbott with Libre launching their FGM system. And all this together has led to an explosion of the cost in the French diabetes care budget, which has led to a pushback.

This pushback was in a manner that depressed us there. So the mail-order companies have been reluctant of putting more patients on the pump for a moment. This will, of course, relax again but for the last half business year, and we still see it for part of this business year, it will be definitely less patients on the product. So overall, we have lost momentum because of the missing growth in Canada because of the missing growth in France, and because still doctors in Germany and large countries like England and Germany have been a bit reluctant because of the missing sensor. We have still been growing and if we compare that to the Omnipod launch we had 8 years ago, it’s still a good result, but it’s definitely below our expectations.

So we have to do our homework here. We have to get to 50,000 patients in order to be profitable. I want to show you in a minute how we’re going to do that. So one element, of course, and I mentioned it in the beginning, it’s how we are going to act in America. We have been communicating very clearly, if you want to be successful, we have to launch a flexible model, a flexible system in terms of FDA approval. And the most flexible and newest model is the ACE approval pathway, which is no longer looking at the system, but which is looking at single components.

So we are preparing that file, also together with our partner that we look to launch the product for in America. So our potential partner, we have not signed the relationship. We are into this in heavy discussion, but has some needs, some special needs, which will have to be implemented in this project. So this project is basically a customization project until end of the year — end of year 2020, then it’s a design freeze, then we do human factor study with a filing in May, June-ish ’21. After that, we file. It will take usually 130 days, but as you know, the authority can take some more time, so we would guide something like Q1, Q2, ’22 for a launch in America.

We are very excited on the next steps here and to communicate more when we are ready to communicate more. We believe at half year figure time latest, we can announce how we’re going to do it in more detail.

With that, let us move to our Dexcom partnership. It is — it took more time than we expected. I think we have been discussing for over one year here. And now we are clear, we have signed 2 license agreements. We have been communicating that one agreement is on the sensor licensing and one is on the algorithm licensing. So we are not selling the sensor. We are not selling directly the algorithm, but we are basically connecting the two things.

We are connecting the sensor with our mylife app. So we launched this Loop program in 3 steps, mylife Assist, mylife Dose and mylife Loop. I’m going to explain you now how we are doing that. First of all, time line. Later 2020, somewhere, hopefully, before Christmas, we can launch to existing patients, an update of the mylife app. So you don’t need a new pump. Because we are — Ypsomed is an app-centric company. You just get an update of the mylife app in the app store, Android or IOS, and you have all these new features directly in your pump.

So what you’re actually doing is you are then able to update a start sensor — a G6 Dexcom sensor out of the mylife app, you get all the data from CGM in the mylife cloud on the phone. You have your bolus device on the phone, and you can give the bolus manually on the pump. Now a couple of months later, end of Q1 ’21, we are going to introduce mylife Dose feature. mylife Dose feature is nothing else than giving the dose, the bolus remotely from the iPhone or from the smartphone, so you don’t need to touch your pump, which is a huge, huge element, I mean, taking out the pump and all the time on the table at a restaurant or out of your of your shirt, it’s very cumbersome. You will be able as a mylife Dose — mylife YpsoPump customer, you will be able to give your bolus directly from your mobile phone. And then ’22, mylife Loop. I’m going to explain in a minute what it is.

So Dexcom G6, first step integration 2020 later with the features I just mentioned to you. Then myLife Dose, mylife Dose with the bolus suggestion that I also explained. And ’22 then, the Loop function. Loop function basically is the known features that are now provided already by Medtronic and Tandem. And this is — these are elements like the low dispense function so that as a child, you can go low and the pump stops pumping insulin. That’s a feature, especially for the small segment of small children, but it’s an important feature for this whole segment.

They have also hybrid closed-loop functions, a feature that is basically supporting the basal rate, if you forget your bolus. It’s definitely important, if you think in the end, today, we have roughly 50% of the time of adult diabetic patient is in the correct range. And with these features, you get to 70% or even more percent. So it is important elements. And today, we still are a bit a way of a perfect looping system, there still has to be much, much more work on the algorithms on the sensors, and the sensors’ accuracy, but the pathway is clear. And more and more patients try to use these features. We know that Medtronic pumps are still beeping too much. That’s why — I mean, they have issues in America and also in Europe to get patients on the product. But it will become better.

It’s a matter of time, a couple of years to go. So it’s logic that pumps must become smarter to be highly automated. And Ypsomed has signed a deal with Dexcom to have access to type 0 algorithms, which will be implemented on the app, which will steer in a safe mode, the pump with the introduction of mylife Loop in ’22.

So in the end, we see our new connected Mylife committed care system portfolio. It shows, apart from the pump, the apps, the 2 BGM models, also the Dexcom center. This is what we are going to have here now on our portfolio, fully connected, out of one hand here, a system under the mylife brand.

Ypsomed group, some elements here, just to give you an update also on an investment perspective. We have invested less on infrastructure and fixed assets, CHF 106 million in ’18 ’19, CHF 78 million last year. Of course, Schwerin now, the big driver has now been built. It’s inaugurated. We see CHF 45 million in R&D. We also plan to be around CHF 45 million in the new business year in R&D.

We have grown the team on software and hardware again, and we’ll still do that also in the next year. So that’s positive investments. And what is important to me is actually the expenses in marketing and sales and in administration, which despite of CHF 40-plus more million revenue, we have the same amount of money spent in this environment. So it shows we really look at the cost. We think twice where we spend. We don’t build up too many people in the field of administration, so a positive element here.

