Invitae Corporation (NYSE:NVTA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Madison Pasterchick: Hi. This is Madison on for Tejas. Congrats on the quarter and thanks for taking the questions. Maybe just firstly, within oncology, I was wondering if you expect the delayed payment from the commercial insurance payers to be resolved by year end. It sounds like it is improving or if you do expect any spillover as we sink into next year? And then can you kind of quantify the impact of your guidance at the midpoint for this year and then what impact we could be seeing in 2024?

Ken Knight: So I’ll say to you that the work that we’ve done in terms of addressing the commercial payer challenges that we have. We’re seeing that that’s starting to materialize, but we actually believe that the full year benefit of it won’t be seen until we get into 2024. So the good news is that the progress we’re making, we are confident is durable, and we’ll see a full year implication of it next year. And so your question about the implications on the midpoint of the revenue guide, is that what the question was?

Madison Pasterchick: Yeah. Just like what’s baked into the guidance range for this year at the midpoint, what kind of headwind?

Ken Knight: Well, I’d say that we expect that we’ll — you’ve seen really quarter-after-quarter, our top corporate-level average payment protest has improved, and we’re expecting that that’s going to improve for Q4 as well. That’s informing our confidence in the revenue guide. We are also seeing improvement in growth in the business in terms of volumes, and so that’s baked into our confidence into the guide as well. And so it’s a combination of growing more volume as well as increasing the quality of our revenue in terms of average payment per test and those two things together is what gives us confidence in our guide.

Madison Pasterchick: Okay. That’s really helpful. And then maybe just one follow-up. We already spoke a bit about the special committee being formed to improve the company’s capital structure and kind of the different avenues you’re contemplating there. I was wondering if you could give any more context on the pathways you’re exploring and maybe an expected timeline that we could be seeing some of these initiatives implemented?

Ken Knight: Well, I mean, I think the, first of all, I would say that our board is extremely supportive of our company. And — but as we looked at this, the board was willing to have several of the independent directors who dedicate more time, if you will, to really specifically focusing on, the capital structure of the company and helping guide us in our way forward and so that to me is a good sign. Timelines and things like that, it’s a little premature to try to signal that. But I would say to you that the commitment and the time that they’re putting in, we all are operating with an appropriate level of urgency associated with mapping the next path for Invitae. And when we set out last year, I’m reminded that we said we were going to be focusing on a few things.

One was to kind of stabilize the business and execute on the short term. And then we talked about growing profitably, which we’re doing. And then we talked about really mapping out a path to be able to drive investment into the future of the company. And so I think this is where we are in this phase between steps two and three, and our board and special committee are really there to help us with that effort and direction.

Madison Pasterchick: Got it. Okay. Thank you. Really helpful.

Operator: Thank you. We will now take our next question from Andrew Brackmann from William Blair. Andrew, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Dustin Scaringe: Hi. This is Dustin on the line for Andrew. Thanks for taking our questions. On gross margin, good to see that continue to trend up over many quarters. Wondering if you guys can talk about the leverage driving that and where it can end up over time?