BioLife Solutions Inc

NASDAQ:BLFS

Earnings Call Analysis

BioLife posts sequential revenue growth and updates guidance

BioLife Solutions reported another quarter of sequential growth with an 11% increase in cell processing revenue and a 6% rise in total revenue. The company’s strategic focus on high-margin cell processing and BioStorage services is paying off. The divestiture of the GCI freezer unit improved Q2 financials, showing a 52% adjusted gross margin and adjusted EBITDA of $4.8 million. Moving forward, revenue guidance for 2024 has been modestly increased to $99-$101 million. This includes a 6%-8% growth in cell processing and a 3%-7% growth in BioStorage services.

Strong Revenue Growth Amid Market Transition

In the second quarter of 2024, BioLife Solutions showcased a robust performance, particularly driven by their core cell processing business, which saw an 11% sequential increase in revenue. This growth was part of a broader recovery in the bioproduction subsector following previous industry headwinds. Total revenue for the quarter rose 6%, reaching $28.3 million, primarily due to enhanced demand for their high-margin biopreservation media.

Operational Efficiency Boosts Margins

The company's adjusted gross margin surged to 52% in Q2, up from 45% a year prior, fueled by improved product mix and operational efficiencies. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $4.8 million, representing 17% of total revenue, a notable increase from 6% in the previous year. These results reflect the company's successful strategic pivot away from less profitable legacy freezer products.

Divestiture Strategy Enhances Financial Performance

BioLife had a positive financial impact from the divestiture of its GCI freezer unit, completed in April 2024. This move is expected to continue benefiting the company's profitability and margins, as it allows them to focus on high-margin sales rather than lower-margin offerings. As a part of this strategy, management stated their commitment to exit the remaining freezer business efficiently.

Guidance Adjustments Reflect Optimism in Market Dynamics

With half the year completed, BioLife updated its full-year revenue guidance to anticipate totals between $99 million and $101 million, reflecting an overall growth of 5% to 8%. Specifically, the cell processing platform is expected to contribute $70 million to $71 million, equating to a 6% to 8% increase from 2023, which is an improvement over earlier estimates. The BioStorage services segment looks to achieve $29 million to $30 million, aiming for a 3% to 7% growth.

Strategic Relationships and Regulatory Environment Drive Growth

The company enjoys a commanding market share, exceeding 70% in commercially sponsored clinical trials within the U.S. This strong market position stems from long-standing relationships with key customers, which they are leveraging to enhance their product offerings and increase cross-selling opportunities. Additionally, the favorable regulatory environment for advanced therapies supports continued demand for BioLife’s products, with plans for nine new therapy approvals in the next 12 months.

Future Potential with Innovative Products

A significant highlight from the earnings call was the introduction of the 'Cryo Case', a new product designed to enhance the final dosing workflow in cell therapy. Early feedback indicates strong interest. The Cryo Case, capable of replacing traditional cryo bags, aims to address challenges in the market, like particulate contamination, which speaks to BioLife’s commitment to innovation in their core offerings.

Formatted for Continued Growth and Margin Expansion

Looking forward, BioLife management expressed confidence in achieving a target adjusted EBITDA margin of over 20% by the end of the year, driven by revenue growth in their biopreservation media segment and the completion of divestitures. These strategic efforts, alongside operational focus, position BioLife favorably to capitalize on the improving market conditions in the biologics space.

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Operator]

Good afternoon, and welcome to the BioLife Solutions Q2 2024 Shareholder and Analyst Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Troy Wichterman, Chief Financial Officer of BioLife Solutions. Please go ahead.

[Troy Wichterman, executive]

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining the BioLife Solutions 2024 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. On today's call, we will cover business highlights and financial performance for the quarter and provide an update on our full year 2024 revenue guidance. Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing our financial results and operational highlights for the second quarter of 2024, which is available at biolifesolutions.com.

As a reminder, during this call, we will make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that can be found in our SEC filings. These statements speak only as of the date given, and we undertake no obligation to update them. We will also speak to non-GAAP or adjusted results. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP or adjusted financial metrics are included in the press release we issued this afternoon. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Rod De Greef, Chairman and CEO of BioLife.

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

Thanks, Troy. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for BioLife's Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. Today, I'm joined by Troy Wichterman, our CFO; as well as Garrie Richardson, our Chief Revenue Officer, who will offer a deeper look into our Q2 revenue results and our strategy to grow BioLife's market-leading biopreservation franchise.

