Newtopia Inc

XTSX:NEWU

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q2

[Operator]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Newtopia Inc. Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded on Wednesday, August 9, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Rob Halpern, SVP of Marketing. Please go ahead.

[Robert Halpern, executive]

Good evening, and welcome to Newtopia's Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are Jeff Ruby, Founder and CEO; Collin Swenson, Chief Financial Officer; and Lara Dodo, Chief Growth and Operating Officer. Please note that today's call is being broadcast live over the internet and will also be archived for both telephone and online listening upon completion of the call.Details on how to access the replays are available in the company's second quarter press release issued this afternoon and can be found on the Investors section of Newtopia's website at www.newtopia.com.Before we begin, let me remind you that certain matters discussed during today's call could constitute forward-looking statements, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties relating to Newtopia's future financial and business performance. Actual results could, therefore, differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Newtopia is under no obligation to update any forward-looking statements discussed today and investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements.The risk factors that may affect results are detailed in Newtopia's periodical results and registration statements, which you can access via the SEDAR database at www.sedar.com. Also please note that all figures stated on today's call are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Ruby, Founder and CEO of Newtopia. Please go ahead, Jeff.

[Jeffrey Ruby, executive]

Thank you, Rob. And thank you to everyone for joining us today on our second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Our second quarter results are in and I am very pleased to report that we remain on track with our strategic direction of profitable growth and becoming EBITDA positive in 2023.By way of reminder, just 2 quarters ago, we initiated a strategic repositioning plan. As part of this plan, we evaluated our cost to serve as well as our operations, determined what expenses were not generating return on their investments and reduced our cost while simultaneously optimizing our Inspirator or health coach service ratios. We undertook these efforts while impressively maintaining and improving our industry-leading engagements and whole health outcomes.Throughout the first half of 2023, we've made meaningful improvements to our expenses and cost to serve while completing 2 multiyear contract renewals with our largest clients. Our main focus for the remainder of 2023 continues to be achieving profitable growth alongside the closing of some exciting new employer and health plan contracts. Our efforts to date have proven fruitful and we will be increasingly evident as the year progresses.With 6-plus months of our strategic repositioning under our belt, I am proud to announce that our cost-cutting and efficiency efforts are ahead of schedule. Newtopia achieved cash flow positive from operations status in the final 2 months of the second quarter, with increased enrollment activity anticipated in the second half as a result of our multiyear contract renewals and strong organic growth, we are well-positioned for profitable growth.So let's dig a bit deeper on our financial results for the second quarter. Revenue for Q2 2023 totaled $2.4 million as compared to $2.5 million in the prior year period. The slight year-over-year differential is simply due to timing as we continue to experiment with optimizing our risk-based enrollments.We also tightened up our definition of an engaged participant as part of a large contract renewal. This change in definition impacted our engage participant billing opportunity in the short term. But now that we are aligning with longer-term value-based contracting standards, the definitional change opens us up to greater segments of the eligible population while also deepening our value-based contracting expertise.We anticipate that our recent multiyear contract renewals with large clients will enhance our revenue, growth and profitability in the second half of 2023. These clients continue to see high participant engagement and satisfaction with Newtopia alongside healthy habit change results and are collaborating with us on increasing penetration of their existing population segments and expanding to additional geographical or divisional segments. We expect these efforts to bear fruit throughout the remainder of 2023.Against this backdrop, there remain 2 important developing macro trends, which we continue to strategically position ourselves. The first is the growing wave of use of GLP-1 blockbuster medications like Ozempic, Wegovi and Mounjaro as a component of diabetes and weight management. These injectable drugs reduce appetite, boost production of insulin and lower blood sugar, thereby having a meaningful impact on body weight reduction.As a result of a significant amount of marketing by pharmaceutical manufacturers alongside a tidal wave of both traditional and social media publicity, rates of awareness and prescriptions are skyrocketing in 2023 and will likely continue into the foreseeable future.Clearly, there is an increasing acceptance of GLP-1s and a huge addressable market to go with it. While these medications have the potential to generate promising clinical outcomes, each was clinically trialed alongside lifestyle change requirements in nutrition and exercise. That said, most of those prescribing these medications do not incorporate the essential lifestyle change component in their instructions. This is highly consequential for patients taking these medications and for the payers, either employer, private or public, who are deciding whether to cover them.Still, the majority of experts believe that diabetes and obesity have no quick fix and that injections alone are simply not the answer. Instead, GLP-1s are most effective, both clinically and economically, when paired with a proven habit change program like Newtopia.As a result, we are seeing an increasing commercial shift by public and private players, large and small, who are offering behavior change platforms, prescriptions and more to go alongside these blockbuster drugs. Lara Dodo, our Chief Growth and Operating Officer, will speak further on these matters later on this call.The second emerging macro trend is the use of advanced primary care for employers and commercially insured populations. Advanced primary care represents an effort by providers to offer comprehensive value-based care that blends in-person and virtual service delivery rather than a fee-for-service program. The goal of advanced primary care is to improve the patient experience and health of various populations while simultaneously reducing costs for the insurer.Newtopia perfectly complements advanced primary care and we look forward to discussing opportunities emerging for Newtopia in the advanced primary care space on future earnings calls. With favorable industry trends, client collaboration and an expanding business development pipeline, Newtopia is well-positioned for an exciting and profitable 2023.With that, I'll turn the call over to Collin Swenson to discuss our second quarter financials in further detail.

