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spk01: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the 908 Devices Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Kelly Gura, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
spk03: Thank you. This morning, 908 Devices released financial results for the third quarter ended September 30th, 2022. If you've not received this news release or if you'd like to be added to the company's distribution list, please send an email to ir at 908devices.com. Joining me today from 908 is Kevin Knapp, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, and Joe Griffith, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will make statements during this call that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in the section entitled Forward-Looking Statements in the press release 908 devices issued today. For a more complete list and description, please see the Risk Factor section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and in its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Nanowate Devices disclaims any intentional or obligation to update or revise any financial projections or forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast of November 14, 2022. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Kevin.
spk08: Thanks, Kelly. Good morning, and thank you for joining our third quarter 2022 earnings call. I'd like to start off by thanking our entire team for their tremendous effort in bringing the third quarter to a successful close. I'm really proud of their continued focus and dedication to support our customers' critical-to-life applications. We are operating in a challenging macro environment, and our team is going above and beyond. We delivered strong growth during the third quarter with revenue increasing 26% over the prior year period to 15.8 million. About 20% of third quarter revenue was from the remaining U.S. Army device shipments and 80% was from new business and other customers. While we are pleased with our third quarter results and year-to-date performance, we've begun to see a slowdown in our funnel with prolonged purchasing cycles over the summer months and into the fall. We believe this is largely due to the adverse impact of macroeconomic factors across the markets we serve. We expect these headwinds and impairment to continue over the next couple of quarters. Given this impact, we now expect full-year 2022 revenue to be in the range of $46 million to $49 million, representing annual growth of 13% at the midpoint of the range. As discussed on our last earnings call, progression of a few larger handheld opportunities would be required to achieve our previous four-year guidance, and we've seen protracted cycles in test trials to pilots to enterprise conversion. Despite this near-term pressure, we firmly believe the opportunity for rapid and robust analytics at the point of need is as strong as ever. This positive view was reinforced at our user meeting in September, Critical Mass 2022. which covered the full breadth of our product platforms and their applications. This event brought together more than 175 customers, both virtually and in person, to share their success using our mass spec devices to provide rapid and robust, actionable information at the point of need. We heard from customers serving and spanning industry, academia, and government, including Baringer Ingelheim, MIT, Clemson University, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the Fresno, California Police Department. It was truly inspiring to hear the impact that our technology is having to advance biotherapeutics and combat the opioid crisis. Now I'd like to provide a brief update on our progress across the five focus areas we set for 2022 to drive growth over the longer term. Starting with our first objective of driving customer adoption, For our desktops, we are continuing to see underlying demand for more advanced therapeutics, the need for more process control, and the steady increase in proteomics and metabolomics research, all of which fuel the biopharmaceutical industry's long-term growth. However, the shift in the macro environment has begun to slow some near-term demand for our desktop devices, particularly in cell and gene therapy application, where technology is being adopted to support the process development preclinical space. The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine recently issued its first half 2022 report on advanced therapies, which noted that 2022 has already been a record year for the approval of new cell and gene therapies, with several other therapies on track for regulatory decisions in late 2022 and 2023. However, the number of ongoing clinical trials globally decreased by 13% from the end of 2021, and investment levels have slowed after two record-breaking years. Across our desktop, we continue to see orders from a fairly even split between new and existing customers. With our Rebel device, we continue to see traction with additional units in several of the top 20 pharma companies, and with some of these companies ordering their second or even fourth device. With our Zip Chip device, Genentech procured its fourth unit during the quarter. In a paper published in September in Analytical Chemistry, Denentec researchers noted the device's ability to quantify peptide exchange at high throughput and at high sensitivity in a CAR T-cell therapy application. Overall, we believe that our penetrate and radiate strategy, in which we work to penetrate new accounts, create a foothold, and then radiate across these enterprise accounts, will continue to drive broader adoption and acceptance over the long term. Turning now to our