To begin, I'm pleased to report another quarter of sequential revenue growth in our core cell processing business. Now halfway through the year, these results underscore our belief that we are seeing an improvement in the macro environment, specifically the bioproduction subsector we operate in.

With the strategic shift away from our legacy freezer products largely behind us, our revenue is primarily driven by our high-margin cell processing platform in our BioStorage and services platform. Turning to highlights from the quarter. We posted an 11% sequential increase in our cell processing revenue and a 6% sequential increase in total revenue.

On a macro level, the industry-wide headwinds that began to ease late last year continued in Q2 of this year. For BioLife, this sent less inventory destocking pressure from our larger direct customers and continued strength in our distributor revenue, which we view as a proxy for the earlier-stage research focused market segment.

Our first half results, combined with our outlook for the second half of 2024 has resulted in a modest increase in our cell processing revenue guidance, which Troy will speak to later in the call. On the strategic side, with our continued efforts to streamline the business, we will be increasingly better positioned to benefit from the strength of our recurring and consumable product offerings.

You will recall that we announced the divestiture of our GCI or Sterling Freezer unit in April. The positive financial impact of the GCI divestiture is clearly reflected in our Q2 financial results with an adjusted gross margin of 52% and adjusted EBITDA margin of $4.8 million or 17% of revenue. We realize the job is not done, and we're committed to exiting the remaining freezer business as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Although CBS generated positive adjusted EBITDA for the quarter and represents less than 12% of sales, it was a drag on margins, and we expect to see further margin expansion once that transition is completed. We will provide updates as events warrant.

Turning back to cell processing. The fundamental drivers of revenue growth for that segment, specifically our biopreservation media revenue include our market-leading share of commercially sponsored clinical trials and the overall regulatory environment for CTT. We believe that we have a market share in excess of 70% of the relevant commercially sponsored clinical trials in the U.S. with approximately 45 Phase II and Phase III trials utilizing CryoStor.

In Q2, the CGT regulatory environment continued the forward momentum that started last year with 2 new indications and 3 earlier lines of treatment approved for BioLife supportive therapies. Our bioproduction media was embedded in 15 commercial therapies at the end of the quarter, and we see an additional 9 similar approval opportunities over the next 12 months.

We're excited by our growing exposure to commercial therapies. And over the years, we have developed deep and direct relationships with these customers. allowing us to provide better support to our partners. As these direct customers to continue to progress and evolve, we expect to realize higher revenue and enhanced margins. We're encouraged by this evolution, albeit early, which we believe will become more pronounced as this modality continues to mature.

Our market share clearly confirms that BioLife is the industry standard in biopreservation media and we have established ourselves as a leading pure-play provider of premium bioproduction tools and services, the critical picks and shovels, which support the fast-growing CGT industry.

As we continue to take the steps necessary to optimize our business to focus on our cell processing platform, I'm convinced more than ever that BioLife is extremely well positioned to benefit as industry headwinds continue to ease and the space continues to mature. Now I'll turn the call over to Garrie, who will provide some additional insight on Q2 revenue and our sales strategy. Garrie?

[Garrie Richardson, executive]

Thanks, Rod. Good to be here again. In the second quarter, we continued to see an uptick in positive sentiment activity across our core call processing customer base. For our cell processing platform, sequential revenue increased 11% to $18 million in Q2 from $16.1 million in Q1.

We achieved a sequential increase in sales across all product lines, including strong demand in our non-biopreservation products, particularly our HBL growth media which performed above expectations, and as a reminder, came through our acquisition of [indiscernible] and Biotechnologies in 2021. The majority of our cell processing revenue continues to be driven by our biopreservation media, or BPM products. Our top 20 BPM customers continue to account for approximately 80% of media revenue with 65% of BPM revenue coming from direct customers.

And of that amount, customers having approved therapies totaled approximately 40%. The Distributor sales, which we see as reflecting a broader spectrum of the CGT market continued to improve compared to the second half 2023 and represented approximately 35% of BPM revenue.

Our growth strategy for the cell processing platform features a two-pronged approach. First, we're committed to maintaining and growing our leading BPM market share by engaging new early-stage CTT market entrants. This includes both oncology and non-oncology indications with promising new applications of CAR T therapies targeting autoimmune diseases as an example.

