9/9/2021

speaker
Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Trinity Biotech Q2 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star and then one. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Joe Diaz with Witham Partners. Sir, please go ahead.

speaker
Joe Diaz

Thank you, Jamie, and thanks to all of you for joining us today to review the financial results of Trinity Biotech for the second quarter of 2021, which ended on June 30, 2021. Joining us on today's call is Ronan O'Quiv, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Trinity Biotech, and John Gillard, Chief Financial Officer. At the conclusion of today's prepared remarks, we will open the call for a question and answer session. Before we begin, I must inform you that statements made in this conference call may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in such statements. These risks include, but are not limited to, those set forth in the risk factors section of our annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after today or the occurrences of unanticipated events. With that said, I will now turn the call over to John Gillard, CFO of Trinity Biotech, for a review of the results of the quarter. And he will be followed by Chairman and CEO Ronan O'Quiv for an update on sales, marketing, and revenue. John, please proceed.

speaker
John

Thank you, Joe. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining. As Joe mentioned, I will now take you through the results for Q2 2021. You will notice from our press release that a non-cash impairment charge has been recognised this quarter and is discussed in the press release. I will give further details on that charge later in the call. The income statement metrics, I will quote, exclude the impact of that impairment charge. Starting with revenues, total revenues for the quarter were $25.8 million compared with $16 million in Q2 2020. As Joe pointed out, and is our typical approach, Ronan will discuss revenues in further detail later on the call. As such, I will move on to discuss other aspects of the income statement. Gross margin for the quarter was 42.7%, which is broadly similar to the 42.9 achieved in Q2 2020. The small decline in overall margin is driven by a lower comparative margin from VTM products, partially offset by a higher margin from our core products in Q2 2021 when compared to Q2 2020. As ever, our gross margin remains susceptible to product mix changes, geographic spread, currency fluctuations, and product level variation. Other operating income increased from $2,000 in Q2 2020 to $2.9 million in Q2 2021. This income relates to loan funding received in 2020 under the U.S. government's Paycheck Protection Program. Four Paycheck Protection Program loans received by the company in 2020, totaling $2.9 million, were forgiven during quarter two 2021 and have therefore been recognized as income this quarter. These four loans were treated as short-term liabilities at March 31, 2021. Moving on to R&D expenditure, this decreased slightly to $1.1 million compared to $1.2 million in Q2 2020. Meanwhile, SG&A costs have increased from $5 million in Q2 2020 to $6.3 million in Q2 2021. It is important to note that SG&A expenses were unusually low in Q2 2020 due to the furloughing of employees as a result of the pandemic. Government payroll supports related to COVID-19, which are not available in 2021, and other cost savings. In addition, Q2 2021 SG&A costs reflect increased professional fees plus additional sales and team costs reflecting the expansion of our international sales and marketing team. These result in an operating profit for Q2 2021 of $6.3 million compared to $500,000 reported in Q2 2020, an increase of $5.8 million. This increase in operating profit is primarily driven by increased revenues and the forgiveness of the Paycheck Protection Program loans, partially offset by higher SG&A expenses and slightly lower margin. Moving on to financial expenses. This includes the quarterly cash interest cost for our exchangement notes of $1 million and $200,000 related to notional finance charges associated with lease facilities. These notional finance