handhelds, The opioid crisis shows no signs of abating. In August, the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the CDC, announced that U.S. life expectancy decreased last year to its lowest level since 1996. While COVID-19 was the primary cause of the decline, another leading cause was unintentional deaths, mainly comprised of overdoses. This crisis continues to be a major driver of customer adoption. there are several recent news reports that highlight the severity of the ongoing crisis. In September, new reports highlighted a shortage of Adderall used to treat ADHD and noted the dangers of sourcing the drug on the street as these counterfeits contain fentanyl and other drugs. The FDA has confirmed the Adderall shortage, noting that several generic forms may not be available until March 2023. And in Rhode Island, DEA authority seized more than 660,000 counterfeit Adderfield pills containing methamphetamine. Also in September, the DEA issued an advisory warning of brightly colored fentanyl, also known as rainbow or candy fentanyl, used to target young children. The DEA has seized multiple forms of rainbow fentanyl, including pills, powder, and blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk. Finally, in August, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force announced the seizure of the largest fentanyl shipment detected in Australia. preventing more than 5 million potential lethal doses of the drug hitting the streets. While the DEA has noted that fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat facing the U.S., we are seeing more and more evidence of it becoming a global crisis. These sobering statistics and alarming news reports continue to highlight the need for first responders and other frontline workers to have trace chemical detection at the point of need to combat the spread of highly dangerous drugs. A case in point is the increase in drugs coming in personal mail and legal correspondence at correctional facilities. We've received several orders from regional county jails for MX-908 device throughout the year, with another order in third quarter for five devices from a Department of Corrections based in New England. As previously noted, we build a pipeline of testing, trials, and pilot programs to drive enterprise adoption of our handheld devices. In the third quarter, we expanded an existing enterprise account, the U.S. Army, receiving an order for $3 million for aero modules to pair with their fleet of MX908 devices. Once last year, the first-of-its-kind aero module enables users to monitor, detect, and identify vapor and aerosol hazards quickly and safely. Turning to our second objective, accelerating commercialization, as of the end of the third quarter, we now have over 220 employees worldwide and are close to reaching our goal of 80 commercial team members. That said, we continue to be thoughtful, reviewing plans, commercial expansion across all our regions amidst this uncertain macro backdrop. Turning to our third objective, developing and advancing our product portfolio, we continue to unlock our platform's capabilities through consistent releases of additional analytes, assay accessories, and data integration in order to increase areas of use for our customers and to penetrate our addressable market. For our handhelds, We expanded the capability of our MX-908 device to detect eight highly toxic and illegal pesticides. These pesticides are being used to grow illegal marijuana, primarily on federal land, posing a threat to the environment, water sources, wildlife, and people. The issue is particularly critical in California, where the state is expanding its multi-agency seasonal illegal marijuana eradication program. This will now be a year-round effort with the aim of prosecuting underlying labor and environmental crimes. Previously, federal personnel had no safe and reliable method to conduct pesticide testing at the site that illegal marijuana grows and had to send samples to a central lab, often waiting several weeks to conduct a safe site remediation. In January of this year, we announced a research collaboration with the United States Forest Service and the United States Department of Agriculture to extend the capabilities of the MX-908 to detect these illegal pesticides. For our desktops, we continue to develop and refine tips to meet customer needs. We introduced version 2.0 of our spent media analysis kit for REBEL, which provided an additional analyte and enhanced calibration for improved accuracy and quantification results. We are developing another focused REBEL kit to be released in the first half of 2023 that pushes the boundaries of analytical performance for a specific set of amino acids commonly measured in most applications. In regard to our acquisition of Trace Analytics in August, we're extremely pleased with how well the Trace team is integrating with our R&D team to further our online development effort. As you may recall, our acquisition of Trace provided us with online aseptic bioreactor sampling and biosensor technology, which is a central addition to our microfluidic technology pillar and will help us unlock more of our total addressable market. Their technology in single use and reusable configurations has been proven in mammalian cell culture and microbial fermentation at all levels of the bioprocess chain, from research and development to large-scale production. At our user meeting, Wolfgang Cunuck, Trace Analytics founder and now the head of our bioanalytics R&D, presented the benefits of automated control of glucose and lactate in a process development lab, which includes cell-free, sterile, and safe sampling with no volume or prep required. As we have