Kuros Biosciences AG (SWX:KURN)
Switzerland flag Switzerland · Delayed Price · Currency is CHF
22.04
-0.44 (-1.96%)
Apr 24, 2026, 5:30 PM CET
← View all transcripts

Earnings Call: H2 2025

Mar 10, 2026

Operator

Welcome to the Kuros Biosciences full year 2025 financial report. I will now hand over to Alexandre Müller from Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon or good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to our presentation of Kuros full year results 2025. My name is Alexandre Müller, and I'm responsible for investor relations, and I'm joined today by Chris Fair, our CEO, and Daniel Geiger, our CFO, who will present the full year results. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can submit your questions either over the phone or via the webcast tool. I would also like to remind you that the slides from today's presentation, as well as our press release and annual report are all available on our website. With that, I would like to hand over to you, Chris.

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Thank you very much. Good morning, good afternoon, and welcome to the 2025 year-end results of Kuros Biosciences, and a look forward to 2026 and beyond. As stated, I'm Chris Fair, CEO of Kuros, and I'm joined by Daniel Geiger, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started with the review of the results, I'd like to say thank you to the many, many people that make this possible. First to my teammates across the globe, who continuously put forth great effort and care that has allowed this company to achieve such great success. Secondly, to the surgeons and healthcare providers who have put their trust in our products so that their patients can begin their healing journey. To the investment community and our board of directors, who entrusted myself and our management team to execute the plan before us, I thank you.

With that, let's review the results. We are pleased to report that Kuros once again has overachieved guidance on revenue and provided a first-time profitability for the group organization, growing the business over 72% from year prior to $146.1 million in revenue and $19.6 million adjusted EBITDA, resulting in a first-time net profit of $2.6 million. Kuros certainly has continued our trend of growth in the top-line revenue, but we have also executed in an operationally and financially responsible manner. We have $19.8 million in cash. We are debt-free, and we have a strong operating cash flow. Our strategy to become a global and trusted leader in Orthobiologics starts with having the right technology backed by clinical evidence.

It also has a robust execution on the commercial channel and continuous improvement of our operations. When looking at 2025, I am happy to report we executed flawlessly in each of these areas. We've launched new products, such as the MIS delivery system, which immediately expanded our customer base and our growing platform of revenue. We continue to expand out our commercial footprint across the globe and even at the end of the year with multiple health system approvals in the U.S., as well as being granted MDR approval in the E.U. Neither of those are easy accomplishments. We expanded our sales efforts into the foot and ankle segment, which resulted in our launching and enrolling patients into the ASTRA trial. We continue to lead the way in the marketplace in clinical evidence, presenting data and engaging the surgeon community on numerous events.

In an industry first, we published human biopsy data that reinforces our clinical differentiation of MagnetOs. Just as important, we continued our investment in scaling the operation, initiating the building of our facility in the U.S., as well as improvements to existing infrastructure. With such explosive growth, activities ranging from the launch of the ERP to multiple operational initiatives, our company did not experience a single backorder. When looking at how we're building Kuros and the markets we serve, this $5.5 billion marketplace will continue to grow to over $8.2 billion by 2032. We're well-positioned to capture market share. Markets like oncology, where we expect publications later this year. Markets like trauma, where we intend to expand commercial efforts, as well as initiate clinical studies. We are positioned to win and be the global leader in orthobiologics.

When we dive into some of the commercial statistics, it's clear we're executing on all fronts. We're adding sales agents. We're adding hospital accounts. We're adding surgeon customers. We doubled the percentage of spine surgeons who utilize MagnetOs in their practice from 7% to 14% in just one year. We've expanded the access to a channel with new nationwide hospital approvals, and the recent MDR approval will help pave the way for our commercial efforts in Europe for the years to come. You know, through the expanded adoption of our technology and our increased number of partnerships, we have absolutely strengthened our commercial foundation for the future. You know, at the core of our success is our continued investment into clinical evidence. Our three Level I trials that are highlighted here, ASTRA, PROOF, and PRECISE, are all actively enrolling patients.

