Hi, and welcome to this Q4 presentation from Arctic Bioscience. We'll go quickly through the agenda for today. We'll have an introduction and two 2024 operational highlights. We will touch upon an operational review for the nutra business, moving on to operations and financing. Before our CFO, Jone R. Slinning, will go through the 2024 financial numbers, we'll then move on to our Medical Director, Runhild Gammelsæter , for an operational review on pharma.
Before we close out with business outlook and a Q&A session, I'll first start with the status for the phase 2B clinical trial for HRO350. We are now moving towards 12-month readout, according to plan. In October last year, we had the results from the six-month readout published.
On the nutraceutical side, we had a very strong ending to 2024, with the highest sales revenue ever in a quarter, leading to a 29% year-on-year growth for the nutraceutical business. Looking at the gross margin development, which was also quite strong during 2024, with a close to 4 percentage points increase in margin to 32.7%. In the beginning of 2025, we also secured NOK 30 million funding to secure the company towards cash-positive operations.
On the nutraceutical side, we also came with some news early January with our operations and cooperation with Kotler Marketing Group in the Chinese market, where we have signed a term sheet to develop a joint venture for the further development of the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets.
On the extremely premature infant project, ABS-302 Arctic Orphan, we received a grant from Innovation Norway of NOK 2.3 million in Q4, which will take us through the development of clinical material for the preclinical phase of the project. Last but not least, in Q4, we established a program to look at our operational performance and also looking towards cost reductions. At the end of 2024, we implemented several actions towards reducing both operational and capital expenditures.
Moving on to the operational review for the nutra business. Nutra in Norway grew strongly last year. On the B2C side, we recorded we had record high sales under a pretty challenging market condition, price sensitivity, and strong competition. We had a 15% year-on-year growth, and this is mainly subscription-based business. Also, on the B2B sales in Norway, we reached record high sales revenues with offline distribution through Sunkost, Life, Kinsarvik, and Farmasiet.
In Q4 2024, we also launched our product, Romega Gravid, in the Norwegian market, or Prenatal, as it's called globally. This product has been a huge success in the Chinese market over the last three or four years, and we're really happy to now have it launched in the Norwegian market. Looking further, we're also developing new products for the market. During the first half of 2025, we're expecting to launch a beauty product with the working name Romega Beauty.
This is a product we have really strong expectations to, both in the Norwegian market as well as the Chinese market and other Romega brand markets. We are also planning for and looking for extending the B2C business outside of Norway. We've already started planning on this and setting up the supply chain to secure a good launch during this year.
Moving on to the B2B business, the international part of this. The B2B products are sold in the Americas, Europe, and the APAC region. This is primarily bulk products with fish oil, capsule products, and protein. We also deliver private label products and customized products, and we see our ingredient in more than 40 consumer brands worldwide today. Especially strong sales we saw in the European market for 2024, with a 50% year-on-year growth.
In the North American market, we had a rather disappointing development, which we have communicated previously, and it is also the reason why we have implemented changes to the sales and distribution in the North American market with our agreement with Berkem Group, which we already see have had significant effect in terms of sales activity in the North American market.
We are focusing both on expansion on existing customer base as this business primarily is a recurring business. This is customers, brand owners, which have introduced products in the market with our ingredient and which are spending a lot of sales and marketing effort to build the volume in the markets. With the success of our customers, bringing success to Arctic Bioscience as well.
In addition to expanding the existing customer base and supporting them in their sales efforts, we're also targeting new customers in existing markets, and we are also working with new exciting markets. Romega in China, we talked a lot about this previously, which basically has been a success story for Arctic Bioscience and Kotler Marketing Group. In 2020, we entered into an exclusive agreement with Kotler Marketing Group in China for distribution and sales of Romega products in the Chinese market.
In addition, Kotler Marketing Group invested in ABS in 2020 and is currently the eighth largest shareholder in Arctic Bioscience. The current business model in the Chinese market is sales of Romega products cross-border from Hong Kong into mainland China. Going forward, we are working to extend this distribution through an approval process, which is ongoing with the Chinese government to approve the Romega ingredient to be imported into the Chinese mainland.
This will open up for significant commercial opportunities and other distribution platforms which we currently cannot utilize. An approval is expected in 2026. As mentioned in the intro, the partnership has been a huge success so far, and a formal strengthening of this partnership through establishing a joint venture is underway, and we'll have a strong focus during 2025.
In this agreement, there is also an opportunity or we will enter into an indirect ownership in the Chinese and Southeast operation, minority ownership. Moving on to operations. As mentioned, we have had strong focus on operational improvements over the last few months. Currently, we are looking to improve the manufacturing process, the current manufacturing process, with the focus on both product quality, but also reducing the manufacturing cost, improving the gross margins.
In addition, we have had a strong focus on reducing the operational expenditures in the company related to areas such as external consultants, services, premises, communication, IT, and travel cost. We'll continue this focus to optimize the operational cost base. We have also reduced personnel cost, which will have mainly effect throughout 2025.
