Microbix Biosystems Inc.

All right, I think we can get started. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. We have an update from Microbics to discuss their fiscal Q1 2026 results. Sequential improvement quarter over quarter, so starting to see a rebound in company progress after 2025, which we all know is A bit of a down year due to two events outside the company's control, but things seem to be tracking in the right direction. So here to tell us more about that, I have Cameron Groom, CEO, Jim Curry, CFO, Ken Hughes, COO. We won't be working off a presentation today. We will be finalizing the presentation with the Q1 numbers, so you can expect to see that online either later today or tomorrow at the latest. And we will have a Q&A section, so feel free to enter questions in the Q&A box. And, again, not working off a presentation, but we are going to talk about forward-looking statements. So if you'd like to know more about those, you can find them on the presentation on the company's website. With that all out of the way, I'll hand the mic over to Cameron, who I think is going to give us a little bit of a review on the quarter.

Thank you. Good morning, Debra. Thank you, Debra and everyone. Debra, you didn't want to spend five or ten minutes reading through a detailed safe harbor statement?

Oh, yeah, I would love to. Should I pull it up?

Sure. Why don't we assume it's been read and we'll refer to the one in the quarterly disclosure and leave it at that.

Yeah, everyone can go back to bed. We'll halfway through my interpretation of it.

Okay. Well, pleased to announce our results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. That is, just to remind everybody, the three months ended December 31, 2025, as we operate on a September 30 fiscal year. The results for Q1 reflect the start of our ongoing work to recover our sales above our engineered break-even point, following the disclosed setbacks with two large clients in the second half of fiscal 2025, as you were describing, Deborah. Our revenues came in for Q1 at $4.2 million for the quarter, and that's up 13% from the prior quarter, and in line with our budget expectations. And at revenues, we recorded a controlled net loss for the quarter of $1.2 million, and using up some of our substantial cash reserves, and we continue to view this as a tactical setback, not necessitating a change in the strategic direction of the corporation, whereby we're building our revenues with the test makers, with the PTEQA providers, that's the proficiency testing and external quality assessment agencies that support the quality of lab testing, and with the clinical labs themselves and we have a growing portion of revenues that are more widely distributed which is a positive for the business as we've seen you know what you can experience with customer concentration issues I'll shortly ask Jim to go into some more detail about our Q1 results in terms of the composition of sales, our margins, our costs, and our uses of cash, followed by Ken, who will touch on our operational progress. But first, I just want to highlight some of our recent disclosures. Across Q1, and just before I get into the disclosures, I'll just emphasize that our policy is to disclose things once they are signed, sealed, and delivered. We do not typically disclose projects that, you know, are not either generating, already generating revenues or have formal agreement agreements. waterline there on which we surface and discuss things. So just when you see these news release disclosures that are often written as much to highlight our progress to potential clients and our reach and sophistication, these are things that are done. And I'll just want to reemphasize that. In cross Q1, the October 1 to December 31 period, you've seen us disclose some announced new clients and new client programs in the molecular pathology and point-of-care genetics testing field. So, again, taking us forward. continuing our moves to support oncology-related testing as well as genetics-related testing to add to our addressable markets and add to our longstanding expertise in the infectious disease space. So those programs announced in the fall, as well as two further test-maker relationships, one in the United States with Sekisui, supporting a point-of-care testing system, and another with C-Gene in Mexico. beginning with support for cervical cancer screening programs. So again, this is Microbix continuing to prove our growing thought leadership and our reach across the industry with each of those programs linked to immediate sales, as I referenced earlier. I'll have some further comments as well about client programs and what we've announced just since the new year. But let me first ask for Jim's comment and further color on our Q1 results. Jim, if you'd like to go ahead, that would be great.