noted, our main focus this year has been to build upon the capabilities of our existing products and expand the reach of our technology platform. In 2023, we plan to shift our focus to releasing two new devices. We are excited to share more details early next year as we expect them to be impactful in 2023. Turning to our fourth objective, broadening our bioanalytics platform, as more advanced therapies enter the pipeline, Biopharma manufacturers need to identify and understand critical process parameters and their impact on critical quality product attributes during process development and the entire biomanufacturing workflow. Our devices are well positioned to meet this need. We continue to collaborate with key industry partners and academic institutions to demonstrate the value of our technology in providing rapid and robust information that enables manufacturers to accelerate biotherapeutic workflows. This value has been highlighted at a number of industry events over the past few months. Our collaboration with the Center for Process Innovation, an independent innovation organization in the UK, demonstrated the value of at-line cell culture media analysis to inform feeding strategies for improved cell growth. CPI process engineers used real-time data from the REVL to optimize nutrients, resulting in an increase in titer by up to 40% and a reduction in toxic metabolite accumulation and a significant reduction in design of experiment time. These results were recently presented in a webinar hosted by Biopharma International Magazine and in a poster at the CE Pharma Symposium in mid-September. Independent data from our rebel analyzers such as this is key to demonstrating our value proposition enabling broader adoption as process engineers conduct amino acid analysis more regularly. There were several other posters presented by our collaborators at the CE Pharm Symposium and the CAST Mass Spec Conference, including Biotechni, Protein Gene, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Protein Metric. These posters highlighted the use of our Zip Chip device for several applications, including characterizing oligoduculotides, peptide mapping of recombinant AAVs, and charge variant analysis of small molecules. Zip Chip's benefits highlighted in these posters included high resolution and high sensitivity, comparable to LC-MS method, but much faster separations with minimal sample volume. And in the case of oligos, no harsh ion pairing reagents. At the Bioprocess International Show, part of Boston Biotech Week, our collaborators at Johns Hopkins University gave a presentation on leveraging the power of at-line amino acid measurement with the REBEL to enable complex bioprocess modeling. Also at the show, a principal scientist from Slythogen a biotech company, presented on mass spec-based characterization workflows in biopharmaceutical development labs and noted Zipchip's capability to perform high-resolution separations while minimizing sample prep burden. Finally, at our user meeting, scientists from Bornger Ingelheim touted Zipchip's very fast separations and high sensitivity in characterizing product quality attributes in the oligonucleotides and monoclonal antibodies. Additionally, MIT researchers underscored Rebel's value and their ability to rapidly monitor and profile nutrient consumption of recombinant AAV-producing cells in a perfusion process. We are delighted to hear our collaborators and biopharma customers highlight the value of our desktop devices to characterize multiple product quality attributes and control key process parameters, which ultimately leads to improved efficiency and robust product quality. And finally, turning to our longest-term objective, laying an omics foundation, We see a clear and emerging need for accelerating mass spec-based workflows to address proteomics and metabolomics opportunities. We continue to foster a cadence in publications, technology, and research with premier academic institutions and research partners to support future product launches and workflows specific to the omics domain. In the area of metabolomics, an academic research paper in the journal metabolites focused on characterizing cell-to-cell signaling molecule levels in healthy versus type 2 diabetes-affected human pancreatic ankylots. Researchers used ZIP chips coupled with a Brooker mass spectrometer and noted its fast separation time of within three minutes, along with a high confidence of analyte identification. As previously shared, we are advancing our microfluidic chips to address emerging proteomics and metabolomics opportunities. Last month, we hosted a meeting of our proteomics scientific advisory board, where key opinion leaders provided guidance and feedback on the direction of our omics-facing research development efforts. Our scientific advisory board members were enthusiastic about our continued development of on-chip peptide pre-consultation from the ZipChip platform, providing feedback on throughput and robustness requirements to address emerging low-input proteomics markets. We were fortunate to have this remarkable group of thought leaders share their insights as we advance our development efforts. In summary, we remain encouraged by the value our technology platform is providing to our customers to break mass spec out of the confines of a centralized laboratory and bring it to the point of need. While we face some near-term macro pressure, we continue to focus on serving our customers, expanding our user base, and making our technology even more accessible to broader audiences, which opens doors for new users and applications. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Joe for more details on our financials.
