Executives from LENZ Therapeutics (NASDAQ:LENZ) used the company’s latest earnings call to provide an update on the early U.S. launch of its presbyopia eye drop, emphasizing initial physician adoption, early refill signals, and planned investments to build what management repeatedly described as a new treatment category.
Early launch: “product clearly works,” with refill signals emerging
President and CEO Evert Schimmelpennink said the company is about five months into the launch and characterized progress in three areas: real-world performance consistent with clinical trials, early signs that patients who purchase tend to refill, and evidence the company is “clearly building a new treatment category.”
From launch through the end of the current quarter, the company said it believes it is on track to have sold over 45,000 boxes (also described as monthly packs) and to have prescriptions from more than 10,000 eye care professionals (ECPs). Management argued that early prescribing breadth and productivity compare favorably with other recent eye-care launches, and highlighted an internal analysis suggesting the company’s top 1,000 prescribers are filling over 40% more scripts per doctor than observed at a comparable point in the Vuity launch.
On persistence, executives pointed to patients returning for refills and shifting from one-month packs to three-month prescriptions, as well as some patients starting directly on multi-month supplies. However, management noted it remains early and said it wants to see trends develop across multiple quarters before sharing more detailed refill statistics.
Sampling strategy and “durable” patient base vs. a faster early ramp
A central theme of the call was the company’s sampling-first approach. Schimmelpennink said the strategy is designed to let patients try the eye drop before purchase, creating “natural self-selection” in which those who experience benefit and choose to buy may be more likely to continue therapy. Management contrasted this with a dynamic it described for Vuity, where patients often had to purchase before trying, potentially contributing to a faster early ramp but also a subsequent drop-off.
In the Q&A, management said it believes more than 90% of new patients currently start with a sample first. Executives also acknowledged operational limits: once samples are left with physicians, the company cannot track how individual samples are dispensed or quantify sample volume per office. They also said some doctors still prefer to write prescriptions without providing samples, and the field team continues to work on changing those habits.
When asked about sample-to-script conversion and the pace at which doctors become repeat prescribers, management described a mix of behaviors in the field, including physicians who provide a sample and script together, those who sample first and write a script later, and those who write immediately without sampling. Executives said they are working to apply “blueprints” from higher-performing prescribers across the broader ECP base.
Commercial execution: expanding the field organization and sharpening messaging
Chief Commercial Officer Shawn Olsson said presbyopia is the “largest unmet vision condition in the United States,” again citing 128 million affected people, and described a strategy built around physician recommendation and consumer demand for the product “by name.”
Olsson highlighted physician awareness metrics the company cited from surveys, including aided awareness of 98% and unaided awareness of 79% among ECPs. He also said more than 14,000 ECP locations are enrolled in the company’s “Find a Doc” program, and that over 55% of prescribing doctors have written the product multiple times. The company described prescriber mix as roughly 80% optometry and 20% ophthalmology.
Executives also described two messaging challenges that they believe can be addressed through field execution:
- Integrating the discussion into routine exams: Management said ECPs are still learning how to counsel patients on a presbyopia drop and incorporate it into an exam flow, which the company argues can be done with a short, “10-second” discussion.
- Broadening perceptions beyond early presbyopes: The company said some physicians primarily associate presbyopia drops with early-stage patients, which management attributed in part to perceptions from prior products. Olsson said the company is emphasizing clinical study inclusion of moderate and advanced presbyopia and data showing patients with worse presbyopia can gain more lines.
To support adoption, the company is expanding its field organization to 117 representatives (from 88), an increase of 29 reps. Olsson said the outside field team’s coverage is expanding from approximately 12,000 ECPs to about 15,000 ECPs, driven in part by prescribing activity among doctors outside the initial target set, including physicians who never wrote Vuity but are writing this product. The company expects the expanded reps to be fully onboard in the second quarter.
Direct-to-consumer campaign: engagement rising, but Rx impact expected later
Management said building consumer awareness is necessary for category creation and provided detail on its direct-to-consumer (DTC) campaign featuring Sarah Jessica Parker. The campaign launched in mid-January, with February described as the first full month of activity.
