Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXDX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jack Phillips: Yes. Do you want to take that one, David?

David Patience: Sure, Dustin. This is David. And so the first about six to nine months has been bringing the two organizations together, as Jack mentioned, in training, and aligning the sales process. We’re still working together. We’re learning together every day. By bringing the bloodstream infection solution together is a pretty comprehensive portfolio that BD is really separating themselves from other players in the market with bringing that offering together. And so it’s a big message and it’s taken a little bit longer than we would have liked to come out but we are seeing those early indications that this will be a very successful and comprehensive portfolio. Customers are really responding to very favorably. So we are very excited about what we’re seeing as the two organizations come together.

The sales organizations are very much aligned and then the leadership organization that accelerate in both BD are very much aligned, and we’re very happy with the progress we’re seeing.

Andrew Brackmann: Great to hear. One last one for us. Just given where OpEx and spending came in the quarter, how are you thinking about that going forward? And how does that compare versus your long-term plan you laid out just a few months ago. Thank you.

David Patience: Great question. And so as we pivoted the commercial strategy to bring BD in as our commercial sales agent, we are now realizing and seeing the synergies that we were hoping to both with SG&A as well as in Europe as well. And so overall, what we’re seeing as BDs taking on more of the sales and marketing effort, we’re seeing the fruits of that both in the funnel, but also we are seeing our OpEx coming down sequentially quarter-over-quarter as we refine and focus on our two strategic priorities, which are delivering wave as well as supporting BD partnership. And so as we move into the next quarters, we’re very focused on those two strategic initiatives and refining our cash burn accordingly.

Andrew Brackmann: Great. Thank you. That’s all from us.

Jack Phillips: Thank you.

Operator: The next question is from Alex Nowak of Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Albert Hu: Hi, good afternoon, everyone. This is Albert Hu on for Alex. Thanks for taking the question. So I know you mentioned some updates here on Arc enrollment, but can you give us just the latest on the past way for, let’s say, approval and timing? Thank you.

Jack Phillips: Yes, sure. So just to remind everyone on what we’re driving towards with Arc in the US. We are in clinical trials currently for Arc in the US. That trial is going very well. One site has completed enrollment. The other one is underway. And we are still looking to submit for our FDA submission here in the coming months. And what that will do is give us really an incredible opportunity in the market to have a workflow solution for MALDI that will be the only validated solution in the market for basically a sample prep device used in conjunction with a MALDI platform in the US. So it will be a Class II 510(k) approval. Again, we’ve already done all the work with the FDA relative to pre subs and obviously started clinical trials and those continue to go well.

This is something that BD is very excited about as well because as a reminder, BD is one of the main distributors for MALDI platforms in the US, the Bruker Biotyper and that’s what the Arc will be validated for use with. So we’re really excited about that. And then, I would also make a comment about Arc in EMEA. We are on market for Arc in EMEA. Again, some of the business opportunities that we had to fix with BD have slowed down Pheno and Arc. But I’m happy to say that we’ve closed several deals for Arc in EMEA. We’ve got several evaluations going on as well. And overall, things are starting to gain traction in EMEA for Arc today, which is on market.