Good day and welcome to bioMérieux first half earnings release conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Franck Admant. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Mary. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review bioMérieux performance for the first half of 2022. Before leaving the floor to Alexandre Mérieux, Chairman and CEO, and Guillaume Bouhours, CFO, I will just make a very short introduction to provide you with a couple of information. First of all, our press release was released this morning at 7:00 A.M. This press release can be found on our homepage of our website. In addition, please note that the slides of this meeting will be also available after the call on the homepage of our website, or can be downloaded directly from the webcast. Promptly after the end of the meeting, the webcast and the call will be available in replay on our website. Now going to the presentation contents. After reviewing the performance, we will hold a Q&A session.
Questions can come from the conference call and from the chat of the webcast. If you will wish to ask a question, please make sure to identify yourself, name and company. A very last word before starting the presentation, I will not read to the slide which is currently projected, but I recommend you to take note of its contents that remind the usual disclaimer about the forward-looking statements. I now hand the call over to Alexandre Mérieux.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining this webcast related to H1 results for 2022. We'll start by giving you a few numbers regarding the performance of bioMérieux. Some key highlights of H1. All in all, the sales are stable compared to last year. We have a good solid performance in terms of a contributive EBITDA, which is a solid overall performance when we look at the context, and also in line with the guidelines that we issued early on this year. It's worth noting also that bioMérieux is a debt-free company with, I would say, room of maneuver.
The key growth driver for the performance in H1 were, of course, the success of BioFire, good performance of microbiology and also from industrial applications. Important move for us during H1 was the acquisition of Specific Diagnostics, which is really reinforcing the portfolio of bioMérieux and our commitment to fight antimicrobial resistance. Worth noting also, will be displayed in the slide, that we have a reinforced portfolio of solutions which were recently launched or which are being prepared for future launch. If I look now at BioFire results, and I would say that in H1, BioFire really would demonstrate, I would say its relevance, the relevance of genomic approach in time of pandemic, but also in time of non-pandemic.
Worth noting also that we see a nice increase of the non-respiratory panels growing double digits in every region in the world. This is the plan. I know that we have almost doubled the installed base of BioFire systems during the last two years. The objective for us is to increase the consumption of different panels per instrument. We're also pleased to be able to have the FDA approval of a new panel being a Joint Infection which was FDA approved early on this year. We are extending our leadership in genomic testing. We introduced the SPOTFIRE platform during ACC. As may be discussed with you during the last call, BioFire's SPOTFIRE system is a new platform aiming at entering the near patient testing, the decentralized space.
We are preparing the launch of the respiratory and SPOTFIRE panels. I would say the key attributes of this platform that it will be CLIA-waived, and also the results will be performed in less than 20 minutes, which is a condition to enter into the space of near patient testing. Microbiology, solid performance this first six months. With good performance, I would say, all over the world on the key platforms such as ID/AST and also blood culture, even despite the lockdowns in China. The new VITEK MS PRIME, which was CE marked in 2021, was FDA cleared in 2022, with a good start of the commercial traction of this new and well-performing platform. Major acquisition for us in H1 with acquisition of Specific Diagnostics.
It's a company based in the U.S. Really the topic for us is to strengthen our portfolio, but mainly to come to the market to provide to the labs and the physician with a solution addressing a major unmet need, which is rapid AST. With the Specific Diagnostics and the SPECIFIC REVEAL platforms, we are aiming at having actionable results on the average of 5.5 hours after positive blood culture. It will be going through FDA filing in Q4 with the Breakthrough Device designation. Showing that it's truly, I would say, a solution that is aiming at improving healthcare.
We are currently, I would say, supporting the preparation of the FDA filing, the department in Europe, and also integrating the company and working on the manufacturing scaling up. Immunoassay, the first six months have been quite challenging. Some of this was expected because we had a strong base effect from last year, linked to the surge of COVID and mainly in India. We're expecting a base effect on this, on SARS-CoV-2, also. We also, I would say, suffered a bit from the lockdowns in China, which were quite strong in Q2. We were expecting the pressure to continue on PCT.
All in all, I would say this is a challenging first half for immunoassay. Of course, we are still focusing on developing the portfolio. VIDAS CHIKUNGUNYA was CE- marked. VIDAS NEPHROCHECK for acute kidney injury was FDA cleared. We are preparing the launch of a new platform, and VIDAS TBI should be launched in H1 2023. We're predicting also that we are facing some issues with the recently launched test, VIDAS TB-IGRA, where we are facing an unexpected level of false positive. We are currently going away from the current commercialization to assess what is the issue or the current issue that we are solving on VIDAS TB-IGRA.
