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Biogaia AB
Earnings Call Analysis
Q3-2024 Analysis
Biogaia AB
In Q3 2024, BioGaia reported sales of SEK 304 million, reflecting a 4% decline from the previous year. This setback was largely attributed to weak performance in the EMEA region, where sales plummeted by 27%, primarily due to poor demand in Turkey, Spain, and Poland. In contrast, Asia Pacific showed promising growth, with sales increasing by 24%—significantly benefiting from higher demand in China and Australia. Meanwhile, the Americas reported a small increase in sales of 5%.
The company's operating profit for the quarter was SEK 41 million, marking a stark decrease of 65%. Including a significant SEK 51.2 million impairment loss related to the MetaboGen acquisition, the reported EBIT margin fell to 14%. However, when adjusted to exclude this impairment, the EBIT would be SEK 93 million, yielding an adjusted EBIT margin of 31%. This compares unfavorably to last year's adjusted margin of 38%.
During the quarter, BioGaia launched several new products, including Pharax drops in Switzerland and Protectis tablets with vitamin D in Peru. Additionally, they entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Recordati in Italy, which they hope will help drive growth in this challenging market. However, it was emphasized that while they are optimistic about the setup with Recordati, rebuilding market share will take time.
Despite a lower operating profit, BioGaia managed to increase its cash flow from operating activities by 1%, reaching SEK 111 million for the quarter. Operating expenses rose by 56%, significantly influenced by the earlier-mentioned impairment loss. Excluding that, adjusted operating expenses increased by 11%, driven mainly by heightened marketing initiatives as they shift towards a more direct sales approach.
Looking ahead, management hinted at a cautious but optimistic outlook for Q4, without providing specific revenue or margin guidance. They noted that a considerable amount of their costs are investments aimed at long-term growth—expected to be SEK 75 million to SEK 85 million in the second half of 2024, although total spending may be lower due to Q3's disappointing sales. Direct markets are anticipated to expand, which currently account for about 30% of sales.
The ongoing challenges in the EMEA region were underscored by competitive pressure, especially in Italy, where the transition to the new distribution partner is essential for driving future growth. Turkey's inflationary pressures are also contributing to reduced demand, complicating the operational landscape.
The U.S. market remains a bright spot for BioGaia, with sales growing at a high single-digit rate, notably bolstered by success on platforms like Amazon and partnerships with retail giants like Target. This trend of surpassing market growth is crucial for the company's expansion strategy.
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Welcome to BioGaia Q3 Report for 2024. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Theresa Agnew; and CFO, Alexander Kotsinas. Please go ahead.
Hi. This is Theresa Agnew, CEO of BioGaia. I want to do an overview of our results for Q3. First off, our sales were SEK 304 million, which was a decline of 4%, mainly due to weaker sales in EMEA as well as some order variability where we had higher orders in Q2 in certain markets.
Sales in Europe, Middle East, Africa decreased by 27%. And in Asia Pacific, sales increased by 24%. And in the Americas, we had an increase of 5%. So good growth in Asia Pacific and also solid growth in the Americas.
Our EBIT was SEK 41 million, which was a decline of 65%. This was primarily due to an impairment loss that we had, which I will talk about. Our EBIT margin, because of that, was 14%. Without the impairment loss, if you look at the adjusted EBIT margin, it was 31%, and the adjusted EBIT was SEK 93 million or a decline of 22%.
So there were items that affected the comparability in the quarter. It was primarily an impairment loss attributed to our MetaboGen acquisition, and that impairment loss was SEK 51.2 million. And I will talk a little bit about the clinical study that we have been doing with prediabetes patients.
So in terms of our launches, we had a number of launches: Pharax drops in Switzerland, Nescare in Brazil, Protectis drops with vitamin D in Mexico, Prodentis lozenges in a number of markets in Latin America as well as Protectis tablets with vitamin D in Peru.
In addition to other key events, we announced in July our exclusive distribution agreement with Recordati in Italy. Recordati, as you may know from previous, was a sub-distributor that is now our exclusive distributor in Italy. On October 17, we also announced preliminary results that we would not meet market expectations.