spk06: Thanks, Kevin. Revenue for the third quarter 2022 was $15.8 million compared to $12.5 million in the prior year period, representing growth of 26%. This increase was primarily driven by desktop device placements, an increase in handheld recurring revenue, and an increase in service revenue across both handheld and desktop devices. About 20% of our third quarter revenue was from the remaining U.S. Army device shipments, which compares to approximately 40% of the prior year period total revenue. Handheld revenue from our MX-908 product was $11 million, an increase of $1.7 million compared to the prior year period, representing growth of 18%. Desktop revenue from our Rebel and Zip Chip products for the third quarter 2022 was $4.4 million compared to $2.9 million in the prior year period, representing growth of 51%. Recurring revenues consisting of consumables, accessories, and service revenue for the third quarter 2022 was $4.5 million compared to $2.2 million in the prior year period, representing growth of 105%. The increase in recurring revenues was evenly split between an increase in service revenue and an increase in aero modules. Our install base grew to 2,317 units, with 175 devices shipped during the third quarter. This included 150 MX-908 handheld devices, 18 Rebel desktop devices, and 7 ZipJet interface desktop devices. Gross profit was $9.3 million for the third quarter of 2022, compared to $6.8 million for the prior year period. The increased gross profit was driven by an increase in product and service revenue. Gross margin was 59% for the third quarter 2022, as compared to 54% for the prior year period. The increase in gross margin was due to higher service revenue and average selling prices for our devices, offset in part by higher personnel and operating costs. Gross margin was 57% year-to-date. Total operating expenses for the third quarter of 2022 were 16.5 million compared to 12.1 million in the prior year period. This increase was driven by headcount expansion across our business, a 1.2 million increase in stock-based compensation, and an increase in marketing activities and travel expenses. Net loss for the third quarter of 2022 was 6.3 million compared to 5.2 million in the prior year period. We ended the third quarter of 2022 with approximately 194 million in cash and cash equivalents. In addition, we had approximately 15 million of debt outstanding. Our trailing 12 months of cash used for operating activities was 25 million as of September 30th and was approximately 29 million for the full year 2021. With approximately 180 million of net cash as of quarter end and our cash utilization, We have multiple years of runway to focus on our product innovation, market penetration, and commercialization efforts we have implemented over the last few years. Now, looking ahead for the remainder of 2022, we now expect full year revenue to be in the range of 46 to 49 million, representing 13% growth year over year at the midpoint of the range. There are a few notable impacts to our guidance since our earnings call in early August. On our Q2 earnings call, we mentioned we were keeping a close eye on potential macroeconomic factors that could impact our execution. Specifically, our team driving strong adoption of our handhelds through the end of the U.S. government fiscal year, capturing year-end biopharma spending and mitigating continued disruptions in APAC. Unfortunately, we have seen opportunities push out beyond the end of the U.S. government fiscal year. As Kevin mentioned, progression of a few larger handheld opportunities would have been required to achieve our previous guidance range. And we have seen protracted cycles and test trials to pilots to enterprise conversion. We believe in part, this is due to prioritized resources for Ukraine and surrounding regions, the diversion of resources to the Southern border to assist with the migrant crisis, taking away from drug interdiction and COVID recovery. In addition, for our desktops, our revised guidance range now assumes desktop revenues to grow by approximately 30% over the prior year. While this growth rate is two times the growth rate of the overall business, it reflects some impairments in the fourth quarter from macro factors, including the likely level of year-end capital spending that is prioritized for new technologies. Specifically, these factors include talent migration across organizations, resulting in delayed adoption and a training-retraining burden. Large capital purchases canceled for associated bioreactors, thus delaying priority of our devices, and layoffs at small and large biotechs, resulting in canceling of consumables. At this point, I would like to turn the call back to Kevin for closing comments.
spk08: Thanks, Joe. I am confident in our long-term trajectory and feel we are laying the groundwork for both near-term and long-term success. In the near term, our team remains focused to Progress our handheld opportunities through test trial to pilot and expand to enterprise accounts. Catalyze reference desktop accounts across top pharma for our desktops to enable our penetrate and radiate strategy. Scale our operations to ensure the highest quality products in the face of ongoing supply chain pressures. Support our customers pre- and post-sales to help ensure proficiency on our devices as they face unprecedented employee migration. And bolster service and support reach, particularly in APAC, in face of continued China lockdown and the limited ability to transit through the region. As we look ahead to 2023 and beyond, we believe 908 Devices is uniquely positioned to capture the opportunity in front of us. We have multiple new product releases slated for 2023 in the bioprocessing monitoring space, with the first being launched early in Q1 and the next shortly thereafter. We have a diversification and defensive position with our handheld offering in the forensic space and have seen order growth of more than 50% year-to-date beyond the U.S. Army device orders. We believe these handhelds will continue to be critical with rising geopolitical uncertainties and the ongoing fentanyl crisis. And finally, we have a strong cash balance with a runway into 2025 as we've remained efficient and thoughtful in spend and headcount. With that, we'll now open it up to questions.