The industry good performance both on the food market and the healthcare market quite even, I would say. Food market is being boosted by the molecular solutions like for pharma applications. This is, I would say, pushed by all our quality control monitoring solution that we have. We have a healthy pipeline also. We are launching what we call for pharma application, the 3P solution for viral control and a big range of Xplore assays linked to the Invisible Sentinel range, company that we acquired two years ago. With this being said, I will hand the floor to Guillaume to give us an update on the results.
Thank you, Alexandre. Hello, everyone. Let's look at, let's say, the financial view on what Alexandre already presented in terms of trends. You have here the view by ranges. Overall you can see that molecular ranges still represent the first range with 38% of group sales. Up 8% as already explained with, as you might have seen in the press release, a very strong dynamic of +30% in the Q2. As already commented, syndromic solutions to BioFire are at a very strong pace. U.S. very strong, but also important to note, non-respiratory growing at double digits. Microbiology, our core position, performed very well at 5% growth, as explained by Alexandre, one third of group sales. Immunoassay already declined at -21%.
I can mention that in the decrease, about half of the decrease is coming from this, let's say, base effect or slowdown of demand for COVID related parameters. About one third is coming from the PCT continued decrease from competition in the U.S. We have other factors such as China lockdowns in Q2. Industrial just presented by Alexandre as well, +5% both segments. We can mention that reagents growth is pretty strong at +9%. Whereas on instruments we had a very high base of comparison last year. Moving to the view by geography of our stable organic growth. This is all in organic growth, of course. America leads at +4%.
Of course, a strong performance in North America with this demand for respiratory panels that was maintained pretty high and as well for non-respiratory panel. Very satisfying performance in Latin America as well. We can mention specifically Mexico, Argentina, Colombia level of growth and balanced especially between microbiology and molecular in Latin America. Now turning to EMEA, our second biggest region. Very slightly negative. In Europe, we have the negative effect of slowdown of COVID demand. That impacts in Europe both the COVID parameters in the immunoassay portfolio, as well as the demand for respiratory BioFire panel. But in front of that, we are able to grow very nicely in non-respiratory syndromic in Europe, in microbiology as well as industry industrial applications.
Finally, Asia Pacific, minus 6% and very contrasted inside Asia Pacific, of course. Japan, very strong performance in Japan. You remember that Japan became our second country for BioFire sales and actually demand continued to be pretty solid and steady in Japan for BioFire. Good performance in Korea and Australia as well. Of course, the first half was impacted for Asia Pacific by the slowdown, lockdown. As a consequence, slowdown of demand in China, especially in Q2. Now turning to the P&L. The first thing to explain is our slight change of presentation for the P&L. Let me come back to that. We are talking about one thing, which is the way we present the amortization of purchase price of acquisition and related transaction cost of acquisition.
We basically had two ways historically to report this amortization of acquisition. One way for BioFire, which as you can see in this first column, H1 2021 published. Was in a specific line just for BioFire acquisition amortization between contributive operating income and operating income. That's EUR -8 that you see for the last year published for H1. And for all the other acquisitions, let's say the smaller ones, like Hybiome, like Invisible Sentinel, we had actually the amortization embedded mainly in the cost of sales and above the gross margin. So very, yeah, two different for historical reasons, let's say. The acquisition of Specific Diagnostics triggered a discussion and a thinking of how to treat it because Specific, as you know, is about the size of BioFire in terms of acquisition price.
We decided together with our auditors and our board to regroup all the amortization in a homogeneous way in one line, which is also what we see, let's say, most comparables are doing. We now have all the historical acquisitions as well as Specific Diagnostics, of course, in this line of amortization between contributive operating income and operating income. We hope it's more easy to read and also easier maybe to compare if need be with other companies in the space. That being said, let's look more in the content of our first half P&L. Net sales, we already commented vastly on the like-for-like 0%, so stable sales.
Important to note that, of course, we have a very favorable foreign exchange in terms of sales, and I will comment later on operating profits. As you all know, euro is very weak against the dollar, and very visible, but also against many of our currencies where we distribute. So actually plus 5% in terms of reported sales growth. Second element here is gross profit. Definitely we have a decrease of gross profit percentage from 58.5 last year to 56.6 this year. The first major impact is a transport cost increase. You know that the unitary air freight, unitary sea freight costs are really extremely high compared to one year or two years ago. So that definitely is visible in the gross margin.
Of course, we have other inflationary costs, some effects on raw material, and some effects on salaries that are more in the manufacturing and logistics part. Turning below gross profit, SG&A up 11% on a like-for-like basis. The main effect here is really on sales and marketing and the expected, we had already discussed that together, expected return, progressive return to normal field sales and marketing activities. Practically, it means that we are restarting marketing activities with customer congress promotional activities that were forced to be stopped in 2020 and 2021. For us, it's a very important way to fuel and to promote our products and to fuel our future growth. As well, of course, in this line, an element of salary increases.