In addition, we're building a robust mechanism in conjunction with key distribution partners to ensure that these early-stage developers have access and exposure to not just our BPM products but the entire cell processing product portfolio. Second, we're leveraging our thought leadership and key BPM customer relationships, which have, in some cases, been in place for nearly a decade thanks to the dedicated efforts of Dr. AB Matthew to cross-sell our other cell processing tools. A good example of this is the ongoing effort to expose our key BPM customers to our recently introduced cryo case which has generated strong initial interest.

You may recall the Cryo case is the first ever cryo compatible rigid container, which we introduced at ISCT in May and its intended uses to replace the standard cryo bags for the final CGT dose. Based on initial testing, we believe that the cryo case could positively impact the industry-wide particular issue, which is inherent in the use of standard cryo bags.

Before handing the call over to Troy, I'd like to briefly touch on our BioStorage services platform, where we continue to see modest storage revenue growth as general market conditions remain stable for those services and as our existing facilities get closer to full capacity. This growth was offset by sequential reductions in our other products and services within that category. We have an enviable position as the market leader in the field of biopreservation media, and we have an exciting portfolio of other cell processing-related products. I'm confident that this position combined with the underlying trends of the still early CGT industry provides the basis for continued revenue performance in the future. Now I will turn the call over to Troy.

[Troy Wichterman, executive]

Thank you, Garrie. As Rod noted, we divested Global Cooling on April 17. And on this call, we will be reviewing current and prior period financials from continuing operations only, which excludes any GCI related results. The financials from continuing operations includes our LN 2 freezer platform, Custom Biogenic Systems, which is in the process of being divested.

We reported Q2 revenue from continuing operations of $28.3 million, representing a decrease of 3% year-over-year. The year-over-year decrease was primarily related to a 4% decrease in our cell processing platform. Total revenue was up sequentially from Q1 2024 by $1.5 million or 6%, primarily due to a sequential increase of $1.8 million or 11% in our cell processing revenue.

Adjusted gross margin for the second quarter was 52% compared with 45% in the prior year. The increase was primarily due to product mix, operational efficiencies and higher capacity utilization at our biorepository facilities.

Adjusted operating expenses for Q2 2024 totaled $16.9 million compared with $19 million in the prior year. The decrease is primarily due to lower personnel costs from the Q3 2023 reduction in force and continued focus on expenses.

Our adjusted operating loss for the second quarter was $2.1 million compared with $5.8 million in Q2 2023. Our GAAP net loss was $7.1 million in Q2 compared to $5.5 million in the prior year. The increase in net loss was primarily due to a $4.1 million write-off of our [indiscernible] investment due to the uncertainty of [indiscernible] going concern status.

Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2024 was $4.8 million or 17% of revenue compared with $1.7 million or 6% of revenue in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA increased from the prior year due to improvement in gross margin driven by lower personnel costs and greater operational efficiency, partially offset by a decrease in our cell processing platform revenue.

Our adjusted EBITDA increased $1 million sequentially from Q1 2024, primarily due to higher gross profit contribution and decreases in professional fees. Turning to our balance sheet. Our cash and marketable securities balance was $36.9 million at June 30, 2024. This compares to $46.1 million reported at the end of the first quarter 2024. The sequential cash decrease of $9.2 million was primarily driven by cash outflows of approximately $13 million related to the divestiture of global cooling during the quarter, partially offset by $4.8 million in positive adjusted EBITDA from our continuing operations.

Our SVB long-term debt balance was $20 million, with quarterly repayments of $2.5 million beginning in Q3 2024. Turning to our updated full year revenue guidance. Total revenue is expected to be $99 million to $101 million, reflecting an overall growth of 5% to 8% compared to our original guidance of $95.5 million to $100 million.

As previously discussed, 2024 guidance is based on expectations for our cell processing and BioStorage services platform and does not include any revenue from freezer product lines. The BioStorage services platform includes our ThawStar automated filling devices product line. Our cell processing platform is expected to contribute $70 million to $71 million, reflecting a 6% to 8% growth over 2023.

This compares to our original guidance of $66 million to $68.5 million. Our BioStorage services platform is expected to contribute $29 million to $30 million or 3% to 7% growth over 2023 and on a like-for-like basis, growth of 8% to 12%. This compares to our original guidance of $29.5 million to $31.5 million. Finally, in terms of our share count, as of August 1, we had 46 million shares issued in outstanding and 48.7 million shares on a fully diluted basis. Now I'll turn the call back to the operator to open up for questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]

And the first question will come from Jacob Johnson with Stephens.