We also done a substantial job in reducing capital expenditures by a stronger prioritization of projects going forward and also made significant adjustments to ongoing projects. With that, we're moving on to financing. As mentioned in my intro, we secured a NOK 30 million financing solution in January 2025. This is a combination of a growth loan given by Innovation Norway and guaranteed by the European Investment Fund.
It's a NOK 15 million long-term loan agreement with interest rates of 7.6%, five years maturity, and with flexibility with regards to installment payments. This loan agreement has been matched by infusing private capital into the company as well through a convertible loan agreement with a combination of existing shareholders and new investors coming into the company.
This is also a NOK 50 million facility, 10% annual interest rate, three years maturity, and with a convertible option, which is possible immediately after transfers have been paid in at 70% of market price at the given point. Maximal convertible price is set at NOK 3 per share. On that note, it is important to emphasize that further pharma development beyond the HeROPA phase 2B study will be financed separately, either through partner deals or specific project funding. With that, I will hand it over to Jone R. Slinning, our CFO. Thank you.
Thank you, Christer. I will now present the highlights from the preliminary 2024 financial figures. As mentioned, the ending of 2024 was strong, with the highest ever quarterly sales of the company's nutraceutical products. Sales revenue ended at NOK 43.5 million, which represents a year-over-year growth of 29%.
This was also in line with what we guided on for revenue forecast after the Q3 2024 figures. Compared to 2023, the gross margin had a positive development and ended at 32.7%, up 3.7 percentage points from 2023. At the end of 2024, we had NOK 7 million in available liquidity. As Christer mentioned, in January 2025, new long-term debt funding of NOK 30 million was secured to strengthen the liquidity situation going forward.
The revenue distribution between the B2B segment versus B2C segment has been stable the last years. In 2024, the B2B segment accounted for 89% of the total revenues and the B2C segment 11%. Our largest market is the European market, with 43% of the total revenues in 2024, followed by the APAC market with 29%.
The growth in the American market was not in line with our expectations for 2024 and ended at approximately the same nominal value as in 2023, resulting in a decline in the relative revenue share for this market segment. As Christer mentioned, in 2024, we entered into a new distribution agreement with a new partner for the US market, which we believe strongly will contribute positively in 2025.
The European market experienced a very strong development in 2024, with year-over-year revenue growth of 50%. Looking at the EBITDA development, we see the effects from the increased revenues in 2024 compared to 2023 and the effects from the increased gross margin. The adjusted EBITDA ended at NOK -36.8 million in 2024 compared to NOK -38.6 million in 2023. Gross profit ended at NOK 14.2 million, NOK 4.5 million above 2023.
The gross margin was stable through the year and was influenced positively by both that we achieved higher prices on our products and we had a more advantaged product mix of goods sold in 2024. Operating cost has been in line with our budget for the year. Going forward, the cost level shall decrease. As mentioned in the last part of 2024, several significant cost reduction initiatives were taken, and some of these are already implemented.
These initiatives are followed up closely and have also been strengthened at the beginning of 2025, and we expect that effects from these will be materialized going forward this year. As said earlier, at the end of 2024, we had available liquidity of NOK 7 million. The operational cash flow was mainly driven by the negative operating result, and cash flow from investment was mainly related to the HRO350 phase 2B study.
The NOK 30 million new funding was secured in January 2025, which will strengthen the company's liquidity going forward. As mentioned, the facility was a combination of NOK 50 million in long-term loan from Innovation Norway and NOK 50 million in long-term convertible loan from existing and new investors. These loans have no installment the first years.
The new funding, in combination with cost reduction initiatives to reduce both operational and capital expenditures, will give a financial runway and stability towards cash-positive operations. I will give the word to Runhild Gammelsæter , who will comment on the pharma development for the company. Thank you.
Thank you, Jone. The HeROPA trial is a phase 2B study with a one-year placebo-controlled period with the investigational medicinal product HRO350 in mild to moderate psoriasis.
The study was fully recruited with over 500 patients in five countries early last year. There are three treatment arms: two doses of HRO350 versus placebo. The primary endpoint was at week 26, and the study will continue until all patients have completed one year of placebo-controlled treatment. As previously communicated, the study did not meet its primary endpoint due to an unexpectedly high placebo rate.
The rationale for the study design was that psoriasis is a chronic and fluctuating disease, which may be influenced by seasons. Thus, our one-year data will be important. We are very excited for the 12-month readout, which is imminent. As Christer mentioned, by the end of March, we're expecting data. The last patient is completing 12 months of treatment this week, and the readout process with statistical analysis will proceed immediately.
We anticipate having results available by the end of Q1 and will communicate promptly. There are a number of study closeout activities this spring, and sites will be closed. The vast amount of data will be analyzed, and the clinical study report will be written. Also, we will prepare the safety database. We will also prepare data for publication, aiming at communicating data at upcoming congresses.
As mentioned, a very high placebo rate was observed at six months, and the 12-month readout, where each patient has been treated for a full year, should provide answers about the placebo effect in this trial and also allow us to plan for the various opportunities for further development of HRO350. In the previous Bergen study, a late onset of action was observed, with efficacy increasing over time beyond six months.
