DermTech, Inc. (NASDAQ:DMTK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Joseph Flanagan: Hey, this is Joe on for Dan. Just first, now that gross margins have turned positive, is there any way to think about how fast these might shape up, you can start driving some leverage here despite volume maybe being sustainably lower for a bit closer to that 1,500 billable sample level for a few quarters?

Kevin Sun: Yes. Hey, Joe, the margin right at this early stage and it’s impacted by a couple of big things. So ASPs will certainly help margins quite a bit, even if we keep everything else equal so as our focus on ASP and revenue growth that that will help the margins. And then as we’ve moved into our new laboratory, which we completed back in Q1, we can now focus on finding additional cost savings and efficiencies and we have a number of efforts focused on those things. So that along with getting some additional capacity absorption of our fixed costs will help in those margins. So we do believe that over time, we’ve got runway to bring the COGS below the $200 mark. And again, we’re working on those things now. It’s not just through the capacity absorption, but also a number of process improvements.

So we’re working on those things and it’s something that some of them can take a little bit longer if we’re talking about technology changes and such. But we do see a pathway of having some meaningful gross margins in the future.

Joseph Flanagan: Great. And then, just in terms of the Medicare proportion of billable samples, is there some sort of range that you think you can drive this number in the next year or two? And how do you think that might affect ASP in like an optimistic scenario?

Bret Christensen: Yes. Joe, we just know it can go higher. So it’s 50% of the opportunity by itself, just because 50% of biopsies done in dermatology are Medicare claims. And so it’s such a massive opportunity for us. It’s been — it’s along with other reimbursed covered tests have just been a focus of ours and something we’re watching closely. We just know it can go higher and we’ll find out where it settles in, in the future. But that is the focus today.

Kevin Sun: Yes. Like many things, we have this quarter showed some really good progress when we’ve been flat for a while. And so before we’re ready to kind of really give any detailed forward-looking guidance on any of these metrics, we do want to see a little bit of a trend so we can see if we can sustain that improvement.

Operator: Please standby for the next question. The next question comes from Mason Carrico with Stephens. Your line is open.

Jacob Johnson: Hey, guys, this is Jacob on for Mason. Lots already been covered today, so I’ll just keep the one it’s on the TRUST 2 study timeline, if we were to think about a best case scenario, the timeline for results to readout. You said results might readout by the end of this year top-line results. But then for results to readout, for it to get published, for you to submit to payer, the payer review it and adopt coverage and then you start getting paid. How should we think about that? I know that there’s a lot of variables there, but any way to give us a general timeline on what that would look like if everything went right?

Bret Christensen: Yes, Jacob, this is Bret, really, really good question and really insightful. So we — what we’ve said is we expect to see top-line data by the end of the year, and we’re still going through our publication strategy. So we’re trying to decide where and when that can be published. And we’ll have probably a better view of that as the year comes to a close and as we start to see that pipeline data. But for now, it’s a consideration. We still think we’ll see the data this year, but publication is something we just haven’t talked about. But that will take a little bit of time.

Kevin Sun: Yes. And the publication timeline, it’s really dependent on which source it gets published in. And so, then as it relates to like the payer review, it depends on when the payer review cycles kick in. So if it’s published after the first cycle, then of a year, if say, a payer has two cycles in a year, then they won’t get a chance to review it till ahead of the next cycle. So, again, there’s a lot of depends here, but it really is dependent upon, which publication we choose, when the timeline is, and then what are the cycles are for each of the payers.

Jacob Johnson: Okay. Got it. I’ll just keep the one. Thanks, guys.

Operator: Please standby for the next question. The next question comes from Andrew Brockman with William Blair. Your line is open. The next question comes from Andrew Brockman with William Blair. Your line is open.

Operator: I show no further questions at this time. This will conclude the Q&A session and the conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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