Brandon Perthuis
Analyst · Credit Suisse
Thanks, Ming. With COVID-19 mostly behind us as well as our integration efforts for our acquisitions, we are able to intensely focus our efforts on our base business. We exceeded our expectations for the fourth quarter driven by an outperformance in our reproductive health business line and our Pharma Services division. At a high level, our core revenue was $55 million in the fourth quarter compared to $28 million in the same period the prior year and $56 million in the third quarter of 2022. Starting with our Beacon Expanded Carrier Screening product, for some time, we knew we had a successful product in service. Backed up against competitive products in the field, Beacon frequently excels as it relates to detection rates, our ability to discern pseudogenes, reliable copy number calls with our proprietary CNV exome [ph] algorithm plus other features. Our optimized workflow for variants with pseudogene interference has been validated and externally published as a method for analysis of genes with pseudogene interference and/or sequence homology issues, allowing for improved testing accuracy. This method also optimizes the turnaround time and reduces the need for unnecessary confirmatory testing to identify point mutations, copy number variants and gene conversion events in genes with pseudogene interference that other labs may not be able to detect. Using this pipeline, we can quickly distinguish positive and negative cases with NGS sequence misalignment, avoiding testing delays due to redundant confirmatory testing. Most bioinformatics methods do not discriminate genomic regions with extensive homology. This can lead to false negative or false positive variant calls and/or produce incorrect copy number calls due to misalignment of reads. Our bioinformatics algorithms compare read depth between homologous regions to identify sequence misalignment. In terms of the panel content, we have been offering one of the largest carrier screening panels in the market, customizable up to approximately 430 genes. Included in our panel are all of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, ACMG, Tier 3 genes which ACMG published in their last practice guidelines for carrier screening, recommending that all pregnant patients and those planning of pregnancy, they offer this set of genes as an equitable pan-ethnic screening approach. The ACMG list includes genes with a carrier frequency of greater than 1 in 200 for autosomal recessive conditions and disease prevalence of greater than 1 in 40,000 for X-linked conditions. This totals 113 genes. Our Beacon panel includes all of these with most major competitors typically only covering between less than 60% to 90%. Historically, we were not able to fully leverage our Beacon product without managed care contracts. However, now armed with in-network coverage, we are seeing tremendous momentum. Our monthly carrier screening volume is setting company records only second to what we saw with COVID-19 testing. In addition to our direct sales, we have also partnered with other large national labs to outsource some of their carrier screening tests to Fulgent. And finally, we announced this afternoon, we have launched the new Beacon787. This further expands our capabilities and provide the most comprehensive test available today. Turning to Pharma Services, another area with big momentum. While we do not discuss our client name due to confidentiality and competitive reasons, we are proud to say that we now work with 6 of the top 10 pharma companies in the United States. In addition, we are working with 3 of the largest global CROs to perform NGS testing. With the acquisitions of Inform Diagnostics and CSI, we were able to further broaden our offering to our pharma clients by adding tests such as IHC, FISH, Flow Cytometry, et cetera. Recently, our Pharma Services launched a powerful solution for spatial phenotyping using multiplex immunofluorescence. The speed and accuracy of advanced digital imaging technology, combined with the precision of multiplex immunofluorescence allows you to quickly assess phenotypes in a variety of cell types. This technology, along with our experienced scientific team allows more custom solutions for our clients and their drug programs. We anticipate continued momentum in this space as we build new partnerships, drive deeper relationships with existing partners and continue to launch new services. While slightly tangent to Pharma Services but in a similar scope of work, we have partnered with a large DTC testing company to sequence thousands of human genomes. We believe our quality, test menu, turnaround time and cost structure make us an attractive solution for B2B relationships as well as our core Pharma Services clients. We are pleased to report that Fulgent Oncology regionally launched in the second quarter of 2022 has become one of the fastest-growing segments of our business. Our oncology portfolio launched under the brand name Lumera includes our marquee product, Lumera Xpanded NGS for Solid Tumors, Lumera Comprehensive Hematology Profile, a full menu of pathology and molecular assays and a suite of NGS germline tests. This full-service approach gives Fulgent a unique one-stop shop provider position in the space of Precision Diagnostics. To further differentiate our offering, we will be expanding the Lumera menu in a few weeks to include a Comprehensive Heme NGS Profile, Lumera Heme NGS will be positioned as a disruptive 670 gene profile that will include analysis across mutation type and simultaneous analysis of DNA and RNA, allowing for optimal detection of fusion genes in addition to indels and SNVs. This panel recently received MolDx approval, robust coverage determination and a CMS reimbursement rate of approximately $2,850. Our new Heme Profile will further position Fulgent Oncology as a leader in a dynamic space, giving us a competitive advantage over the many single assay or single technology providers in Precision Diagnostics. We anticipate continuing to expand our oncology portfolio throughout 2023 and Fulgent Oncology aimed to be the undisputed leader in oncology, specialty testing and Precision Diagnostics in the U.S. A quick update on the sales team, the overall head count remains mostly unchanged. However, we have done intense training so that our national sales team is better able to handle multiple product lines and to look for opportunities to cross-sell. This is showing early signs of success as we have seen legacy Fulgent sales reps be able to close Anatomic Pathology sales, for example. We remain open to expanding the sales team over time and are always looking for key additions to our team as talent presents. One area that may expand a bit more rapidly is reproductive health. We have a small team there. However, we are seeing huge momentum in the space. In addition, we have ongoing R&D to launch new products and services for reproductive health. Depending on the near-term momentum and the timing of our product launches, there is a possibility we could do an expansion in the summer, as well as M&A. We are excited to enter 2023 with a wind in our sales and we look forward to another great year. I'll now turn the call over to Paul Kim, our Chief Financial Officer. Paul?