Earnings Labs

Quanterix Corporation (QTRX)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Sun, Nov 4, 2018

$3.36

+4.52%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Quanterix Corporation Q3 2018 Earnings Call. Joining us today are Joe Driscoll, Chief Financial Officer; and Kevin Hrusovsky, Chairman and CEO. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. [Operation Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Joe Driscoll. Sir, you may begin.

Joe Driscoll

Management

Thank you. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's call will contain forward-looking statements that are based on management's beliefs and assumptions and on information available as of the date of this call. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that we face are described in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This call will also include certain financial measures that were not prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The information required by the SEC pursuant to Regulation G including reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in our earnings release issued previously today which is on our website. With that, I will turn the call over to Kevin.

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Thank you very much Joe. This has been a pretty impressive quarter for us as we continue to build out the company. I've actually created a few extra slides for this particular communication to provide a little bit more clarity around some of the dimensions of our growth as we continue to build out the franchise. So at first, I'd like to say I'm going to start off going through highlights and then I'll peel the onion back around our goals and our priorities and how we're doing opposite those. But I would like to dedicate a portion of this presentation to neurology where we are making a major inroads. We'll then turn it back over to Joe for a financial recap. And I'll say a few words about our longer term strategic direction and we'll do Q&A So to start on our highlights, first the instrument and momentum were incredibly strong for the third quarter, which is our fourth quarter after being IPO back in fourth Quarter of 2017. We've also had strong growth with new products, publications continue to go at a very rapid pace, many studies further validating our technology across all the pharma biotech and we continue to expand our menu faster than we anticipated, primarily because of a strategic acquisition we did earlier this year. And we continue to get a lot of industry awareness around our technologies. We've been growing our share position in pharma and academic and we've also continue with this breakthrough in one of our biomarkers called neurofilament light. Our ability to see this in serum at hundred to thousand times greater sensitivity than most technologies in the world enables us to see this in serum, which is a big breakthrough. We actually presented to the FDA a few weeks ago…

Joe Driscoll

Management

Thanks Kevin. As Kevin noted, revenue in Q3 of 2018 was $10.6 compared to $5.7 million in the prior year which represents 85% revenue growth. Excluding the onetime revenue item of $1.3 million, revenue growth was still very strong at 61%. Product revenue which includes instruments and consumables grew from $3.3 million to $6 million, an increase of 81%. The main driver was the 100% increase in consumables. Instrument growth was also strong at 58% plus there is a solid backlog of orders which will ship in Q4. Service revenue increased 39% and this continues to be a major focus area of our business going forward including the utilization of the CLIA lab which we acquired with the Aushon transaction. Collaboration revenue was $1.6 million, which includes the onetime item of $1.3 million. Note that there will be no more collaboration revenue going forward unless we sign a new deal since we have recognized all revenue from the bioMérieux agreement as of the end of Q3. Year-to-date total revenues are $26.8 million, a 64% increase. Adjusting for the onetime revenue item, year-to-date growth is 56%. Gross margin percent in Q3 was approximately 53%. If you exclude the onetime item, normalized Q3 2018 margin would have been 46% versus 45% in the prior year. The increase over prior year was due to a positive mix of consumables revenue during the quarter. For Q4, we estimate that despite a slightly unfavorable mix from the loss of collaboration revenue, gross margin will be in the same range as the normalized 46% recorded in Q3, due to improvements in other areas. This compares to 44% gross margin in Q4 2017. We believe we have a significant opportunity for gross margin expansion in the future as we scale our overall business, reduce product costs and…

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Thanks Joe. Before we take questions, just want to summarize on the slide that you know we do feel we have an unrivaled sensitivity which we're committed to continue to invest in and continue to expand. We see great opportunities for even the next generation of post translation of modifications of proteins that will even be smaller subgroups and smaller abundance levels. So this is an opportunity for us to grab the leadership and continue the leadership. We also are being very methodical in the way we're approaching this market and going after the initial research organizations first where there's no regulatory reimbursement risk and we're doing it very systematically. And we're working carefully so of all the crossed in a longer term into diagnostics but we're using drug development as a very strategic way to look for companion diagnostic opportunities to make that advance. And finally and most importantly for market, we're validating our technology with 23 to top 25 pharmas now using it. Utilizing Powering Precision Health Summit as a way to sponsor from a Quanterix standpoint. Those actual innovators that are using the technologies with the investment groups that are investing in it. And all of the trials that have been run over 800 of them and the publications are now nearly 300 given the strong validation that we have a technology that's got a lot of stickiness in this marketplace. It's also got a very strong razor blade or KK Cup type of opportunity here because of the pull through of the consumables. And we've made a lot of investments that we think create a lot of barriers to entry to kind of perfecting the democratization of this technology through around the world. And we're continuing to work hard, bringing in some of the top leaders around the world to support an incredible board, some of the strongest investors, some of the more prolific founders in the life science landscape. And so in closing, I would say that the Quanterix team, we just had our commercial meetings this past week, we had all of our people in from around the world, we are very forward-looking around the opportunity and we're very aligned. But most importantly we're very inspired on the impact we can make for the world, not just in neurological disorders but also on oncology. So we're very driven by the opportunity ahead of us. So that we'll open it up for questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Puneet Souda of Leerink Partners. Your line is now open.

