NanoString Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:NSTG) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

I don’t think I can really be too quantitative about that. I think overall, it’s fair to say whatever commerce results, from those types of activities, is going to be a modest part of our overall mix. The primary driver of our growth, will be the continued sale of our technologies, into those major markets that are not enjoined. And just as a reminder, I think we issued this kind of important fact, at the time of the UPC injunction. The nations – the 17 countries that are part of that UPC jurisdiction only account, for about 10% or less of our overall CosMx demand and backlog. So it’s – while it’s obviously a headwind, it’s not one that should overall change, the overall shape of the market.

Unidentified Analyst : Yes. Thanks for that. That’s makes a lot sense. And then switching gears, I know China isn’t the most material geography for your revenue mix. But can you give us some color on what you have been seeing over there? And then also just on – it looks like just throughout time, you guys have been changing the mix in terms of the CosMx from primarily academic, it’s still primarily academic, but biopharma and biopharma CROs are becoming a bigger mix of that pie. Is that a – is the primary driver, of that actually like more CROs, buying instruments, demand from that side? Or are you seeing anything on the academic, where sales cycles have been slowing and then maybe purchasing, hasn’t been up to previous levels, if that makes sense?

Brad Gray: Yes, let me take the biopharma slide and then I’m going to ask Tom to take the China piece. On the biopharma front, yes, we are pleased to see an increase in interest in the CosMx system from the biopharma community. I’d say overall, the translational research and biopharma communities have been slower adopters of non-spatial single cell technologies, but yes, I believe we’re starting to see that tick up and single cell spatial technologies are ticking up right alongside it. CROs are, I think, a very great avenue for biopharma companies to access technologies that, they’re not 100% sure they want to scale internally yet, especially smaller, more cash-constrained biopharma companies, who would be reluctant to spend $300,000 on a piece of capital equipment. So CROs have been a really great avenue for us to bring spatial biology, to those segments of the market. Tom, maybe you can take the question on China trend?

Tom Bailey: On China, it’s less than 10% of our revenue. It’s consistent with what it was last quarter. And I would be, I think, remiss we would be to draw any macro trends from our sales in China. We’ve got a relatively new sales effort there. It’s just I would say — we’re just too small portion of our revenue, and our overall business and the dollar, as a whole for us to draw any macro trends from it. But it doesn’t – if you just look at it in and of itself, it does – it hasn’t been – our sales have been pretty consistent, as a percentage of the total in China over the last several periods.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst : Good evening, guys. This is [Edmonds]. Just wanted to ask you quickly, Brad, how has the CosMx ASP been trending lately? Was this a meaningful driver, of the lower gross margins in third quarter? And how should we be thinking about the CosMx ASP in ’24, given that on the last call, you noted ASPs have been improving, but you’re still continuing some of your discounting tactics?

Brad Gray: I’m going to let Tom answer that question, Edmond.