Sure, Pam. Thank you. Yeah, Q1 was a sequential growth quarter. When compared to last year, we saw a rather significant decline in revenues of 30%. That, however, was a result of predominantly the lack of sales through our distributor in China. And that was the differential from quarter to quarter was over $2 million. So that's where we saw a rather significant decline in our antigen business, which was down 49% because of that. lack of revenues. Now, without that lack of Chinese distributor revenues, the rest of our antigen business was actually up 5% for the quarter, quarter over quarter. Antigen business, sorry, the caps business was up at 1.9 million, a 15% improvement over last year. And so combined, we saw $4.2 million worth of revenue for the quarter. Gross margins, again, disappointing in comparison to last year, as well as expectations. This is a result of the fact that we've got fewer products going through production with the lower sales, absorbing a similar level of fixed overheads. As we move towards our sort of break-even point of in excess of $5.5 million, we'll start to see the margins improve as well as our profitability level. Operating expenses for the quarter were at or below expected levels as we continue to try and keep control of our costs during these quarters as we lead up to quarters with more significant revenues. Cameron talked about the cash flow consumption during the quarter. Most of that was a result of timing of receivables and collections of receivables. We finished Q4 with a fairly low level of receivables. And for the end of Q1, it was a high level. And, in fact, during January, we received payments of $3.3 million, and our cash balance at the end of January was $10.6 million, so up a million and a half from our closing at the end of December. So $3 million is not what we expect to see on an ongoing basis for the consumption of cash. From an inventory standpoint, inventory was still relatively level. as we retain stock of predominantly finished goods to support our antigen business, as well as the growth in our caps business. And that's about all I've got to cover off on the financial side for right now.

Well, thank you, Jim. I'll take a few moments now to we've made thus far in 2026. Now, in January, we provided an update on our recombinant antigens program, and that's creating the ability to synthetically make the test ingredients, the antigens, as well as our longstanding expertise in creating native antigens from actually culturing viruses and bacteria and so forth. The ability to make those ingredients synthetically is very important. Our team, as we announced in January of 2025 and then updated in January of 2026, our team successfully onboarded these important technologies. And in January, what we announced was our first commercial product resulting from that, and that's the SARS-CoV-2 viral capsid antigen. which is now actively being used in our caps, in our own products, and that strengthens our supply chain, improves our margins, and we'll ultimately be adding that product and other recombinant products to our catalog of test ingredients that we can sell more broadly. So very successful outcome on that program. Also earlier this month, February, we disclosed progress in our CAPS businesses relates to our PT-EQA clients. These are the proficiency testing and external quality assessment agencies that regularly challenge the clinical labs with programs to which they subscribe with our test patient sample memetics so that tests can be checked that a positive is a true positive and a negative is a true negative. The first program we disclosed was progress with our caps oriented towards molecular pathology. This is the combination of traditional pathology methods looking at cell type and conformation with PCR or other molecular testing to look for genetic signatures and improve the accuracy of certain diagnoses. specifically related to cancers and infections that may cause granulation cysts that could look like cancer. That work was presented at Lab Quality Days in Finland, one of our PT EQA important clients. Closer to home, we're also very proud to be permitted to disclose that the College of American Pathologists has joined the Microbics family of customers. The College of American Pathologists is the world's largest provider of PT-EQA programs to support the quality management in clinical labs, and we're now supporting the cap on some important PT-EQA programs, again, demonstrating our thought leadership, adding to our relationships and, frankly, our revenue. So thank you and welcome to the College of American Pathologists. So that takes us up to date on some of our disclosures, and maybe I can now ask Ken to comment further about our operational progress. Ken?

Right, absolutely. Thanks, Cameron. On the operational side, as the group knows, for the last couple of years, we've been building both capabilities and capacities at Microbics, and we continue to drive efficiencies in that regard to reduce production costs through operational excellence. We've been making more and more use of our electronic quality management system in this regard. We've been improving throughput in manufacturing and yields and also reducing the testing burden which speaks directly into the associated costs. As Cameron said previously, we've added recombinant capabilities to our other classical and synthetic biology capabilities and that's exemplified by the recent announcement of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen production and commercialisation. The group will be unsurprised now to learn that there's a rich pipeline of recombinant products coming down the pike and they will be used both for antigens themselves and for raw materials and supply chain for our caps production going forward, which again will secure supply chain and reduce costs and contribute to operational excellence. So really, in the operational level, everything is going very well, and we're just going to continue to drive efficiencies, reduce costs, increase yields, and then move on from there. So we'd have to say our ups are going very well.

