Bactiguard Holding AB
STO:BACTI B
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Bactiguard Holding AB
Earnings Call Analysis
Summary
Q2-2024
In Q2 2024, Bactiguard saw a 19% increase in total revenues, reaching SEK 60.9 million. The company is on the path to profitability with a positive EBITDA of SEK 1.2 million. Key partnerships with BD and Zimmer Biomet are stabilizing, contributing SEK 37.8 million in license revenues. Despite a decrease in BIP portfolio revenues, efforts to expand Bactiguard-coated products into new markets, such as Japan, show promise. Operating expenses were significantly reduced by SEK 33.9 million, aligning with strategic transformation goals.
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Welcome to the Bactiguard Q2 2024 Report Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO, Christine Lind; and CFO, Patrick Bach. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and welcome to the presentation of Bactiguard's Q2 2024 reports. I will go through the presentation together with our CFO, Patrick Bach, and open up for questions towards the end. Thank you all for dialing in today.
I have just completed my third month as CEO of Bactiguard and my reflection from this time is that we have a lot of the building blocks in place to execute on our new strategy. We have been through a transformation. However, the team in place is very experienced and highly motivated to make the world a healthier place. While we still have transitional activities from the transformation to complete throughout the remainder of 2024, we are one team collaborating closely together with a solution-oriented approach and a performance mindset.
Now turning to the developments of the second quarter. Let me start with the figures on an overall level. Our total revenues for Q2 amounted to SEK 60.9 million, an increase of almost 19% compared to the same period last year; and for the first half to SEK 119.7 million, which was an increase of 6.5% versus last year. Our license revenues are stabilizing, thanks to our good partnerships with BD and Zimmer Biomet.
We also report a positive EBITDA for Q2. Our EBITDA came in at SEK 1.2 million for the quarter and at negative SEK 0.3 million for the 6-month period. Patrick will dig deeper into the financials later in the presentation, but I want to note that we have embarked on our path towards profitability, and I am cautiously optimistic, while realizing that we still have a lot to deliver.
As for the highlights of the quarter, I assumed my role as CEO in April; and at the Annual General Meeting in May, Thomas von Koch was reelected as Chair of the Board. In addition to Thomas, we are privileged to have the Board that we do supporting Bactiguard with relevant experience and knowledge, both from our industry and the medical sphere as well as in growing profitable companies. Another important theme from the quarter is the expansion of Bactiguard coated products to new markets with BD, but also with Zimmer Biomet, including the introduction of ZNN Bactiguard in Japan. I will come back to that shortly.
In July, we strengthened the organization with the appointment of Nathaniel Bachrach as Interim Head of R&D, and he is now a part of the Bactiguard executive management team. Thani is a product development executive with more than 25 years of experience in innovating, developing and launching advanced medical products for global commercialization. He has been Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at 3DBio and previously Vice President, Research and Technology at LifeCell Corporation, where we served together on the LifeCell leadership team. Prior to that, he held various leadership and technical roles within LifeCell and Organogenesis.
Thani holds a PhD in mechanical engineering and biomechanics and has an impressive record of publications and innovative patents. He is based in New Jersey in the U.S. and will spend his time driving our R&D strategy and in new business development. We are all excited to have Thani on Board representing Bactiguard and our technology to potential partners as part of our journey towards bringing infection prevention to patients worldwide and profitability to Bactiguard.
The Bactiguard infection prevention technology, which is the essence of our company and the foundation of our license business, is an ultra-thin coating of the noble metals; gold, silver, and palladium. The quantities of the metal are tiny to put the quantities in perspective. An amount of noble metals equivalent to the size of a pea would quote an entire football or soccer field. When in contact with fluids, the galvanic effect created results in the inhibition of microbe adherence to the surface of medical devices. In the pictures to the right, taken with an electronic microscope, you can see the difference in bacterial colonization between an uncoated surface to the left and a Bactiguard coated surface on the right.