charges are required by the relevant accounting standard IFRS 16. You will note that there is also non-cash financial net income of $900,000, which is set up above accretion interest of $100,000 in the accounting pairing value of the exchangement notes, less than $1 million fair value adjustment to the derivatives embedded in the exchangement notes as required by the relevant accounting standard. Profit after tax before impairments, one-off items and non-cash financial expenses was $4.4 million compared to a loss of $800,000 in Q2 2020. As in prior slides and as set out in the press release, we quote Earnings per ADR effectively are equivalent of EPS on a standard basis and also before the impacts of impairments, one-off charges and non-cash financial items. Using that modified measure, Earnings per ADR have increased to $0.212 from a loss of in Q2 2020, while diluted Earnings per ADR have also increased, in this case to $0.203 from $0.01 in Q2 2020. I will now provide you with more information on the aforementioned impairment charge of $6.1 million. This charge results from the accounting standard driven impairment review we are required to carry out under IFRS. There are a number of factors taken into account in calculating the impairment, including the company's period end share price, calculation of the company's cost of capital and future projected cash flows from individual cash generating units in the business. In addition, the company examines individual project costs for indicators of impairment. The non-cash impairment charge of $6.1 million has been recognized against the following assets. Intangible assets, $3.9 million, property planning equipment of $1.9 million and current assets of $300,000. I will now move on to talk about the significant balance sheet movement since the end of March 2021. There was a decrease in property planning equipment of $2.1 million. Additions in this quarter were $400,000 and this was offset by depreciation of $600,000 and the aforementioned impairment charge of $1.9 million. In the same period, our intangible assets decreased by $2.3 million. This was made up of additions of $1.8 million offset by an amortization charge of $200,000 and an impairment charge of $3.9 million. Moving on to inventories, you would have seen we have decreased by, these have decreased by $2.9 million and now stand at $34.7 million. In Q1 2021, we reduced the level of production of our PCR viral transport media, VTM, in language projected demand and this is the main reason for the reduction in inventory this quarter. Meanwhile, trade and under receivables have increased by $0.5 million to $15.4 million, reflecting slightly lower cash collections. Our trade and other payables reduced by 9.6 compared to March 2021. This reduction was mainly driven by the aforementioned forgiveness of the PPP loans and a reduction in trade credits and accruals of the company paid VTM suppliers for previously supplied raw materials. By reducing the level of purchases of raw materials to reflect the reduced demand for new VTM orders as the quarter continued. You will see from the balance sheet that we have presented the exchange of a notes liability and the related embedded derivatives within current liabilities. Previously, this has been recorded within non-current liabilities. The reason for the change this quarter is because the notes have a put option on 1 April 2022. As the company does not have an unconditional right to defer settlement of the liability for at least 12 months after the reporting period, the accounting standards require us to show the exchange note as a current liability as at June 2021. Finally, I would discuss our cash flows for the quarter. Cash generation from operations during the quarter was $1.3 million. Non-operating cash outflows during the quarter included capital expenditure of $2.2 million and payments for property leases of $0.7 million. In addition, the company paid $2 million of interest on exchangeable notes. Overall, this resulted in a cash balance of $28.6 million at the end of Q2 2021. Thank you. I will now hand over to Ronan who will bring you through our revenues.