Thank you, Ken. Ken, I'd be remiss if I didn't also ask you to just provide a little bit in the way of updates about our therapeutics program, Kinlytic. Kinlytic is for resolving blood clots in venous catheters, and I know we have some important upcoming meetings, and I don't want to get too far ahead of our skis, but maybe just give a hint that that's continuing to progress.

Absolutely. As we've discussed many times, the relationship with Sequel and their financial backers remains very strong, with frequent constructive meetings. The work is proceeding at our drug substance, that's the purified urokinase molecule itself, contract manufacturer. It's also now proceeding at the drug product, which is the formulator filled and finished, the saleable unit, with our drug product contract manufacturer as well, and in testing development. And in all cases, things are going very well. I said last time that SQL and Microbics would be updating the US FDA on progress with a formal submission in the new year and that it was expected to be uncontroversial. Well, that's occurred and it was as uncontroversial as expected. The FDA feedback was basically that they appreciated that we are updating production processes, contemporary standards, looking to eliminate animal based components and replace them with synthetic components, which is actually expected in those contemporary standards. And that's going very well. They also said that we should just carry on and continue to use the guidance they provided to us in our formal meeting in 2023. So that was great, uncontroversial, and we're just proceeding. The project as a whole is proceeding as expected. We're first going to address the half-billion-dollar U.S. catheter clearance market, but now we're also looking at other geographies, at catheter prophylaxis, and looking at the logistics for the even more lucrative and bigger opportunities that are related to pulmonary embolism, which includes peripheral arterial occlusive disease, deep vein thrombosis, and stroke. So, the relationship with SQL remains good, the feedback from the FDA is constructive, and we're moving forward as we said. So, I have nothing negative to see on that project either. It's proceeding as it should and very well.

Perfect. And we'll continue to provide updates as we move forward as well in our written disclosures. I'll just highlight there is some expanded disclosure in the management discussion and analysis in terms of forward-looking information. as well as in our management information circular on some of the performance feedback measures that we institute internally. So while those can be mind-numbingly boring documents to read, do encourage those that want to take a deeper cut. We do expend some effort on those to make sure you're getting full, plain, and true disclosure. in a timely manner so do have a look if you've got interest or bandwidth those are available both on our website and at cdarplus.ca um thanks ken thanks jim um as everybody can see the whole microbics team has been really busy adding to our capabilities our product offerings our client projects and our client relationships And this is really all targeted towards delivering value to not just our customers, but, of course, our shareholders as well. And we very much thank everybody for taking the time this morning to join us and for reviewing our results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. With that, it's probably a great time, Deborah, to move over to questions. And if I can ask you to moderate on reading the questions, and we'll focus on giving the answers.

I'm here for it, Cameron. All right, so let's start with some investor questions. So was the sequential improvement at all due to seasonality?

I wouldn't say so, no. I think that is, there's always some issue of order timing and where a product may get finished and released by QC and QA to ship to a client, but there's no specific seasonality in that quarter. Jim, would you want to expand or differ on that?

No, no, I would agree, Cameron. I don't think there was any seasonality that impacted us. between 2, 3, 4, and 1. Okay.

Okay. Thank you.

And accounts receivable more than doubled versus 2, 4, is there any unusual reason for that?

Yeah, I think a resumption in client orders and the flow, just the timing of orders, what we carried over. quarter end was a higher balance of receivables from product that had been shipped but invoices not yet collected. And that was reflected in the cash flow from operations figure, reflected that increased flow of working capital into accounts receivable. But as Jim has indicated, you know, those receivables have since been collected, moving our cash balances higher and our receivables business flow there in what was carried across the quarter and snapshot of the balance sheet.

Yeah, timing of shipments has an impact on it. Typically, I guess in Q4, the shipments were earlier in the quarter, and we collected a good portion of them during the quarter, whereas in the first quarter of this year, we had a fair number of shipments that went out in December and obviously weren't collected by December 31st.

Yeah, and our vast majority of our sales are business-to-business, and normally it's a very rare situation that we ever have a bad receivable, and I don't think I've ever recalled anything, any provision annually in excess of maybe $50,000, Jim.

