Akoya Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKYA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Kyle Mikson: Right. Yeah. That last part is important, Brian. Thanks a lot for that.

Brian McKelligon: All right.

Kyle Mikson: I’m going to hop off. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

Brian McKelligon: Thanks, Kyle.

Operator: Thank you. One moment, please. Our next question comes from the line of Mason Carrico of Stephens. Your line is open.

Mason Carrico: Hey, guys. Thanks for the question. Congrats on a strong 2022. Maybe just starting with reagent revenue during the quarter. I think it came in slightly lighter than we were modeling. Could you expand on some of the dynamics that played out specifically in the fourth quarter? I know you called out some factors that weighed on this revenue in 2022. But I guess just any incremental color on what played out during Q4 and if any of those dynamics have continued in 2023?

Brian McKelligon: Yeah. Joe can address that. I mean, but there’s a lot of contributing factors. Maybe, Joe, you can talk to you a little bit of those.

Joe Driscoll: Yeah. I think it’s pretty much what we’ve talked about already. The COVID lockdowns in China, that was a problem from Q2 through Q4, some softness in Europe with currency issues, kind of held back some spending. So I don’t think it was any one thing. But as we’ve rolled into Q1, we’ve definitely seen order volumes pick up so — versus Q4. So I think we’re going to be fine in 2023 in terms of reagent performance.

Brian McKelligon: And then there is still…

Mason Carrico: Got it.

Brian McKelligon: Look, there’s still a little bit of lumpiness in the revenue realization within each quarter, but almost certainly also on the comps from the prior year.

Mason Carrico: Got it. Okay. Perfect. Thanks. And on the macro environment, are you still seeing an elongation in capital purchase time lines, and as we kind of think about the 2023 guide, has any conservatism been baked in around that dynamic this year? How are you thinking about it?

Brian McKelligon: So I’ll make a comment and then Joe can add on. Where we saw some expansion of capital purchase timelines and approval strings was in EMEA. But it didn’t have a material impact on the quarter or even looking forward. It’s just really a dynamic that we have to be cognizant to manage and as we’re including that in 2023, we did not. But the other concept that we did talk about was still fairly anemic reagent revenue, albeit coming back slowly in China. I think we still contemplating some of that. Joe, do you want to add any more color?

Joe Driscoll: Yeah. Just, overall, we’re not anticipating a massive economic turnaround in our 2023 guide. I guess the guide that we’ve given presumes that things are kind of going to be what they are right now in terms of overall macro environment. So we’ll obviously keep a close eye on that. But that’s kind of our basic assumption.

Mason Carrico: Got it. That’s helpful. Thanks, guys.

Brian McKelligon: Thanks, Mason.

Operator: Thank you. One moment, please. Our next question comes from the line Tejas Savant of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Tejas Savant: Hey, guys. Good evening. Thanks for the time here. Brian, maybe to kick things off one for you. So other than scheduling, where do things stand and what remains to be done for the Fusion 2.0 rollout. I think you mentioned you expect that to start in 2Q. And then by when do you expect to be done with those field upgrades? And then, Joe, as a follow-up to that, is the increase in throughput that the Fusion 2.0 enables, I think, it said from 10 to 20 to 30 samples. To what extent is that sort of baked into your guide at the midpoint?