[Collin Swenson, executive]

Thanks, Jeff. It's great to speak with everyone again today. Q2 2023 was yet another positive step forward on Newtopia's path to profitability. Although revenue of $2.4 million was down slightly versus $2.5 million in the prior year period, we're continuing to improve both our gross margins and our bottom line as we leverage efficiencies in our operating model. On an apples-to-apples basis, gross profit was $1.4 million for the second quarter, up 16% year-over-year.As a percentage of revenue, gross profit was 58.5% compared with 47.0% in Q2 of 2022, a full 1,150 basis point improvement. This increase is a result of the efforts we've made to improve efficiencies, reduce head count and increase our Inspirator-to participant ratios. As I've stated in prior quarters, it's worth noting that our margins typically experience some level of seasonality depending on the timing of participant onboarding. That said, as we've demonstrated across multiple quarters in a row now, the improvements we've made are largely here to stay compared to prior years.From an expense standpoint, selling, general and administrative expenses totaled approximately $1.3 million for the second quarter, an improvement of 42% year-over-year. This improvement is a balanced mix of reduced marketing spend exiting our Toronto office lease and restructuring through head count reductions. Technology and development expenses totaled $523,000 for the second quarter compared to $844,000 in the prior year period, a 38% improvement year-over-year.It's notable that tech spend is also down significantly versus Q1 2023 and we fully anticipate a continued downward trend throughout 2023. Adjusted operating expenses, which excludes share-based compensation, improved by 41% to total $1.8 million for the quarter compared to $3.1 million in the prior year period. We expect to see incremental improvements throughout 2023 as the actions of our strategic plan become fully baked into our financial results.On our path to profitability, we're proud to report steady and significant improvements to EBITDA. For the second quarter, our EBITDA loss of $436,000 improved 77% from a loss of $1.9 million in the prior year period as well as a 40% improvement from a loss of $727,000 in Q1 2023. We're excited to see this number continue to improve as we strive to breakeven.Turning to our balance sheet. Cash as of June 30, 2023, was approximately $0.3 million, with additional access to our revolving line of credit with a Canadian Schedule 1 bank and a previously announced $1.5 million debenture issuance that closed in July 2023. Cash used in operations for the quarter was $295,000, with our Q2 cash burn improving 64% versus Q1. Importantly, we'll continue to see this positive cash burn trend continue throughout 2023.Let's now revisit our expectations for 2023. From both the top line and bottom line perspective, we continue to anticipate year-over-year growth. From a profitability standpoint, given the traction we've witnessed through the first half of 2023, Newtopia has a clear path to achieve EBITDA and cash flow positivity within 2023. Our forecast shows our profitability building throughout the remainder of the year with our bottom line improving incrementally each successive quarter.Thank you all for your time today. I'll now turn the call over to Lara.