Yeah, we've kept a provision of $35,000 for quite a while because we have next-to-no write-offs from our customers.

It's not to say somebody doesn't push it out a little bit on the payment timing, particularly. Some clients have a regular habit of doing that, but they are all credit worthy.

Okay, great. And then OPEX was low in the quarter. Is that a seasonal effect, or should we see OPEX stable going forward?

Yeah.

Take it away, Jim.

Yeah, I mean, seasonality, I don't know whether you call it seasonality, but for some reason Q1 always tends to be – a lower spend level from an OPEC standpoint. Some of it's due to the fact that the, for instance, from the sales and marketing front, not as much activity in the trade shows, et cetera, in the first quarter. We'll start to see that bump up in Q2 and Q3 as there's been a number of trade shows that have been attended and are being attended to in the next, in the coming months. So that impacts us as well as our R&D spend. I think, again, our R&D spend will go up. So I wouldn't expect the operating expenses to stay at the Q1 level, but they're not going to jump up dramatically throughout the year. I mean, we've been pretty consistent recently with our operating expenses.

Yeah, and this is very, very much, you know, holding the line on the expense side, you know, as we build the revenue side of backup from some of those customer setbacks.

And when will China purchases start for the next flu season, and are you seeing any signs of sales resuming there?

You know, China is not the most transparent market. We've certainly been pushing hard at our distributor to get a good handle on that. We've not seen sales in China resume to much of an extent as yet. We're continuing to be told that it's a flu incidence and inventory being consumed from tests that were built for last season. But we've not yet seen a resumption in draw of antigen sales into China. So it continues at a very low level right now.

Okay. And what is the revenue potential with the College of American Pathologists?

Well, you know, that client will certainly start well, you know, is well into the six figures for China. 2026, and we would view that as a, you know, we would be targeting them to be a meaningful seven-figure account for Microbics. So, it comes with each additional program that we support, and the rollout of new programs across the potential base of about 22,000 pathologists and labs that the college supports. Now, not every lab is testing for every pathogen. of that potential pool. And, you know, we look at modeling those as we go forward and seeing what it can be. But it is meaningful for us, and that's why we disclosed it, of course.

Got it. And when would you typically see China start buying again for the next flu season if they're going to

I think we'd see that over the late summer to early fall. We should see what's going on there. And we've been supporting Chinese manufacturers on some of the childhood disease testing, but principally in the respiratory disease side of things. And some of the immunologic testing that happens in China, there's a lot of... Air pollution is an issue in China, as is, you know, a large population in concentrated urban centers. So oftentimes people can have low-level infections, and you're really not going to get useful information out of PCR tests if somebody has a low-level infection, but that's really not the problem. So the immunologic tests are used looking for an acute phase antibody reaction that indicative of an active walking pneumonia. And that's where we've been supporting testing in China. So it's really about the incidence of potential respiratory bacterial infections that we're supporting in China more than it is in relation to, you know, cold and flu. So the bad seasons, I think, are where our products get used more extensively and that form of testing is done more extensively.

Understood. Was SQL always aware that animal components would need to be replaced with synthetic or is that new information?

No, we've all been aware of that from the very outset of the program. And that's, you know, that's meat and potatoes work, really, to bring that up to contemporary standards. So this has always been completely well known on the path for redevelopment and relaunch. So no surprises there.

Yeah, none whatsoever. Let's remember that the original Eurokinies Kinlidic Aberkine, as was production process, was developed in the 1970s. And then the last time it was updated by Abbott before it became Kinlidic was just at the turn of the millennium. So not much updating has gone on in the last two decades. The expectation is to bring it up to contemporary standards. You know, animal derived products can be replaced by plant derived products. versions thereof, and indeed growth factors that would be derived from pigs or cows can now be replaced with the competent versions. This is standard fare. It also goes down to the downstream. The chromatography resins and filters that you can use to clean up feedstock are so much better these days, and the levels of purity can be much higher can be realized. This was entirely expected. It's been discussed with the FDA. It's not required to eliminate animal components, but we're asked to make best efforts, which is just contemporary standard. And this is going very well, and that's why we had an uncontroversial meeting with the FDA. We're just doing what we agreed to do, and we're proceeding forwards.