speaker
Joe

Thanks, John. I'm now going to review the revenues for quarter two and for the corresponding quarter in 2020 before opening the culture question and answer session. Revenues for quarter two are $25.8 million compared with $16 million in the corresponding quarter, which is an increase of 61%. Point of care revenues in quarter two were $2 million compared with $1.3 million in the corresponding quarter, which is an increase of 55%. Despite this increase, our HIV revenues are lower than normalized levels due to delays in the issue of HIV rapid test orders from Africa as a result of COVID-19. And that is further exacerbated by difficulty procuring air freight transport into Africa. However, we are seeing evidence of these COVID-19 driven delays abating, and we expect that point of care HIV revenues will quickly return to normalized levels. In March 2021, we announced that we had submitted our trim screen HIV product to the World Health Organization for approval. This product, once approved, will allow the company to enter for the first time the HIV screening market in Africa, which at 170 million tests annually, is a 12-fold bigger market by value and the confirmatory test market, where Trinity Bitech has for many years had a dominant market share with our product Unigold. During the last week, the company received an update from the WHO on the approval process, where the WHO confirmed that the final assessment phase is now well advanced. The company is confident of receiving an approval over the next number of months and then quickly leveraging the quality of its product, given its advantages over the competition, given also its experienced sales and marketing team on the ground in Africa, given also our reputation for excellence with Unigold, and also given our high volume automated production capacity capability in Ireland. We believe that all of these factors will enable us to quickly take market share in screening HIV in the African market. Moving now on to our clinical laboratory business, our revenues for quarter two were 23.9 million compared to 14.8 million in the corresponding quarter 2020, which is an increase of 62%. This increase is primarily explained by strong COVID-19 related product revenues, with our BCR viral transport media product being the most significant contributor. We have developed and continue to develop a strong suite of COVID-19 related products. As just mentioned, our FDA approved PCR viral transport media product performed well during the quarter. It's a simple sample collection device for COVID-19 PCR molecular testing, which is used to store the nasopharyngeal swab, which contains the patient sample, allowing it to be transmitted in a stable environment. The transport medium stabilizes the sample and prevents bacterial growth and maintains its integrity until such time as the test is run in the laboratory. In addition, the company has developed a COVID-19 ELISA automated antibody test, which is available for sale in the United States, which sells in modest volume. The company also developed another antibody test, which is a COVID-19 point of care antibody test. And in June, it made an emergency use authorization application to the FDA for the test. However, disappointingly, the FDA informed the company, given the volume of EUA requests that it is not prioritizing this type of test for review. Given the rapid adoption of COVID-19 vaccines and the focus on using evidence of vaccination rather than the presence of antibodies as proof of immunity, we believe that the use of antibody tests in this pandemic would be very limited and we will therefore make no further investment in antibody testing. Moving on then, as previously announced, the company is well advanced in the development of a COVID-19 rapid antigen test. Now that's an antigen test as opposed to an antibody test. It uses a nasopharyngeal swab, which will run in 12 minutes. The test will be manufactured in our automated manufacturing facility in Ireland with the cassette, which is virtually identical to that of both HIV Unigold and HIV Tringscreen. The test, which is largely developed, is demonstrating excellent analytical results. And the focus for the remainder of the development process will be on transfer to automated manufacture and to clinical validation. We now expect that we will have a cheap CE mark during quarter two 2022, thereby enabling sale of the product throughout Europe. While we do expect to launch the product in the US, the regulatory path for such products remains fluid and thus the company will continue to assess what may be the most appropriate regulatory approval pathway to allow a US launch of the product. However, we do expect that that will be achieved within a short number of months after European approval. Given the evidence of breakthrough infections for those vaccinated and a continuing threat, we believe that rapid antigen testing will have a continuing place in the overall public health response to COVID-19 and that this will be a significant market fraternity into the future. As previously stated, our increase in revenues is mainly due to strong revenues from our COVID-19 PCR viral transport media product. The company noted a significant reduction in demand for the COVID-19 virus. We are also looking at a significant increase in demand for new orders of VTM during quarter one and quarter two of 2021. Despite the fluid situation, given Delta and the fact that over the past few weeks we are seeing increased interest in the product, we believe that our VTM sales in quarter three will be significantly lower than the prior quarters. And now moving back to our core business, The comparison between this year's revenues and quarter two of 2020 is meaningless, given that there was a virtual total shutdown during quarter two of 2020. Moving to our Hemoglobin A1C business, we continue to have low instrument placements with just over 30 instruments placed during quarter, which is less than 50% of normal placement levels. This was expected as hospitals and clinics are unlikely to purchase new capital equipment during the pandemic. However, we are confident that these placements will fully recover in a post pandemic environment. Meanwhile, Hemoglobin reagent revenues and by this I mean the number of tests being run in our diabetes business are running at about 90% of normal. Again, due to the fact that patients are less likely to perform discretionary tests during the pandemic. Meanwhile, we anticipate launching our new midsize Hemoglobin A1C instrument in early 2022. This instrument will enable us for the first time to target thousands of smaller hospitals and diabetes clinics around the world, mostly outside of the US and the EU. Previously, we had been unable to service this market at the processing capability of our premier instrument and also with its cost was too large for their requirements. Although we have designed and developed the instrument in Kansas City, it will be manufactured in China, thereby enabling us to make the instrument available in the market at a very attractive price. And lastly, our autoimmune business generated revenues approximately 7% lower than in the pre pandemic environment, with reference laboratory volumes down approximately 10% and product revenues marginally down. We believe that this is entirely due to the pandemic as many patients defer doctor visits unless absolutely necessary. And we are confident that these revenues will fully recover post pandemic. But I now open the call to a question and answer session,