Now, we invest in these studies not for regulatory approval, rather for supporting clinical proof and to provide comfort to our surgeon customers that the products that they have chosen to treat their patients with are backed by human clinical evidence, not solely animal data or marketing materials. You know, as we look to the future, it is our organic pipeline fueled by our attention to the voice of customer that will drive innovation and top-line growth. The launch of the MagnetOs MIS platform is a result of listening to our customers and our partners so that we can provide a best-in-class delivery system that helps to make surgeries become more efficient with a best-in-class biomaterial. Our R&D hub in the Netherlands is pretty busy.

Coupled with our expanding manufacturing center in the U.S., we will see new products that will access new markets and expand the total overall available market beyond what we serve today. We have continued our investments into the infrastructure of Kuros, and Daniel will go through this in detail. We have kept up with the commercial successes, and we continue to ensure we can not just supply but also improve on our operational platforms. Our regulatory and quality teams have had numerous successes in 2025, culminating with the MDR approval, again, as a great competitive advantage in the E.U. In addition, our U.S. facility expansion is on track for producing products in the second half of 2026. While we do this, we optimize and expand the innovation hub in the Netherlands.

This dual-source manufacturing de-risks the overall business as well as provides financial advantages by providing products closer to the markets they serve. It also increases the capacity for growth, not just for MagnetOs, but to other future product platforms we will develop. With that, I will turn it over to Daniel. Daniel.

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Thank you, Chris. Let me start with slide 11. What this slide shows very clearly is that the revenue scale is now translating into operating leverage. We continued to grow strongly, and 2025 delivered the largest absolute revenue increase so far. At the same time, fixed costs have grown significantly slower than revenue. This is an important inflection point. It tells us that the investments we made in systems, organization, and infrastructure since 2023 are working and creating the respective profitability. The key message here is simple. We are not just growing the top line, the economics of the business are improving as we scale. On slide 12, I want to focus on two aspects, gross margin protection and commercial efficiency. Despite strong growth and external factors such as U.S. tariffs, we maintained solid gross margins in 2025.

This reflects deliberate inventory planning and disciplined supply chain management. Overall, we therefore only incurred around $2 million of tariffs. At the same time, sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue are trending down. Please consider that these numbers include share-based payment charges. If you look at the cash impact only, the trend is even more improving. This shows that our commercial model is scaling efficiently. The key takeaway from this slide is that growth is disciplined and sustainable, and margin protection remains a clear priority of Kuros. We continue to invest into R&D to support innovation and clinical evidence, which is essential for the differentiation of MagnetOs and Kuros overall, and specifically clinical data is a core USP. Importantly, while absolute spending has increased, both R&D and G&A are declining as a percentage of revenue.

However, given we are a scientific-based company, we will continue to invest into clinical data such as the ASTRA Study along with the building blocks we have always given to the market in the range of 7%-9%. With regards to G&A, our improved cost ratio reflects improved efficiency, digitalization, and organizational maturity. From a CFO perspective, that's exactly what I want to see. Investment for future growth combined with scalable cost base. Slide 14 marks a key milestone of the company. In 2025, we achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.4% and delivered a first-time net profit ever. This improvement is driven by operating leverage, not by one-off effects, so this is clearly sustainable. Revenue growth is now outpacing the fixed cost base in a meaningful way.

It's important to understand that by switching the reporting currency from Swiss francs to U.S. dollar, the company is now economically protected for any FX movement against the U.S. dollar. Any translation impact, which is the major contributor of the financial result, will be offset by currency translation adjustments in OCI so that equity is restored. Furthermore, on the tax side, we were able to implement Switzerland as a wholesaler and therefore see now the first benefits coming through, mainly on the tariff side. We also expect to have in 2026 some benefits coming out of Switzerland on the tax side. Our adjusted effective tax rate came out at around 17%, which is in line with the guidance given.