spk01: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. Again, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Max Masucci from Cowan.
spk07: Hey, thanks for taking the questions. Maybe just to start, it would be great to hear just based on the trends you're seeing in biologics preclinical activity, also based on, you know, any feedback from the critical mass event, just if or how we should calibrate our 2023 expectations for REBL and ZIP chip placements and utilization.
spk08: Yeah, Max, sure, happy to, and yeah, maybe we can just dive into some of the bits you mentioned on the kind of the spending and those profiles for the desktop customers. As mentioned in the script there, I mean, I think we are just seeing a lower level and slowdown a bit across the board for some of the handhelds and desktops, and desktops particularly, as mentioned, just seeing some Some slowdown in the large capital purchases with the fire reactors that delays the priority for our devices. And we're seeing layoffs within our customer base. And we're just frankly not seeing the same amount of year-end capital spend at this time for new tech, which is ours. And as you know, we're really not riding a replacement cycle for it. And that gives us less of a visibility than maybe some of the large cap instrument companies And we're selling, as you mentioned, really into that preclinical space with these novel desktops and dollarings are tightening. So all of that we really see as that isn't a 908 specific phenomena, but an industry phenomena. And you can dive into that deeper and think about biopharma spending in particular. And you can see a slowdown in that cell and gene therapy space, which we've been trying to gain a foothold in. We've mentioned in the past about 20% of our rebels are in that space. And we're certainly seeing more moderation in Q3 across that space, but our unit numbers are pretty small and modest. We're always trying to slice and dice that. But in general, I would just say that we have seen that slow down in deal velocity.
spk06: And, Mech, you were asking about rebel and looking forward and Contemplating our revised guidance is reduced growth for Rebel, given some of the constraints that Kevin just mentioned on the macro environment, especially with the adoption of the new technology. As noted earlier, talent migration across the organization's large capital purchases canceled for associated bioreactors, layoffs at small and large biotechs. And as we look at the delta of how we brought down our guidance, we attribute approximately two-thirds to handhelds and a third to desktops. and a change in desktop coming from slower than anticipated funnel progression for our rebel. We are being cautious. We may not see the same year-end budget flush resulting with those new placements, and we anticipate it could be a couple of quarters of impairment as the volume patterns need to change at that preclinical level that you mentioned.
spk07: Okay, great. And then we haven't seen the 10Q yet, but it would just be great to hear about some of the regional changes demand trends you experienced during the quarter. Just generally, whether you've seen any major uptick or downtick in growth in any of the regions that you break out.
spk06: You'll see our queue hit the line before market here, but geographically, it's about 80% in the Americas to date.
spk08: Yeah, and if you think specifically in Europe, as you know, we've been really trying to bolster over this year what we're doing internationally broadly, mainly in Europe, but some in the Middle East and a bit in APAC. Yeah, as Joe said, the EMA is probably about 15% of our revenues, but we do see that there's additional opportunity there. And we're selling through distributors today, and so less of an exchange impact, but we can talk through any dynamics there. Not all downside, I would say, across that Europe region. Specifically, if you think about some of the pressures from the Ukraine war and U.S. partner nations, it's causing a bit of a look around to see if they have the best of class chem detection capabilities. APAC has been a bit harder for us. It's been about a small percentage of revenues. It's maybe 5% of our year-to-date revenues. And we sent out through distributors there, but we're not seeing the upside due to those challenges that multiple parties have mentioned out there, saying being able to get our small team to be able to transit and support applications and support our units across the region. So we're pretty happy to actually have our head of commercial in that region right now as we speak.
spk07: That makes sense. One final one for me, the gross margins have delivered solid outperformance versus our expectations over the past few quarters. Rising ASPs for devices was cited as a contributing factor to the strong gross margins this quarter. So I would just be curious if you could give us a bit more detail around how pricing is trended, maybe both on the devices and the consumable side.