[Jacob Johnson, analyst]

Congrats on a nice quarter. On cell processing, obviously, good quarter there. You increased the guidance if my calculator is right and I just annualize this 2Q number, I get to the midpoint of your guidance. So I guess 2 questions.

Any kind of onetime benefits in cell processing in the quarter that may be we should be aware of and not assume they repeat in the back half of the year? And then the second question, why shouldn't we see more of a pickup in cell processing demand in the back half of the year? Or I guess third, is there some conservatism in this?

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

Yes. Jacob, so with respect to your question on Q2, as Gary mentioned, we did have a particularly strong quarter in HPL, that product line. We don't necessarily expect that to repeat in the Qs 3 and 4. I think that when you look at the first half guidance against -- our first half actual against second half implied guidance, we're really looking at a 5% to 8% increase second half over first half. So we feel pretty good about that. With respect to being conservative, I think we've done our best to articulate how we see the second half of the year as we sit here today in the beginning of August.

[Jacob Johnson, analyst]

Got it. And then, Rod, maybe sticking with you. I think last quarter, you mentioned that you're reviewing your product portfolio internally. Are there any initial findings you'd like to share? Should we expect some kind of formal update from that process at some point?

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

Yes, you can. We've been spending the last 10 months really trying to focus on streamlining the cell processing platform, divesting the freezer lines, right? And so we've not made as much progress on the strategic review, but I think on the next call, we should be in a position to provide some further clarity on the outcome of that process.

[Jacob Johnson, analyst]

Got it. And maybe just lastly, if I can sneak one more in. Garrie, maybe just last quarter, you talked about -- well, on this call, too, you talked about cross-selling your tools, and it sounds like you're working with both direct customers and distributors on that. Can you just elaborate on how those efforts are going?

[Garrie Richardson, executive]

Yes. I think we've seen it to be particularly effective around what was formally the Sexton product line and obviously biopreservation media. We've got these super solid relationships with our legacy clients. And what we're trying to do, and I think we're having some great success is really utilize those relationships to really push things through, right?

And that's things like the cryo case, for instance, right, that is a homegrown innovation, addressing these of the market, we're super excited about that product. And because of the relationships that we have, we're able to put it in the hands of the people that really need to see it. So I think leveraging that, I think, has been super effective when it comes to the kind of combined Sexton or former Sexton and biopreservation media lines.

[Operator]

The next question will come from Anna Sapkowski from KeyBanc.

[Unknown Attendee]

This is Anna on for Paul. I just have one, and it's around the funding environment. We've been tracking the ARM data pretty closely, and we've seen pretty substantial sequential improvement. I was just wondering if you've seen this affect your business, whether it's just overall more clinical activity or more trial starts. Any commentary around that would be helpful.

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Dana. I think that as we've talked to you before, the -- our direct customers are particularly the ones with commercial therapies are well funded, and so they're really not impacted by the overall funding environment. I think where we see the impact of that is the revenue that we generate through our distribution, particularly the larger distribution partners that we have, who focus on the earlier stage and the research type accounts. And we've seen solid growth on the distribution side compared to last year. So that's the best kind of dot connection that we can make with respect to the funding environment impacting our revenue.

[Operator]

The next question is from Matt Stanton from Jefferies.

[Matthew Stanton, analyst]

Nice progress on the EBITDA margins here in the quarter. Are you still comfortable with the kind of 20% plus exit rate you've talked about in the past? And any reason we couldn't see that maybe a bit sooner here in 3Q, just given the process, I guess, given cell processing dollars are kind of flattish into the back half, maybe that's a little 4Q, but any color just around the comfort of the 20% plus exit rate for this year.

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Matt. We're still committed to that as a target. I think as we've talked before, it's all about the media growth over the next several quarters because of the flow-through that comes along with that revenue growth. I think the other aspect that's going to impact the adjusted EBITDA margin is going to be the divestiture of CBS, which we would expect to happen prior to the end of the year. So we feel good about those things allowing us to achieve that target that we've stated.

[Matthew Stanton, analyst]

And then maybe one on the cryo case launch. Can you just talk a bit about the validation process so when it gets in customers' hands to when they could potentially be using it? And then any early feedback you've been getting from customers? And as we start to think about contribution in '25 and beyond, any finer point in terms of numbers of customers looking at it? Is it the commercial side? Is it clinical side now that you've launched another few months? Any more color you can provide there?