To summarize, this picture confirms that the Kuros business model has reached a level where it can generate sustainable profitability. We ended the year with strong liquidity and no debt. In 2024, operating cash flow is supporting continued investment in working capital and capacity expansion. This means we are financing growth from a position of balance sheet strength without relying on external funding. In terms of CapEx, we will invest substantial amounts into the U.S. as well as further optimize the innovation hub in the Netherlands. Overall, we will spend around $10-12 million in the U.S. and around $2-3 million in the Netherlands on top of another investment into IT applications of around $1 million. From a financial perspective, Kuros is well-positioned to fund its organic growth path. Let me now put it all together.

Between 2023 and 2025, we deliberately invested ahead of growth to build an operating platform that allows Kuros to scale without losing control. Functionally, we strengthened leadership depth, quality systems, compliance and governance. This is a prerequisite for scaling a listed medtech company in a controlled fashion. Structurally, we are moving to a dual production footprint with scalable capacity and higher supply chain resilience. This is about de-risking growth and ensuring reliability as demand grows. Digitally, we now have an ERP and an MRP backbone in place. This supports planning discipline across inventory, production and working capital and reduces execution risks as volumes increase. Importantly, we are about to integrate the front end and the back end of the organization. Commercial teams, R&D and clinical are fully supported by operations, finance, IT, legal and HR.

2026 will serve as a transition year to complete the business transformation, accelerate pipeline expansion and product launches, reinforce supply chain resilience, and further digitize the platform to drive operating leverage and scale. The conclusion is straightforward. In line with our guidance, the operating platform built between 2023 and 2025 and completed through 2026 is expected to support continued revenue growth and margin expansion through 2028. With that, I now hand over back to our CEO, Chris, who will walk you through the 2026 guidance and how we see the path to 2028. Thank you.

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Thanks, Daniel. Great work. As we bring the presentation portion to an end and open up for questions, it's my pleasure to provide guidance going into 2026 as well as midterm guidance into 2028. In 2026, you know, through our investments and as you've heard, increased market acceptance, we are providing top-line guidance of at least 35% growth year-over-year and around 14% adjusted EBITDA margin. In addition, as we look to the midterm guidance, we anticipate that Kuros business will be between $300 million and $330 million in revenue with greater than a 20% adjusted EBITDA margin. That sounds like an exciting future for all of us. In summary, 2025 was another remarkable year for Kuros. We overachieved in every category imaginable, and we continue to set the pace in our marketplace.

We delivered profitability for the first time to our investor community. We continued explosive growth in the top line, and we picked up wins in regulatory, international and operationally. We're not done. Not by a long shot. We have merely set the foundation for this business. With our increased focus on innovation, we will bring new products and new categories to Kuros. With our U.S. operational footprint active in the second half of 2026, we will see future lift to our financial effectiveness. We continue to add experienced and talented people to this organization across the globe, setting the example of what a great team looks like. I am very proud of what we've accomplished, but I'm even more excited of the future to come. We will accelerate into 2026 and beyond based on this position of strength and become the global leader in advanced orthobiologics.

I thank you for your time and your support, and I will now turn it back over as we enter the Q&A portion.

Operator

Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. Thank you. We will now take the first question. Our first question today comes from the line of Laura Pfeifer from Octavian. Please go ahead.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Yes. Hello, Laura Pfeifer from Octavian here. Thanks for taking my questions. I have three of them, please. First, on your target to reach CHF 300- 330 million in sales by 2028, could you give us a bit, little bit more granularity on how much of the growth you expect to come from spine versus the newer segments such as extremities and oncology? And just to confirm, is this entirely organic? Secondly, on margins, it seems that the Q4 2025 standalone adjusted EBITDA margin was above 16%. I understand this is typically a seasonally strong quarter. But nevertheless, was there anything unusual supporting margins in this quarter?

Related to that, should we think about your around 14% adjusted EBITDA margin guidance for 2026 as more of a floor, given what I just said on Q4? I guess here the aim is really to get a better understanding of what are the key assumptions and investment areas behind that margin guidance. Maybe the third one is a rather quick question on tariffs and your U.S. production plans. You previously mentioned a tariff impact of around CHF 6 - 7 million for this year. Is this still the right number? How should we think about the ramp-up of U.S. production and the share of local supply for the U.S. market then from H2 2026 onwards? Thank you.

