And we’re kind of naturally progressing through that and we’ll continue to do through the year.
Operator: One moment for our next question, please. And it comes from the line of Caroline [Huzog] with Bank of America.
Unidentified Analyst: This is Caroline on from Travis’ team. I wanted to ask about the marketing cadence through the year. The Q1 gross margins came in well ahead of expectations, which I think had already included some of those production cost dynamics. And so do the Q1 gross margins or does that change your expectations for the magnitude of step down in gross margin in Q2 that you had talked to previously and/or gross margin expansion for the year? And then just my second question while I’m at it on margins as well, thinking about operating expenses, it looks like Q1 OpEx came in maybe just a tick higher than expectations than you had previously talked about $50 milllion a quarter in OpEx, give or take, and that being flat through the year. So given that Q1 OpEx came in the year a tick higher, should we think about any change to your expectations for that $50 million and flat through the year that you had spoken to previously?
Chas McKhann: So yes, on gross margin, let me just talk about what drove the result in Q1 and then I’ll take it out for the rest of the year. So as we talked about on the prior call, there has been a temporary favorable variance in Q4 and Q1. We’ll get a little bit more in Q2, but that will pass and will begin to normalize. The other driver on the margin, I would say, was kind of strong execution on all the details, obviously, starting with price discipline, but things like scrap, shipping quality related costs, et cetera, our team just kind of hit on all cylinders in the quarter. So a great start to the year. We do expect a sequential step down in Q2 and then price being equal, we’ll start to benefit from continued volume through our two manufacturing facilities in part and kind of normalize thereafter.
So good start to the year but the same message as prior step down in Q2 and then a return to normalization. On the OpEx side as well, roughly the same message. We’re 50, 51 and change as there’s normal quarterly variation between quarters. But that’s in the ballpark for what we expect going forward with all the different puts and takes. We’re really at scale across R&D and SG&A at this point. And so that’s our continued expectation. So that will run rate to 200, 200 and change with some quarterly variation. And just to comment quickly and as a reminder, just over 20% of our OpEx base is noncash stock comp, which you can see in the press release related to our adjusted EBITDA table, which gives us the continued confidence in our path to profitability.
Operator: One moment for our last question in the queue. And it comes from the line of Suraj Kalia with Oppenheimer.
Suraj Kalia: Gentleman, congrats on a great quarter. So Charles shuttling between multiple calls, bear with me if these questions are redundant. Did you all talk about the same store new store sales configuration in the quarter? I know it’s a variant of the earlier question that was asked about six to 12 months in versus TF CAS. But I’m just wondering if you could put a few more quantifiable parameters around the new store same store. The other thing Chas — and this may be an unfair question, so please forgive me. If given a choice between going after thrombectomy for stroke prophylaxis versus totally endovascular TCAR, where would R&D resources in your view, more wisely spent?
Chas McKhann: I think we don’t break out same store sales, except what I would say is — and we’ve talked about this on our prior call. I think we’re undergoing an evolution. It’s not a sort of sudden shift. It’s an evolution where with 2,800 physicians trained, increasingly more of our growth will come from kind of what you’re talking about same store sales. Now we still have opportunities to add additional physicians and accounts. We have a heavy focus on fellows and the sales team and our education team are doing an excellent job on identifying the fellows, tracking them in sales force, making sure they get educated, helping them to to make sure that they — as many of them as possible get certified, while in fellowship. And so that’s an example of, again, a new growth area there from a customer standpoint.
We also have, I mentioned the non-VQI accounts. But all that being said, it’s just a natural progression that more will be coming from our existing base of customers, and that’s a big part of our focus. Look, on your R&D question, I think the — what I can say in terms of answering it because we haven’t really gotten into our early stage pipeline, except that when we — on our last call, we did talk about the NITE1 study, and we were excited about the results there, but we have also primarily are focusing on our leadership in carotid artery disease. And that’s — and we serve as the leader in that category already. I mean, in this market in the space and we are working on programs to continue and extend that lead. My philosophy on things like that is to once we get more visibility in terms of things like FDA pathways and time lines and we’re really to show something, then we’ll share it.
But we’re working through things with our team and some exciting stuff that in the future when we’re ready to talk about it, we will.
Operator: Thank you. And I do not see any further questions in the queue. I will thank you, everybody, for participating. I will turn it back to Charles McKhann for final comments.
Chas McKhann: Thank you again for joining us today. Really pleased you joined us and very pleased with the start to the year, and look forward to providing additional updates as the year progresses. Take care, everyone.
Operator: Thank you, everyone, for participating. You may now disconnect.