R&D is up 8%. We also have the acceleration of activities, especially clinical studies that also were slowed down in the pandemic and are restarting, and some salary increase. All in, EUR 322 million of contributive operating income, 9.4% of sales and down 20% on the like-for-like basis. Now, if we turn below, the second line is important to comment is income tax. We are paying, cash-wise, very high income tax based on our exceptional 2021 results. You can see the increase from EUR 102 million last year to EUR 148 million in first half this year.
CapEx remain at 9% of sales, with major investments being the capacity in the U.S. for BioFire, for VIRTUO, the blood culture, also automation of our processes, especially for the BioFire part. As you know, we are investing in two Chinese plants also to increase our footprint in China. Overall, the free cash flow of EUR 60 million in H1, down versus EUR 145 million last year. We invested EUR 334 million for the acquisition of Specific Diagnostics. That includes the part that we paid cash to shareholders of Specific Diagnostics, as well as the part that we paid to shareholders of Specific in shares, and where we have been buying our own shares to compensate and the dilution for our shareholders.
That's all included in the 334. Dividends in H1, and overall, a closing net debt position of EUR 67 million. We are no more in a net cash, but still a very low level of net debt, so very comfortable balance sheet position. We have added a slide on the foreign exchange, a big topic this year that you had already seen previous years. This is really to help those following us on the top line, first column, and on the operating income, second column, to try to have a measure of our exposure. In H1, the foreign exchange effect are written here, EUR 84 million in sales, EUR 17 million positive in contributive operating income. We'll discuss later on the overall positive effects for the year in the outlook.
Thank you, Guillaume. The next slide will show you the progress we are making on our CSR roadmap. You know that we have ambitions with targets for 2025 and then for 2030. This slide showing the progress we're making on the five pillars. The first one is, of course, regarding health, which is the public health mission of bioMérieux regarding the number of tests, the number of patients that we support through our antimicrobial solutions. Second objective around energy consumption or reduction, where we are progressing also there with big plans to further improve in the years to come. The impact we have on the healthcare ecosystem, working more closely with the patient associations.
Objective regarding our people, our employees, incident rate that we want to decrease, of course. We're also working on the diversity, both in gender and nationality. Also a focus we have on the external community through our philanthropic actions and also working on the coverage of our distributors. With this, we have also slightly adjusted upward our guidance for the year, with the projection of the sales being landing between -3% and -6%. We keep the same trends, except maybe for immunoassay, where now we target more to have negative mid-teens.
Also, in our projection also, we foresee a decrease of RP panels based on strong base effect last year, and hoping that it's moving into that COVID is really moving into an endemic phase. Regarding the EBIT also, we adjusted to expect to land between EUR 580 million-EUR 625 million. Maybe Guillaume, I will let you maybe fine-tune a bit more the guidance adjusted for the EBIT.
Yes, with pleasure. Maybe coming back on the sales, just to mention that we included also because you see that current rates, so the foreign exchange effect, which probably for the year could be around EUR 150 million-EUR 200 million. We will see, but that's included. Then as Alexandre said, the major elements compared to the first guidance are really the immunoassay change from stable to negative mid-teens, as well as RP panels, where the COVID-related decrease, I think we had said about as an assumption early in the year, -30%. The assumption today, but again, with a lot of uncertainty on the last four months, could be around -15%. On EBIT, so of course, this guidance is stated on the new EBIT definition.
When I say new EBIT, I mean this slight change of amortization of purchase price and acquisitions. So we, of course, restated very transparently the guidance at the beginning of the year of EUR 530-610. With a change of EBIT definition, it's very mathematically becoming EUR 542-622. So that's a base of comparison of March, and we increased to EUR 580-625. In this increase from these two range, the basically the inflation or the additional inflation that we were not foreseeing back in February, March on the freight cost, on raw material, on salary increases in the current environment. We estimate about EUR 40 million negative impact.
The integration of Specific Diagnostics, of course, was not included in our organic margin guidance. We have now acquired the company. You remember we guided, and we said very clearly at acquisition time that the impact for this year will be about EUR 10 million of operating loss, mainly in H2. We have -EUR 40 million on these inflationary factors, -EUR 10 million on the integration of Specific Diagnostics. We have, of course, a very positive foreign exchange impact. At the beginning of the year, we thought probably -EUR 10 million-15 million, now probably +EUR 40 million in EBIT, at the end of the year. The change is about EUR 50 million positive and overall FX EUR 50 million compensates, if you want inflationary negative and integration of Specific Diagnostics operating loss.
With those compensating the, let's say, increased guidance, about EUR 20 million increase for the midpoint is linked to all the rest. The improvement in sales and performance overall out of these effects. With that, I think we can open the floor to the Q&A session.