The Bactiguard side shows significantly fewer bacteria colonizing, reducing biofilm formation over time and thus leading to lower rates of infection. Importantly, we believe in evidence. Over the years, a wealth of data has been amassed, all pointing to the effectiveness and safety of our technology. More than 100,000 patients have been part of over 40 clinical trials covering case reports to randomized controlled trials, and the results have been published in renowned peer-reviewed publications. Our studies cover various patient cohorts, continents and regions and different therapeutic areas.
As we look at the global health care trends, our offering is more relevant today than ever. The demand for more effective and safe health care solutions is clear, driven by economic and demographic developments as well as the unfortunate increased political unrest, conflicts, wars and natural disasters. There are clear unmet medical needs with depressing global societal challenges we experience, including health care associated infections and antimicrobial resistance. Notably, prevention strategies are, according to the World Health Organization, one of the most important factors to solving these issues. The therapeutic areas we have decided to focus on in our core strategy present huge commercial opportunities for Bactiguard. We see increasing interest in infection prevention strategies even with our existing partnerships as examples, urology with BD and orthopedics with Zimmer Biomet.
The more we educate the market about our technology, its ability to mitigate infection risk and how it differentiates partner medical devices, the more confident we are about the joint commercial opportunity. Bactiguard's aim is to seize the significant opportunity presented within each of the strategic therapeutic areas, both with our infection prevention coating technology and the products within the wound management portfolio. The core of our go-forward business model is, as already mentioned, the license business. The most fundamental shift in our 2023 transformation as an organization was going from being production and sales oriented to knowledge and specialist focused.
Stabilized revenues from our partnerships with BD and Zimmer Biomet reflect more collaboration between our organizations, working together as experts, bringing and sharing knowledge with each other. There are still a lot of activities to work on, but we are on the right track. When it comes to exploring new partnerships and new applications, we are active across our therapeutic areas with multiple conversations and early testing of our technology with leading med tech companies in the relevant fields.
Another crucial part is continuing to build the knowledge and specialist organization. Our core competence areas are in R&D, medical and regulatory. These all represent critical expertise in the collaboration with partners. In essence, the skills and confidence needed to bring coated medical devices to the market. With the addition of Thani to our R&D organization, we enhanced the combination of innovation and science with business development and have boots on the ground in the U.S. This is a meaningful step in strengthening our capabilities. Wound Management remains an important part of the business, having delivered revenues of approximately SEK 15 million for Q2 and continuing profitable growth.
Now into the details of our partnerships in Wound Management during the second quarter. BD remains our longest and strongest partner. During the quarter, the transition process for additional markets for coated Foleys continued according plan, including activities such as training for BD sales and marketing teams across Europe and the Middle East. In these sessions, we shared our knowledge on how to explain the benefits of Bactiguard's technology to health care providers and medical professionals.
Bactiguard announced in December 2023 that we signed an interim agreement to license additional markets and that a long-term agreement covering all license markets would be signed during the first half of the year. However, Bactiguard and BD have jointly agreed to focus primarily on the transition activities, and I want to emphasize that our existing agreements remain in full force.
Turning to the Zimmer Biomet collaboration. We are pleased to see the continued market activities across Europe. But the true highlight of the quarter was the introduction of the ZNN Bactiguard trauma implant at the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Fracture Repair in Sendai, Japan. This follows the regulatory approval by the Japanese PMDA obtained in 2023. Together with the Zimmer Biomet APAC commercial team, our Chief Medical Officer and Zimmer Alliance Lead were on site to introduce our infection prevention technology to leading orthopedists within the medical community in Japan. We engaged directly with nearly 40 key opinion leaders, both in one-on-one sessions and group meetings, and the Bactiguard technology was included in a presentation by KOL Professor Watanabe to a room of hundreds of delegates.
