Applied DNA Sciences, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Applied DNA Sciences first quarter fiscal 2025 financial results. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star and then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sanjay Hari, head of investor relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, David. Good afternoon and welcome to the Applied DNA's first quarter fiscal 2025 financial results conference call, where we will discuss our financial and operational performance, business progress, and growth opportunities. Joining me on the call today are James Hayward, our chairman and CEO, Judy Murrah, our recently appointed president, Beth Jansen, our chief financial officer, and Clay Chirock, our chief legal officer and the newly appointed president of our LinearX subsidiary. Following management's remarks, we will open the line to questions from our analysts and institutional investors. You may access the press release that was issued after market closed today, as well as the slide presentation accompanying this call on the investor relations section of our corporate website. A replay of the audio portion of this call would be archived also on the IR section of the website. Before starting, before we get started, let me take this opportunity to remind you that our remarks today may include forward-looking statements. I refer you to slide three of the presentation and our form 10Q, for important risk factors that could cause the company's actual performance and results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements or other information provided on this call as a result of new information or future results or developments. Now, it's my pleasure to introduce our first speaker on today's call, Beth Jansen. Please go ahead, Beth.

Thank you, Sanjay. And good afternoon, everyone. First, let me set the agenda for our call today. I will provide a high-level overview of the finances of the company. Next, Jim will briefly walk you through our important milestones achieved during fiscal year 2024. Then Clay will provide an update on the LRX business and its growth strategy. And finally, Judy will provide you with an update on our operations. Prefacing my review of our financial results for the quarter and to put our performance into its necessary context, during the first quarter, we initiated a strategic restructuring intended to bolster our cash reserves and optimize our cost structure. This initiative was undertaken to reduce our cash burn rate and support the growth of our synthetic DNA manufacturing strategy via our linear Rx subsidiary. Having laid much of the necessary groundwork to support this strategy in fiscal 24, the restructuring reflects our belief that linear Rx offers the greatest potential to create sustainable value for our shareholders. Our October 2024 financing supports LinearX during what we expect to be a year of execution in fiscal 2025, a point reinforced last month with the certification of our GMP Site 1 facility, which Jim and Clay will elaborate on this point in their remarks. With our quarterly results press release today, We are announcing our exit from the DNA tagging and security products and services business segment. We anticipate the wind down to be completed by the end of the current quarter. As a result, we implemented a workforce reduction of approximately 20% of total headcount related primarily to employees in this segment. we will incur a one-time charge of approximately $300,000 in the quarter ending March 31st related to this action. Turning to our financial results for the first quarter and beginning with our statement of operations, total revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 25 were $1.2 million. compared with $891,000 for the same period of fiscal 24. The year-over-year increase was a result of higher product revenues from our DNA tagging business segment and from an increase in our textiles isotopic testing services revenue. Our operating loss for the first quarter was $3 million compared with $3.8 million in the prior year period. This improvement in our operating loss is primarily attributable to a lower selling general and administrative costs year over year related to lower stock-based compensation expense and to a lesser extent from a decrease in consulting expenses resulting from the closure of the DNA tagging segments European subsidiary. Net loss for the first quarter was 2.7 million compared with $1.1 million in the prior year period. I remind shareholders that our net loss includes an unrealized gain on the change in the fair value of warrants classified as a liability, which has an inverse relationship with our stock price. For this reason, we highlight operating loss as best representing the company's operations. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter improved to a negative $2.9 million compared with a negative $3.2 million in the prior year period. Now turning to our balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents on December 31st totaled $9.3 million, which includes net proceeds of approximately $5.7 million from our October offering and Series A warrant exercises of $509,000. This compares to cash and cash equivalents balance of $6.4 million on September 30th, 24. As of December 31st, our accounts receivable stood at approximately $912,000. Our average monthly cash burn is just over $1.2 million fiscal year to date, and essentially flat with the same period in the briar year. Our average monthly cash burn for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 was $1.3 million. Cash and cash equivalents on January 31, 25 was $8.2 million. This figure includes additional Series A warrant exercises totaling approximately $215,000. Our just filed 10-Q maintains a disclosure from our prior form 10-K of a substantial doubt of a going concern. Our ability to alleviate the going concern is dependent on our ability to further implement our business plan and generate revenues or raise capital. We sought shareholder approval for the exercisability of the warrants issued in the October 2024 financing on January 23rd in a special meeting that was adjourned due to a lack of quorum. We will reconvene the meeting tomorrow at 11 a.m. Eastern Time, and we encourage all shareholders who own shares as of the record date of November 25th, 2024, who have not yet voted their shares on the proposal to vote. As of the January 23rd meeting, 80% of all shares that were voted did so in favor of the proposal. This concludes my prepared remarks Thank you for joining us today. I will now turn the call over to Jim for his comments. Jim?