Yep.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question over the phone at this time, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. Please ensure the mute function on your telephone is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, please press star one to ask a question over the phone. We'll take our first question now from Maja Pataki from Kepler. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my questions. I will start with two and one to you, Alexandre. I mean, great results that you had with BioFire in Q2. Do you have a bit of visibility what has been driving that? Because if we look at hospitalization rates in the U.S., they were not pronounced. I mean, COVID hospitalizations were not pronounced, yet you managed to deliver very strong results. So I was wondering what your take is on that. Do you think there is some stocking impact that has been helping Q2 or just some more details would be great. Then the second question, Guillaume, to you maybe. Thanks very much for the visibility on, you know, the moving parts of the guidance increase and compensating impact from FX for inflation, everything.
We're still wondering, what is it that you believe is underlying going to improve in the second half of the year, you know, to generate a stronger EBIT versus H1 if we look at the H2 sales performance, which is still expected to be quite negative? Those are the first two questions. Thanks.
I'll start your question on BioFire in Q2. What you can call maybe the BioFire resilience. It's true that we didn't see much more cases in terms of hospitalization, but COVID was still here, maybe at a certain level, depending on the country, but still quite present in the US. I think it's to your question, I think it's showing the resilience of the syndromic approach in hospital setting, when doctors want to know more about the potential causes of infection. To note also that another panel that we see a nice increase of the non-RP panels because all of them are growing at more than double-digit.
This is also showing that in a time when there is less COVID, we see maybe more pathologies or infections coming. That was in line, I believe, with what we wanted, what we were pushing, and to have more use of more than two panels per instrument. This is also the good performance is also explained by the ramp-up of the non-RP panels. That's my take for Q2. Remember also that in Q1 we were not able to fully deliver the market because we had some running back orders, I would say, in January and February. On cEBIT. So your question was about H2 versus H1.
Actually, the H2 is very much in line with the H1 performance. There are even these effects that I mentioned on inflation effects actually ramping up because salary increases and salary measures we have to continue, and they were only partially in H1. The inflationary effects on the raw material are actually more ramping up than down. So all this is taken into account, but that doesn't affect the guidance. It's not a better H2 than H1. It's very much aligned in terms of trend. So the increase in guidance is also some of the better performance in H1 that we include in our revised slightly upward for the year.
Okay, maybe just quickly a follow-up on the SPOTFIRE. Can you just share some initial feedback that you were receiving while you were showcasing the new offer?
Yes. It's very primary because it's under FDA filing. Further feedback is people trust the BioFire existing platform. They were happy to see that we have been investing in a new platform that we are able also to target a new market with the decentralized testing. I would say positive feedback. It was really a semi review of the platform, but I would say the time to result was really maybe the key attributes, which was well noted or I would say appreciated by the potential future customers.
Great. Thank you very much for answering my questions.
We'll now take our next question from Hugo Solvet of BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hello. Thanks for taking the question. First, a quick follow-up on the tuberculosis test, which Alexandre, you mentioned you were holding back on commercial deployment. Can you maybe give us more detail on when would you expect the issues you are seeing to be resolved? What timelines? Second, maybe more for Guillaume. At the beginning of the year, you mentioned EUR 100 million of incremental costs for 2022. Just wondering how you are tracking against this as of midyear. Lastly, on margins, should we think about the implied margin of H2 2022 as a good starting point for 2023? If you can give us any idea or color on what are the moving parts for the cost base in 2023, that would be helpful. Thank you.
Okay. I will take the first one. Yes, regarding the TB test, I assure that we noted that we had a high positive rate in the results, which appeared to be too high. We have decided to stop the commercialization to further study and investigate more, I would say, on the R&D and industrialization fault, what we call it like that. Too soon to tell you. It's under review at this stage. This is something which happened, but it was good to react sooner, as soon as we saw that maybe the numbers were a bit high. Too soon to tell you when it will be solved.
Commenting on the incremental cost for 2022. Definitely the trend, as everyone remembers, is of course a return to more normal activities, especially on the commercial side, but not only, some parts of R&D. Just want to correct that I don't think I was so precise as EUR 100 million. I gave you an idea, but no worries. That's all included in the annual guidance. The update on this is that, definitely we are returning to more normal commercial activities, more normal trend of clinical studies. We see that in our P&L, as I commented earlier. We see that also in our guidance.
Where the field was slightly different is actually the inflationary factors, as I mentioned, especially transport costs, very visible and impacting at this stage. Salary increases obviously to compensate our teams, our employees, our managers with a higher cost of living in many countries. The third is raw material, and with raw material, has a bit of a lag effect, also due to inventory. Clearly it is a strong effect, but not yet so visible in the H1 P&L. Clearly it will be more ramping up in H2, but already included in the updated guidance, and probably in 2023 as well. Implied margin for H2 versus 2023, as you know, it's our policy not to give a mid- to long-term guidance.
I don't think we want to yet comment on 2023. It's a complex environment for sure. We are working on our growth prospects, on our cost management, cost structure, cost trends prospect as well for 2023. Of course, we'll come back to all of you in due time.