[Lara Dodo, executive]

Thanks, Collin, and good evening, everyone. In the second quarter, we made traction with deals currently under contract and also added new opportunities in primary care and the employer sector to our contract in queue. Notably, the Medicare Advantage opportunities we have discussed in the past have not pure tech security audits and other due diligence measures, putting us well on our way to fully executed contracts.As I noted on prior calls, the contracting process has become much more intense with increased scrutiny around security, especially. Our success in getting through these audits positions us well to succeed with other future opportunities that [indiscernible] will require a similar rigorous process. This discuss one of those larger future opportunities of pairing waste management medication with healthy habit change.Earlier in today's discussion, Jeff began to address the growing commercial acceptance of GLP-1 medication. Some of our largest clients are also currently formalizing their approach of inserting GLP-1 medications into their broader health and benefit strategy. There's a wide and growing understanding that without behavior change, if medications like Ozempic are removed, relapse is essentially guaranteed along with poor physical and emotional health implications and increased medical costs.Newtopia, therefore, remains well-positioned for continued organic growth within our current and prospective client base to leverage new opportunities for integrated behavioral and pharmacological obesity interventions. The proof is in the numbers. Newtopia continues to see close to 85% of our enrolled participants engaged after 90 days, over 70% after 1 year and approximately 60% after 2 years.For comparison purposes, the average engagement across the industry for condition management platforms is 60% after 90 days, 15% after 1 year and less than 5% after 2 years. There's no challenging those results. Participants are liking Newtopia experience and it works.As noted earlier, we added to our pipeline during the quarter. We are broadening our target base to include advanced primary care. In advanced primary care, patients have a natural advocate on their behalf, a team of doctors, nurses and specialists who will work with one another to provide whole health offerings. Newtopia is excited to see our health care system evolve towards this value-based view.To summarize the second quarter, we remain in active contracting with health plans, health systems and providers and we have added new opportunities to the contracting process. The good news is that when these deals are executed, they will be very sticky and have tremendous growth and upside to them.Thank you for your time today. I will now hand the call back to Jeff.

[Jeffrey Ruby, executive]

Thanks, Lara. With the first half of 2023 completes, we continue to make meaningful progress towards achieving profitable growth, pursuing deeper relationships with existing clients while seeking new business partnerships and leveraging macro advancements in the health care space.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Rob Halpern from Newtopia.

[Robert Halpern, executive]

So our first question received is as follows. Is it correct to assume that prescriptions for GLP-1s must be accompanied by a behavior change program?

[Jeffrey Ruby, executive]

Thanks, Rob, for organizing the questions and thank you for it. It couldn't be more on point today given the growth in commercial acceptance of GLP-1s. I'll start and then perhaps hand it over to Lara after for her comments. What's really interesting about the way GLP-1s are being prescribed today is that they're largely not following the way that the clinical trials for GLP-1s were conducted. And it's worth repeating that all of the GLP-1 medications that have been approved today, including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, were clinically trialed alongside lifestyle and behavior change in nutrition and exercise that each participant would have participated in alongside the use of that medication.What's happened is once those results have been published and there have been many studies published to-date, most of the prescribing is taking place by physicians who are simply prescribing the use of the medication without the necessity or the instructions to necessarily follow up with the proper nutrition and exercise changes. And even if they are, we all know that there's very limited follow-up when a physician necessarily says you must do this and this for nutrition and exercise alongside that medication. If that were to be true, we probably wouldn't need these medications to begin with.And so the answer to the question is the best gold standard practice is that alongside a prescription for GLP-1, there should also be a corresponding program like Newtopia, which focuses in on the right habit change in nutrition, in exercise, in behavior management so that everyone is practicing at the top of their license. The physicians who are prescribing are doing what they do best and the habit change or behavior change specialists like Newtopia are doing what they do best.And that is really the ideal state, which we believe there is a tremendous opportunity for us to participate in. Lara, I'm not sure if you'd have anything to add.

[Lara Dodo, executive]

Yes, no, thanks, Jeff. So I'll talk a little bit more from the commercial perspective on the risk-bearing entities looking to fund prescribing of the GLP and understanding based on the literature and science to a company a behavior change program. There's really this idea of step therapy where, at a minimum, should behavior change be pre-prescribing the GLP in parallel to prescribing the GLP or at the point where some payers are going to want to de-prescribe the GLP once a target weight loss has been met because ultimately, the result is if there is no behavior change, relapse is pretty much guaranteed.So one, the science says we must have behavior change with GLP and the money and funding says we must have behavior change with GLP. So there's a tremendous opportunity, whether we gain on the front end, the parallel or on the back end on de-prescribing. So I hope that helps with a bit of that question, Rob.

[Robert Halpern, executive]

Yes, that does, Lara. Thanks very much. The second question is, does Newtopia expect the May, June cash flow positive trend to continue going forward?