spk06: Happy to have been pleased with the gross margins year-to-date and within the quarter, and ASPs have been a piece of that. And an element of it, and whether it's through distribution, you know, more direct here in the U.S. and with about 80% here in the Americas, But we did put some price increases in effect at the beginning of the year that started to kick in in earnest here in Q3. Bidding Q2 is what helped elevate the ASPs on the basis that we have a firm on the consumables and other consumables where we did not increase that pricing for 2022. So a lot of that ASP benefit is coming through the device themselves, and we'll take off hard look at it going forward based on the different market factors on what we do for 23, but it is good to see our customers see the value of the technology and leaning forward to purchase at that higher price point. Okay, great. Appreciate you taking the questions.
spk01: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from a line of Dan Arias from Stiefel.
spk04: Morning, guys. Thanks for the question. Kevin, on the MX side, can you just talk about the services revenue stream that you expect to come out of the Army contract and then be represented in the 2023 revenue base? And then just on overall revenue growth, given the way that we're finishing here on the year and the roll-off of the Army contract, but also some of the order growth numbers that I think you mentioned, how should we just think about growth next year To what extent do you think the additional MX system deals can offset the Army contract? And then when you look at total year-over-year growth, realizing that you're going to guide formally in 4Q, what is the right way to think about the year-over-year there?
spk08: Yeah, I have to give you a little bit on the Army side. As we mentioned, about 20% of our Q3 revenue was Army and 80% was from other business outside of that. With that said, there is ongoing responsibilities on the service side.
spk06: That's right. And about that service contract, there's about $5 million of ongoing service revenue over the period where they committed the technology up front. And I think I disclosed that it goes through September 2025, so about three years of service where that gets recognized on a recurring revenue basis. You know, within the quarter, you know, we did see, you know, the U.S. Army adopting the aero capabilities and had about a million of recurring revenue ship related to those aero modules in the third quarter. And the remaining portion of that additional order will be here in Q4. Moving forward.
spk08: Yeah, I mean, if we take your question about what does 2023 look like with that as a backdrop and totally, obviously, But if we just step back at a high level and think about it, yeah, likely more moderate growth over the first half of the year, and particularly as some of the volume patterns need to change on that preclinical level to support our desktops. We certainly don't want to see any more macro impacts that deteriorate further. We are seeing, as we mentioned, kind of a couple of quarters of impairment there. We really don't believe that much of that is unique. What it is is that we have already set up for 2023 in terms of new products, and we're engaging now with KOLs on that, and the first will launch in early Q1. It leverages every single extension for that item. expands our analyte panel a bit, and in many ways might provide an on-ramp to further rebel adoption. And there's another major device release slated to follow in short order. So we're definitely not standing still there as we leverage our R&D machine. And we really have been impressed with Trace Analytics and where that can go and the great team and great technology that it brings. So yeah, so based on where we're at, I'd say more moderate, but incremental for new products, getting that positive feedback now and thus far really should make us more diversified and give us more opportunity and drive more conversations next year and all very differentiated new products we're contemplating. So we believe that to be an important contribution for us in 2023.
spk04: Okay, helpful. And then just maybe following those comments just on the rebel side, the macro concerns that you highlighted there, do you expect that to impact pull through and 4Q for the rebel relative to 3Q levels? Or is that mainly an instrument placement issue and then kevin i hear you on the industry level data for selling gene but you guys are still in the pretty early innings of penetrating that market so you know are you saying that the new trial start trajectory is sort of outweighing the overall level of activity taking place that arm report does put the number of trials globally at over 2000 and we have your installed base at like 150 or 200 come the end of the year so it does seem like there's a lot of opportunity there's a lot of room to to play systems. Can you just talk about the selling environment and just how you're finding conversations within a pretty large overall market to be? Thanks.
spk08: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, from the selling conversations, you're right. Only about 20% of our rebels are going into that selling gene. And while it is slowing, you would expect there's additional opportunity to pursue there as well as outside of cell and gene. I think what we're just generally seeing, Dan, is that people are slowing down their desire to grab new technology and change the way they're doing it. We've literally had labs that have been good pull-through customers for us go from having a dozen employees to down to two, and they're trying to build back again. So there's a lot of training. There's a lot of retraining. There's a lot of focus on taking the limited dollars they have and applying it to a replacement product or something status quo. And it takes work to adopt a new product, new technology. And and get across that chasm, if you will. And it takes effort on the customer side, on 908 side, and it's just a new way of doing things. So I'd say across the board with the biopharma spending, we're just seeing more of a reluctancy and a slowdown from that perspective.
