Catherine Schulte: Okay. Great. And then in sample tech, how does the non-COVID business perform outside of China? And what’s your outlook for sample tech for the second quarter? Should we see a return to growth on a non-COVID basis? Or will that be more of a back half event?
Thierry Bernard: I would prefer, as Roland said, to say that we still expect low to low-single-digit growth throughout the year. It’s too early in the quarter. You see, as we explained, I mean, we are impacted here by weak demand in China. Obviously, the COVID impact. But on the non-COVID, we are pleased on one hand with the placement of instruments. Now we need to accelerate the consumables, both manual and automated, the market is moving probably faster into automated sample tech. But once again, I ask you to see the sequence of growth through the full year, not just on quarter two.
Catherine Schulte: Thank you.
Operator: We go next to Falko Friedrichs with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Falko Friedrichs: Hey thank you for taking my question. So the Roche CMD is coming up now in May, everyone’s looking forward to see if they do anything on the latent tuberculosis side of things. Irrespective of the decision, can you just briefly remind us why you still believe that you’d be sitting on a great business here that you can grow further even if they were to enter that market? And then related to that, if they decide to enter the market, would that change anything with regard to your further rollout strategy? Thank you.
Thierry Bernard: Thanks, Falko. I cannot talk on behalf of any competitors. I’m talking for QIAGEN, and I know that we have built what is the most automated — universal automated workflow for latent TB detection. Many people have in mind the agreement with DiaSorin, which is key and has proven extremely efficient since we executed on it. But it starts also on the pre-analytical step with agreement with Tecan and Hamilton. There is no comparison on the market at the moment with that workflow. Second, as you have seen also recently, Falko, we continue to invest on the product itself. The fourth generation did replace the third generation and we continue to get publications in peer reviews on this fourth generation. Overall, since we have launched latent TB QuantiFERON.
It’s more than 3,000 publications. It’s unprecedented. Third, there has been competition for many years for QuantiFERON. The main one is an antiquated technology called skin test. And that market is still underpenetrated, probably below 40%. So the potential to convert is still significant in the U.S., obviously, but also in other markets. And beyond skin test, the emergence or the presence of other competitors independent or not, never really changed the growth rate of QIAGEN all our market shares. So do not take this for complacency. We monitor the market very well, but we have not seen anything concrete yet. What I know is we continue to invest on our solution on the market conversion, and we believe that we are still very well positioned to lead that market.
Falko Friedrichs: Thank you.
Operator: Next, we go to the line of Dan Leonard with UBS. Please go ahead.
Daniel Leonard: Hello and thank you. I have a follow-up to an earlier question on your sample tech business. Has your level of conviction that sample tech can grow low single digits for the year. Has that level of conviction changed at all in the past three months?
Thierry Bernard: No. As we have said, we reiterate that vision for the full year, once again, 2024. We are spending significant marketing time and analysis to understand the trends of the market worldwide. And so far, this basically confirms that assumption. So no change for the moment.
Daniel Leonard: And then my follow-up, Thierry, you mentioned H5N1. How are you thinking about QIAGEN’s ability to respond if there is a greater need for testing for H5N1 either in livestock or God forbid humans?
Thierry Bernard: So as usual, we are extremely proactive with every relevant authorities. I spoke about the NIH before, but it’s not only the NIH to discuss proactively about one, the situation without panicking. And second, the solutions. And as I said before, what is very interesting with QIAGEN is that when I say solutions, it’s not just about a kit. If the NIH decided to develop their own kit or the CDC, they will use QIAGEN components. So we can answer from component to finish kits, whether these kits is on a PCR format, on a digital PCR format or a next-generation sequencing format. You know that during the first major outbreak some years ago of H5N1, QIAGEN was 1 of the most relevant companies to step up to this challenge. And we will continue to do the same. We are very vigilant on H5N1 on the development of Monkeypox as well. And so we are ready and constantly negotiating and discussing with those agencies.
Daniel Leonard: Understood. Thank you.
Operator: We go next to Doug Schenkel with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.
Douglas Schenkel: Hi, thanks for taking my questions. A very quick follow-up on QuantiFERON. Thierry, I think you described really well the focus in the investment community on competition is — it’s not like we unearth something that you haven’t been thinking about for years. You’ve been competing against legacy approaches. There’s an existing IGRA competitor on the market. With that in mind, is it fair to say you’re going to describe in detail the CMD, not just how you stack up clinically and from a process perspective compared to alternatives, but you’ll also talk in detail about efforts you’ve made to contractually lock in customers based on the strength of your assay and anticipating potential competition that gets broader. Is that a fair assumption?
Thierry Bernard: It’s a very clear assumption, Doug. It’s such a key product for us that the CMD plans to give indeed details of what our expectations for the coming years. We are also very much monitoring the situation of our contract. So we will give details on the percentage of contracts that are locked into pre-annual contracts so that you will see really that there is no complacency. There is extreme vigilance. There is investments and there is confidence that this can continue to be a growth driver for our company.
Douglas Schenkel: Thank you for that. And then just a quick question on the quarter. Other companies have reported at least those that have reported thus far, a slower-than-expected start to the year when it came to lab activity and reagent demand. And then it seemed to indicate that there was a pickup in activity in March and April. I just want to be clear, did you guys see the same thing? And if so, is a continuation of that trend fully reflected in guidance assumptions, or are you waiting for the trend to extend for a longer period of time before you would factor something like that into your guidance? Thank you.
