MaxCyte, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MagSight First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on the 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 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, Eric Abdo of Investillations. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for participating in today's conference call. Joining me on the call from MaxSight, we have Meher Masood, President and Chief Executive Officer, Harmeet Ahuja, Chief Financial Officer, and Shawn Menarguez, Senior Director of Business Development. Earlier today, MaxSight released financial results for the first quarter and in March 31st, 2026. Copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Before we begin, I need to read the following statement. Statements or comments made during this call may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Any statement 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 any forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors which are discussed in detail in our SEC filings. Except as required by applicable law, The company has no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. And with that, I will turn the call over to Mehar.

Thank you, Eric. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining MaxSight's first quarter 2026 earnings call. I'd like to start by providing a brief overview of our financial performance in the first quarter. MACSA reported $9.7 million of total revenue, including $6.2 million of core revenue and $3.4 million of SPL program-related revenue, which consists of milestones and royalties. These revenue results met our expectations. As discussed on the last course call, the first half of 2026 is a difficult year-over-year comparison given two factors. This continued SPL programs, which resulted in GTX clinical leases that did not renew, and inventory management by our largest customer. Elevated SPL program turnover was generally a part of a broader rationalization in ex vivo cell gene therapy, which has largely normalized as we exited 2025, with SPL partners increasingly focused on their lead programs. While the cell gene therapy ecosystem remains challenged for earlier stage clinical programs, Their environment is not worsening from what was a challenging funding backdrop in 2025. Within the ex-viewable market, the number of companies financed remains stable, and we continue to see pockets of capital directed towards high-quality, later-stage programs, including by Lyell, Allogene, and Vittoria, building on activity from Beam, Adacet, Woojin, and Anoka last year. Against this backdrop, we are placing instruments across all stages of development lifecycle, and increasing our pipeline of future SPL partners. Given our qualified instrument funnel, easier accounts, and contribution from our new DTX product, we expect core revenue growth in the second half of 2026. Maxar reported $3.4 million from SPL milestones and royalties in the first quarter of 2026. This included $3 million of milestones driven by a clinical customer who began dosing patients in a registrational study in the first quarter. We are encouraged by the progress of this program, as well as the four additional programs that are expected to enter registrational trials in the next 18 months. We also recognize 0.4 million in relative revenue during the first quarter. Virtex reported approximately 43 million in cash chevy revenue for the first quarter of 2026. On their earnings call, Virtex noted that more than 500 patients have initiated the cash chevy treatment journey, with hundreds globally having completed cell collection highlighting strong patient flow across the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. Patients continue to advance from referral to cell collection and ultimately infusion, reinforcing the therapy's multibillion-dollar commercial potential. Vertex also highlighted recent regulatory progress, including the submission of a supplemental BLA for CasGevian patients aged 5 to 11 with sickle cell disease or beta thalassemia. This filing has been granted a Commissioner's National Priority Voucher by the FDA, underscored the significance of expanding access to younger patient populations. Overall, we remain encouraged by the continued growth in patient cell collections and infusions as Vertex scales Cash Chevy commercially, with Vertex noting secured reimbursements, continued ATC network expansion, and a growing number of patients progressing through each stage of the treatment journey. We remain confident in Cash Chevy's long-term trajectory and transformative potential for patients around the globe. Following these first core results, we are reiterating our core revenue and SPL milestone and relative revenue guidance for the full year of 2026, which Parmeet will elaborate on. Turning to our SPL portfolio, we updated slide 3 in the SPL deck on the IR website, which now reflects 29 SPL partners. We have not seen any changes in the number of SPL partners or the number of clinical programs supported since our last update in March. However, we did remove Catamaran Bio and Walking Fish Therapeutics from our list of SPL partners because both companies previously ceased operations. Among these 29 SPL partners, 30 programs are both in clinical and pre-clinical development, supporting diversified revenue streams across the medium and long term. Of these, there are five clinical programs with the potential for commercial launches in 2027 and 2028, including four that could begin registrational studies over the next 18 months, and one that does patients in a registrational study in the first quarter. These five include ZugoCell from CRISPR Therapeutics for B-cell malignancies, WooCarT007 from WooGen for hematological malignancies, AzurCell from Imugene for hematological malignancies, and two programs from undisclosed SPL partners. Across our 12 SPL programs currently in the clinic, the total future pre-commercial milestone opportunity is approximately $100 million. While any individual program carries clinical commercial risk, the multiple shots on goal we have across the same indications and across many different indications gives us a high probability of generating meaningful core revenue, regulatory milestones, and commercial royalties over time. Speaking of MaxSight's leadership in the gene editing field, The first CRISPR-Cas9-approved therapy was on the MaxSci platform, and we believe the first base editing and prime editing-approved therapies would be on the MaxSci platform as well. On the product side, the commercial launch of X-ray DTX is progressing well. Early traction is very encouraging, with adoption and discovery and early optimization workflows across ex vivo and in vivo CGT, as well as protein screening for biologic development. We are seeing initial pipeline build with leading academic centers biotech, and large pharma. The DTX is fully compatible with the rest of our export platform, so as customers adopt the instrument in discovery, they will have a seamless path to scale up on our STX and GTX instruments, proceed GMP manufacturing, and ultimately into an SPL agreement. We expect DTX adoption to build through the balance of 2026, with increased adoption the second half of the year and into next year. Moving to secure, we are seeing steady progress as we build up the commercial engine of the business. We added new assay service agreements during the first quarter with customer engagement across both executable and individual developers, including several programs approaching IND enabling stages where off-target characterization is most critical. We continue to believe that secure assays will become part of the industry standard for off-target risk assessment and gene editing, and early 2026 customer feedback has reinforced that. In mid-April, the FDA Center for Biological Evaluation and Research, or CBER, issued a draft guidance titled Safety Assessment of Genome Editing in Human Gene Therapy Products Using Next-Generation Sequencing. The guidance focused specifically on the use of next-generation sequencing-based methods to evaluate off-target editing risks and provides ex vivo and in vivo developers with recommendations on sequencing strategies, sample selection, analysis parameters, and reporting. all of which are intended to support non-clump of data packages submitted with IND and VLA applications. We view this as a structural positive for Secure as sponsors are now expected to quantify editing outcomes with high sensitivity and utilize multiple complementary approaches. The guidance makes it clear that understanding editing outcomes is foundational to development. Overall, we believe the investments we are making across the portfolio, such as the VTX and Secure, have substantial commercial potential over time, and are diversifying MaxSight's revenue streams. To close, we entered 2026 with a fundamentally different spending profile than in prior years. The full benefit of the 2025 restructuring cost efficiency actions is now flowing through our P&L, and the year-over-year reduction in operating expenses is clearly visible in our results. We do not expect the mill to grow operating expenses from here, and we see a clear path to reducing cash burn further as revenue growth returns. Before wrapping up, today we announce the board's authorization of a $10 million share repurchase program. The decision to authorize a share repurchase underscores the board and management's confidence in MaxSite's long-term value, strategic investments, and the business prospects, as well as the strength of our balance sheet. I want to take a step back and highlight the reason for this repurchase program at this time. Over the last two years, we have taken steps to dramatically strengthen our financial position, acquire and build new products, and are now supporting multiple clinical programs that could be approved in the next 18 to 24 months. We have never been better positioned to grow with our end market. While we continue to invest in the execution of our business and expand our product portfolio, such execution will always be done with financial and commercial discipline. As such, we believe our shares represent a compelling investment opportunity, and we intend to execute the majority of our share repurchase program before the year ends. I will now turn the call over to Parmeet, who joins us today for his first earnings call as MaxEye's Chief Financial Officer.