speaker
Operator

please. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then one using a touch tone telephone. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. If you are using a speaker phone, we do ask that you please pick up your handset before pressing the keys to ensure the best sound quality. Once again, that is star and then one to join the question queue. Our first question today comes from Jim Sadati from Sadati and Company. Please go ahead with your question.

speaker
Jim Sadati

Hi, good afternoon. Rodan and John, can you hear me?

speaker
Joe

Hi, Jim. Yeah. Hi, Jim.

speaker
John

Having care.

speaker
Jim Sadati

So it sounds like you're in the final stages with the WHO for churn screen. Is the WHO similar to the FDA in that you're not allowed to talk about the test with potential customers until the approval is received? Or can you start to market the device now ahead of the approval?

speaker
Joe

You could start to market the device ahead of the approval, but I don't think you'd be taken very seriously in the individual countries without the approval being in place. So I mean, you can kind of warm people up a little bit, but you can't really seriously market it as such.

speaker
Jim Sadati

So how should we think about the ramp in sales for this new test? Is this something that's going to take a couple of quarters to get going? Do you think you'll be able to get orders within the first quarter or so after you receive the approval?

speaker
Joe

Jim, unfortunately, it's not as simple as that. In order to have any meaningful sales, we will have to basically be put onto the algorithm for a particular country. So basically, each individual African country, despite the fact they don't actually pay for the test themselves, they actually decide what products they'd like to use. And after that, then the Americans and Europeans actually make the payments. So basically what happens is that the individual countries will decide what test, normally just one test, would be the screening test, although they cancel it. And then they also decide what test would be the confirmatory test. And some countries review that every year, but typically it's every two years. Right. And so but it's not a kind of end of year December thing. It's the varying times they review it. So in order to really in order to actually basically sell in meaningful volume, you need to basically be put on the algorithm as the screener of choice for a particular individual country. So that will take time. But those algorithms are being reviewed all the time. There's always algorithms in, you know, in the melting pot and whatever. And in each individual country, we have a distributor and we are involved with opinion leaders and we have technical people on the ground. So we'll be working the system all the time as each algorithm comes up for review. But it's not straight out. It's not a straight. It's not like a hundred meter race. It's not like you're straight out of the box.

speaker
Jim Sadati

Understood. And then how will you handle ramping up production? Have you started to build some inventory yet or are you going to wait until you actually receive some of these orders before you build up your inventory?

speaker
John

Primarily, Jim, we'll wait until we receive orders or at least have, I suppose, significant line of sight. It's a as Ronan suggested, it's a it's a relatively long sales process. And we're lucky to have a very experienced team at both from UNIGO and also some some kind of key people we've got on board. So we have the team that are able to make those kind of judgment calls in terms of how solid orders are. What we have been spending a lot of our time is optimizing our manufacturing process here in Ireland to make sure that we can efficiently reach the levels of volume that we expect. So to Ronan's point earlier, the screening market is a much larger market. It's a much, much larger volume market. So in terms of our efficiency and the level of volume for a plant here, it's really a step change for us. And that's really where we're putting our focus to make sure that when those orders are ready, we are ready to be able to fulfill them.

speaker
Jim Sadati

So is it reasonable for us to assume that you'll have some level of orders in 2022, assuming you get the approval in 2021?

