Akoya BioSciences, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Akoi Biosciences Incorporated third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a Q&A session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the queue, please press star 1-1 again. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Priyam Shah. Mr. Shaw, you may begin.

Thank you, operator. And thank you to everyone who's joining us today on this call. I'm Priyam Shah, head of investor relations at Akoya Biosciences. On the call today, we have Brian McKelligan, chief executive officer, and Johnny Eck, chief financial officer. Earlier today, Akoya released financial results for the third quarter and it's September 30th, 2023. A copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will make statements during this call that include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results, or performance are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. due to a variety of factors. For a list and description of the risks and uncertainties associated with the QIS business, please refer to the risks identified in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the risk factor section of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed on March 6, 2023, and subsequent filings with the SEC, including our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30th, 2023 filed today, November 8th, 2023. We urge you to consider these factors and you should be aware that these statements are considered estimates only and are not a guarantee of future performance. This conference call contains time sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast today, November 8th, 2023. ACOIA disclaims any intention or obligation except as required by law to update or revise any financial projections or forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. The audio portion of this call will be archived on the investor section of our website later today under the heading events. ACOIA plans to participate in several upcoming investor conferences, including the Stevens Investment Conference, the Canaccord Genuity MedTech and Diagnostics Forum, and the Piper Stamler Healthcare Conference. Details can be found under events on the investor section of our website. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Brian.

Thank you, Prem, and good afternoon or evening to everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. During today's conference call, I will begin by giving you a broad overview of our performance in the third quarter. I will touch upon our business advancements and provide insights into the latest developments in our product offerings. Following that, Johnny will delve deeper into our financials and key business trends, and provide an outlook for the future of our business. Okoye had a strong third quarter in 2023, marked by several noteworthy achievements, including record-breaking revenue of $25.2 million, representing a strong 34% growth compared to the previous year. Gross profit was $15.3 million in the third quarter, representing a 40% growth over the prior year period, and gross margin has now grown to 60.6% for the third quarter. All of this was achieved while also contracting our operating expenses versus the prior year and quarter. Our ongoing efforts to leverage our cost structure to drive the business towards positive cash flow are well underway as we work to ensure that a more substantial portion of the expected revenue growth continues to fall to our bottom line. The cumulative install base now stands at 1,132 instruments, the largest in the field, and it's a testament to our team's commitment to scaling spatial biology workflows for our customers and setting the standard in the industry. ACOIA's consistent and sustained growth year after year and quarter after quarter since our IPO in the spring of 2021 can be attributed to our unwavering dedication delivering a top-tier portfolio of products that cover the entire spectrum of the spatial biology market, from biomarker discovery to translational research to clinical applications, all backed by a strong intellectual property portfolio. Our incremental investments moving forward are strategically targeted, allowing us to maintain operating expenses at a constant level while we continue to rapidly scale our footprint in spatial biology. We are pleased to report the continued expansion in peer-reviewed publications, now over 1,070 as of the end of the third quarter, a 55% increase in the prior year period. This volume of accelerating publications is a testament to the great science being done by our customers, and we expect this trend to continue. Recent highlights include a published study in the inaugural issue of Gen Biotechnology last month, detailing the powerful results of a study done by the team at the University of Queensland to comprehensively map the spatial proteome of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma using a panel of over 100 protein markers run on the phenocyclic fusion. Through this effort, these researchers have identified distinct immune and metabolic signatures to help advance the understanding of the heterogeneity of tumors and the mechanistic basis of variable clinical response. OCOYA is now at the forefront of ushering in the next era of spatial biology, or Spatial Biology 2.0, with a focus on delivering faster and more powerful solutions across more than 1,100 instruments in the field. Our R&D and operational efforts are now dedicated to further scaling our platforms by introducing significant workflow efficiencies, launching expanded panels and ready-to-use content, broadening our application menu, and expanding our range of partner software solutions. This holistic approach to delivering ongoing improvements to our platforms from sample to answer is transformative for our customers, driving further adoption and accelerating utilization of Akoya's solutions. This spatial biology 2.0 initiative, announced at