Parmeet? Thank you, Maher. I'm pleased to be joining you today for my first earnings call as MaxEye's Chief Financial Officer. Total revenue in the first quarter of 2026 was $9.7 million, compared to $10.4 million in the first quarter of 2025, representing a 7% decrease. The decrease in total revenue was driven by a decline in core revenue, partially offset by growth in SPL program-related revenue. We reported core revenue of $6.2 million compared to $8.2 million in the comparable prior year quarter, representing a 25 percent decrease. Within core revenue, instrument revenue was $1.3 million compared to $1.4 million in the first quarter of 2025, License revenue was 2.1 million compared to 2.5 million. And processing assembly, or PA revenue, was 2.3 million compared to 3.9 million. As we expected in our guidance, core revenue was adversely impacted by inventory management at our largest SPL customer, as well as discontinued SPL programs. For the first quarter, 44% of core revenue was generated from SPL partners compared to 57% in the first quarter of 2025, which is reflective of the headwinds we experienced in the quarter related to SPL core revenue. As Meher discussed, we are positive on the momentum and continued growth we are seeing in Secure, with total revenue of $0.6 million in the first quarter, which includes both license and services revenue. SPL program-related revenue in the first quarter was $3.4 million, including a regulatory milestone tied to a clinical customer that began dosing patients in a registrational study during the quarter, which Meher referenced. This compares to $2.1 million of SPL program-related revenue in the first quarter of 2025. Moving down the P&L. Gross margin was 84 percent in the first quarter of 2026 compared to 86 percent in the first quarter of 2025. Excluding inventory provisions and SPL program-related revenue, non-GAAP adjusted gross margin was 78 percent in the first quarter of 2026 compared to non-GAAP adjusted gross margin of 83 percent in the first quarter of 2025. Total operating expenses for the first quarter of 2026 were $14.3 million compared to $21.2 million in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of approximately $7 million. This reduction reflects the restructuring and cost efficiency actions we took in 2025, which are now being realized across the P&L. We're entering 2026, with a fundamentally different cost structure than in prior years, and we do not expect to meaningfully grow operating expenses from this level. We ended the first quarter with combined total cash, cash equivalents, and investments of $147.7 million, and no debt. A strong balance sheet positions us well moving forward, providing flexibility to continue to invest strategically for our business our customers, and our shareholders. Today, we disclose that MaxSight's Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program of up to $10 million. Under the program, the company may repurchase shares through open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, block trades, or other means subject to applicable securities laws. Continuing to our 2026 guidance, We are reiterating our 2026 outlook and expect total revenue to be in the range of 30 to 32 million, consisting of 25 to 27 million of core revenue and 5 million of SPL milestones and royalties. As Mehar highlighted on last quarter's call, we expect core revenue, which excludes milestones and royalties, to be weighted towards the second half of the year. For the second quarter, we expect core revenue to be approximately in line with the first quarter, reflecting the mix and timing of the business. In our guidance related to SPL milestones and royalties, we indicated that we expect 3 million of revenue from milestones and 2 million of royalty revenues. Given 3 million milestone revenue in Q1, we are not forecasting any additional milestones in 2026 and the balance of the guidance is from commercial royalties. Lastly, we continue to anticipate to end 2026 with at least $136 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments, excluding capital deployed towards our repurchase program. Now, I'll turn the call back over to Mehar. Thank you, Parmeet.