Puneet Souda

Analyst

Yeah, hi Kevin and Joe. Thanks for taking the question. First of all, just wanted to clarify in terms of the product service and collaboration revenue. The collaboration revenue seemed outsized this quarter, just wanted to clarify that it won't to be the case going forward if I look at that the beat was maybe 0.5 million and just wanted to clarify that point? And then Kevin, if you could provide any backlog numbers for SR-X or HD-1s from this quarter that would be helpful?

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Yeah. So Puneet, I think you hit the numbers right. Regarding the one time effect, you remove it, there was a beat of about 0.5 million and maybe a little higher than when you remove that. But in addition to that your question around backlog, we don't disclose backlog as you know Puneet, but I would say that you know the place that we probably have the most potential to manage with a lot of backlog visibility would be our services business. You know when we get instrument orders as well as consumer orders, especially with the kind of say demander is for getting some of these neurodegenerative markers and drugs approved. We really don't have as much opportunity to really drive backlog in those categories without impacting the timelines of our customers. So we do have backlog in those categories, but I would say the services where we can really see the biggest backlog levels.

Puneet Souda

Analyst

Okay. And then just on terms just bioMérieux, I want to understand longer term, what does that do for you and I just want to get a better view of what you could not do before and what you're able to do now going forward? And then my second question is just around the planar technology, is that you know in terms of expansion of a market like how are you thinking about that just if you could provide details on the both of those answers?

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Absolutely. First on the bioMérieux, you know basically the company probably 6 years ago 7 years ago entered into an exclusive relationship for IVD diagnostics, which includes LDT and point-of-care all aspects. And so basically bioMérieux, you had a lot of the commercialization rights for the technology. And that limited our ability to get to market particularly when you consider that their company is primarily infectious disease with some immunology. We're doing a lot of work in neurology and oncology. And so the fit wasn't perfect and so we felt that it was important to get our strategic degrees of freedom. So there's nothing at this point limiting any pathway into diagnostics which that hampered us. And so even with LDTs, we've got 22 to 24 some always now in CRO/LDT companies. These would be large reference labs et cetera that would like to utilize and further evolve the technologies. It gives us a lot more freedom now to sign licensing agreements with them, also gives us the freedom ourselves to run these trials into be limitless as it relates to running LDTs, as well as even some day IVDs. So it's more strategic degrees of freedom at this point as is a key to the future value creation that a lot of investors felt was a major headwind when I joined 4 years ago. And we were fairly committed to finding ways to unleash and unlock some of that value creation opportunity. The TAM for diagnostics is about 10 times the size of the TAM for research and that's why it's important. It's more like 30 billion for diagnostics and probably there's some estimates could be as high as 50 billion versus maybe 3 to 5 to maybe 8 at max for research markets. And so that's the criticality…

Operator

Operator

I'll go ahead and clear him out. I believe he's done asking his question.

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Okay, great.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Mark Massaro of Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open.

Mark Massaro

Analyst

Hey guys, thanks for taking the questions and nice quarter.

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Thanks Mark.

Mark Massaro

Analyst

I guess my first question is, can you give us a sense, I appreciate all the color on the SP-X development. But can you give us a little bit of context as to the collaboration with OncoGenesis, maybe give us a sense for how far away the iPap collection might be from potentially hitting the market?

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Yeah, you know Mark, I would say that we've tried to stay steadfast in making any commitments around our diagnostic franchise. But we said that we would continue to make smart investments into that landscape to try the bridge across into diagnostics, but you know there's plenty of value creation in the landscape of no regulatory reimbursement risk research. So let me start the answer by saying that we remain committed to that. But the OncoGenesis represent it's an opportunity for us to look at cervical cancer in a very new way using biomarkers. And to do that with a company that's got some level of extraction FDA approval already established and basically it's given us a chance to see if our technologies can be deployed productively in that landscape that primarily focused on third world opportunities for cervical cancer. And so it's a place for us to learn because what they really want to do is get FDA regulatory understanding of the technology as well as the efficacy for these biomarkers. And so I would not put any emphasis on short term returns from our move with this, but we did want to make sure investors were aware that we were making investments into diagnostics, it's a very minor investment this point trying to do it through partnership.

Mark Massaro

Analyst

Great. And you know your pull through on the HD-1 is certainly tracking ahead of expectations now at 60,000 per box per year. Can you give us a sense you know as we think about our model, should we be thinking of potentially $10,000 lift per year or how should we be thinking about the opportunity long term and do you have any particular goal as we look out?