We had the impairment loss for the MetaboGen acquisition of SEK 51.2 million. This was due to a clinical study that had been going on for a number of years where the primary endpoint for a potential product was not met. This was a product around metabolic syndrome. So it was a clinical study with about 108 patients looking at glucose values over a 12-week period for people with prediabetes to see if glucose levels would decline with the probiotic versus the placebo. And unfortunately, we did not see the primary endpoint of reduction in glucose. We did have a secondary endpoint where we saw improvement in triglycerides, but our primary endpoints were not met.
In terms of sales, as I said, we had an overall 4% decline for the quarter. Our Pediatrics sales decreased by 12%, mainly due to Protectis drops, and this was mainly in EMEA. And in the Americas, it was more Brazil with the order phasing because we had a very high Q2 and then a lower Q3. And sales decreased in Turkey and Spain. Spain was another example where we had higher orders in Q2 and lower orders in Q3.
And for the Adult sales portfolio, it increased by 29%, mainly due to Prodentis and Protectis tablets. Our sales also increased in U.S. as well as in Korea. And Protectis tablets increased mainly in Indonesia and Hong Kong. And as you see from a year-to-date standpoint, our Pediatrics business is growing 4% and our Adult business is growing 16%, so overall growth of 6%. And our Pediatric business remains at around 78% of our overall sales.
In terms of the regions, I mentioned that EMEA sales decreased by 27%. That was mainly due to Turkey, Spain and Poland. In Asia Pacific, we had a healthy increase of 24%, mainly in Indonesia, China and Australia. Australia is one of our direct businesses that we just took direct actually in Q3. So we have a promising start in both Australia and New Zealand.
Our China business is doing very well where we had higher orders in Q2 and now again higher orders in Q3. So very strong growth in China. In the Americas, our sales increased by 5%, mainly driven by the U.S., Canada and Guatemala. And I'm proud to say in the U.S. and Canada, our business is growing very healthy, ahead of market.
So as you see here then on the chart, year-to-date, EMEA is declining 2%, Asia Pacific is growing 25% and the Americas is growing 4%. And it's good to see that our growth in the U.S. is strong even though we're still lapping the Gerber sales from last year, where they stopped selling our probiotic drops last year.
And now I'll turn it over to Alex to go through the financials in more detail.
Thank you, Theresa. So to summarize the quarter 3 financials, we had revenues of SEK 304 million, which was a 4% decline. Our operating profit was SEK 41 million, which was a 65% decline, and our reported EBIT margin was 14%.
Now of course, we had this adjustment. So excluding the impairment loss, we had an EBIT of SEK 93 million and an adjusted EBIT margin of 31%. Earnings per share were SEK 0.36, and cash flow was SEK 111 million.
If we look at the third quarter then, of the decline of 4% in the quarter, approximately 3% was due to currency and organically, we had a decline of 1.5%. And year-to-date, we had an increase of 6%, of which organically 7% increase and a currency -- negative currency effect of about 1%.
If we look at the gross margin for the quarter, we had a gross margin of 73% versus 74% in the same quarter last year. In Pediatrics, our margin was stable at 75%. And in Adult, the margin was slightly lower at 66% versus 68% 1 year ago. The main reason for the lower Adult margin is mix effects, for example, a larger proportion of sales of Prodentis where we have a slightly lower margin and also due to some increased sales in certain markets. So mix effects is the explanation. And if you look year-to-date, you can see that in total, we have a stable gross margin of 73%, which is the same as we had 1 year ago for the same period 1 year ago.
We move on to the operating expenses. Our operating expenses increased with 56%. Again, this is due to that impairment loss. So if we exclude that, we had an increase of operating expenses of 11%.
If you look at the line items, sales and marketing costs increased due to increased activities related to sales and marketing. This is an effect of going direct. So basically, when we have increased activity levels in the direct markets, our cost will increase there. And therefore, since the marketing costs have increased, so that is the main explanation that we do a larger proportion of our sales direct through our own subsidiaries and, therefore, those costs increase.
