The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
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Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: <_ALACRA_META_ABSTRACT>So we're coming off of earnings season here. I thought we'd kick things off with the highlights from your Q1 earnings call.
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Sounds like only highlights to me, did you mention there were some low lights you want as a flag as well?
James Hippel - Bio-Techne Corp - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President - Finance
Yeah, it sort of -- time ticking so I got nervous. Good one. The -- integrated into my answer was like we saw the core ticking up a little
bit with some momentum, right? And that means that the core has been a lagger and that's a big portion of our company, right?
Fortunately, it's getting smaller. It used to be 70%, 30%. 70% of the revenues coming out of the core and 30% out of our new growth
verticals.
But by now, it's 55%, 45%. And therefore, we feel we are a little less dependent on just general-purpose reagents and have been
able to deliver differentiated growth because of those growth verticals and the proportion of them being bigger. But overall, the
total Life Science general-purpose reagents have been underperforming, right? And this -- and in addition to that, very similar with
the instrumentation portion of our business.
Now instrumentation is 10% of our revenues. Those have been under pressure as well, and everybody knows the reasons China's
stimulus, China's activity level as well as biopharma activity levels, funding levels have been suppressed over the last 1.5 years. And
those are obviously the product lines that are struggling. But switching back to the highlights, the instrumentation in pockets went
back into the black as well as the some of the core reagents coming back into the black was good to see at the end of our Q1.
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: And I get questions from time to time on the core general-purpose reagent part of your business in terms of the competitive
environment, whether that has changed at all given that there have been some large transactions of competitors. Have you noticed
any change in the competitive environment from your perspective?
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. Well, I check in my list, I didn't have AI on it, but you brought it up. How does that -- help me better understand how that
influences the competitive environment because yours is a business, at least in the core reagents market, it's never really been reliant
on hard intellectual property. It's mostly been soft IP experience, those kinds of things. So how does the calculus change when you
start pumping out patent-protected antibodies and proteins.
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. So would you put that on par to your GMP opportunity?
James Hippel - Bio-Techne Corp - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President - Finance
I wouldn't go as far as put on par, but you will see a lever we have to keep our very important and large core highly competitive in
the future and highly profitable.
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: There's a couple of comments you made in the discussion that I want to circle back to. One was around automating your core reagents
business. And I think that was part of the strategy for the ProteinSimple acquisition to begin with. So with that as a segue, can you
bring us current on ProteinSimple, how you frame the market opportunity, how you frame your current penetration and some of
the efforts you're doing to gain more wallet through ProteinSimple?
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. Trying to think about some of the platforms, specifically Simple Western, for example. When I think about the Western Blot
being the target for that, there are some applications of Western Blot which akin to the hammer at the construction site. They are
not super fancy, everyone uses it. And I often wonder how much of the market is that, is that really convertible? What are your views
on that?
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. And another segue, you talked about the journey from RUO reagents to GMP reagents and with that, I wanted to talk a bit
about cell therapy and then better understand the unit model there and the opportunity for Bio-Techne.
I know you target that market in a few different ways, as you just mentioned, Jim, Simple Western targets that market, your GMP
protein target, you have an investment in a company that you plan to acquire. But if I can try to distill it simply how do I understand
the dollar opportunity or wallet opportunity that would flow to you from $0.5 million cell therapy? What goes to Bio-Techne in that
circumstance?
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Just to clarify, so I understand the G-Rex, I understand your protein and cytokine opportunity. Do you sell media into that workflow
as well? I thought there was some media asset that you were divesting.
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Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: So unrelated.
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. But you do manufacture media that would be used in the G-Rex?
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. Right. That is different from (inaudible)
James Hippel - Bio-Techne Corp - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President - Finance
There's also small molecules also which is a piece of that extra -- that is a GMP small molecules that are also part of the formula that
make up that extra third that Kim was talking about.
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Got it. And -- that's helpful. And $15,000 to me sounds like a large amount per therapy, not a small amount.(multiple speakers) Let's
talk a bit about spatial biology. You have a couple of different business units that you've gained through acquisition. I guess for
starters, and we'll dive into the growth drivers. But how are you currently organizing the spatial biology business internally?
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Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. And how do you frame that opportunity when you think about the research market as opposed to the diagnostic opportunity?
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: But do you need some type of FDA-approved diagnostic application to really accelerate that market?
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. And how much does the multi-omic capability of the Lunaphore instrument, the COMET impact the opportunity there as well.
I think that was a recent launch on the COMET.
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Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. Well, I want to make sure we touch on your thoughts on liquid biopsy before I run out the clock. Can you offer an update on
your strategy and how you're framing the forward opportunity for your liquid biopsy offering?
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. I wanted to shift a bit to margins. Jim, there's a number of puts and takes that impact the margin line in 2025, which I heard
on the call, and I understand those. But beyond 2025, what is the margin algorithm that Bio-Techne look like? And what are -- what
drives margin expansion at the company?
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Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Okay. Final question, M&A. How important is M&A to the growth algorithm of Bio-Techne? And what is the outlook there?
Question: Daniel Leonard - UBS Equities - Analyst
: Well, we'll leave it there. Kim, Jim, thank you both for your time.
James Hippel - Bio-Techne Corp - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President - Finance
Thank you, Dan.
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