[Jeffrey Ruby, executive]

So thank you for that question, and Rob, thank you for teeing it up. Certainly something we're extraordinarily proud about, first time in the company history, having 2 consecutive months of cash flow positivity, and I'm going to hand that answer over to Collin.

[Collin Swenson, executive]

Yes, thank you Rob. Thank you, Jeff. And thanks for the question. The answer is yes. There is some timing at play when we're talking a month-to-month level, but our longer-term progress and trajectory are very positive. As Jeff mentioned, we're ahead of our internal schedule and really focused on building on this momentum that we've seen in the first half of the year into the second half of the year and into 2024.I would just add, our large investments are largely behind us from a fixed cost OpEx perspective. And with our strong gross margins, we have the luxury of being able to scale profitably to support top line growth moving forward. So we're very excited for what the future brings in terms of our profitability.

[Robert Halpern, executive]

Great. Thank you. So the third and what looks to be the final question is, please elaborate on how advanced primary care changes present additional opportunity for Newtopia.

[Jeffrey Ruby, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Rob, and thank you for asking that question. And I think it bears some explanation just as I know I covered this and Lara covered this, just exactly what advanced primary care represents because while this is a growing trend in the U.S., it's more nascent here in Canada. And so for many of our Canadian investors may not be as familiar. Advanced primary care is a fancy name for value-based care that is starting to make its way to primary care for employer and employee or commercial populations.It had once been really the focus in the U.S. around either Medicare Advantage, which is 65-plus or Medicare Advantage and Medicaid individuals, where a lot of focus around value-based care started to form where the providers, the doctors themselves own the risk. They effectively became the insurer and moved from what was traditionally only a fee-for-service interaction, which meant that they were being paid for each visit toward fee-for-value and by owning the risk, they were being paid for outcomes that they were generating as opposed to simply the throughput of how many visits were taking place a day.With advanced primary care, what I just described is starting to take shape and take root in commercial populations. And so for self-insured employers who arguably are the largest insurer bucket with more than 160 million Americans insured, this value-based primary care is starting to take root and you're seeing some of the biggest innovators on the employer side and investments by CVS recently and Amazon in M&A activity to try and really begin innovating and advancing this value-based primary care or advanced primary care in commercial populations.That's a long proviso for -- the answer to the question is the opportunity is that by leveraging our expertise and in fact, in many cases, our existing client relationships with the likes of CVS and JPMC who are involved here, advanced primary care or value-based primary care offers Newtopia the opportunity not to be competitive, whereas in a fee-for-service world, a doctor relying on the Newtopia platform could see that as competitive or may not want to because it would take away from time and throughput, whereas in advanced primary care or value-based where that physician group now owns the risk and are the insurers, having Newtopia come in and offer our habit change expertise alongside what they're offering in terms of medical care, again, allows everyone to practice at the top of their license and ensure the outcomes are the very best, which is ultimately how everyone gets paid.And so that's really where we see the opportunity. Again, I'll just make sure that I've covered that properly and just ask Lara if she has any other comments in and around advanced primary care because she's very close to it.

[Lara Dodo, executive]

Thanks, Jeff. I think just to Jeff's point, just framing it places the onus on the risk-bearing entity to really be mindful of what the desired health outcome is and to be accountable financially as to how are they going to deliver that. And so introducing Newtopia into that mix, if you talk to any PCP out there, they'll tell you the 3 toughest things to get a patient to do and they have not got the time to do it is to get a patient to lose weight, quit smoking and exercise, all 3 of which come to very behavioral component and all 3 are underlying at a root level of a lot of preventable either progression of chronic conditions or prevention of getting there in the first place.So with the world of increasing value-based care, [indiscernible] care, as Jeff said, advanced primary care represents yet another opportunity for Newtopia to help deliver outcomes that are essentially going to hurt the bottom line if they're not met. So another really exciting opportunity for Newtopia on forefront. Thanks, Jeff. Back to you, Rob.

[Robert Halpern, executive]

Great. That looks...

[Operator]

There are no further questions. I will now hand the call back to Jeff Ruby.

[Jeffrey Ruby, executive]

Thank you very much for joining our Q2 2023 earnings conference call. I'd like to thank our entire team at Newtopia for their efforts this quarter and every quarter. We've made tremendous progress as a business because of your support and are firmly on our way toward profitability. I also want to again thank all of our shareholders for your continued support of Newtopia. We look forward to speaking with you on future earnings calls and wish you a fantastic evening. Good night.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.