last week's Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer Meaning, or CIPSI, in San Diego, is grounded in the following principles. First, spatial phenotyping with whole slide imaging at high throughput is a requirement, whether it's a discovery, translation, or a diagnostic application. Second, the time from sample to answer needs to be rapid. to support a researcher's ability to expeditiously complete their study. Whether it's a 50-sample discovery project or a 300-sample translational study, time matters. Sample processing times need to be minutes to hours, not days to weeks. Third, given the significant investment our customers are making, scientists expect a future-proof solution with frequent improvements and upgrades. Some specific examples of ACOIA's spatial biology 2.0 deliverables include the following. First, the recent rollout of the phenocycler fusion 2.0 field upgrade represents a significant milestone, setting a new industry standard on the speed of whole slide spatial phenotype. With this upgrade, customers can now process twice as many samples per week, establishing the phenocycler fusion as the highest throughput spatial discovery platform available in the market. Second, our PhenoImager HT 2.0 upgrade similarly represents a transformative enhancement, resulting in an astounding five-fold increase in workflow speed. One of the key new features of the HT 2.0 is its ability to perform real-time image analysis directly on the instrument. This not only expedites the sample-to-answer process, but also enhances the overall efficiency of the workflow. These instrument upgrades have been welcomed with great enthusiasm by our customers, and we expect the adoption to continue to accelerate. Coupling the integration of these 2.0 instrument upgrades with ACOIA's ready-to-use PhenoCoDiscovering signature panels provides an accelerated and streamlined solution. Akoya continues to expand its portfolio of phenocode panels, building on their existing content in oncology, immuno-oncology, and inflammation, while also expanding into new areas like neurobiology and preclinical animal models. Given the rapid expansion of commercial and open-source spatial biology software solutions, Akoya continues to prioritize our resources on delivering rapid, and real-time primary analysis for our customers and partnering with industry-leading third-party software providers for the downstream analysis. Our proprietary file compression algorithm and rapid image analysis deliver our data in a standardized format called QPTIF. This standardized data format delivers manageable data files compressed nearly 30-fold to tens of gigabytes and catalyzes the ability of third-party software providers to easily develop and support analysis of ACOIA-derived data sets. We have established partnerships with leading software providers, including Enable Medicine, VisioPharm, IndicaLabs, PathAI, Oracle Bio, and open-source solutions like QPAP. The result is a comprehensive suite of desktop, cloud-based, and open-source software solutions, ensuring that researchers have the flexibility to select the software solution that best aligns with their specific needs and requirements. At the CITSE conference last week that I already mentioned, ACOIA had a strong presence as we highlighted our Spatial Biology 2.0 initiatives. It was also clear that spatial phenotyping is gaining significant traction and is becoming central to both early and late-stage clinical biomarker efforts, especially in the field of immuno-oncology. Akoya has played a pioneering role in driving these efforts by offering a clinical-leading platform that meets the stringent requirements of our biopharma partners, Precision Medicine and Companion Diagnostic Groups. Our Advanced Biopharma Solutions CLIA Lab in Marlborough or AVS, is increasingly focused on ladder stage high value projects. And we are confident in our ability to continue to meet the accelerating needs of the spatial biology clinical market. To expand and strengthen our clinical pipeline, ACOIA is actively leveraging the capabilities of our HT 2.0 workflow and cross pollinating the best practices from our Advanced Biopharma Solutions CLIA Lab directly to our CRO partners. To date, we have expanded our rapidly growing Qualified Service Provider Network, which now includes 18 industry-leading CROs. With their direct promotion of ACOIA-based biomarker solutions, our platform adoption in more and more clinical studies is further amplified. On the operational front, Our focus is on supply chain simplification and manufacturing robustness and efficiency to meet the rapidly growing demand for our reagents. In parallel, we have a dedicated effort to drive meaningful margin improvements on these reagents as they become a larger percentage of our overall revenue year over year. This drives continued increase in our overall gross margin, which we anticipate being above 60% as we exit 2023. In summary, our strategic focus for the remainder of 2023 is centered on three key initiatives. First, enhancing applications and workflow efficiency as we usher in Spatial Biology 2.0, including system improvements and upgrades, expanding our phenocode menu of offerings, and driving increased pull-through of reagents on both the phenocycler fusion and phenol imager HT. Accelerating the clinical adoption with clinically directed workflow improvements, expanding late-stage biomarker programs with our top-tier biopharma through our ABS lab, and leveraging our growing network of CRO partners through our qualified service provider network to drive further adoption in the late translational and clinical markets. And third, driving operational excellence and financial sustainability by focusing on improving efficiencies and cost effectiveness and executing on targeted investments to support our strategic goals and working towards achieving cash flow positivity in 2025. And with that, I will turn the call over to Johnny to discuss our financial results. Johnny?