We’re also creating jobs, 110 new jobs over the past 12 months, majority of them in Switzerland, 106 new positions. We have around the same budget for business year 2021, around 120 — 110, 120 new positions to be filled in the coming 12 months. Important to us, and more and more so here in Europe especially, is the topic around sustainability, and this the — it is clear to us that we have to become CO2 neutral. We have to play our role in this space. We want to do that by reducing CO2 footprint. We want to do it by substituting some of the material. We want to do a circulation, some recycling programs, and we want to work on compensation. Maybe we can switch to the next page.

Here, we see some of the details, some of them we explained already. It’s around reduction, it’s around substitution and circulation. And we do that together with partners. We try to bring products back, especially packaging. But it’s clear, we are not going to be 0 on carbon on CO2 because we still have plastics. We’re a plastic molding company. And despite of moving slowly, slowly to biopolymers, they are also footprint. So we need to — need also to do compensation programs. We look at various solutions here, trading with certificates and also building our own certificate system, as we mentioned before, with our reforestation program in Eastern Africa.

We are now already the largest reforestation program in Eastern Africa, which is a thing which makes us proud, which is good for the culture in the company, and which we’ll, in the end, also deliver own certificates which will make us CO2 neutral and which will be a driver. We plan to announce our YpsoMate 0, the carbon-neutral YpsoMate this November at the PDA conference in Las Vegas, if it can take place. Otherwise, we’ll do it virtually. It is a product which we can give to the pharma companies on a CO2 neutrality. We will be responsible to deliver that.

With that, I come to the end, and I would like to announce that the Board is proposing Gilbert Achermann to become a member of the Board at the general assembly of the 1st of July. Gilbert is an expert in the medical device space. He’s not unknown. He has spent almost his whole life in the industry, after have spending some time in the financial industry. He is now Chairman of Straumann Group and Dental business. He is a Board of Director member of Vifor company. And I look forward to work with him. He is a great resource. And with that, we are growing and building up our Board successfully.

With that, ladies and gentlemen, I am — thank you for your interest. I can repeat. We have a year with very, very strong growth in delivery systems. This growth is continuing. It will be slightly lower than this year, but we have still this growth path ahead of us. We see a challenging year we had in diabetes care, especially on the pump side. This is going to change now with more technology with a clear path forward in America on the sales side and with the integration. And with that, we look positive into the future.

We are lucky that we work for products for people with chronic disease. So we are not dependent on corona crisis and shocks. We are not in a position where we have to let people go. We can grow. With that, thank you very much. And we are ready for questions. Thomas, over to you.

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Thomas Kutt, Ypsomed Holding AG – Head of IR [4]

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Thanks, Simon. So operator, please open the line for questions.

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Questions and Answers

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Operator [1]

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(Operator Instructions)

We have a first question coming from the U.K.

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Unidentified Analyst, [2]

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It’s [Carlos Moreno] from [Premier Martin] Can you hear me?

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Simon Michel, Ypsomed Holding AG – CEO [3]

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Yes. [Carlos,] we hear you well.

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Unidentified Analyst, [4]

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Brilliant, can you tell us anything more about your — the distribution partner that you’re talking to for YpsoPump in the U.S., and you said it’s going to be a white-label deal rather than like a combined equity or something. I suppose my problem with that is an almost from your own experience is that they never seem to be very stable those deals in my experience. They tend to maybe work for a few years and then you fall out with each another. You get to a situation where — or you think they’re not trying hard enough. What confidence can you give us that when you announce who you’re talking to, that we’re going to go, yes, that’s a really sensible person. They never seem to be very evenly balanced. Those types of deals tend to be — I didn’t — tell me a little bit more. I’d love to hear a little bit more about who you’re talking to , who you’re working with.

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Simon Michel, Ypsomed Holding AG – CEO [5]

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Thank you for the question. Obviously, we cannot give you the name yet, but it is 1 of 4, 5 players that you could think of, a player that is in the space for many years, a player that commits to diabetes and diabetes care for many, many years, and an organization that is in place and strongly established worldwide. As a distribution relationship, you’re absolutely right. I mean Ypsomed has been burned twice. We have had, on the other side, being the distributor for such products. We have been distributing the freestyle Libre now the freestyle BGM system many years ago. We have been distributing the Omnipod, as you know, so I fully agree with that. But I think now it’s in a different way around. We are the one that supplies and we have a high confidence.

It’s a partner that knows very well what they are doing. They went through a very thoughtful strategy process. They understand they need a pump in order to complete their portfolio. And it is a partner that understands that thinks long term. It’s contract discussions, which go over more than 2, 3 years, they want to have a relationship of 7 and more years. So it’s a strong relationship that we are building here. But you’re right. I mean, at the end of the day, you can never predict the future.

What is important to us, we are shipping pumps to America. And as soon as the patient is on a pump, he is on a pump. And if many years down the road, this partner wants to quit and no longer be active, these pumpers will still be around, and then we’ll find another partner. I mean, these thousands of patients is an asset, and it will stay an asset and somebody else will buy it, will take it or we will do it ourselves. So I think it’s not such a risky proposition here.

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Operator [6]

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There are actually no further questions.

(Operator Instructions)

Okay, Thomas, there are no further requests. Back to you.

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Thomas Kutt, Ypsomed Holding AG – Head of IR [7]

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Graciela, thank you very much for your support. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your attendance and interest in Ypsomed. And we look forward to stay in contact. And stay healthy. Operator, please close all the lines.

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Operator [8]

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Thank you, Thomas. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our call today. Thank you for joining us, and have a good rest of the day. Goodbye.