Great.

Well said.

Would you expect any big caps customers will shift to commercial sales with any of your products this year?

No. Repeat that to me.

Would you expect that any big caps customers will shift to commercial sales with products? I think they're asking, are you expecting any large orders?

Yeah, we are certainly targeting large orders and large programs with different major multinationals. But, again, that's aspirational. That's not forward-looking information. We will announce agreements, again, when they're signed, sealed, and delivered. You know, the fish may be on the line, but thank you, we'll announce it when it's been delivered. reeled into the boat and is in the cooler uh not when it's on the line thank you so yes there are multiple uh large clients with significant projects that we're working on now and when those reach a point at which we can make specific disclosures we'll do so and are any of the large orders expected for products that are commercial not in development I'm just thinking, yes, typically they can be for an existing assay on an existing instrument platform, in which case you're replacing an incumbent supplier. They can be for a new assay on an existing instrument platform, in which case there is a large installed base of instruments, but the assay is new. And then there can be a new assay on a new instrument, in which case, of course, there isn't an installed base. So we're working across each of those categories in our efforts to secure new client programs as well as new clients. And you see some of that, for example, with... CG in Mexico, well, that is a support for an existing assay on an existing instrument where they're penetrating new markets, in this case, Mexico. Or you can have, in the case of Sekisui in the United States, where it is support for a new assay on a new instrument in a new market. So, you know, each of these will accelerate and have a different shaped S curve for adoption. But that's a little more granular than we're prepared to go. And really, you know, investors have to rely either on the analysts or themselves to model those expectations. That's a little more liability than we're willing to take on. Thank you.

Last question here. So last webinar, you indicated a 30% increase in revenue off the 2025 low point for fiscal 2026. That seems affirmed today, and today's results were said on plan. Microbics also expected profitability in fiscal Q4, July to September quarter. Do you still expect profitability to be reached by Q4?

I think we're targeting to get back into the $5.5 to $6 million range, and that's our break-even point there. I think profitability in Q4 may be a bit higher. There shouldn't be a meaningful loss in Q4, but I don't think there'll be significant profitability based on the numbers we're looking at currently. Now, again, that's based on orders we can reasonably anticipate at the present time. We could well exceed those numbers if successful. some of the new business development projects that we're hunting land and begin to generate revenues in those final quarters. But again, we're setting annualized revenues at 30% above the Q3 low point. So in the 18 to 19 million range for the full year is a reasonable expectation, and that's the sort of budget targets. And that will be distributed quarter by quarter based on order timing and when we actually ship product. And that's consistent with the forward-looking information that is in our management discussion analysis that you should be relying on if you're looking for detailed information rather than the more off-the-cuff commentary I can give here.

Congrats on the success with FDA and on the uncontroversial feedback. What is the timing for final FDA approval?

Well, tough to know on FDA approval because the FDA can be faster or slower to review a file. What we're working to generate is the best possible supplemental biologics licensing application or SBLA filing that we can generate. There's moving parts always on that based on the package that we can generate. So what we're doing now is the most robust modernization of the drug substance manufacturing, and then we'll be completing as another step the formulated drug product. That's the final product in the vial. and then we'll be doing as many purity and potency assays on that as we can preparatory to an SPLA submission. And, you know, that certainly won't be in 2026, but I think we can look for that in the latter part of 2027, and that's remained a consistent target for us, but there's any number of moving parts to that equation.

I'll just add, yeah, the 2027 was the stated target at the beginning. It remains the same based on what's going on. We have parallel drug substance and drug product development. So the technical aspects are going expeditiously. We're at the mercy of the regulator. You know, they can be very quick. There is a market demand for urokinase. We have a monopolist that has difficulty supplying or servicing the market right now. And I think we've already told a group of the European regulators have already reached out to us to ask us not to forget about them and their markets. So they want the Eurocannabis product on the market as well. So there is a driver there. But, you know, there is politics and there is a capacity at the regulator. But right now, 2027 remains the goal.

A follow on question here. Has FDA confirmed the SBA is OK given the replacement of animal products with synthetic?