Okay. Thank you very much. Just a quick follow-up, if I may, in terms of pricing and given your leadership in the multiplexing space. Have you been able to increase or pass price increase in molecular diagnostic in H1?
No, not on the BioFire range. We have a leadership, but we have competition also. This is not the range where we have many work to do so far to work. We work on everything to increase the ASP, and this is an ongoing work being done by the teams. No, we don't see an impact on ASP in H1 on BioFire. I'm not sure this will be the range where we'll be able to pass price increase.
Thank you very much. I get back in the queue.
Okay. Thank you. There is a question on the web from Steven Prévost regarding competitive pressure for immunoassays. Pressure on immunoassay, so we have PCT, of course, and it's been there for a while now. We are number one in PCT and number one analog in PCT, and we keep on seeing the pressure on the PCT test. I don't believe we have seen the end of the competition. We have not reached the plateau yet of PCT in the U.S. The rest of the competition, I would say it's classic. We are fighting also with bigger, higher throughput systems.
We're not competing with them, but sometimes when the labs are consolidating, they move to higher throughput platforms. One of the things I can comment, there is no specific, I would say differentiation relating to competition on an immunoassay. Maybe we'll answer the next question. What happened in H1, some of this was expected. We had a high base of sales in H1, mainly in India and the other countries linked to the COVID situation which will happen this year. So it was expected to slow down. PCT, what else? Also we had
China.
Oh, China. Yeah. I believe we planned for the base effect and for PCT. We didn't plan for the China impact from Q2.
There's a question on the webcast on how much the PCT test has normalized. As Alexandre just said, has not normalized. We have not reached plateau. In H1 it was slightly below EUR 60 million. Actually the ballpark of EUR 100 million is still valid. There's another question on the downturn of immunoassay revenues and the split. I said it earlier, but I can repeat to clarify. On the downturn of immunoassay by 21%, you can basically consider that half of it is linked to the slowdown of demand for COVID related parameters.
When we say COVID related, remember that a part of the immunoassay, and that's a major effect, were used last year for the monitoring of COVID patients. For example, D-dimer, which is a parameter for thrombosis in India, was very much in demand last year. That's the kind of decrease that we see. This effect is about 50%, half of the decrease. Second, the PCT U.S. pressure and loss of volume is about one-third of the loss, and then the rest China and other factors.
Any question over the phone?
Yes, we can take our next question now from Odysseas Manesiotis of Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. Another follow-up on PCT testing, if I may. I mean, you just mentioned PCT testing takes about 20%-30% of your immunoassay sales, and as you clearly communicated, has been a drag for the division for quite a while. Is there a floor to that pressure? How should we think about it? Would, let's say, 10% of sales of immunoassay sales be a reasonable level for this franchise to remain stable? Then I have a follow-up.
Sorry, I'm just trying to the question. Is that the exposure of PCT sales to?
No. I'm asking whether there's a floor on the pressure on PCT testing, as in would 10% of sales be a reasonable level for this franchise to plateau, let's say. 10% of immunoassay sales.
Oh. I don't know how much is it today?
We were watching each other. We don't have the answer. Again, PCT is about, as I said in H1, is about slightly less than EUR 60 million in terms of sales. That's the overall exposure. Not just U.S., overall PCT in the world.
Out of?
Out of almost EUR 200 million. It's 1/3 of our immunoassay sales. PCT, not just U.S. The decrease was actually in line. If you zoom just on PCT, was in line with the immunoassay, about 20-ish% decrease in H1. Then the other element, as Alexandre said, is that we have not reached a plateau. It will likely continue, and we cannot give you at this stage a view on the level at which it might stabilize, if that's the question. Sorry.
Okay. No, that's right. Another one on your BioFire franchise. Do you have any automation projects ongoing to simplify your BioFire TORCH workflows? Do you expect QIAGEN's QIAstat-Dx Rise launch to affect your commercial traction here?
No, the big plan is to file and launch the SPOTFIRE to go towards a more decentralized testing. No, with the TORCH, we have up to 12 units. We believe this is enough today to meet the needs of a midsize or high-throughput laboratory. No plan to increase, I would say, the throughput on the existing SPOTFIRE. We'll keep on working on the menu, and the next platform will be mainly going decentralized because it will be CLIA-waived.
That's all clear. Thank you very much again.
There's a question from Louise Schifel on the guidance coming from EUR 542 million. I don't know if everyone can read. Adding the EUR 40 million positive effects, the EUR 10 million of capital gain, which is right on the building, the sale in the U.S. that was done in H1, minus EUR 40 inflation, minus EUR 10 Specific Diagnostics. Why is the new guidance not EUR 540? Actually, because we have a number of other factors that improve, we are taking into account some better performance in H1. Yeah. So that's what I mentioned already in the bridge between the midpoint that basically the midpoint of guidance improved by EUR 20 million, with in the way I see it, FX improvement of EUR 50 that compensates inflation EUR 40 and Specific Diagnostics EUR 10.
