Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Justin Bowers with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.
Justin Bowers: Hi, good morning, everyone. So just sticking with the topic du jour, where — you talked about next quarter being potentially the trough for China. And somewhat of a philosophical question. But if we exclude Hope and return to government funding and just think about the infrastructure that’s in place now and what’s needed to sustain the business. Is 2Q sort of like a good reflection of the run rate? And just taking a step back, I mean, you guys are outperforming peers a little bit in that market. Some are down 30%, 40%, 50%, right? And there’s only so many quarters you can have those sorts of drawdowns before you start cutting into the bone. So just any thoughts on that would…
Charles Kummeth: Yes, it’s a good question. the institutions there, a good comment from our leader in APAC this week, and he said, “Well, — they’re not really in the cutting people. They’re just sitting around playing Mahjong waiting for money to come in.” So — but the teams are there. And — but you’re right, they’ve got to get work done, and they are labs and they’ve got run rate we need. And I think the — it’s about growth, it’s about future growth, it’s about money for new programs, but there is a certain level of keep the lights on funding happening. So it’s shrinking, but it’s not gone away. So I mean got to put it in perspective there, I think. I think other companies talked with that, too. There’s — we had 17% growth last quarter.
In this quarter, we were down mid-teens. Maybe it will be end up being flat, but it isn’t like there’s no money, no funding. I mean people aren’t working or going to work, they’re going to work, and they’re doing work, but there isn’t funding for new programs right now. So everything is kind of at a standstill waiting on that. So that’s really the tone going forward. Don’t know of any real layoffs. We have our full team right now, and there isn’t much attrition. I don’t think they’re that kind of an economy anyway, but they are playing a lot of Mahjong waiting for the checks to come in. So it’s pretty happy team, too. I mean it’s — if you’ve gone to China as many times as I have, I’m just always come back pretty energized because they’re just such hard-working people, and they’re just really enjoy seeing you and they really are authentic and you’ll never get more honest questions and honest answers from than you will from the teams in China, your teams or customers or anyone for that matter.
So just love it.
Justin Bowers: Got it. And then just one follow-up and sort of ending on a more positive note. Within the ProteinSimple franchise, you talk about a lot of runway left. where have you had the most success, which sort of accounts or which end markets and penetrating and where do you think there’s more sort of education that needs to happen around adoption of the platform? And so 15% growth going forward is highly attractive in the comps that you put up this quarter as well. So.
Charles Kummeth: Yes. Well, we do — we’ve got a stable of nice businesses here, a good dozen or so platforms, but three of them are three most important. We put most of our energy and our funding, all had great quarters with 50% growth in Exosome, we had double-digit growth nearly in spatial. We had solid growth in cell and gene therapy, 40% in GMP proteins. We’re going to more than double the number of proteins that come out of the factory this coming year. We’re building a new factory in China for GMP proteins because the demand there is actually accelerating as well. So yeah, I think now is the time to be thinking ahead and not be short-term thinking and — it isn’t just our company stock. It’s a lot of in our industry. A year from now, this is all, could be all behind us, and there’s going to be a fast flight back to quality earnings, and that’s us.
We make money, and we operate well. But we are definitely can say that we’re in a — we’re definitely in a recession. In fact, the whole world is waiting and talking about rates and interest rates are a big issue, obviously, and waiting for a pivot and whether or not we can hit a soft landing and for the economy. And I’m going to pull out there. I would say, in life sciences, we missed the pit. So in terms of life sciences. It was a hard landing. So we’re going to — but we’ll get through it. Disease, neuroscience, cancer. They’re not going away on their own. And the big macro trends out there, aging, obesity, things like that are just getting worse, not better. So our time will come again, and the smart investors will be there early. So.
Operator: Thank you. We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. Mr. Kummeth, I would now like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.
Charles Kummeth: Well, again, thanks for the quarter. Probably my last full earnings call. This is like number 42 or something like that. Kim will probably take more of a lead next quarter, and I’ll be around for a couple more or so. But we’re all pretty energized here and still having a good time, and we love what we do, and we love the science. And anyway, we’ll see you next quarter. Thanks.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.
