But with this time advantage performance that we have here in this very late inning of FDA approval, and we feel very comfortable with where we are competitively, and we’ll see if anybody else is going to have anything at the end of the day. So, we are even more excited about the opportunity right now than even a few quarters ago.
Operator: The next question comes from the line of Rachel [ph] with JPMorgan.
Casey Woodring: Great, thank you. This is Casey Woodring on for Rachel [ph]. So biopharma had a strong quarter, test volume through up 37%, I think revenue was up 40%. 1Q was obviously a strong quarter from the biopharma funding perspective. So can you just walk us through the rational for reiterating your 2024 revenue forecast there for low teens growth? And maybe how much upside there would be to that number if funding would have hold at current levels or even continue to improve here relative to where funding levels were when you initiated the guide? Thank you.
Helmy Eltoukhy: Yes, I can take this. We at Biopharma came in incredibly strongly. Of course, in the first quarter we had a strong pipeline coming into the year, and so that came through. Looking at that pipeline now, it’s still very strong. I think we said in that prepared remarks, we’re sort of maintaining our overall guide for Biopharma, just — really, we want to be conservative and we want to just ensure that there is no adverse impacts for the biopharma funding. So the macro environment that might cause a potential reduction in perhaps DSO [ph], definitely those upside in the back half of the year for Biopharma. To clarify that is difficult. I think if you sort of back into our guide, we’re almost sort of guiding to sort of flat year-over-year in the back half of the year. So I think we feel hopeful that we can have upside development. Again, it’s difficult to quantify but the pipeline is looking strong for us in the near-term.
Operator: The next question comes from the line of Matthew Sykes with Goldman Sachs.
Unidentified Analyst: This is Will Meyer [ph] on for Matt. Great to see the gross margin raise at the start of the year, it sounds like the higher ASP was probably a big driver there. But can you give us some more color on any other drivers or moving pieces you’re seeing? And what are your expectations for phasing on gross margin for the rest of the year? Thank you.
Helmy Eltoukhy: Yes. No, we were really pleased on the gross margin. The real driver of this cause was the ASP impact. And so — as we said in the prepared remarks, we raised our expectation of ASP for Guardant360 for the remainder of the year. We also saw good commercial reimbursement on Reveal and TissueNext as well. So, if that was to continue through the year in this potential upside there on the gross margin, we — we sort of do want to offset that a little bit by the mix. We’re managing our Reveal volume mix — if we were to take the foot off the brake on Reveal, that could have had an impact. And those are the different mix impacts as well that we tried to manage but — overall, we’re really pleased gross margins are improving. We see a line of sight, IRA [ph] is potentially even higher than gross margin. So I think we started the year very well from that perspective.
Operator: The next question comes from the line of Doug Schenkel with Wolfe Research.
Doug Schenkel: Thank you so much. Appreciate you taking my questions. So, I want to I want to talk about two things. One is Shield and then two is, really R&D spend and prioritization as we look ahead. On Shield, maybe asking an earlier question in a different way. What do you think the realistic range of outcomes is for ad comm later this month? Two, recognizing that you’ve consistently said you believe this is a 3 year testing interval product; if you happen to be wrong, and this is every 1 year test, do the economics work? And then, what is your expectation for USPSTF timing? As we sit here today, there has been some commentary from others that this is seemingly being pushed out a little bit. And then I’ll come back and ask about R&D in a second.
Helmy Eltoukhy: Yes. So in terms of ad comm, several questions, yes. So in terms of ad comm, you know, probably the typical question in terms of safety, efficacy and benefit/risk is going to be discussed in the panel and the range of outcomes as advisors are now looking into our data, everything and decide what they want to vote on in terms of those questions. But we are very confident with all the profile of the data that we have to study that we’ve done and the reported device performance that we reported and published, and that the same kind of performance is kind of presented there. So we will see in terms of how that ad comm [ph] goes. We feel great about it. In terms of USPTF, in terms of the interval and three years testing, I mentioned this before, if — you know, the interval test for Shield becomes even more frequent than every three years, in fact, it’s going to be an offside process.
So in a land that FDA approved diagnostic test, pricing is going to get set, Medicare price is going to set in ABLT [ph] process. Every year testing frankly, would be even an offside in terms of our P&L. We believe based on the modeling that we’ve done, it’s over utilization of Shield. But annual testing is an upside, not a down side. The last one was what? That’s it. Okay. Yes.
Operator: The final question will come from the line of Mason [ph] with Stephens.
Unidentified Analyst: Sorry, if this has been discussed; jumping between a few tonight. So in terms of your expectations for Shield, you’ve talked about how a second label is still big opportunity. Your commitment to screening continues to fall in line with your expectations of the opportunity. So assuming you get a second line label, you know, as we look into next year, what is a realistic adoption hurdle for you guys? Exact to the 100,000 cologuard tests [ph] I believe in their first year. After FDA approval. Maybe you guys are in a bit of a better position commercially than they were at that time, maybe you’re not. But is there any sort of hurdle or framework you can give for expectations next year where volumes may fall?
Helmy Eltoukhy: In general, our expectation going through [indiscernible] is as follow on, a conversation with FDA is to take Shield to the finish line and get FDA approval. That would be the definition of success for Shield from our perspective; to have a huge opportunity in front of us. And a fair gauge [ph] obviously is, if we cannot convince FDA to approve this test. It would be very unexpected but we’ll see what happens. In terms of second line, we got the opportunity for blood based CRC screening, and the biggest opportunity in general for non-invasive CRC screening is this 50 million unscreened patient population which are out there right now. And that market segment is completely over for a second line indication. So that’s why we got a chance to be excited, to go to market which Shield, even with the second line indication.
Having said that, we have milestones, we have some assumption in terms of volume graph [ph] and revenue contribution. And we are going to monitor the commercial execution and if still the market is as exciting as what we think it is right now. In terms of savings a specific guidance for our next year; we would talk about it at the right time. It depends on the timing of FDA approval and some other factors. I am pretty sure we would talk about it in future, sometime in 2024.
Operator: Thank you. That is all the time we have for questions today. I will turn the call back over for any final concluding remarks.
Helmy Eltoukhy: Thank you so much for everybody’s interest. Have a good day and night.
Operator: That concludes today’s call. Thank you all for your participation. And you may now disconnect your lines.