Basically compensating each other. The EUR 20 million increase in guidance is really on the sales performance and other factors. EUR 10 million capital gain is right for H1. Just to mention it's one visible positive, but there are some one-off negatives. For example, we closed a very small site in the U.S. It's a EUR 5 million restructuring in our P&L in H1. All in, we see the different one-offs of H1 more or less offsetting each other. About, yeah. Next question is on BioFire. Indication of respiratory region growth in H2 outlook for 2023. Basically, as you see, we have a respiratory region growing 15% in H1.
I mentioned maybe too quickly, but in the guidance that respiratory for the year would be around, and again, with the big uncertainty on the last four months, around -15% for the year. The H2, maybe you can do the math or is a lot of negative months on a very high comp basis in H2 last year, that will move the full growth from +15% end of June to -15% end of December. To make it simple.
If we don't see another variant.
Yes. Of course, with a lot of caveats and uncertainty on demand for the last four months.
Maybe.
Yeah, there's a question on the split between RP and non-RP. Pretty simple. We are 2/3, 1/3 for H1. 2/3 respiratory panels, 1/3 non-respiratory panels revenues.
Let's come back to the new question over the phone.
Yes, we can take our next question now from Peter Welford of Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my question. I've got a couple. Firstly, just returning to the capital gain, just to understand. The EUR 10 million or so, I think it's a bit more than that for the year for the U.S. building sale, is that the charges to offset that with the U.S. site closure and other sort of one-offs, are they also, just to be clear, in the other operating income line, or are those booked across a variety of different OpEx lines, just to think about that. Could you also just on the accounting give us what we should be thinking about is the annual amortization charge for Specific Diagnostics?
I guess I'm thinking, you know, if we take that EUR 10 million that you said was the sort of charge for transaction fees in the first half, what should we be assuming in the second half is a good number for that line when we've got obviously the general amortization running through there. Thirdly, could you just give us the actual syndromic testing sales in euros, possibly for the first quarter and the second quarter, just to help with modeling? Because obviously you've given a CER and that's helpful, but I guess given the U.S., too, particularly the U.S.-centric business, it'd be helpful, could we possibly have the actual euro sales for first quarter and second quarter.
Just finally and more generally, just on VITEK MS, is it possible to give us any feedback on how that launch is going? Obviously, sort of an area you've been in but through a partner and now going it alone. Any feedback you've had on that and how you're competing, in I guess the market that is already to some extent established, but that you can leverage, I imagine, new relationships. Thank you.
Okay, I will take the one on VITEK MS. As mentioned, it was CE-marked last year. It has just been FDA cleared. For a while we have been under, I would say, pilot launches on the Hypercare. But no, there is good traction on. I believe that so far I'm looking at. [inaudible] We have closed up to 100 systems, which were installed since the launch. So it's good, that what we call a good function. We had to do some Hypercare in the beginning for every new instruments. But it's on track, and this is when well received by the customers. Maybe Guillaume, for the other questions.
For the other questions, thank you for the precise question. Capital gains, it's actually exactly EUR 9 million, the capital gain. It's definitely in the line, the P&L line called other income and just below gross margin. Definitely it's a one-off capital gain. To be more precise, what I mentioned is that there are other one-offs of several million EUR negative. When I look at the different one-offs, it's positive and a few negatives. I mentioned among the negatives a simple one, which is a restructuring provision for one small site that we will close in the U.S. I believe that they offset on the plus and minus. That's why I did not mention the capital gain that I understand you are looking at.
I did not mention it in the change of guidance because there are others that compensate. The others, it was your question, the negatives are in different lines actually. When you do restructuring, I think it depends on the department people are working in where we put the provision, so it's in different lines. Your question was then about the annual amortization of Specific Diagnostics. The annual on a full year basis pure amortization is estimated around EUR 12 million. Knowing that in H1 was very special because we had only one month and a half of amortization. Amortization is the long-term amortization of the purchase price accounting.
We had on top the one-off, in this line of, as I said earlier, the transaction costs, lawyers, investment bank, due diligence for about EUR 8 million. So in H1, we had probably something like EUR 8 million transaction costs, plus EUR 1 million amortization for Specific Diagnostics. On a normal full year basis, without transaction costs, it would be EUR 12 million, around EUR 12 million per year. You had a question about syndromic. I'm not sure if, sorry, maybe I noted fast. The share of U.S. sales for syndromic is 75%. Maybe we had said already. Maybe your question was more on the Q1, Q2 figure, no?