Executives said web traffic is running roughly five times above baseline, with spikes up to ten times during national activations. Olsson said the ad mix includes platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, ESPN, Paramount+, Uber, Pinterest, and others, and the company has begun activating influencers across multiple audiences. Management also cited media pickup including Good Morning America, New York Live, The New York Times, and late-night television.
Even with these engagement indicators, executives cautioned that DTC typically takes time to translate into prescriptions. Schimmelpennink said consumers may need to see an ad five to seven times before acting, and noted that the pathway from awareness to prescription includes scheduling an appointment, receiving a sample, and then purchasing. The company said pharmaceutical DTC campaigns “typically take at least two quarters” to translate into prescription trends, and management said it expects a more meaningful impact on script volume in the second half of the year.
Olsson added that the company is optimizing spend and creative based on performance metrics such as click-through rates and cost per impression, and said early lift in brand awareness from YouTube is performing “2x above benchmark.” Starting in April, the company plans to pilot linear TV advertising in select markets to test response, framing the effort as targeted rather than a broad national campaign.
Financial results: first quarter of launch revenue and spending ramp
Chief Financial Officer Dan Chevallard reported that the company ended 2025 with approximately $292.3 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, remained debt-free, and had about 31.3 million shares of common stock outstanding.
Chevallard said fourth-quarter net product revenue was approximately $1.6 million in the company’s first quarter of product launch, supported by over 20,000 monthly paid and filled prescriptions. He described two distribution channels: an ePharmacy channel, where revenue is recognized upon delivery to the consumer, and a traditional retail pharmacy channel supplied through wholesalers, where revenue is recognized when shipments are received by the wholesaler.
On expenses, Chevallard said total fourth-quarter operating expenses were approximately $40 million, including $4 million of non-cash stock-based compensation, compared with $31.4 million in the third quarter of 2025. Net cash burn in the quarter was approximately $32 million.
Cost of goods sold totaled $400,000, which Chevallard said was driven largely by indirect costs related to non-recurring manufacturing processes. Looking ahead, he said the company anticipates trending to approximately 90% direct product gross margin.
SG&A expenses were $39.6 million in the fourth quarter (or $35.9 million excluding non-cash stock-based compensation), up from $9.4 million in the same period of 2024, driven “almost entirely” by sales force establishment and launch activities, including a non-recurring investment to enable the DTC campaign early in 2026. Research and development expense fell to $0 in the quarter following completion of the Phase III CLARITY study and approval of the product in July. Net loss was $35.9 million, or $1.16 per share, compared with a net loss of $12.7 million, or $0.46 per share, in the prior-year quarter.
For 2026, Chevallard said the company observed a better-than-anticipated blended gross-to-net ratio of about 90%, or $67 per monthly package, and said additional distribution-related costs result in net cash per unit of about $60 per monthly package, with the difference flowing through SG&A. He said the company expects to allocate roughly 75% to 80% of operating expenses to sales and marketing, keep G&A reasonably flat, and treat R&D as a de minimis P&L line item.
International expansion: multiple regulatory submissions underway
Chevallard also outlined progress on international expansion through partnerships, stating the company now anticipates potential approvals in multiple geographies in early 2027. He said the NDA review in China is underway, and that following a May 2025 commercialization agreement with Lotus Pharmaceutical, NDAs in the eight-country Southeast Asia license have been submitted and are under review in South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore.
He added that the company submitted a centralized marketing authorization application to the European Medicines Agency in early March and plans to follow with a submission to the U.K.’s MHRA. The company’s partner in Canada, Théa, is working toward a submission to Health Canada, and regulatory activities are underway with Lunatus in the Middle East under a nine-country distribution agreement. Chevallard said five ex-U.S. NDA (or equivalent) submissions have been completed, and the company anticipates more than 10 by the end of the year.
In closing remarks, Schimmelpennink reiterated that management believes early launch signals are aligned with expectations for a new category, and said the company is focused on accelerating new patient adoption through field execution, sales force expansion, and continued investment in consumer awareness.
About LENZ Therapeutics (NASDAQ:LENZ)
LENZ Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing therapies to improve vision in the United States. Its product candidates include LNZ100 and LNZ101 which are in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of presbyopia. The company is headquartered in Del Mar, California.