speaker
Joe

Well, absolutely, absolutely. We believe we will get moving very quickly and we believe a couple of the bigger countries may actually decide to split the algorithm as in for the screening, you know, to take to basically put us in the long side of it.

speaker
Jim Sadati

OK. And then similar question for the for the Heven-Gorman device, the new the new A1C tester. Do you think you'll have some revenue from that product in 2022 or is that going to be further out?

speaker
Joe

Yeah, that will be. But I mean, it's difficult to estimate when we'll have the instrument fully approved. But I mean, I think mid 2022 would be optimistic. You know, that order of time frame.

speaker
Jim Sadati

Got it. And then the last one for me, can you tell us? I'm sorry.

speaker
John

Sorry, go ahead.

speaker
Jim Sadati

OK, can you tell us what the the sales were in the second quarter and how they compared to a year ago?

speaker
Joe

Well, I mean, I think our total our total covid product sales would have been around seven, seven and change in this quarter.

speaker
Jim Sadati

Uh-huh. And where were you a year ago with that product? Were there any sales in June 2020?

speaker
Joe

Yeah, I think about three and a three and a half million.

speaker
Jim Sadati

OK, three point five. Thank you.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask your question, please press star and then one to withdraw your questions. You may press star and two. Our next question comes from Paul Norrie from Noble Equity. Please go ahead with your question.

speaker
Paul Norrie

Hey, good afternoon. Hi

speaker
John

Paul.

speaker
Paul Norrie

Did you say toward the end of your formal remarks that the covid sales would be down for the third quarter?

speaker
Joe

Yeah, I did, Paul. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think you're seeing this right across. I think you're possibly seeing this right across all diagnostic companies that basically more and more people are vaccinated. I mean, despite the fact that, you know, the Delta variant is proving very problematic. The reality is that the total volume of testing is actually is dropping. And what you'd also seen, I think we've signaled is that it was almost like panic buying towards the end last year of BTM's and in general of covid products. And so there was an element of an element of stockpiling and that had to be kind of washed through a system. So things so having said that on a positive. So despite the fact that we said that, I also indicated that we were seeing renewed levels of interest just in the last short number of weeks. Again, so a very fluid situation. But yeah, we have said that we quarter three will be done.

speaker
John

Paul, I think what you've seen is, you know, a work of the towards the end of the quarter, as Ronan said, we're seeing increased interest. To what extent that interest manifest manifest itself into significant orders towards the end of this quarter is just unclear at this point. But, you know, we clearly don't have a full quarter of that renewed interest.

speaker
Paul Norrie

OK, and then for the autoimmune panel that you guys are running out of the lab, is that posting any significant sales yet?

speaker
Joe

You mean actual covid sales, like long covid sales? No, it's really that's only at the commencement stage, Paul. And then just remember, I said in general terms, our autoimmune laboratory volumes are probably down about 10 percent. And that's just because, again, you know, if people have a choice, they're going to stay away from a hospital or a doctor, you know. So it's done as a problem is pressing. And they tend to get deferred.

speaker
Paul Norrie

So. So we

speaker
Joe

have the long covid. Go ahead. I was going to say that on covid products, we have a very interesting range of products, but they're very much just being rolled out as we speak, you know.

speaker
Paul Norrie

Yeah, what's going to be your strategy in terms of creating awareness about it among physicians? I mean, it seems like the the type of physician that could order or that might order this kind of panel is just so wide ranging. So how might you go about marketing it?

speaker
Joe

Well, I mean, we have a U.S. sales team involved in in marketing those products. I mean, what we do is we do papers on it. We academic papers. We try and talk to opinion leaders if they're interested, direct sales efforts as well. Yeah, you know, that's the kind of message we're using.

speaker
Paul Norrie

OK, and I think you said earlier on the call that the sales team expanded. I was just wondering, is that in anticipation of the approval or is that for your current product on the market?