Yes. Yeah. It was just simple. Given that U.S., it would be really helpful if you could just give us the euro sales for BioFire syndromic testing in first quarter and second quarter, because I guess given the U.S. business, obviously, if we just take your CR figures, the FX is obviously much greater on BioFire than it is on some of the other lines. Could you just give us the actual euro sales first quarter and second quarter, it would help for the BioFire syndromic business.
Yes, I will do that. Let's move. I'll come back to it in five minutes. Just time to plug it out. No worries. We get back to you, then we take another question.
Any question over the forecast?
Yes, we have a follow-up question from Maja Pataki of Kepler. Please go ahead.
Alexandre, I have two questions. First of all, how shall we think about the impact from of the 3P launch in the second half of the year? Is it something that takes a lot of market education, or is that something that you believe, you know, you should fairly easy see sales coming through? The second question, does the breakthrough designation from the FDA for Specific Diagnostics actually have an impact on financials, or is it more like a flag effect to the market? Or, you know, how shall we read that? Thank you.
I didn't catch your second question, Maja. Sorry. Can you repeat? [inaudible]
With regards to the FDA approval of the Specific Diagnostics offering, I was wondering if there was, you know, if there is anything that has an impact on financials or whether that's just more a signal effect to the market, like to your customers.
I think for me, it's more a signal effect that this is addressing an important medical need as to what you see, because I'm not sure it's gonna fasten the time to resolve for the approval. This is more a signal that this type of solution is expected on a public health front. We had a new question on 3P launch. I don't think we should expect it will take some time because the 3P is like a big system, in fact. It's an instrument for automating the reading of the culture media with a specific media associated to a software.
It's kind of a project mode, a bit like we did with the lab automation project. This is something which will be mainly dedicated to big pharma companies. This is ongoing, but I think the official launch is just right now or happen maybe end of June. That's something for the years to come. I don't think we can believe a specific impact on the growth of bioMérieux this year or even next year.
Okay. Maybe just
It's part of the growth of industry, but it's more project mode with the customers.
Okay. Just quickly a follow-up. I'm not sure whether you can provide some visibility, but it will be very helpful to understand how you see trends in BioFire develop in July and August. You know, given the fact that Q2-Q3 last year was such a strong quarter, how much of a fall off are you already seeing, and how much, you know, is anticipated to happen towards the end of the third quarter?
Yeah. Pretty simply, the trend that we've seen July and August is very similar to the trend that we've seen in May and June. Pretty solid demand, which is, let's say, surprising compared to the past for spring and summer. Much higher than usual for this time of year. But similar. There's no acceleration nor deceleration in July, August, compared to May, June. Of course, this is where we took into account what we have in our hands today into the figures that we gave you and the range for the full year. That's why I was saying earlier that the main uncertainty for us is the last four months demand, which is always a pretty important period for respiratory demand. We have to see this.
Yeah. To be fair, it's very difficult to read because some countries are still under COVID waves. Some in Asia-Pacific and some are not. At least we saw in some countries flu coming. Very, very difficult. Very difficult to read at this time, but it's true that the demand has remained quite steady.
Thank you very much.
Yes. Thank you, Maja. I come back to the earlier question on the syndromic for Q1, Q2. Very simple. It's extremely similar. EUR 290 million-ish in Q1 and EUR 290 million in Q2, making EUR 580 million and a few. EUR 580 million and a few in H1. Yeah. I hope that answers your question earlier. We have a question from Christopher Files on the inflation on raw material, logistics, energy. How much is fixed and all, and how much already negotiated for 2023? How much is not? I'm in charge of purchasing. I can tell you it's a pretty big load and incredible situations for our teams to manage with our suppliers with news every day based on energy.
I think you all see that about electricity in Europe, of course. Logistics is a bit more stable at a high level in the last few months. Raw material, we have news every day, changing. I don't think there's much actually fixed for next year. It's quite actually the time of year for many of our raw materials, where suppliers come back with their view, with their need, for next year.
There's a question also on the immunoassay. What are the expected launch dates that can offset the PCT? Basically, we have a healthy pipeline recently. We had dengue last year. We had chikungunya, and so we have a full range now of VIDAS for detection of arboviruses. TBI to be back on track. We have just FDA clearance of VIDAS TBI. We are preparing for next year the launch of a traumatic brain injury. This pipeline, we believe should offset in the course of time the decline of PCT.
Earlier, Alexandre comments pricing increase. Actually, no price increase for BioFire. Of course, it's a big topic, price increases to offset all these. Of course, the question is about the other divisions, the other product range and divisions. Basically, we believe where we can have a bit more possibilities are clearly in the industrial application as well as microbiology. That being said, it's very general. It's of course very dependent on a country per country basis, depending on our position, depending on our competition. Of course, the length of the contracts, be it public or multi-year contracts subject to tenders or private customers.
We are working on that with our teams. Already some, especially on the industrial applications in H1, we need to follow that. Again, very different depending on the situation per customer, per country. Any other question on the phone?