The interest in our technology was clear and underlines the growing recognition of the importance of infection prevention solutions to address critical medical needs in fracture management. While we do not expect significant contributions to revenues from the Japanese market during 2024, this is an important step in the partnership with Zimmer and the long-term potential is promising. Within the Wound Management portfolio, we featured our wound healing product line, Hydrocyn aqua in London at the European Wound Management Association Conference in May. EWMA is recognized as the premier International Conference for Wound Care, attracting leading experts, researchers and health care professionals from around the world.
Some 5,000 attendees were registered. On the opening day, we hosted a session on the latest advancements of infection prevention within Wound Care. The theme was Clean to Heal: Paradigm Shift Made Easy. The interest in the product line, Hydrocyn aqua, is increasing. The more clinicians understand its mode of action and how it promotes healing and the quality of life for patients with severe wounds.
With that, I hand over to Patrick Bach, our CFO, to review our financials in detail.
Thank you, Christine. I'm very happy to present our financial results for Q2 and first half year with license revenues and EBITDA stabilizing. And to reiterate what Christine mentioned in the beginning of the presentation, we have embarked on our path towards profitability.
Now let's turn to the split of revenues for Q2 and the first half of the year. Our total license revenue amounted to SEK 37.8 million, an increase of SEK 13 million in Q2. Revenues from BD, our long-term partner, amounted to SEK 27.6 million, an increase of SEK 9.1 million in Q2. Here it's worth noting that Q2 last year was a record low quarter for BD, who was reducing their stock levels, as previously mentioned. For the first half year, BD, in total, we saw revenues amounting to SEK 55.6 million. And adjusted for currency effects, revenues increased 1.1% for the first 6 months.
Revenues from Zimmer Biomet amounted to SEK 10.2 million for the quarter, an increase of SEK 5.2 million. These revenues consist of exclusivity revenues related to the orthopedics agreement as well as license revenues, including minimum royalties related to the trauma agreement. Revenues from Wound Management in Q2 amounted to SEK 14.7 million, an increase of SEK 3.5 million in Q2. And for the first half year, revenues from the Wound Management portfolio amounted to SEK 27.4 million, an increase of SEK 5 million, corresponding to 22.5% growth with and without currency effects.
As Christine mentioned, Wound Management continues on the path of profitable growth. Revenues from BIP amounted to SEK 4.8 million, a decrease of SEK 3.3 million for the quarter. And for the first half year, revenue from the BIP portfolio amounted to SEK 10.9 million, a decrease of SEK 2.3 million. As mentioned, the BIP revenues will continue to decrease as our inventory depletes and we cease production.
Other revenues for the quarter amounted to SEK 3.5 million. Within this, we saw currency effects of positive SEK 1.5 million. Other revenues for the first half year amounted to SEK 8.4 million and currency effects within this amounted to SEK 4.2 million within the first 6 months.
So in total, second quarter revenues amounted to SEK 60.9 million. Adjusted for currency effects of SEK 1.3 million, revenue increased by 16.3% in Q2; and for the first half year, total revenue amounted to SEK 119.7 million. Adjusted for currency effects of SEK 4.7 million, revenue increased by 2.3%.
Now turning to our operating expenses and our cash flow. Cost for raw materials and consumables amounted to SEK 11.9 million, a decrease of SEK 13.3 million. Other external costs amounted to SEK 19.3 million, again a decrease of SEK 12 million. Personnel costs amounted to SEK 27.2 million, a decrease of SEK 19.4 million. And other operating expenses amounted to SEK 1.4 million, a decrease of SEK 2.5 million. In total, our total OpEx amounted to SEK 47.8 million, a decrease of SEK 33.9 million. All in all, we are on track to deliver on the cost savings previously announced, exceeding SEK 25 million on a yearly basis following the strategic transformation announced last year.
Now turning to the cash flow. In Q2, we saw cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 16.8 million. Within this, we see change in working capital for the quarter amounting to SEK 22.1 million. Cash flow from investing activities amounted to minus SEK 4 million for the quarter, and cash flow from financing activities amounted to minus SEK 3.3 million for the quarter. In total, cash flow for the second quarter amounted to SEK 9.5 million, and for the first half year to minus SEK 22.1 million. All in all, cash and cash equivalents at the end of June was up at SEK 105.3 million.
