Champions Oncology, Inc.

Welcome to the Champions Oncology second quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A 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, Rob Brannon, Chief Executive Officer. You may begin.

Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in our second quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. I'm joined today by our CFO, David Miller. Before we begin, I'll remind you that today's remarks may include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially, and more information can be found in our filings with the SEC. Before we get into the quarter, I want to ground everyone in our three core goals for the year. One, deliver year-on-year revenue growth. Scaling matters, and we can get margin leverage in our core TOS business as we grow. Two, invest in our big growth levers, especially our data platforms, which opens the door to more strategic biopharma relationships. And three, stay fiscally disciplined. Maintain full-year positive adjusted EBITDA and self-fund our growth without shareholder dilution. These goals guide our priorities, our investments, and our execution focus. We remain committed to them, and importantly, Based on our year-to-date results and visibility into the second half of the year, we believe we are on track to deliver on all of these. Turning to the broader environment, we continue to see gradual improvement across pharma and biotech budgets. Food levels are not fully restored, but customer engagement and opportunity pipeline generation are gradually improving relative to what we experienced over the last year and a half. its reset for calendar 2026, we're cautiously optimistic for booking momentum in the next calendar year. Within that context, our focus continues to be on execution, maximizing conversion of existing bookings, improving operational efficiency, and advancing the capabilities to distinguish champions in the market. Our second quarter reflects this execution focus. Revenue was up year over year, driven by stronger conversion of book work due to a reduction in cancellation. performance continue to improve, supported by the operational efficiencies we've implemented as we capitalize on the leverage in our operating model as study revenue increases. A key highlight of the quarter was our continued success in our radiolabeling and radiopharmaceutical support workflows. As we introduced recently, Champions operates one of the very few labs in the industry approved to perform this type of highly specialized radiolabeling work. This is an emerging area of significant interest within oncology drug development, and the demand we're seeing from customers reinforces the strategic importance of this capability. Our radio labeling offering positions us uniquely with both established and emerging radiopharmaceutical testing, and we expect this segment to become an increasingly meaningful part of our service offering over time. Bringing more of this work in-house over the coming quarters should also improve gross margin as reliance on outsourced services declines. Alongside radio labeling, we continue to invest in our data platform, enhancing its functionality and expanding its utility for our pharma partners. The combination of deep biological data, pharmacology capabilities, and our PDX assets gives us a differentiated platform that supports target identification, validation, and translational insights. Customer interest continues to grow, and we view this as a critical long-term value driver for Champions. We've made targeted investments in our commercial and business development teams to support the anticipated growth of these offerings. While these investments do increase near-term outbacks, they are aligned with our strategy and are necessary to expand our revenue base and customer footprint. I also want to address Corellia, our wholly-owned subsidiary focused on target discovery. We are making solid progress in discussions with potential venture capital funding partners and are encouraged by the level of interest in that business. Until a transaction is completed, Corelli will continue to be reflected in our P&L, and that may remain the case through fiscal 2027. Importantly, once external funding is secured, our plan is to redirect the majority of those investment dollars toward accelerating growth in our data business. We're not managing this transition for near-term P&L impact. Instead, the focus is on using capital efficiently to inflict longer-term revenue growth curves, particularly in areas where we believe that Champions has competitive advantages. Stepping back a bit, We're encouraged by the progress we've made during the quarter. Our performance reflects improved operational discipline, a strengthening commercial position, and continued strategic investment in areas where we hold clear competitive advantages, namely our uniquely characterized tumor bank, radio link link capability, and our data platform. As we enter the second half of the fiscal year, we remain focused on delivering year-over-year revenue growth and full-year positive adjusted EBITDA, and we believe the actions we have taken position the company to meet these goals. turn the call over to David to discuss our financial results in more detail.

Thank you, Rob, and good afternoon, everyone. Before I dive in, just a quick reminder that our full results will be filed on Form 10Q with the SEC later today. And as always, I'll reference certain non-GAAP metrics with reconciliations to GAAP included in our earnings release. As Rob highlighted, the second quarter reflected meaningful progress across both revenue and margin performance. supported by disciplined execution and a more stable operating environment. Total revenue for the quarter was $15 million compared to $13.5 million last year, an increase of 11% year over year, driven by improved conversion of booked work due to a lower level of cancellation. Income from operations for the quarter was $185,000, and adjusted EBITDA was approximately $800,000. Importantly, on a year-to-date basis, we remain on track to achieve full-year positive adjusted EBITDA, which is one of our core financial goals for fiscal 2026. Turning to margins, cost of sales for the quarter was $7.3 million compared to $7.4 million last year. Our flat cost of sales on an increased revenue base generated those margins of 52% compared to 45% last year. While there is quarterly margin variability due to the timing of specific costs, such as outsourced lab services, this quarter is a good reflection on the margin expectations of our core business. Operating expenses for the quarter were $7 million, up about $2 million from last year, but the increase was in line with our strategic priorities, specifically investment in our data platform. Let me break that down. R&D increased by about $900,000. due to investments in sequencing and related costs to support the development of our data platform. Approximately $200,000 of the total increase was related to Corellia's target discovery initiatives. Sales and marketing increased modestly, driven by higher compensation as we strengthened our commercial organization to support data sales. And CNA increased about $800,000, mostly related to leadership transitions and IT infrastructure investments. We expect some of those G&A increases to be temporary as we work through system inefficiencies and find ways to streamline costs. Although these investments raise OPEX in the short term, they are essential to positioning the company for sustained growth and operating leverage. Turning to cash flows, net cash used in operating activities for the quarter was $1.9 million. The primary driver was a decrease in deferred revenue, and to recognize revenue uncashed, cash received in advance. All changes in our working capital accounts were in the ordinary course of business. We ended the quarter with $8.5 million in cash and no debt, maintaining a solid financial position. Looking ahead, our focus remains on driving consistent execution, strengthening margins, and supporting long-term growth through continued investment in strategic capabilities. While quarterly results may fluctuate with improving box conditions and increased engagement across both services and data offerings, We believe the company is well positioned to deliver year-over-year revenue growth and positive and adjusted EBITDA for the full fiscal year while we continue to invest in our data platform and core services to drive our longer-term growth. With that, we'll open the call for questions.