I'd like to thank everyone at MaxSight for their dedication to our mission and execution in the first quarter. And I look forward to updating you all on our next quarter call. With that, I will turn the call back over to the operator for the Q&A. Operator?

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question at this time, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. In the consideration of time, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.

Now, first question coming from the line of Julia Simmons with Penmark Liver.

Hi. Thank you very much, and congratulations on a much stronger quarter than expected. A couple of questions. I'd say firstly on the FPL revenue guidance. clearly you're not looking for any more milestones or you're not guiding to any more milestones for the remainder of the year. Given the number of active programs that are ongoing, plus where your sort of later stage programs are, it feels unlikely that you're going to get no milestones at all in Q2 to Q4. Are you just being particularly cautious with this at this timeframe and maybe changing your risk, risking of how milestones come in?

Yeah, good question, Julie. So good to hear from you as always. On that question, let me take this one and then inform me what's at anything or Sean as well, he's here with us as head of business development. That's more an indication of the way that agreements are structured, the way milestones are, you know, contractually structured is that's based on dosing timing in pivotal trials, not necessarily on the initiation of a pivotal trial. So while it's possible we could get another milestone here, the way these agreements are structured, there's a good chance it's more in the first part of next year. It all depends on the dosing regimen for the trial itself, not necessarily initiation of a pivotal or registrational trial. Does that make sense, Julie?

