Lucid Diagnostics Inc. (NASDAQ:LUCD) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

But we have a very focused effort right now by our sales team to focus on stickier business. On having accounts continue to order on a clip, the reps are now increasingly incentivized along that — along those lines and it is working. So we have figured out ways. The issue with the repeat ordering and stickier business is not about sort of loss of interest. It’s more — it’s just more a matter of potential. And I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll reiterate it, one of the things that we really like about the satellite model is by having a day where the Lucid nurse practitioner is going to come to the practice on a particular day does bring the whole issue of esophageal precancer testing front and center and as they know that the fees is going to be there next week or in a couple of weeks, it’s much more front and center than previously, where we had to just have multiple contact points by our reps to keep it front and center.

So, yeah, I don’t have hard data on you on that, but the trends are actually — are good. We are getting stickier business, but we’re also — we’re doing both. We’re trying to get breadth and depth at the same time, while keeping kind of a mid-throttle approach until we get more predictable reimbursement.

Kyle Mikson: Okay. Just one last one before I hop off. So I guess on FDA, obviously, there’s a lot of back and forth, but it does seem like FDA is going to push towards regulating ODTs like in the near future, I guess. And I know you delayed the BE1, BE2 trials. But what would happen to your ability to offer EsoGuard in the event that the FDA starts to kind of crack down on tests in the next one year or two years or 24 months. What’s the plan B here?

Dr. Lishan Aklog: Yeah. We’re monitoring the valid act, as well as the FDA’s recent declaration around rule making in this area carefully. We don’t have any concerns in the near-term. These are all long-term. That’s certainly not one-year or two-year events. There are grandfathering clauses. We have confidence with regard to where our risk, where we will win wider in our risk assessment that we think will have the appropriate data to be able to continue uninterrupted. And so we’re monitoring closely. We’ve established long-term strategies to mitigate that. On our — on the clinical utility side, we will start getting clinical utility data. I should mention that there are other sources of clinical utility data from the BETRNet study, the NCI-sponsored studies that were anchored by the BETRNet consortium that’s centered around Case Western Reserve.

Those studies are collecting data. They’re starting to get critical masses of data with good results and we should start except — starting to see those come online in meetings and in peer review publications well before we have our BE2 data out. So we’re monitoring that, but we don’t have any concerns in the near with that.

Kyle Mikson: Perfect. That’s great, Lishan. Thanks guys for the question. Appreciate it.

Dr. Lishan Aklog: Thanks. Thanks a lot, Kyle.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from Ross Osborn of Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

Dr. Lishan Aklog: Good morning, Ross.

Dennis McGrath: Hi, Ross.

Ross Osborn: Hi. Good morning, everyone. So, generally, a couple of calls, I may have missed this, but where did you end the year in terms of sales reps and what are the hiring plans for 2023?