OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSUR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Andrew Cooper: Maybe first, just thinking about the gross margins, I know a couple have already sort of attacked this a little bit. But when we think about InteliSwab margins being up sequentially, you had talked about the core being down a bit quarter-over-quarter, and that seems like it’s — what played out. But can you give us a sense for other than mix, what some of the moving parts are there? Did things perform more or less as you expected? And maybe just on a constant mix basis, what has that core gross margin really looked like, and how should we think about it trending through the course of ’23?

Kenneth McGrath: Yes, I think you’re thinking of the right elements as you go through it. Mix, as Scott mentioned, as we mix towards more diagnostic, which has an overall lower margin than molecular over the past couple of quarters, that’s kind of a headwind to overall gross margins. However, the team through their great work, has offset a lot of that, with improvements in efficiencies, in particular with InteliSwab. And they will continue to do that, as we mentioned, with the packaging and freight reductions of about $0.40 per test as we go forward. So I think you’re thinking of the right elements in there. The other area that we’ve made improvements in margin is, as we bring on more volume, we do better with our overall absorption in the facilities that we have.

That’s an area that we focused on, as well as a significant reduction in scrap along the way. So I think you’re thinking of the right areas, it’s mix and then there’s overall operational efficiency that we’re driving. And if you think long term, one of the areas that we mentioned on a prior question was around our facility footprint, and really looking at leveraging our facility footprint going forward to take the best advantage of it. And then in addition to that, to leverage the capabilities we’ve developed and built with InteliSwab and leverage that on our other platforms. So those are the areas — that’s how we’re thinking of it going forward. So I think you’re thinking of it the right way.

Scott Gleason: Yes. And I would just highlight 2 other areas. One thing we did see this quarter is we had a higher international mix, when we look at our Diagnostics segment. The international Diagnostics business has a lower gross margin profile than our U.S. domestic-based diagnostics. The other piece, as we think about our margin structure that we saw in the quarter is — remember, the COVID molecular kits had a very high margin profile as — the highest margin product for the company. And so as that tapered some, that also has created some headwinds as well for the business overall.

Andrew Cooper: Okay. Helpful. And maybe just following up on one of those things, just in terms of the facility footprint and how you think about that. Obviously, the government’s funding a lot that can probably be used beyond InteliSwab. So should we be thinking about that as likely being some of the legacy facilities moving into that super factory you’ve talked about before? What do timelines sort of look like for that? And anything else we should think about from that footprint perspective?

Kenneth McGrath: Yes. So at a high level, yes, you’re right. That’s how we’re thinking of it. We haven’t quoted any timelines at this point. You can imagine it’s an urgency of us. We have a facility, we have a capability we’ve built. Now we want to leverage that to its fullest extent. So that’s the analysis and approach we’re looking at right now. I can’t give you a timeline, but we are — that is a sense of urgency…