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

So Mark, as you know we are trying very hard to protect our credibility for never misleading or creating expectations that can't be achieved. And what we said was we would go from the 40 to 50 this year and basically we've outperformed that. We don't at this point project that there is a significant increase beyond this 50 that we're willing to make any levels of commitment, so even though we are currently performing at a level much higher than that. And I would say that we have several customers in installations that are probably tracking 2 to 3 times that. So we do know that our instruments HD-1 are capable to pull through as much as a couple 100,000 per instrument. But you know how far we go really depends on the mix of the buyers in the way they're utilizing it. So what we're always trying to come up with is a way to say on average and now that we're accelerating our installed base of the HD-1 and the SR-X, we want to make sure that we don't get ahead of ourselves in any kind of growth projections that we can't hit or see. So 50 feels very, very comfortable now. We would never at this point suggest on anything beyond that. We do think however that there's promise and it's definitely ahead of schedule. So I would keep it where it is but understand that the risk profile now is pretty much gone way down as a result of our performance. And the menu expansion, it's a combination of you know customers getting used to the technology plus us having more menu that they're interested in.

Mark Massaro

Analyst

Great. And I know that you acquired a number of assays I believe in the Aushon acquisition, can you give us a sense on how many of those you expect to kind of go live and maybe start contributing to revenue into 2019?

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Yes, you know it's an interesting question because we bought a lot of assays and we also built a whole new organization under Dawn Mattoon who is a so amazing woman had joined us about 9 months ago running a lot of our we call it our strategic marketing but also our assay technologies. And she came from cell signaling where she had a lot of antibiotics research experience led to the research organizations. And so the whole area of continuing to expand our menu required us to validate what we bought first and to really take a strong look at all the antibodies pairs that was being used by Aushon in the different ways in which they were using it. And I can only tell you that the speed - our company is so fired up right now on so many different fronts that the speed of everything we're doing is more like dog years versus people years. And I can say that we've already found probably 23 to 25 assays that customers are already using very productively as part of our test bed. So that is a real exciting first move that we could disclose today. Moving forward you know, I would like to think that there's going to be hundreds of combinations of assays opportunities that we're going to be able to roll out as we move into the SPX type of planar technology because it is given us this breath of menu which we've really not had before and that we think is exciting particularly for oncology where cancer cells mutate and a certain drug might work for a while, but then the cancer patient goes out of remission and the cancer returns because it mutates around the drug. And so we really know that the field of cancer requires a very broad suite of biomarkers to really knock it down. And we're committed to knock it down and that means we've got to be really strong with planar. And so when we roll out SP-X for oncology, it's really rolling out our planar strategy for oncology.

Mark Massaro

Analyst

Great. And if I can seek one last one. It seems to me that Simoa could have some interesting applications and point-of-care in feature diagnostics. Can you give us a sense for maybe the appetite or maybe some of the momentum you might be having as you think about incorporating Simoa to the point-of-care?

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

It is interesting that you know when I first joined Quanterix, anyone I talk to a point-of- care particular from an investor's standpoint, they became very alarmed because there hasn't been a lot of point-of-care success. But I would say that Abbott has been particularly successful with i-STAT and building a franchise and we've continued to nurture a very strong relationship with Abbott and believe in them very much now. But we use partnerships to get into point-of-care versus doing it alone. My view is that we would probably put a lot of emphasis on making sure we research out those partnership opportunities first because there's already a lot of ideas where sensitivity which is the earliest form of the disease, the earliest form of anything that happens can see earlier with sensitivity. That's best suited to be out by the patient. So at the highest level, we know that getting the sensitivity in the point-of-care setting makes a lot of sense and there have been a lot of attempts to do it. I think it's important for us to do it very credibly. So I think there is a lot of opportunity for point-of-care to democratize sensitivities further. Even if you look at the neural landscape around concussions you know we have a lot of players today that they get pulled out of the game or even soccer players that they think they've got a concussion but they're not sure and so there's a lot of protocols been implemented. There were 6 kids actually killed on the football field last high school level they were put back in the game because they thought that they didn't actually experience a concussion when they had experience that they had what's called second impact syndrome and they died on the field. So we know that a point-of-care device for concussion as an example could have a lot of promise. But that promise is not what we're about with investors, we want to make sure we systematically translate that market opportunity into some kind of methodical way to bring the right risk investment return profile to that opportunity and partnerships could be a way to accelerate a good path. So I would say we're not ruling out any kind of pathway. Getting the rights back have giving us freedom to go any path we want. But I would say, we do think partnerships can play a pretty important role here.

Mark Massaro

Analyst

Great. That's it for me. Thanks guys.

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Thanks Mark.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Kevin Hrusovsky for closing remarks.

Kevin Hrusovsky

Management

Great. Thank you very much. We remain very excited about the opportunity and we continue to want to manage it with what we call diligent conservatism. So please you know if you want to learn more about our technology and our company, feel free to look at our website. We also will be sponsoring the PPH over in the Netherlands to kind of further advance the overall proposition of third party peer reviewed science. And so we do appreciate all your support and look forward to talking to the end of Q4. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program and you may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.