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LENZ Therapeutics (NASDAQ: LENZ) reported first-quarter 2026 results showing continued prescription growth for its presbyopia eye drop VIZZ, though management said new patient adoption and routine prescribing by eye care professionals are developing more gradually than expected.
President and Chief Executive Officer Eef Schimmelpennink said the company delivered approximately 25,000 paid and filled prescriptions in the quarter. Total monthly units sold since launch are roughly 46,000. LENZ generated $1.9 million in net revenue, including $1.7 million in product sales.
Schimmelpennink said new patient adoption is increasing but remains below the pace the company is targeting. He added that LENZ has identified changes needed and is executing on them.
LENZ said VIZZ has been prescribed by more than 10,000 unique prescribers through the first quarter. Management described the prescribing pattern as encouraging: at a comparable stage of launch, VIZZ is generating roughly 70% more scripts per prescriber than VUITY, a prior product in the category.
Management highlighted early signs of patient persistence. Schimmelpennink said more than two-thirds of the company’s ePharmacy volume is now coming from three-month prescriptions, up meaningfully from the prior quarter. He said the launch strategy is built around sampling, with patients trying the product first and then converting to paid prescriptions if they experience benefit.
Chief Commercial Officer Shawn Olsson said approximately 60% of prescribing eye care professionals have written VIZZ multiple times, which LENZ views as an early sign of confidence and habit formation. Olsson also said aided awareness among eye care professionals is in the high 90% range, while unaided awareness is above 80%.
Executives said the next phase of the launch depends on helping physicians incorporate VIZZ more consistently into routine eye exams. Olsson said many eye care professionals follow a fast, standardized exam flow and may not proactively introduce the product unless patients ask about it.
LENZ identified contact lens wearers as a near-term commercial opportunity. Olsson said the contact lens population peaks in the 30-to-39 age range and that up to 71% of patients drop out of contact lenses after age 50, often due to presbyopia. He said physicians are responding to VIZZ as a way to help patients remain in contact lenses longer.
Olsson cited a consumer survey indicating that approximately 50% of VIZZ users reported contact lenses as their primary form of distance vision correction. Management also said opportunities exist among patients who have had LASIK, those with active lifestyles, and emmetropes who may be visiting an optometrist because of emerging presbyopia.
On the consumer side, LENZ is refining direct-to-consumer messaging around a “tired of reading glasses” problem-solution approach. Olsson said digital campaigns have driven strong engagement, including increases in website traffic and favorable ad recall on platforms such as YouTube and Pinterest. The company has also begun testing linear television advertising in select U.S. markets, though management said it is too early to provide details on specific markets or results.
LENZ is rolling out QR-based onboarding tools to explain how to use VIZZ, what to expect after instillation, and how patients can transition from trial use to ongoing therapy. Management said it is also enabling direct sales through physician practices in markets where permitted.
Olsson said optometrists in about half of U.S. states are permitted to sell prescription drugs directly from their practices. In those markets, LENZ offers practices the ability to purchase VIZZ directly from the company under contract, with product shipped to the physician’s office after payment. Physicians may then prescribe and sell the product to patients.
Chief Financial Officer Dan Chevallard said the direct-to-practice channel is expected to have no meaningful difference in net economics compared with ePharmacy or retail channels. He said investors should model roughly $60 in net cash per monthly unit after gross-to-net discounts and distribution-related costs.
Olsson said the company’s expanded field organization is expected to be fully deployed by the end of the current quarter, increasing its reach to approximately 15,000 targeted eye care professionals. The expansion is intended to help LENZ respond to inbound physician demand outside its initial target group and improve sales-call frequency in key territories.
Chevallard said first-quarter filled prescriptions increased 19% from the fourth quarter, resulting in approximately $1.7 million in net product revenue. He said blended gross-to-net discounts across distribution channels remained below 10%, producing approximately $67 in net revenue per monthly pack of VIZZ. Additional distribution-related costs of about $7 per unit were recorded in SG&A, leaving approximately $60 in net cash per pack.
LENZ recognized $250,000 in license revenue from a distribution agreement signed in January with Lunatus, its ex-U.S. distribution partner in the Middle East region.
Cost of sales totaled $1.1 million in the quarter, driven primarily by two non-recurring items unrelated to product sales: a temperature excursion involving inventory in transit from the manufacturer and a one-time charge for packaging supplies tied to an FDA-approved manufacturing process improvement. Chevallard said direct product cost of sales related to first-quarter product sales were immaterial, and the company expects direct product gross margin to trend toward approximately 90% over time.
SG&A expenses rose to $45 million, or approximately $40.7 million excluding non-cash stock-based compensation, up 13% from the fourth quarter. Chevallard said the increase was driven by planned direct-to-consumer launch investment, with roughly 80% of SG&A allocated to sales and marketing. Research and development expenses were zero, consistent with the prior quarter, and management said R&D should remain substantially zero for the foreseeable future.
LENZ reported a first-quarter net loss of $41.5 million, or $1.32 per share, basic and diluted. The company ended the quarter with approximately $258.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. Net cash burn was about $34 million, consistent with the fourth quarter and in line with the company’s budget.
During the question-and-answer portion of the call, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marc Odrich said VIZZ’s real-world safety profile remains consistent with the label. He said the company has shipped approximately 46,000 boxes, or about 1.2 million doses, in addition to widespread sampling.
Odrich said LENZ has seen zero retinal detachments and two retinal tears, both in patients with pre-existing retinal risk factors. He said retina experts assessed the cases as likely non-causal. Odrich contrasted the data with what the company believes was comparable exposure for VUITY, which he said had about 34 retinal events, including 22 detachments.
On competition, Olsson said LENZ views VIZZ as differentiated by its mechanism of action, duration and efficacy profile, while adding that additional entrants could help build awareness of eye drops for presbyopia. Schimmelpennink said competitors Qlosi and YUVEZZI are sampling, though not as broadly as LENZ, and emphasized that sampling remains central to the company’s launch approach.
Outside the U.S., Schimmelpennink said LENZ is seeing momentum from recent European and U.K. submissions, along with inbound partnering interest from markets including Europe and Latin America. The company also pointed to existing partnerships across China, Southeast Asia, Canada and the Middle East as part of its global expansion foundation.
LENZ Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused 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.
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