Operator: The next question comes from Falko Friedrichs of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Falko Friedrichs: Thank you very much. And my question is, how should we think about the future of the NeuMoDx platform within your company? And do you still believe you’re the best owner? And then my follow-up would be on QIAstat-Dx and whether you can remind us of the next steps when it comes to the test menu expansion.
Thierry Bernard: Thank you, Falko. On NeuMoDx. The first consideration is that we acquired that platform because we believe in it, and we strongly believe that it’s probably the best platform in the market for many features, ease of use, speed, versatility, especially the ability to run a laboratory developed test in parallel to a regulated test in a very, very, very random access. This is the only platform able to do that. However, as we have disclosed, we have experienced stability issues at the launch of the platform, which is normal in this market. And therefore, we have given priority to fix in those stability issues over the last 2.5 years. As a result, we are experiencing delays. It’s submitting and approving assays on the U.S. market, which is still by far the main market for infectious diseases PCR testing.
NeuMoDx is doing well in Europe. We see non-COVID assays, double-digit growth. At the same time, it is our duty to systematically and constantly review the performance of our product portfolio, market shares, growth, return on capital invested. And there is no dogma at QIAGEN. It is not because the product is part of our five pillars of growth that it will be part of our priorities forever. The product and the team need to deliver. And so, we are currently reviewing every kind of options for NeuMoDx. This is what we can say at the moment. QIAstat-Dx, the menu is going on, and I would differentiate two kinds of development. The traditional menu to be competitive in syndromic testing is already available for QIAstat in Europe. I refer here to respiratory, GI and meningitis.
We are going to bring those assays as well in the U.S. The next step is to develop a completely differentiated assays that is not existing in our competition portfolio. And I refer here to what we call the complicated UTIs. Once we have launched that assay in Europe first, we will continue the development and registration of more traditional assets such as direct identification of blood culture positive, already research use only in Europe, pneumonia, and then we will go probably to other kind of samples, whether we are talking joint or other kind of samples. This is the road map for QIAstat, a solution where we believe we can really take the number two position on that market, which is a very growing market and expected to be around close to $5 billion total market size by 2026.
Operator: The next question comes from Jack Meehan of Nephron Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Jack Meehan: Thank you everyone. I want to focus on QuantiFERON. So first, could you just talk about how you’re looking at kind of the competitive landscape and some of the differentiation for the test? Second, are there any macro sensitivities you see here? And maybe finally, just level of confidence this can sustain double-digit growth into 2024?
Thierry Bernard: So Jack, thanks for the questions. Obviously, the first thing about the differentiation of QuantiFERON. The major growth driver that we have decided to protect and grow faster since 2016 where we started the discussion and negotiation with DiaSorin for automation. Many people are aware of the partnership with DiaSorin. Some people sometimes forget about the partnership also with Hamilton and Tecan for the front-end automation of QuantiFERON. And therefore, as of today, there is no more automated workflow and easier to use than QuantiFERON. And from the back-end automation available in a very sizable installed base of the Liaison Diasorin either excel or excess. Number one. Number two, the number of publications around the quality, the value, the clinical superiority of QuantiFERON is unprecedented.