In terms of the R&D, it's the impairment loss that is affecting the increase. If you exclude the impairment loss of SEK 51 million, the R&D costs are basically flat. Other OpEx was minus SEK 5 million. This is due to exchange losses. And in the same quarter last year, it was a slightly positive effect there. And then in terms of admin costs, they are somewhat higher in the quarter, but in line with -- or actually lower than last year, year-to-date. So all in all then, we have a total OpEx which increased with 11% on an adjusted basis.
If we move on to the P&L then to summarize, sales decreased with 4%, OpEx increased with 56% and we have an EBIT margin of 14%. And on an adjusted basis, as I mentioned before, we have an EBIT margin of 31% versus 38% 1 year ago. And year-to-date, our adjusted EBIT margin is 35% versus 1 year ago, 36%. And 35% is then above our financial target year-to-date.
If we look at then to summarize the cash flow. So cash flow from operating activities increased with 1% despite the lower operating profit, and that is due to that we have changes in working capital, which are only minus SEK 4 million versus minus SEK 23 million 1 year ago. So cash flow from operating activities then is actually SEK 1 million higher than last year even though we have a lower operating profit.
And then our cash flow from investing activity is very low, minus SEK 3 million in the quarter. Cash flow from financing activities actually a positive SEK 14 million due to new share issues of about SEK 20 million, which are included in that line item. And those new share issues are due to the incentive program from 2021. So all in all, we have a cash flow of SEK 111 million versus SEK 88 million 1 year ago and the cash at the end of the period of SEK 1.115 billion.
And with that, I hand over to Theresa for some concluding remarks.
Yes. So overall, as we said, our net sales decreased by 4%, and it was a decrease of 2% excluding the currency effects. Our direct markets are performing strongly across really all of our direct markets, but we have a very strong start in Australia and New Zealand.
Our EMEA sales decreased by 27%, mainly due to lower sales in the Pediatrics segment and primarily in markets such as Turkey, Spain and Poland. In Asia Pacific, we continue our strong growth with 24%, which was due to higher sales in both the Pediatrics and the Adult segment. And mainly, we saw that in China, Indonesia and Australia.
In Americas, our sales increased modestly by 5%, mainly due to increased sales in the Adult segment, and we've seen that growth in Prodentis, Protectis as well as Gastrus. Sales mainly increased in BioGaia U.S., Canada as well as Guatemala. And in the quarter, as we said, we recorded an impairment loss, which is attributed to our MetaboGen acquisition of SEK 51.2 million.
Our operating expenses increased by 56%. And if you exclude those items, it increased by 11%. Our EBIT margin was 14%, and the adjusted margin was 31%. And we will continue the ramp-up of our investments to drive our continued growth. We have investments also in Q4 that we are primarily focusing around sales and marketing in our direct markets.
So I open it up for questions.
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Mattias Vadsten from SEB.
First one relates to EMEA. So Italy seems to be quite challenging. Would you say it's a bit worthwhile trying to enter with your own brands there to build a sort of strong market long term because I understand it is a quite large market overall? Or what makes you sort of confident in the setup that you have right now? That's the first one.
Okay. So in terms of confidence in the setup, so we have a very strong partner, Recordati. They are a top pharmaceutical company in Italy. So we just have transitioned over to them as our primary distributor. So they are ramping up their efforts, ramping up their sales and marketing activities. So -- and we are helping them quite substantially in terms of training their sales organizations on our science, meeting with key opinion leaders, meeting with health care professionals about our brand, our proprietary strains.
So we are confident in working with our new distributor partner that we will be able to drive growth in the Italian market. In terms of our own brand, it's not something we're exploring right now. We have an exclusive distribution agreement with our partner, which is under a different brand. It is under the Reuflor brand.
Okay. And then also on EMEA, I think it's been -- it has not been satisfactory growth rates in this market recently, let's say, 5, 6 years. So maybe we could talk a little bit about the visibility in turning this market back into growth mode, sort of where you see untapped growth potential in EMEA as it stands right now and maybe which countries, in that respect, that would be highlighted. That's the second one.