That does indeed. Thank you. Yes. And then just on the license, the sort of cadence of that during the year. Because again, I think obviously down on where it was last year, but probably I'm trying to get a feel for whether you're expecting sort of license fees to remain fairly similar through the year or because of where your SPLs are and the potential of signing new SPLs over a fairly flat sort of look for the year is again being quite conservative here with your expectations, because you're implying your pipeline is still quite strong for SPLs. So what we should be thinking about in terms of cadence of license fees?

Yeah, absolutely. So this is in terms of cadence of new licensees, right? New partners, Julie, just to, so obviously, you know, as I said, mentioned last time, we feel comfortable guiding three to five. Some years we'll have maybe more than five. Some years it could be less than five. I want to take a step back. In the past few years, we've signed 15 SPL partners We still feel very good we'll sign at least three this year as well. Obviously, they haven't happened just yet, but that's just the nature of the negotiations and the work with these customers. We then become partners, right? Oftentimes, we're working with them 18 months, sometimes 24 months before they actually sign an agreement. So we currently are working with those in the funnel, in the pipeline, as you would call it, and we feel good that we're going to sign at least three this year. It's just the cadence of when the negotiations, when the work is happening, when the process of done work is happening with them, They still are not there yet where they haven't signed in the first half so far, but I feel good about at least three this year, Julie.

Lovely. Thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you, Julie.

Thank you. Now, our next question coming from the lineup, Brendan Smith with TD Cowan. Your line is now open.

Great. Thanks for taking the questions, guys. I wanted to actually follow up a little bit more on any incremental color on SecureDX as it stands. I guess based on any initial feedback to date, how much contribution to that revenue growth over the next, say, kind of 12 to 24 months? Are you expecting to come from that? And then just, sorry, as a follow-up, sorry if I missed it, but I know you mentioned that for the buybacks, most of it will kind of come through in calendar 26. But I guess anything to call out in the cadence between Q2 to Q4, fairly steady between those three quarters, or just anything, any considerations there for our models?

Thanks, guys. on the cadence of the buyback. Harmeet, did you want to take that one?

Yeah, why don't I take that? Good to hear from you, Brendan. And, you know, really pleased with the authorization from the board. You know, we certainly believe in our line with the board is the disconnect on value and believe buying our shares provides a very compelling investment opportunity. You know, so as we said in the prepared remarks, we are looking to move fairly quickly on this, looking to execute a majority of the share report program by year end. And, you know, working with an external advisor to put us in the best position to succeed here, it's going to include a mix of open market purchases and systematic. So pleased to get this authorization from the board.

Yeah. And now the first question, I think you're talking about contribution secure. In fact, if I remember your question correctly, Brendan?

Yep. Yeah.

Yeah, let me give you a little clarity there. Yeah, absolutely. So, obviously, Parmeet alluded to it earlier. Revenues for Secure were $0.6 million in the first quarter, and we're very pleased with that. I mean, you look at where we expected to grow, it's substantial year-over-year growth compared to 2025. You know, the 0.6 sequentially was up about 11% from Q4 of 2025. It's three times what it was in Q1 of last year as well. We spent the first, really the late part of last year, and throughout the year, and the first part of this year, building up the commercial pipeline, working with customers to grow the pipeline as well. And we're starting to see that now in the first quarter. We're hopeful that progresses throughout the year as well and just continues throughout the year. The draft FDA guidance that came out very recently that I alluded to earlier is exactly why we acquired Secure and why we believe it is, it's that gold star for cell gene type of developers, whether you're doing exe or in vivo, development, you really need to characterize your off-target assays, your off-target gene editing with these assays. Even you have to characterize the on-target effects of your gene editing as well. So we feel good where it is. It took us some time to integrate them throughout last year, and we're seeing some of the traction now in this first quarter, and we're hopeful it continues throughout the year.

Thank you. And our next question, coming from the lineup, Dan Arias with Stiefel, Yolanda Smallman.

Yeah, guys, thanks for the questions. Maher, can you just maybe talk about the backdrop at the industry level, but then also pair that with your own sales funnel? I think your comment was that you don't expect things to get worse this year. That's good. But do you think new business and new activity can accelerate for you guys, just given what you're seeing out there? Thanks.