With that, I hand back to you, Christine.
Thank you, Patrick. To conclude our Q2 presentation, we have a bold, demanding, and inspiring vision to be the global standard of care for preventing medical device-related infections. Achieving this vision requires focus and determination, and these are our priorities ahead. We continue to work on enhancing the business with our current license partners, which include BD, Zimmer Biomet, and Well Lead. Simultaneously, we increased interactions and early-stage testing of our infection prevention technology together with leading med tech players across our strategic therapeutic areas. We aim to grow our Wound Management portfolio profitably.
As I alluded to earlier, we will continue to build our knowledge and specialist organization further to support our partners and deliver on our vision in the best possible way. Thani Bachrach is the most recent example of strengthening R&D and business development. We have embarked on the path to sustainable profitability, and we are clearly pleased to deliver a positive EBITDA for the second quarter. License revenues are stabilizing, operating costs are well under control, and the anticipated cost savings related to the strategic shift from 2023 is on track to be delivered on a full year basis.
While we still have a way to go to deliver on the promise that the Bactiguard technology holds, we can conclude this quarter by being cautiously optimistic about the future for the new Bactiguard.
And with that, we would like to hand over to the operator to open up for questions.
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Mattias Vadsten from SEB.
This is Mattias from SEB. I have a few questions today. First one, if you could please update us a bit more on the BD partnership. I'm not sure I fully got what is happening there. So when do you expect sort of long-term agreement to be in place? And how are negotiations proceeding? And also 2 other questions maybe. Any sort of insights to when you expect the revenues to pick up in these expanded markets would be helpful for us. That's the first one.
Hi, Mattias. Good morning. Thank you very much for your questions. I appreciate them very much. In the BD partnership, we have continued to focus in the last quarter and over the last multiple months now, the first 6-month period, on transitioning the additional markets, which were part of the interim agreement to BD. So there is quite a lot of activity there. And one of the examples is certainly that we spend time on sales training, marketing training to ensure that our commercial teams are collaborating on the best possible market differentiation and articulation to medical and health care professionals to ensure good uptake of our products in those regions. And our focus here has been primarily the European and Middle East regions, where Bactiguard sold directly prior to our handing over those markets to BD.
That has been the focus here. I do not, however, want to underestimate the value of the BD existing markets. And while we have jointly agreed to focus on the transition activities over the last couple of quarters, our existing agreements do remain in full force. So we're not at all concerned about the timing of a new agreement, as the agreements that we have in place do continue in the period. We are quite enthusiastic and remain quite strongly committed to the BD collaboration as they are to us. They continue to be our strongest partner and deliver the most revenues to our top line.
Good. So can you share any insights to when you expect the revenues to pick up in this expanded market like Europe, Middle East?
Hi, Mattias. This is Patrick. Thank you for your question. I appreciate that. As we report now, as you see, we report a solid revenue number from BD now for the third consecutive quarter. So as Christine mentioned, we are very confident about the collaboration with BD. You're right that with existing markets, we should -- sorry, with existing and new markets, we should over time see growth in the revenues from BD. And we do expect that. As we have previously mentioned, the new markets will grow, but it will take some time before we will see that in the numbers. So we have a positive view on the future for sure. But as we have communicated before, it will have limited impact in the numbers for this year. However, we do remain confident and optimistic going forward.
The next one is Zimmer Biomet contributing quite strongly here in Q2. If you could go through the magnitude of each income item from Zimmer in this quarter? And if you can share anything about how you see contribution developing in the second half of the year here, because I'm expecting larger sort of volumes coming in maybe 2025, but maybe mostly in '26, '27.