spk06: On the pull-through... And then you're asking about on the pull-through and device versus consumable. And as I noted, definitely an impact on the device side here in Q4 as we look to finish up the year and moving into 2023. But On the Rebel kits, we are striving for that active users to be at that approximately one kit per month on average. And that's that 40% pull through for those users. We have been seeing some pressures on that. Currently, we're quite closer to half a kit per month versus one kit a month for those active users. And some of those are the employee turnover that we're seeing within and need to train and retrain. And the product priority within our customer accounts needs to be clear to kind of drive than to cross the chasm, per se, on the new technology adoption and getting a concept into the routine. So it's not just the devices, but also some on the consumable pull-through as well.
spk04: Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you.
spk01: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Puneet Suda from Leerink.
spk05: Hi, guys. So this is a meaningful reduction in guides this year. I mean, obviously, the questions are for 2023. You know, I think, Kevin, the question that I have really is, you know, you have 80 or so folks in the commercial organization today. They were hired last year. They're fully trained and productive right now. So you essentially have a strong sales force. You are seeing some slowdown in clinical trials. You are still early in this ramp. You have an innovative product that is highly differentiated versus the rest of the market in terms of the accuracy, the ease of use. All of those benefits are there. This is still very much a still process development in clinical trials. So It's just sort of challenging to see sort of why that slows down so meaningfully here. And maybe can you talk to us about sort of, you know, what's your line aside there? When do you think this can sort of improve? What are you hearing from the customers on the rebel side? And then I have a follow-up on 908, MX-908.
spk08: Yeah, sure, sure. About, as we mentioned, about two-thirds of that guidance adjustment of $6 million. We attribute more to the handhelds and about one-third to our desktops, which would be led by Rebel there. And from a customer sentiment, I would say that it, as I mentioned a little bit earlier on the Q&A here for Dan, but we're just seeing a general slowdown for people to adopt new technology. I think you're right. We've got a pretty compelling offering in Rebel in terms of what it can do and the fact that it can do things at line and really speed it up and We're so excited to showcase things now out with our customers, like the CPI data that demonstrates that. So I think what we're seeing and what we're feeling is that we really have to double down on that type of messaging and making sure that we're explaining that value prop and how this does save time and money and efficiency to those customers. Because as you know, Today, they'll send it out to a central lab, but that's what they do. And today, we're trying to work with them to adjust their feeding strategies, change how they're approaching their fire reactor monitoring so they can get better outcomes and better efficiency. So we're working with groups to showcase that. Some of that we've done at our critical mass event, some with the CPI data. From a rep perspective, you're right, across the world here, across handhelds and desktops, we've got 80 people in our sales and marketing team. We are chasing to end around that 80. Today we're close to that number, but we do have some ebbs and flows in that number. So whether we're ending at 75 or 82, we're really trying to be very thoughtful, planned, and making sure we're spreading across the right regions. We are focused on growth there, and we don't want to be too lean or too heavy. And we do see rep churn on occasion, and I don't think we're seeing more than the industry is feeling, but that's not zero, and we are a small company, so you don't have a lot of redundancy across your different geographies there. But, you know, in the normal year, it's a little easier to predict that, as you said, rep productivity and that after a particular period, that the top line impact. We've certainly seen reps for our desktops and handhelds contribute big, very new reps to it. But we've also seen, and maybe just after nine months, but we've also seen other reps that we're sure are going to be great. just not having the out-of-the-part success yet this year. So there's definitely a macro overlay there as you work to get new products and get it out and adopted.
spk05: Okay, that's helpful. And actually, a quick follow-up on Rebel. In terms of the new product launch, the online product that is expected to, correct me if I'm wrong, still 2023, What is the timing of that and what can you tell us about that? I don't know if Chris is on the call, but what can you tell us about that product and how that's setting up?