Yes, good question. In terms of the future where we see growth, there are some markets where our business is smaller, where we think there is upside in terms of the category. So markets like Germany, for instance, where what we tend to see is order variability with our distribution partner in Germany, but we're working with them on driving continuous growth in that market. We see a lot of penetration opportunity as well as our direct business, the U.K., there is considerable upside in the U.K. We actually just got broad distribution of our Protectis drops in Q3.
So Boots, which is the largest pharmacy chain in the U.K., is very happy with the performance since we entered into their distribution in January of earlier this year. So now they've expanded our Protectis drops to 1,200 stores. We also just got in our Protectis chewables into Boots in almost 600 stores and also our Prodentis product in Boots stores in also almost 600 stores. So we see a big opportunity in the U.K. Our Amazon business is growing strong. Our Boots distribution is new, and we have a lot of opportunity there as well as in the independent pharmacy channel, which where we ship to wholesalers. So we see a lot of opportunity in the U.K. as well.
I would also mention that we also see opportunity in France because in 2023, it was a lower year than previously. And so we see opportunity for growth next year with continued focus, continued marketing activities. We just launched our vitamin D drops in France. So that was a first where we'd only had our original Protectis drops. Now we have Protectis plus vitamin D. So we'll see how that goes in the French market, but it is quite successful in other European markets as well as markets in the Americas. So we're focusing on the markets where we feel we have a lot of opportunity for growth and the larger markets like Italy, France, Germany, U.K.
And I will have a last question and then jump back to the queue. I think turning to OpEx where you communicated this SEK 75 million to SEK 85 million higher OpEx in the second half. Now I think OpEx was up by a quite small amount, as you mentioned in the presentation. So 2 questions. Do you see that at a smaller amount now for the second half? And also, do you expect it to spill over to 2025 as it stands right now? That's my last one.
Yes. So we did see some lower costs in Q3, but we also had some savings elsewhere in our portfolio. Where we are making investments is in our direct businesses, and we're making investments in sales and marketing activities, which will continue to Q4. What we'll do is we are looking at the ROI of our investments. So we won't say right now what will continue into 2025 because we have to analyze and we have to look at the return on the investment and then make decisions around what we will be continuing.
Right now, we are working on our global marketing campaign, which I've mentioned previously. So we will be investing in that, which is an exciting opportunity to do more advertising in some of our direct businesses to drive more brand awareness and brand consideration and, hence, more penetration on our Protectis drops.
The next question comes from Kristofer Liljeberg from Carnegie Investment Bank.
Some questions also focused on EMEA. So first, you mentioned Poland here. Is that also a phasing effect or some underlying weakness?
So that was phasing effects. So we had a very high Q2. So that was phasing for Q3. But overall, for the year, Poland is strongly performing.
Okay. Good to hear that. And then coming back to Italy, when do you think realistically that you will be back growing sales in Italy again?
So it will take time because we're training their sales force. They're going out more broadly to the medical community in terms of pediatricians, gastroenterologists, key opinion leaders. So that will take time. I mean I can't forecast a particular quarter, but we are starting to make some headway. And we do have a very strong brand. Reuflor is a dominant brand in Italy. We would just want to continue to drive the growth.
Okay. But do you think you would grow Italy again in 2025?
Yes. Yes, we do think we will grow Italy again in 2025.
Okay. And then I wonder about the situation in Turkey. I could understand your comment there about demand, but it was something you wrote in the report that strike me that I think you said that inflation impacted the distributor's business operations. Does your distributor have some problem there also impacting this more than underlying demand?
So Turkey has been a high inflationary environment for quite a while. So with our distributor, they are a pharmaceutical company in Turkey. And so what the inflationary environment has done is impacted consumer demand. So it's just something we're paying a lot of attention to. We're working with our partner to help them as much as possible in terms of driving the marketing and sales. But it's just something where Turkey has become a little bit of a bigger impact in the quarter for us because of some of these negative impacts from the economy.