Yes. Appreciate that question. Thank you, Mattias. You're right. We did report an increased amount of revenue from Zimmer Biomet for Q2 and the first half year now. In total, SEK 10.2 million, which is a significant increase. In this number, we report both the exclusivity revenues and the license revenues, which pertain to royalties, but also minimum royalties within the trauma agreement. So as we've communicated before, and as we've tried to split out in the report as well is that we do have revenue stream from Zimmer that pertains to the exclusivity partnership we have regarding the orthopedics agreement.
Here we do not yet have any products in market, and we have sort of communicated earlier around when we expect to see any change on that. In addition to that, we have the trauma agreement, where we do have products in market across Europe. And for that, we receive royalties. And we also, as we've communicated before, have an agreement around minimum royalties and that is what we see in the numbers for the first half year and for Q2.
Good. I will limit myself to 3 questions to begin with. So next one is OpEx, quite stable, Q1 to Q2 down slightly, as it looks. So I guess, you look for a further decrease in OpEx ahead, as it sounds, to deliver on the SEK 25 million. So what are the savings here incrementally into the second half and maybe a bit on the timing as well?
Yes, I appreciate the question. We are, as we said, pleased and on track on the development of our total operating expenses. As we saw last quarter and this quarter, they continued to decrease. And as we communicated earlier, you can say, the result of the transformation will be in full force after the first half of this year. So we do expect continued positive developments on our costs, meaning reduction of the total operating costs into the coming quarters. At the same time, as you can see, we are still investing in the business, and we're still strengthening our team. But overall, we are on track on our promise to reduce costs exceeding SEK 25 million on a full year basis.
The next question comes from Kristofer Liljeberg from Carnegie.
I also have some questions related to the Zimmer and BD collaboration. So if you take Zimmer first, could you give any sort of update on what they are doing here in Europe, if they are entering new countries, if they have yet broadening the rollout, including other products being coated?
Kristofer, thanks for the question. Great to hear from you. With the Zimmer collaboration, certainly, the rollout across Europe continues. It is a full region that they are certainly ensuring that we have continued sales into, and that does continue in progress as expected. This is the key market area, I guess I will say, where they continue to work, and we do see certainly promise in the future from both Europe, but certainly as we get past the end of 2024 as well, additional new markets such as Japan. We do expect Zimmer to continue to focus on new market approvals for the trauma products, which is, of course, the ZNN, which is the primary approved product in the region today.
And even beyond the trauma collaboration, but also in the recon, we continue to work there in a development agreement and this, of course, alludes to the exclusivity revenues that Patrick mentioned earlier in that collaboration. So we do continue to work forward on new product development underneath our existing agreements with Zimmer and the primary approved product is, of course, the trauma nails.
So is it possible for you to comment how far away you are from reaching the minimum royalties?
Hi, Kristofer. Patrick here. Thank you for your question. We report both royalties and minimum royalties within the license revenues when it pertains to products that are in market. It will depend from quarter-to-quarter. So I cannot say specifically, you can say, how much pertains to minimums and how much pertains to actual royalties.
Okay. And then for BD, would you really need a new agreement with BD? Or how long can you operate on the old one? And would that be sufficient for you also in new markets?
Thanks, Kristofer. Great question. And we're saying that we are quite confident, of course, in the current collaboration and that our agreements do remain in full force. So that does continue to be true currently that we have actually the full market on all of the global regions with the exception of China covered under the existing agreements with BD. So we can continue to focus on the actual activities of commercialization, of transitioning the markets that were under the interim and extension agreement signed in December, as well as enhancing our efforts together to help them increase activities in the existing markets and primarily U.S. and Japan without any hiccup in terms of the contract. So it is a very good question. Indeed, the agreements do remain in full for us, and we can focus on the collaboration.
[Operator Instructions] There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions or closing comments.
Okay. Thank you, everyone, again, for participating. Thanks for the great questions today. They are crucial to us, both in terms of our desire to be transparent with the market and to understand what is top of mind for all of you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Patrick and I even after the call with any questions or comments you may have on the business. We are, as I mentioned, very optimistic about the future of Bactiguard, and we look forward to seeing you on the next quarter's call. Thank you.