There's no SPLA has not been filed yet. So that happens at the end of the process. So what we're continuing to do is keep the FDA updated through the process. So this is a touch point, not an end point.

Replacement of animal-derived components with either plant-derived or recombinant components is entirely expected and entirely uncontroversial. This is just part of the engineering of a process. It has no effect on the SBLA or the regulatory filing. It's just doing things according to contemporary standards. It's been discussed since day one. It's not perceived to be in any way a controversial situation. Why would you use an animal component when a synthetic one is available?

Exactly. So the filing path remains the same.

Absolutely correct. Yeah.

And can China use the antigens they have in inventory, or do they need new antigens for new strains?

The antigens are designed to work across multiple strains. So, you know, inventory kept at minus 80 has a long shelf life. If the If the product, however, has been incorporated into a test, then it has a defined shelf life. And tests can either be ingredients have a long shelf life, finished tests have a defined shelf life, and they either have to be sold or they risk expiring unused.

on it. And can you go ahead? No, no, you go ahead.

Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, it's always more challenging when you're once removed from the client relationships and working through a distributor to get that kind of detailed intelligence. And, you know, that's, we have not, however, built, you know, boots on the ground sales infrastructure in China. That's something a little beyond our current aspirations.

And can you update us on the NCIB for the quarter and looking forward?

Absolutely. Well, we renewed the NCIB. This is the normal course issuer bid for those that don't speak financial. And that's otherwise known as the share buyback program. So we renewed that in early December. And under the normal course issuer bid renewal, we're allowed to buy back a certain number of shares every week and react to one block trade per week. But, Jim, maybe I'll ask you to touch on the specifics of the renewal, what we're currently doing, and what we've done so far this year.

Yeah, under the renewal process, To be honest, I can't remember the exact number. It's in excess of 20,000 shares per week that we can acquire.

Per day, Jim.

Per day, sorry. Thank you. But we've chosen to currently repurchase at a level of 15,000 per day, given our current situation. In Q1, we acquired about 700,000 shares at a cost of about $175,000. And through January and today, we've repurchased approximately a million shares to date. That is both the old NCIB through December the 9th and the new one starting December 9th of 2025. And our plan is to continue repurchasing at the $15,000 per day level unless we see a reason to change that.

Yeah, and this is really – thank you, Jim. This is really striking a balance between more than offsetting any usage for stock options, but over roughly a 250-day period. business day calendar year, repurchasing at 15,000 shares a day will result in a repurchase of about 3.75 million shares, well in excess of any option awards that are granted. So the company continuing to be in a net anti-dilutive position, but not burning through an excessive amount of our cash. Now, you know, as we see landing large new client programs, we may get more aggressive on that and move up to the full daily repurchases as well as potentially blocks, but currently we're moving between at a heightened level. Last year, we were buying back 12,000 and change a day. So we are buying back more shares on a daily basis this year. And we have the potential to move up to that maximum. And I did pull up, I'm not pretending this is from my memory either, but I did pull up the daily maximum was 20,339 that would be We'd be able to buy back per day, and that's based on a quarter of the average daily trading volume on the shares of the TSX for the most recently completed six months prior to the renewal. Drives the mechanics of that.

Great. I don't see any other questions. Cameron, do you want to give some final thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, for concluding thoughts, as Ken said, we continue to build the capabilities and capacity, but also we're continuing to demonstrate some real thought leadership with – within our industry and across our different customer categories. And we continue to add new client relationships in the PTEQA provider space with the major test makers, test manufacturers, and with individual clinical lab customers. So we're not only seeing an increase of revenues across an increase of customers but we're seeing an increase of touch points with those customers and that's driving not only revenue growth but dispersion of our revenues across a greater number of customers which ideally reduces volatility going forward so we're doing the right things for the right reasons and I think you're seeing that reflected in the the number of great customers that we're engaged with, as well as the financial results that we're going to have reported and are going to be reporting.

Well, it's good to see you making progress. Thank you all three for your time this morning. Thanks to the audience for your participation and your questions. As always, if anyone has any follow-up questions or would like a meeting with management, please feel free to reach out to myself. I'd be happy to set that up. And, yeah, thanks, everyone, for your time. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Debra.

Take care, guys.

All right.