Okay. So it has nothing to do with the partner, it's the underlying demand that's the problem.
No, it doesn't have to do with the partner itself. It's more the overall market in terms of what's impacting the demand.
Okay. And then my final question, it seems the strong momentum continues in the U.S. Could you provide some figure how much you're growing in the U.S. right now maybe year-to-date, just a rough figure?
Sure. So the U.S. is growing ahead of market. So I would say it's high single digits. And what's doing extremely well is our Amazon business. So we are disproportionately growing in our Amazon business. And actually, we're having record months really each year -- I'm sorry, each month on Amazon. So Amazon, as you know, is our main channel where we distribute.
But also positively impacting us is we also have distribution at Target, which is one of the mass retailers in the United States. And they are very pleased with our Protectis drops business, and they've now expanded our Protectis drops in another 800 stores. So it's a really strong distribution now in Target. So I would say the Amazon sales are positive. The Target sales are positive. We also have strong growth on Walmart.com as well. And one thing also is all of this is...
Next question comes from Mattias Häggblom.
Mattias Häggblom, Handelsbanken. So it wasn't clear to me how we should think about the phasing of the SEK 75 million to SEK 85 million that you intended to deploy in the second half. So how much was taken in Q3? And what's left for Q4? And linked to this, when do you expect to see an impact from these initiatives in terms of sales growth? Is that already Q4 or more likely Q1 and beyond?
So in terms of the spend, so we look each quarter at what we're spending of the amount that we've signaled. So we have spent in Q3, we are spending now in Q4. In terms of the impact in terms of sales, some of these investments are longer-term investments. So we won't see an immediate impact, positive impact in Q4 because we're investing in things like sales activities, which take longer to build growth. They're very important, though, in terms of our sustainable growth and our sustainable competitive advantage in the market because it's part of our overarching medical marketing and medical sales strategy going to health care professionals with our science and our advantages.
And actually, one of the things that we're seeing that is positive already from the sales activities is our Protectis tablets in the U.S. have been growing more as well. So we're seeing -- what we do is we look at our sales activities in the states compared to some of the states where we don't have the sales activities. And so we're seeing positive growth of our products where we have increased our sales activities in those particular states in the United States. So we're seeing positive effects there on our drops as well as now on our Protectis chewables as well.
And on the -- but the exact amount, since you quantified the intent to spend SEK 75 million to SEK 85 million, it's not possible to quantify what has been spent or if that is still the intent for the second half, just to help us understand how to think about OpEx for the remainder of the year.
Yes, Alex here. No, I can try to comment. I mean our spending, the SEK 75 million to SEK 85 million, I mean, since we communicated that figure, our sales has, for example now in the third quarter, has been a bit weaker. And always, we try to adapt our costs to our revenues. So basically, we have made some savings compared to then. We're still doing these strategic activities, and we will continue to do so in the fourth quarter.
But I think our total spending will probably be a bit lower than that SEK 75 million to SEK 85 million at the moment due to the weaker sales we saw now in the third quarter. And then you have to also remember that we're probably -- we will -- normally, we spend more in the fourth quarter than our third quarter in terms of our OpEx, and it will be the same this year. So we will have higher costs in the fourth quarter rather than the third quarter. And we are pursuing those strategic initiatives. We are doing those things. But all in all, the total effect will probably be a bit slightly lower.
That's clear. And then secondly, can you expand on the competitive pressure in Italy that you talked about? Is that derived from your previous distributor selling remaining stock under the previous brand? Or is it linked to new entrants?
It's not linked to new entrants. It's linked to current competitors in the market, but definitely also linked to our former distributor because our former distributor has their own brand of different probiotics, different strains in the market. But it's also other competitors as well. And one thing...
Okay. And then finally...
I was just going to make an additional comment. One thing that is good is now we have direct communication and establishment with Recordati, which is our now exclusive distributor. So our activities with that partner are enhanced because we're able to give them more marketing messages and support and training of their sales organizations. And some of these things take time, but we feel like that support is even stronger than before. So we'll be able to have a competitive advantage versus some of the current competitors in the market.