spk08: Yeah, yeah. I'm happy to cover that. We've always said that the rebel online, if you will, is more of a 2024 situation. What we're really excited, though, is to offer other online products that can be a prelude for that and leveraging our trace analytics acquisition. We're very excited to have the first one of those get out into the market in early Q1 and a second one shortly thereafter. And so all these efforts are really trying to steer and push us further into that bioprocessing 4.0 domain and adding to the offering of our analytes and the process parameters, but also introducing some elements of process control and getting us out there with that online analytics capability that then is more of a two-step as we see it to accelerate our rebel online efforts, both development and commercially. So, yeah, we're very excited about it and getting a strong roadmap where we've got some of these future products already out with KOLs and are getting some Some good feedback. I'm happy with that acquisition of Trace Analytics, very differentiated, and it enables the online capability for multiple products that we've got on our roadmap here. And I think that's a big differentiator from where 908 sits in that we're able to spin new products and adapt because we have a pretty comprehensive set of technologies here. But, yeah, very excited for that roadmap to come.
spk05: And then just lastly on MX-908, I mean, you seem to be expanding the application base there with pesticides, other products, and a lot released and testing and things like that. So, you know, could you talk to us about as sort of as we think about 2023, you know, how diversified can the offering, product offering be from an applications perspective? Obviously, Army and forensics is a large component right now for you, but just maybe talk to us sort of what sort of diversification should we expect on the application base then. Thank you.
spk08: Yeah, sure. The handhelds, as you mentioned, are largely going into that forensics set of applications. A lot of those applications are related in some way back to fentanyl and the opioid crisis and whether those are aerosol hazards or counterfeit drugs that people are swabbing on a surface and continuing to see growth there outside of the U.S. Army. We mentioned good growth in orders year-to-date outside of that U.S. Army work for those. You're right, we are also always trying to expand our analyte panel and capabilities on our handhelds as well, and we did just announced more work we've been doing with the USDA, specifically the U.S. Forest Service, to develop a pesticide library. It's really for the environmental impact and safety impact around illegal use of pesticides on federal lands. And we do see that that's a way for us to just get out there, explore, have more conversations in that space. But, yeah, I think we're excited where the handhelds will continue to grow, and we now have over 1,800. And as we mentioned before, we're working on new products there as well that will keep shrinking down the form factor, and we think will be compelling to upgrade cycles over the next couple of years as well. So, yeah, I think it's a good platform for us that we're continuing to invest and really want to own that handheld detection space.
spk05: Okay. Thanks, guys.
spk01: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Matt LaRue from William Blair.
spk02: Hi, this is actually Madeline Molman on for Matt LaRue. One quick one for me. I think you've said in the past that one-third of Rebel users had open blank purchase orders for consumables, meaning they were ordering multiple kits at a time. Have you seen any impact from these customers who are buying in bulk in terms of destocking? Is that a concern at all that they have now made large purchase orders and there'll be less pull-through for consumables going forward?
spk08: Yeah, we have seen, you're right, we have people on what we think more of a blanket purchase order where they sign up for a set number of kits. That could be six, that could be 12 to be delivered. Typically, they sign up for a nominally one kit a month and then they can call us to pull those in or push those out based on their their project schedules. And we've seen both cases. But we've also seen with some of the macro dynamics, we've also seen some customers having layoffs and then calling us and saying we need to delay those kits or cancel that order altogether.
spk02: Got it. Thank you. And then just in general, in terms of the recent election, do you see any change to government spending priorities that would make an impact on investment in your offerings?
spk08: Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, we're continuing to monitor that very closely. We do have a legislative effort where we try to work and on the advocacy side as well. Fentanyl is very important. We've certainly seen some headwinds with what we call on more of a macro level with just limited funding that's been available to some of our customers, particularly ones on the southern border across the board, multiple organizations really hit by the migrant crisis there, where a lot of resources are being taken from technology and needed for humans to help with that problem. So we'll have to see what transpires here with the elections and near-term and longer-term sentiment. But I think we do have good visibility. We shared publicly in the past that Kevin McCarthy has gotten a firsthand demo through the Ohio BCI. of our technology set, and that was all positive. And so I think there is an awareness that more needs to be done for this fentanyl and opioid crisis. Joe and I were just mentioning that there was just articles on our drive-in this morning more about counterfeit drugs. So I think the government certainly views it as a problem. I think it's also becoming more of a global problem, and so I think we'll continue to see resources on it, but maybe too early to tell if there's a particular change of foot.
spk01: Great, thank you. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference back to Kevin Knopf, CEO of 908, for closing remarks. Yes, thank you.
spk08: Thank you all very much for your attendance, and we appreciate your time this morning.
spk01: Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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