[Michael Okunewitch, analyst]

Yes. So I think we've -- yes, thanks for the question. So I think we've had a lot of early stage interest. I think that really is driven by some of the, obviously, challenges in the market when it comes to particular I think the process -- this is early stages, right? And I think adoption is something that obviously I don't really want to put a time around, but it is in the hands of the right people that are going to be going through their own validation protocols depending on the client.

So I couldn't give you an exact time line, but I think there is great interest around the product due to the market conditions.

[Matthew Stanton, analyst]

Okay. Maybe just one more on that, just in terms of on the commercial side, is there anything from a regulatory perspective, that wouldn't be able to allow on-market or commercially supported therapies to try and swap to this product from the regulatory standpoint?

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

Not that I've been made aware of at this point, no. I don't think that, that is a major challenge. But I do think also we do have some ongoing outreach to regulatory authorities as well.

[Operator]

And the next question is from Steven Mah from TD Cowen.

[Unknown Analyst]

Congrats on the quarter. One on the cell processing platform, just I guess, a follow-up question from prior questions. I mean you mentioned that destocking pressures are -- seem to be easing and that you have increasing engagement with clinical customers using cell processing products. But is there any way you can quantify or give us some color on the impact between how much was it from destocking versus how much is it from companies maybe ordering more anticipations of approvals or geographic expansion or approvals and new indications?

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

Yes. Steve, thanks for the question. I think it's difficult to get that granular. I mean, clearly, we know which customers have asked us to push out orders. And as I've said in the past, if you look at Q3 of last year, we were probably looking at 5 or 6 large direct customers plus a large distributor that was doing that. Where we are today, it's perhaps one direct customer.

So Jeff, just to give you a sort of trajectory of the easing of those -- that particular headwind.

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay. All right. And then maybe a follow-up question on cryo case. Is that a drop in replacement for cryo bags. In other words, will impact the workflow that physicians are currently using?

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

We think it's a nice fit, particularly in a closed system, which is what it was designed for. So we really don't see it as a massive change of workflow. And I think when you consider and take into account the potential impact it has in terms of addressing the issue of particulates, which are inherent in the use of cryo bags. I think that to the extent there is a change in workflow, that trade-off is more than worth it for the end user.

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay. I appreciate that. And then maybe sneaking in one more. On the biostorage guide, it seems to have tied into the lower end of the prior range. Can you give us some color and maybe square that away with some of the other comments, given that the overall kind of recovery and sentiment in the marketplace seems to be happening?

[Michael Okunewitch, analyst]

Yes. So with regard to the platform, with storage, we continue to see sequential growth in that area. So that's solid. Some of our courier partners have resized a little bit of their EVO fleets based on some of the prior market conditions, but we continue to be excited about the product line in the future.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Thomas Flaten from Lake Street Capital Markets.

[Thomas Flaten, analyst]

And just sticking with the theme of the cryo case, remind us if that's compatible with the Softstar products?

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

It is not right now, Thomas, although the definite effective is to have it be compatible with our -- what is currently our bag device. So our vial device our vial automated thaw device is definitely compatible with our Celsia vial product line. So the same would go for the bag device to be the cassette device at some point down the road, likely a 2025 kind of introduction.

[Thomas Flaten, analyst]

Got it. And then just a quick one on the potential impact of a CBS divestiture on EBITDA margins. I mean a single-digit million product line that's EBITDA positive. So I mean, how many millions of OpEx are we talking about that you might be able to strip out of the middle here, a few million bucks. So can you put some magnitude around that?

[Troy Wichterman, executive]

Yes, that would be correct. So as you recall, CBS is a low margin on the growth side as well. So the rest of that being, obviously, OpEx that we can strip out.

[Operator]

And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Roderick de Greef for any closing remarks.

[Roderick de Greef, executive]

Thank you, Chad. As we move through the second half of this year, we believe there will be continued strength of the fundamentals underlying the CGT industry, and BioLife is in an excellent position to capitalize on that macro environment. We plan on leveraging our market-leading position in biopreservation to drive the adoption of our other high-margin recurring revenue self processing tools and services in our portfolio and expect those to provide an increasing amount of revenue and profitability in the future.

Thank you for your time today, and we look forward to updating you on future calls and meeting with some of you at the upcoming investor conferences we'll be participating in during the coming months.

[Operator]

The conference has concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.