The 12-month data will establish if this is also the case in this trial. Secondary endpoints set at 52 weeks of treatment were designed to provide data on efficacy versus placebo, also looking at other parameters in passing, and we will establish one-year long-term safety data for HRO350. These safety data are very valuable, even if placebo rate remains high. In case there is no difference to placebo, if that cannot be established in this trial, we will evaluate an alternative development route for HRO350.
A pediatric investigation plan has been agreed with the EMA, and we do see substantial opportunities in further exploring pediatric development. In the past few years, we have been investigating the potential mode of action of HRO350. We've presented data at several conferences, and the first full publication is submitted for peer review and available as preprints.
Specialized pro-resolving mediators, SPMs, are key in promoting the resolution of inflammation. The figure shows how inflammation in the body involves a required increase in cytokines. However, this should be naturally resolved by a shift in the involved cell types by production of SPMs. If this natural resolution does not occur, a chronic inflammatory state can follow. Today, most treatment modalities for chronic inflammatory diseases like psoriasis involve reducing the inflammation by, for example, inhibiting cytokines.
When treatment is stopped, the underlying chronic inflammation is still there because it's not been resolved by the body. There is currently ongoing a lot of research in how to promote natural resolution of inflammation rather than inhibiting it. Increasing key SPMs would be one such treatment concept. The data we've presented show a potential novel mechanism of HRO350 in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, including psoriasis.
While we're waiting for the 12-month readout of the HeROPA trial, we are continuing to work on our pipeline. A key asset in our pipeline is ABS-302, a dual API investigational medicinal product for brain development in extremely premature infants. We are grateful to Innovation Norway, who recently provided a grant of NOK 2.3 million to support the development of this asset. While HRO350 and the ongoing phase 2B clinical trial has been our key focus for the past years, this is not our only study and not our only asset.
We have a number of ongoing and planned studies, and I have here a graph showing those also internationally. Of course, phase 3 with HRO350 in mild to moderate psoriasis is being planned, and we'll look at details of that when we have the data from the phase 2B clinical trial.
Also, the pediatric development program for HRO350, as well as a PKPD study, are all being planned. On the nutra side, we also have an upcoming nutritional study with esteemed partners abroad. In China, through our collaborations there, we have a number of studies ongoing, including in eye health. With that update, I would like to hand back over to Christer.
Thank you, Runhild. Thank you, Jone. We have come into 2025 with a strong tailwind from a good year in 2024, with strong nutra growth and development. On top of that, a very good development in the HeROPA study. We are now looking forward, and we are excited and optimistic towards the 12-month readout, which we, as previously said, we expect end of March.
With the nutraceutical development, we believe we will continue the strong development we saw in 2024 in most markets, and we're also expecting to open new geographic markets, both in Asia as well as throughout Europe. We will also continue our strong focus on innovations and product development in 2025, with the launch of at least one, probably more, products.
Our liquidity situation has been strengthened early 2025, which will secure funding throughout 2025 and into profitable and cash flow-positive operations in 2026. On the last note, we will continue our strong focus on operational improvements, which we started in 2024, both in terms of R&D improvements, strengthen innovation, product quality, reduce cost, and increase profit margins. I would like to thank you so much, and we will move to the Q&A session in a minute.
Thank you.
Yes, welcome to the Q&A session of this webcast.
During our presentation, we have received a couple of questions, so we will try to answer out these. The first one goes to you, Runhild . It's a question about the 12-month readout. The next readout in March, do you get all the results, or do we have to wait further months?
As mentioned, the full clinical study report with 100-plus analyses for the full trial, that won't be complete until May, but we will read out several efficacy endpoints in March. We should have an answer.
Okay, good. Next one we have received. Given all the discussions around trade tariffs, will this affect the nutraceutical business for Arctic Bioscience?
This is still speculation, I guess. Of course, we have prepared for potential trade tariffs.
If we start with the European market, which saw the strongest growth in 2024, we are trade tariff neutral because we do internal European sales. When it comes to the Asian market, we do not expect increased trade tariffs. However, it is always a risk, so we are following the situation closely, obviously. In short to medium term, we do not expect any effects on that part of the business. In terms of the U.S. North America business, it depends. It only accounts for 15-18% of our current business, also expected to be potentially the same share of the business next year. I think the answer also lies in whether it becomes a European Union trade tariff or if Norway is included as well. If Norway is not included with trade tariffs with the U.S., we can adapt.
In short, there is a risk, but it's a controllable risk and a minimal risk.
We have also received a question about what are the most important drivers behind the strong nutra revenue growth in Europe.
That's a good question. I think the strongest driver is actually the development for our existing customer base, which we see is steadily growing. That's what I mentioned earlier in the presentation, which is a recurring business. Secondly, we have launched in various markets last year. We launched Romega products in the Greek market. We are now with 41 pharmacies throughout Greece. We also launched with a customer in France a new product, as well as a couple of other launches throughout Europe, one in the U.K. and so on. It's a combination, but we see actually the strongest part of the growth comes from expansion within the existing customer base.
That was all the questions which we received. I think we end this webcast, and we thank you all for watching us.
Thank you.
Bye.