Sure. Absolutely, Dan. Good to hear from you. I'll take that. So obviously, you know, we saw elevated SPL programs over last year from rationalization It hurt us hard last year, especially in the first half. That turnover in 2025, we think, has largely normalized. In fact, many of our partners are increasingly prioritizing and concentrating on those lead programs, and we're seeing that as well. While financing for earlier stage cell therapy is still challenging, that's seen across industry, especially ex vivo as well. What we're seeing more, I'd say, non-deterioration or stability in what we consider that late stage or later stage clinical programs. That we're seeing. And in fact, you look at right now, we have, I think, 11 SPL partners with 12 clinical programs. These are all the lead assets. And you see where it is from a finance perspective. You're seeing companies like Lyle, like Allogene, and Vittoria, and others still garnering investor interest and investor demand and raising the funds they need for those later stage assets. So long story short, Early stage companies, I think it's still a tough backdrop there, but for later stage clinical programs, the financing is there, and we're working with many more of those companies. In fact, we're working with more later stage companies now than ever before. So it's a challenging backdrop, but at the same time, pockets of green shoots for later stage programs.

Okay, helpful. And then Parmeet, I know you're still getting settled there, but it would be good to get your first blush perspective just on what you think exists as, you know, having the most room for increased forecast and clarity and then whatever you see as the priorities going forward when it comes to just sort of quarterly cadence and visibility on the business. Thanks, Tom.

Yeah, Dan, great to hear from you and, you know, being here just about six weeks and I have to say the team has been super supportive as I've transitioned into the role. You know, clearly, MaxSight is a market-leading product with great service leadership and field application scientists. So certainly last few weeks, I've been reviewing the company's forecasting methodology, spending quite a bit of time with our commercial team, the leaders, looking at the funnel, and believe the company provided a prudent outlook for 2026. You know, to your point, of course, we will continue to evolve the financial analytics, forecasting of our business. For me, particularly, for the team, the finance team, providing support for our commercial and product development initiatives is going to be a priority, while certainly maintaining the discipline cost structure that I have to give credit to my Heron team that I've established with the tough changes that were made last year.

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Matt Hewitt with Greg Helm Capital Group. Your line is now open.

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe just to go back to the secure ramp. Obviously, Maher, you noted some nice growth, both sequentially and year over year. Should we anticipate that kind of growth continuing for the remainder of this year or Do you anticipate maybe a little bit of a pause as you kind of digest the customers that you're working with already and then another step up maybe in the second half of this year into next year?

Yeah, good question, Matt. I mean, I would say the growth that we're expecting is year over year, significant growth year over year. In terms of the cadence of that versus Q2 versus second half, I'd say I want to be a bit patient here and see how that transpires throughout the year. But overall, in terms of, it's a services business, it's not a capex business. When we deliver these services, it's a bit different timing-wise than it is for the max site electroporation business. But I'd say, as a whole, overall, we feel very good about significant growth year over year. The cadence of it, I think we want to see how it transpires throughout the year before we get ahead of ourselves.

Understood. And then, as far as the gross margins are concerned, a little bit of a step back. Obviously, you've had some inventory adjustments happening. Do you expect that to kind of recover as the year progresses as well, especially given your anticipated ramp in revenues? Thank you.

Yeah, I mean, I think one of the challenges certainly with gross margin this quarter was, you know, the challenges with our SPL customer that we have talked about certainly played a part here, had an impact. You know, as we look through the year, Matt, you know, we expect gross margins to kind of trend in the mid-70s from here on. Certainly, the first quarter, we certainly benefited from that minus one payment, which flows right to the bottom line. But looking at mid-70s is the way to think about it.

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Medler with William Blair. Your line is now open.

Good afternoon. I wanted to follow up, Ira, on your comments on DTX. When you announced that launch last quarter, you know, you had some good early traction. I think some sales in the first quarter. You had nice comments on it today here as well. Just curious sort of what reasonable expectations are you know, over the next 12 to 18 months and, you know, what the mix of the funnel looks like if it's getting you into new customers or there's a lot of existing customers. I think last call you referenced interest, you know, sort of globally, both in the U.S. and in APAC. So just a little bit more color on how that launch is going would be great.