speaker
Joe

No, when we said that we were referring only to Africa. And so what's happened there basically is that and so the allure, you know, had basically had a dominant position within African HIV screening. And they were acquired by Abbott a number of years ago, very fairly recently. And basically what happened is, is that we have managed to basically recruit the senior management team that that developed the business for a layer. So we have a really good team in place. So senior people off that team now work for us. And they're the people that basically, you know, managed to have a kind of, you know, who built that 85 percent market share for a layer now. So that's the whole point of Abbott. So I thought our argument is that, you know, that we have a very, very experienced with the perfect arguably the perfect marketing team. We have a good reputation with Unigold. The project itself is performing excellently and is quicker than the Abbott test. I mean, the WHO ran their own trials and they got we've got 100 percent sensitivity between specificity on large, on large sample sizes. And on top of that, we have this very sophisticated automated system in Ireland for manufacture, which can basically will be very easy. We'll respond easily to demand at any level. I think we've pulled all those factors together. We're confident of taking of taking meaningful market share. But only what only slices kind of use of pricing. We don't even come in marginally below below the the the the number one. There.

speaker
Paul Norrie

All right, well, thank

speaker
Joe

you. Thanks for.

speaker
Operator

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one to withdraw yourself from the question to you may press star and two. Our next question comes from Bill Waps. Please go with your question.

speaker
Bill

Good morning. I got just several questions, Ronan. What what is the pricing on the product right now for the test? In Africa, for me,

speaker
Joe

it's recently moved from 80 cents tonight. So it's basically an 80 cents for about 12 years, and it moved in the last year to 90 cents.

speaker
Bill

OK, all right. Well, that sounds good. You say there's 117 million of those tests a year.

speaker
Joe

170. Yeah,

speaker
Bill

170, not 117 better. Thank you for the clarification. I have another question on the rapid on the covert rapid antigen test. Now, you know, you've disbanded going forward for the antibody test, but you're still pursuing the antigen test. And it seems to me, you know, if you go to Target or some of these stores in the United States, you can get that test for twenty three dollars without going to the doctors. Now, they're talking about on TV yesterday at CNN about, you know, this guy from Harvard that's pushing that you should get it quicker. And the United States, I believe, is going to really rap, you know, is going to really accelerate the testing. So, I mean, you have to go to a doctor to do your rapid test to get it done. And how are you going to compete? You know, you're not even going to be in the ballgame until 2022. If you get there, you'll be in Europe, but you won't be in the United States. What's the thinking on the antigen test? I mean, you're already almost there, but your approval in the U.S. will be at least a year away, correct?

speaker
Joe

Yeah, probably, probably about a year away. I think by the time we get in, then the only reason we can put a firm date on Europe because we know exactly what the regulatory pathway is. But, you know, in the USA, we're just being more cautious because, you know, the rules pertaining to the EUA, the emergency use authorization and then the notification status have changed and changed and changed regularly. And for example, we're in a situation where on EUA notification basis we can sell our antibody test. But when we submitted the rapid antibody test, you know, they said that they didn't want to review it. So, you know, we're just being cautious when we say that we're just saying we don't we're not certain of what the pathway is because pathway is tending to change. But there's a huge market in Europe for us for the anti for the antigen tests. And we believe although we're coming, we're coming late to market, we're coming with something of really high quality. And in terms of pricing, we can manufacture it arguably in around 50 cents, you know, and therefore, you know, there'll be very strong margin on it. And whether the product is run by a doctor or individually, I think it's kind of almost like a side shows in some jurisdictions you can do some. But typically it doesn't have to be run by a doctor. But there are many instances where it can be run from home. As you know, many employers are doing it. My own daughter is working in London, in Goldman Sachs. She's she's tested three times a week with an ancient test every week, you know, from month to month. And so and, you know, so I think COVID is with us. We could debate how long the characteristics of COVID, how long it will endure. But I do believe we believe within this company that that antigen testing is going to be with us for an extended period of time. I extended that into years. And although we're coming to the party late, we believe that we have an excellent test.

