Champions Oncology, Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to the Champions Oncology Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Ronnie Morris, CEO.

You may begin. Good afternoon. I am Ronnie Morris, CEO of Champions Oncology.

Joining me today is David Miller, our Chief Financial Officer. Thank you for joining us for our quarterly earnings call. Before I begin, I will remind you that we're making forward-looking statements during today's call and that actual results could differ materially from what is described in those statements. Additional information on factors that could cause results to differ is available in our Forms 10-Q and Form 10-K. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures that may be discussed during the call to GAAP financial measures is available in the earnings release. Overall, our second quarter's results were mixed as we continued to navigate through some of the challenges we've been highlighting over the past several quarters. Our financial results were weaker than we have been accustomed to delivering. However, there were several positive foundational developments in our core business that have us well positioned for the future. As we have discussed in the past, approximately one year ago, we encountered business headwinds on multiple fronts. The economic environment, specifically in our sector, turned markedly negative, which impacted our customers and ultimately champions oncology. As our customers' R&D budgets were reduced, we encountered longer sales cycles and fewer studies signed. Additionally, customers had a much higher propensity to cancel all or part of the studies they had recently signed. The resulting lower net bookings was the precursor to the anticipated revenue decline we are currently experiencing. Additionally, in conjunction with the external factors, we identified some operational issues that led to slower revenue conversion, creating further downward pressure on our operating results. I remain optimistic that we have made significant progress towards reversing these trends and we see a light at the end of the tunnel as positive trends are emerging. We have made the necessary operational changes with some key hires and internal restructuring that we are confident will lead to greater efficiencies and an improvement in our overall operations. Cancellations have receded back to historical levels. Our bookings, which are the fundamental foundation for building long-term success, are strong, and we are anticipating continued acceleration for the second half of this fiscal year. As these higher bookings convert to revenue over the coming quarters, we will see a return to quarterly revenue growth and profitability. With regard to specific services, we have increased our clinical biomarkers pipeline with an uptick in bookings. This has been an area that has lagged behind our internal expectations, but we are feeling more confident that our clinical work can finally become a more meaningful contributor to our long-term revenue growth as it ramps up in accordance with our initial expectations. Similarly, we continue to expand our ex vivo offering, adding additional models to our platform, which should lead to increasing ex vivo revenue in the coming quarters. With regards to Corellia, our wholly owned drug development subsidiary, our lead discovery programs are progressing well through therapeutic discovery stages with our two lead programs exhibiting promising results. We continue to be actively engaged with investors in an effort to raise capital to support and accelerate our growth. Although we anticipate a return to revenue growth and profitability, Given some of the recent weakness in our revenue, in the short term, we are reducing our quarterly investment in the subsidiary. We do not anticipate this short-term reduction in spend will have a material effect on our progress. In summary, the quarter's performance was as expected. We anticipate that improvements will slowly take hold and put us back on our targeted trajectory. Despite the slowdown, we continue to have robust bookings a comprehensive platform, a stellar reputation, and a strong team that is poised for the next stage of growth. We are confident that we will emerge with stronger revenue and profitability over the long term. Now let me turn the call over to David Miller for a more detailed review of the financial results.