Yes, we can take our next question now from Delphine Le Louët of Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking my question. Just to get back on the price increase. If I hear you well, Guillaume, and Alexandre, it sounds like there is no real price increase seen in H1 regarding microbial and industrial application. Secondly, regarding the molecular biology, are we talking about a slight erosion in a range of 1%-5%? Am I correct when I think about that? I have also other question regarding how much was the salary increase in H1 broadly for bioMérieux. Also I try to understand regarding BioFire and specifically the GI panel, how big is the GI panel within the non-RP panel? Are we also talking about a two-thirds, one-third breakdown?
Finally, I was wondering, have you noticed any change in terms of panel usage on the client side for BioFire? Do we see also a normalization in terms of usage, in terms of the number of units, in terms of number of labs? Are the same labs doing the same panels as the ones you've seen last year or not? Finally, more broadly, I think the industrial application performance is a bit weak. Of course, we had a very good H1 last year, but how could we think of that, and especially when I see all the issues that the food industry is going through right now.
Can you let me know what sort of growth you're targeting at the beginning? I mean, two, three years ago, prior to the COVID, you were thinking about 7%-8% annual growth. It sounds to be too high right now, where we are more in the range of 5%. What sort of comment, what sort of acceleration can we see within the industrial application? Thank you.
Okay. You had many questions. I'll try to remember them all. Industry, yes, H1, well, that's 5. But I think instruments could probably was a bit backed by instruments. The other thing, you know I don't like to give too much long-term guidance, but I believe industry could be, could still, I would say, reach the high single-digit growth. Because there is a good pipeline, because the pharma industry is booming, and they need quality control, quality monitoring. Regarding the food, I believe our molecular ranges also are set for future growth. So I remain quite confident on the potential of the industrial applications. Your question around the usage of FilmArray, it's difficult to note. No, what I said.
The good thing with FilmArray, that now we see our customers are using more and more panels. You have seen also that installed base has not increased so much in H1. This is normal, I would say, after two years where it doubled. The trend is the rise of the non-RP panels. It's also linked to the slowdown of COVID. I think this is what we can expect to see, I believe, if it's becoming endemic. This is what we can expect to come for the months to come. The other question, I'm sorry. You may have had them.
Price increases, basically, in H1 overall, we are kind of stable in clinical applications and growing, as I said, increasing prices in industrial applications. Stable in clinical, increasing in industrial applications, but with action plans that are launching and ramping up with the timeline of the contract, et cetera, as we already mentioned, in the clinical application part. But not overall on the whole.
Clearly, everybody's working on it.
Yes.
Salary increase, yeah.
Salary increases. I think we are around 5 or flexible 5% overall for this year. Including we have some raises, of course, normal annual salary increases early in the year. We had to add some measures for lower salaries in a number of countries, especially U.S., France, but others as well, trying to help offset the additional cost of living for our teams in those countries.
Any plan for more salary increase this year?
We are-
To be fair, we are adapting to the.
Yeah, we are adapting.
The situation, depending on the countries. When it's needed, we are working on it. I don't have projections to make, but we are keeping making sure that our employees have a decent lifestyle is important to us. We are addressing the need when it's there.
The latest measures were released this summer, so we can expect that the next will be the annual one early next year, hopefully.
Mm-hmm.
GI remains definitely the major one in the non-respiratory for sure.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Still somebody over the phone.
Maybe we can take one last question if there are still people available.
Yes, we have our final question from the phone from Hugo Solvet of BNP Paribas Exane.
Okay, Hugo.
Please go ahead.
Hi again. Quick follow-up. We've recently seen in microbiology one of the competitors of Specific Diagnostics striking a commercialization deal with a large diagnostic company. Does that change anything for you guys in terms of the rollout of Specific Diagnostics? Just curious to hear your thoughts on that. Lastly, Alexandre, you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you have some room to maneuver in terms of M&A. Just after having closed the Specific Diagnostics deal, how eager are you to do additional deals? Thank you.
We remain open, but I would say it has to be pragmatic, so at the right value, and it has to be strategic. We keep on looking at things that are actually also in the current time. It's important to make sure that we have to see also the market is. We keep on having some scrutiny on potential new technologies, but nothing specific to announce, of course. On the Accelerate Diagnostics, no impact. Accelerate was here before. We believe we are quite differentiated to what Accelerate, but it's a good support to Accelerate to partner with somebody bigger, but I don't think there's an impact. We are very specific in the innovative features compared to Accelerate. We don't see that as a blocking factor for us to increase the penetration of Specific. Any more question?
No.
No. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your attention and participation. I just remind you that our next communication will be on October 26th for the Q3 sales performance release. With that, we wish you all the best for the rest of the afternoon and see you soon. Bye-bye.
Thank you.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.