That's clear. And then finally, so when I look at consensus expectations for '25 and '26, it appears some of the forecasts suggest a depressed margin for not only '24, but in addition, '25 to '26. So directionally, I don't expect you to quantify, but any way to think about the duration of this investment period?
Yes. So we're looking at it right now for the second half of this year. So we're looking to see what the impact is. And as we said, some of the impact is longer term. So we have to look at trends. So we have to look at things, what was the previous period, what was the previous year, so we can look at the trends over time. So we will continue to do our analysis. We're doing this weekly, monthly, looking at our sales, looking at impacts over time. So if things are moving in the right direction, then we will continue investments. But for right now, we're just looking at the ROI of the investments that we're making.
The next question comes from Kristofer Liljeberg from Carnegie Investment Bank.
Three more questions. First, following up on Italy and what you said about the competition. Is the former partner still selling the Reuterin brand? Or is it another product they are marketing?
They are still selling the Reuterin brand with different strains. So they are not selling our strains in the market.
And have they been selling that with different strains before? Or have they just changed the strain after you terminated the agreement?
They had launched a product previously to us terminating the agreement. They had launched a product with different strains. So now they have also then launched an additional product since then as well. So they have a number of drops products in the market as well as other formats.
Okay. And they could do so because you have stopped the previous agreement with them? Or...
That's correct. So they...
Because I guess that product wasn't that -- I guess this brand, if I remember correctly, were larger than Reuflor in Italy before.
No. Actually, Reuflor is the #1 brand in the pediatric probiotics area. So Reuterin is much smaller and also lower distribution in the pharmacies. Reuflor is the #1 and also has very broad distribution. So they're growing from a smaller base, if you will.
Okay. So I guess the problem then in Italy right now is that you, so far, haven't been able to retake this part of the market.
Retake the part of the market, well...
I mean, you -- let's say, if we assume Reuflor was, I don't know, 20% of sales, and I guess your ambition must be to gain back that market share now when you're not collaborating with the previous distributor...
Yes, that is correct. So now -- so because our product was available previously under the Reuterin brand, a different SKU, now our goal is to take back that business under Reuflor because we had -- there were 2 different products in the market, our same product under 2 different brands, okay? So now our goal is to take that market share now that, that product is no longer available under Reuterin.
Yes. Okay, that makes sense. And then could you comment -- Australia and New Zealand, you said you were off to a good start here. Is it possible to comment how much sales you had there in the quarter and whether that will increase in the coming quarters?
Yes. So I can't comment on the exact amount, but the sales that we've had are higher than what we've had previously when you look at our sales to our former distributor. And we anticipate that it will continue to increase because we're now driving our brand, but also driving the overall category at retail. So the retailers, so we have distribution in pharmacy channels. We also have distribution in one of the largest grocery store chains in Australia. So yes, we anticipate this to grow significantly. And also, we will be looking at bringing some of the rest of our product portfolio into the market as well.
Did it have a meaningful impact on the strong growth rate in APAC in Q3?
No, I would say not yet because it's so early. So basically, what -- in Q3, we had pipe fill, what I would call pipe fill into pharmacies. The biggest impact was China and Indonesia, markets like that. But I anticipate it to have a bigger impact as we go, especially as we start bringing in some of our products that haven't been in that market before, at least in the pharmacy channel.
Okay. And then led me into the -- my final question about China, which seems to do -- continue to do very well. Maybe you could just spend 1, 2 minutes explaining your position in China.
Yes. We are seeing very strong growth in China, and that is mainly in the online sales channel. That's where the majority of our sales is through general trade as well as cross-border trade, but mainly through general trade. And our partner is doing a lot of events, a lot of marketing activities, driving a lot of focus on our brand, using influencers, using all the channels, live streaming to drive awareness, to drive trial and consideration.
So we're very happy with the performance of our partner. And they really capitalize on these big events like Singles' Day where a lot of consumers are buying products, and they end up disproportionately growing during those times. So they're doing a really good job of targeting the right consumers with the right messages to drive conversion.
And what are the big products in China?