Yeah, great question, Matt. Let me take that one. So let me give you a bit on the color of where maybe the interest that we're getting and what we're seeing. Obviously, it's meeting our expectations to what we thought we could do, right, in the cell therapy space. We can get in there. We can work with customers and ex-people and in vivo while they're doing their screening for cell therapy development. And we're seeing that, right? So the funnel itself is building very well. We still anticipate that the sales will begin to increase in the second half of the year. That's the norm for any launch. You have to build up the campaign behind it. You have to get into the customers and you begin to see the traction there. But the pipeline is becoming very healthy. What we're also seeing is traction in areas, for example, in the academic accounts that we never really had before that we can get into with the DTX system. We're also seeing it in protein screening for biologics, and we're seeing that from big pharma as well. We're having a few, some of the funnel, the pipeline, we're seeing that we'll gain traction with big pharma that we never had before. So that's not necessarily a surprise for us. We realize that the way we're building it, we can allow us to really get into the protein screening market as well for biologics. But this pleasant surprise has been the early traction from, you know, having a customer interest from Big Pharma as well, which I think bodes well for the future of DTX. But again, to temper, let's see how the rest of the year plays out in terms of DTX sales and revenues from it. But we expect significant growth going into second half and then to 2017 and beyond.

Okay. And then I guess this is a bit of a higher level one, you know, the SPL portfolio, has evolved quite a bit in the public company in terms of cross-disease categories. Solid tumor is now a big part of the preclinical pipeline. A reference in your SPL deck, a few partners leaving the ex vivo space, but also reference confidence in hitting three more this year. So there's this sort of natural ebb and flow. So, Mahira, I guess we'd be curious for sort of your state of the union, both from what you're seeing from an SPL interest perspective, but also what your team is observing in terms of clinical development and sort of how that translates to continued confidence in the platform and future growth for SPL partners.

Yeah, no, great question, Matt. I mean, so part of the reason why we have confidence in the current partners and the programs they have, and then also the future SPLs that we're signing in, while we had rationalization last year that hurt us, what we're seeing now is these later stage clinical programs progressing through the clinic, and we're seeing that. The one model we received this year from one of our partners was for a clinical program that has, you know, good results. It's confidential. We can't disclose it. But so far, we're seeing what they published for good results of their current clinical program. And we're seeing that with some of the other ones here. I mean, if you look at our depth, you have Woojin with a root CAR-2007 progressing very nicely. You have CRISPR. You have Imogene. And you're seeing that these are companies that are going to pivotal and registrational studies. And it speaks to what I was speaking to earlier, which is interest in later stage programs is still there even from a financing perspective because the science is there and you're seeing the progress there. And these are some of which are autologous and allogeneic programs. We're also seeing interest still in allogeneic programs because it reduces the, I'd say, the patient journey in terms of patient administration. And we're still seeing that. Even across our SPL funnel and the pipeline that we're building for future SPLs, we're still seeing that research there for those lead assets still coming about, still being funded. Obviously, is it what it was in 2021-22? No. I'd say it's even healthier in a sense where even though you might have less of a pipeline build of these SPLs, but the ones that are going and becoming SPLs, they're working on your lead assets, and that's who we want to work with. And that's what we're seeing now. So that's why we still feel confident we can sign at least through this year. For the foreseeable future as well, we can keep signing three to five. Nothing has really changed other than the fact we're seeing that the science is self-mature, so to speak.

Hope that kind of answers your question, though.

Thank you. And our next question coming from the lineup. Mark Massaro with BTIG. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Thank you for taking the questions. The first one is for Parmeet. It looks like, you know, the GNA expense came in, you know, $4 million down sequentially and over $2 million below our forecast, which looks like some pretty good cost discipline and management. Is that $6 million or so a reasonable run rate for GNA going forward? And can you just speak to Any changes in the headcount? You know, obviously there's some impacts, cost containment matters that were done last year, but how are you thinking about spending this year and flowing throughout the rest of the year?