speaker
Bill

OK. And is the 12 minutes fast? And I mean, that's pretty fast test, but it doesn't have to be administered in a doctor's office. So you now tell me I could I could buy that kit and administer it at home or the employer can you don't need a clinician to do it?

speaker
Joe

It depends. It depends on the jurisdiction, depends on the rules. I mean, you know, obviously, there's lots of antigen tests available for home use. And then there's tests where you can take the swab and you post it. And then, you know, the result is run in a lab and then you sort of various ways of doing this. But there's a suffice it to say there's a very big market for for antigen testing. I mean, they're selling their millions and millions and millions.

speaker
Bill

And are they currently selling antigen rapid tests in Europe quite a bit? They are right.

speaker
Joe

Yeah. I mean, I was just in Goldman Sachs in London, eight thousand employees and they're all tested three times a week. Right. Twenty four thousand. Yeah.

speaker
Bill

OK.

speaker
Joe

And what are they using? What are

speaker
Bill

they using for their antigen tests? Are they just a competitor? You know what tests they're using? Is it a.

speaker
Joe

Mostly Chinese tests, mostly Chinese tests. And yeah, I remember, remember all flights in and out of the UK require antigen tests now.

speaker
Bill

OK. All right. Well,

speaker
Joe

from from you think you take it in and out of Europe is it requires an action test? You when you return back into the return back into the country. So, you know, there's lots believe me, does it end this antigen test requirements?

speaker
John

I think the way we think about it, Bill, is, you know, the position has shifted again somewhat given the level of breakthrough, breakthrough infections. Vaccination is no longer the strong signal that it was expected to be in terms about somebody not having covid. And that can be either in terms of comfort from yourself, comfort to your employer, comfort to your co-workers, comfort to your co-travelers around being free from infection. And it was the antigen test we've seen, you know, lots of examples of employers pushing it, et cetera, is a way for people to get a level of comfort that they are not infectious or the people around them are not infectious. And I suppose, you know, just a short time ago, we thought that vaccination was probably going to give that level of comfort. But with the Delta variant and the level of breakthrough infections, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I suppose that's probably the key driver as to why we think there'll be greater longevity in this test, these types of tests than we would have just a short while ago. Just some other examples,

speaker
Joe

Bill, like, for example, in Dublin, Dublin, Google, Google and Facebook are and Salesforce.com, as I understand it, are all testing their employees weekly. And for example, also, I'm sure you're reading about this. I'm not sure so much on top of it, but like, for example, in the US, sorry, in Europe, and admittance to concerts and to all sorts of social events require an antigen test.

speaker
Bill

Really? OK. All right. Well,

speaker
Joe

with that,

speaker
Bill

so I mean, it's still it's something that's more of a bonus. But your real excitement is the WHO. You said that's your most exciting thing you got going. I mean, besides other things that could really make a change.

speaker
Joe

I think we're excited about both.

speaker
Bill

OK. OK. Well, that's good. All right. And there's nothing you can say further on the refinancing of the 100 million dollar loan at this point. Right. So anything further you can add?

speaker
Joe

Well, we've appointed professional advisors and we're confident that there are a number of options available to us to deal with the matter. But as you can imagine, it's very much in our thoughts and in the thoughts of the board. And we're working diligently on it.

speaker
Bill

OK. All right. OK. Well, thanks so much.

speaker
Joe

Thank you.

speaker
Bill

Appreciate the quarter.

speaker
Joe

I love you.

speaker
Bill

Thank you.

speaker
Joe

Thank you. There appears to be no more questions. So I think maybe we'll close the call and thank everybody. And thanks for your support and your interest. And hope to see you.

speaker
John

Thanks, everybody. Have a good day.

speaker
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded. We do thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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