So I mean our biggest is Protectis drops, that's our biggest by far, but we also have our Protectis chewables as well.
The next question comes from Mattias Vadsten from SEB.
Two follow-ups. Growth -- I think first one on growth, that has been, I think you said some 7% year-to-date. Comp look a bit easier for the fourth quarter. So is it relevant to expect growth well within the double-digit percentage trajectory for Q4? Or do you see any argument to be more cautious also for Q4 on the sales growth? That's the first one.
Well, we don't really provide guidance quarter-by-quarter. Some of our areas such as within EMEA, we're continuing to focus in those areas, and we want to turn around some of those businesses that have been declining. So that's probably where our biggest focus is for Q4. Also, obviously, continuing the growth in our direct markets, that's been very strong. So we want to continue to see that growth in Q4. And our direct markets are where we are placing some of our investments. So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of a sense for Q4, but we don't provide specific guidance on numbers.
Okay. And how much of sales is direct markets now?
It's still around 30%. We anticipate that now that we have Australia and New Zealand, those are smaller markets for us. It will continue to grow for us. But right now, it's still around 30%.
Good. And then the last one for me. If you could flag what major sort of R&D project milestones, if you can call it, that you have coming year or a couple of years that we should think about? That's my last one.
So in terms of milestones, we look at it 2 different ways. We look at new products and new product launches as well as clinical studies. So in terms of our new product launches, we actually this quarter are launching a new product. I won't talk about that yet because that will be in our Q4 report. So we're launching a new product as we speak, and then we'll be rolling that out to more markets next year. We also have some exciting new product launches planned for next year in the oral health area.
And so I look at our pipeline and we have a healthy pipeline of new products. The way our markets work, not all of our markets take the new products at the same time. So we have a phaseout of our new products because registration timings are different in each market. What we're trying to do is look at some of our direct markets to launch those earlier as long as the registration requirements can be met.
And then in terms of clinical studies, we have an ongoing clinical study for our next-generation colic product. So that is ongoing, and that is something that we'll look at milestones on that in the coming year and years. So that's exciting. And then we have 30 ongoing clinical studies. So we are always doing clinicals in various spaces. But I would say one of the most exciting is around our next-generation colic product.
Interesting. So what you said there about the launching a new product, would that be -- should we expect you to launch new products in new, how do you say, areas of use or, let's say, benefits for patients? Or is it tweaks to product within current areas?
Yes. So the products I'm talking about for this year and next year or this quarter and next year are more what we call line extensions. So there are new products in the areas where we operate in our core, so in the gut health area, in the oral health area and so forth.
The next question comes from Mattias Häggblom.
Just a follow-up here. So on the next-generation colic product, is that the combination of the 2 strains that you referenced earlier this year?
It is a combination of 2 strains, yes.
Okay. Because, again, sticking to the publication earlier this year, I think in June, that you suggested you were bringing into clinical trials. I think that was also associated with some of the signs within MetaboGen. So any read across from the failed trial in metabolic syndrome and the impairment that you took in this quarter to the new combination trial trying to improve growth of reuteri, if I understand correctly, or no read across at all?
No, they are not connected at all. Actually, MetaboGen was a focus specifically around metabolic syndrome. So the clinical study that we've been involved in over the last couple of years was for people with prediabetes, trying to look at when you add a probiotic, do you get a significant reduction in glucose, which then reduces your what's called HbA1c, which is the primary measure for someone with diabetes or prediabetes.
So this was specifically in patients with prediabetes where we did not see a difference versus placebo in the primary endpoint. We did have a secondary endpoint, which was triglyceride improvement, where we did see a positive effect. So the next-generation colic product actually has nothing to do with MetaboGen. It's a completely different health area of focus and completely different strains.
And as a consequence, it is not linked to the [ BGL 47 ] strain that was part of the publication earlier this year?
It is not linked to that. That is something else that we're looking at for the future. That is a bifido strain. So that would be a different potential new product in the future.
There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you for very good questions. As always, we appreciate it, and thank you for listening to our overall Q3 results. Take care.