Yeah, good to hear from you, Mark. And certainly I speak to sort of broadly OpEx, you know, the reduction in OpEx costs. GNA being part of that is starting to materialize, right? You're seeing that in our P&L. The tough decisions that were made last year are now being reflected fully in our P&L. You know, looking at where we ended up with OPEX in Q1, I think it's a fair run rate. Outside of, I would say, low single-digit sequential growth, in the coming quarters that we expect for investments in things like commercial expansion in APAC that we're looking at, some additional GTX launch activities. So kind of that's how I would look at it. Keeping this in mind, I would say for the year, we expect OPEX to be around 60 million. And then back to your point, just for context, this is still a significant reduction over where we were last year. Last year, OPEX was around 79, 80 million. So it speaks to the body of work, the tough work that the team has done.

That's really helpful. Thank you for all the clarity there. Back to DTX, you know, Maher, you did make some positive comments about, you know, the beta launch. As we think about this rolling into like the second half of the year, should we expect to see some revenue pull through in the form of capital purchases or leases of the system? Or what I'm really trying to get at is, are some of these just sort of placed just to see how things are going and then there may or may not be revenue in the back? I'm just trying to figure out how much we should expect in the back half this year.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a tough question there in the sense of So we're not guiding it to where it's going to be in the second half of the year for this one here. And just to be made clear, Mark, we don't license these. This is a pure sales, pure CapEx sale here. This really is, we're seeing the health of the build-out in the funnel so far. We see meaningful contribution in the second half, even more meaningful going to 2027. And as we keep learning from the launch itself, It'll give us even more of an initiative, what Parmi alluded to, us be able to even spend a little bit more on the marketing of the DTX and on the commercial launch of DTX. But where I stand right now, I feel very good what happened in Q1 in terms of initial sales there, what's happening here in Q2. I think it can help us continue to see the future SPLs as well, because we can get in earlier with customers. And then it can also get us into that bioprocessing protein screening market that can really start to contribute to revenue in the 27, 28, and so forth time period. And it gives us a chance to also learn that market more and see what other products we can also launch into that other market in the bioprocessor market as well. So that's kind of how I'm looking at the DTX. I feel very good where it is, but there's still a lot of learnings. There's still a lot of commercial execution we have to focus on to make that second half have meaningful contribution.

Thank you. Our next question in the queue coming from the line of Hannah Redford with Stevens Inc. Your line is now open.

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Just following up one more on DTX, you mentioned that there's still kind of a learning curve here. How much visibility do you have into the 2-H pickup, and is that included in guidance or anything there? Would that be kind of upside?

Yeah, let me take that. I can handle it for me as well. That's included in the guidance, right? So this was what I said earlier on our previous call. This is part of our guidance where we see that second half pickup helping us in terms of where we got it for the year in terms of the core revenue. Again, I'm taking a careful look at this because when I say learning, we launched this knowing exactly what we're going to launch into, but now it's about commercial execution. So we're ahead of ourselves. Let's just make sure that we can execute exactly what we launched, where we knew we're going to get into the cell therapy space earlier in the research process, earlier in discovery, and really begin to have those learnings even in the bioposture space as well. So it's part of the guidance that we gave for the year. And as we get further traction, we'll obviously update on future calls as well. But until that time, we're taking a, you know, a wait-and-see approach.

Okay, thanks. That's helpful. And then... After the recent portfolio pruning that you've seen, now that that's kind of played out, can you just talk about what the landscape looks like now? Do you think the customers you're serving are kind of more geared to certain modalities or cell types or indications? Is there just anything you'd call out there?

Yeah, you know, I'm going to turn this on to Sean to SPL. Sean, have we seen any trends that you believe in terms of where we're going in terms of clinical programs from the SPL follow that we're looking at?

No, thanks, Ken. It's good to hear from you. From an autologous, from an autologous allogeneic standpoint, still remains around a 50-50 split across different variety of cell types. Obviously, you know, the market is predominantly T cells, which is reflected in the portfolio. We are seeing the advancement of allogeneic CAR T. Wooja now is in a potential registrational trial. It could be the first allogeneic CAR-T approved. We're also seeing different novel gene editing platforms continue to advance with the FDA support.

So that's the overall kind of state of the union for the SPL portfolio.

Thank you.

And I will now turn the call back Over to Mr. Maher Masouf. Any closing comments?

Yes. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I want to thank all of our employees as well and our shareholders. Look forward to speaking to everyone again on our next earnings call in a few months.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.