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Now, Laura, that was more than three questions. Just kidding. But surely I'll take the first one, and then I'll have Daniel drive the other ones and add commentary. You know, when we look at the guidance from a revenue perspective, we start with an organic pathway first. Surely when we look at what we have in the pipeline with what we've already developed and we continue to launch into these new markets, we believe that the majority of this, if not all of it, will be all organic. We may find technologies along the way, but I can say right now from an organic pathway, we believe we will hit those targets.

The question as far as breaking down between spine, extremities, oncology, et c., we have not done that in the past nor are we in the position to do that today. I do, you know, we will obviously be a large portion of that being in the spine marketplace due to the size of the spine marketplace and fusion will always be, you know, kind of our core marketplace. The extremity business is growing rather rapidly, and we do see great opportunities there. With that, Daniel can take on the tariffs and the other questions.

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Yeah. Let's first cover the tariffs. Basically, as said, in 2025 we spent about CHF 2 million, or basically we had about a P&L effect of CHF 2 million. In 2026 we still see it in the neighborhood of CHF 6 -8 million. I mean, currently the situation is the following that, you know, as of the 24th of February, we are not paying any tariffs anymore, through our customs agent. But we obviously accrue now for the 10%. Forgive me if the picture right now is a little bit blurred to make exactly the estimate how this will play out, right? But overall, we believe definitely CHF 6 -8 million is a good number still. You know, then we'll see what the future will bring. Is that good enough for you?

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Yes. Maybe on the U.S. production, you know, to really

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Yeah.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

-know when, uh-

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Yeah, sure.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

We will have like.

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Yeah.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

a bigger share of U.S. supply.

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Yes. Basically, the plan with the U.S. production, as you know, is to go live in H2 2026. It normally takes, you know, from start to finish about three months to four months to push it to the market. We believe that in Q4 we should be able, if all goes well, to deliver the U.S. market from the U.S. and then we would obviously start to manage, you know, the tariff side concurrently. That's the current plan that we would produce to market in Q4 out of the U.S.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Okay. All of it?

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Yes.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Okay.

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

All of it.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Thanks.

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Yeah. I think it's a transition time, right? Not to give away our entire, you know, manufacturing strategy, but we're also de-risking supply side in two different locations. It'll be a feathering down, if you will, from one site to the next, and then again, regionally supplying.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Okay. Understood. Thanks.

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

On the margin side, so your question was there anything special in H2?

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

No. I was referring to Q4.

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Mm-hmm.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Because I think when I do the math, it seems that you had an EBITDA margin, an adjusted one of, I think it was 16.5%, which is really high.

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Yeah.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

I was just asking if there was anything special in that quarter that gave it a little bit of a margin boost.

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Well, we have just in general seen a little bit, you know, a slowdown in the hiring than we planned initially. We initially planned to hire roughly 190-200 people. We were a little bit below that, which contributed to that. At the same time, you know, we have seen some less spending for clinical studies, which was mainly, you know, delay in terms of spending, which will be moved into the next quarter. On top of that, we now see clearly also the benefits kicking in from a digitalization perspective. We were able to maintain, for example, in the finance department, the FTE level and even start to reduce that number as we have seen in the past.

We see now a combination of all of this. But as said, in 2026

The target, and I think we positioned that also during the capital market day, is that, you know, we continuing to invest into product engineers, into quality people, into IT engineers and, in general into operations to basically get ready for this transition to the U.S. This basically will have some implications on the margin, of course. That said, I mean, this is an investment into the future, which should then allow us to expand the margin in 2027 and 2028, to at least 20% margin. Your question is right, or your observation of, I think the 14% we also consider more as a floor. That's right.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Okay. Thank you. I go back into the queue.

Operator

Thank you. There are currently no further phone questions. I will now hand the call back to Alex for the webcast questions.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Yeah. Thank you. We have some incoming questions also here online. I will just sum up a few that go together. One obviously of the major questions is also concerning Medtronic. How is the partnership going with Medtronic? And any chances in also giving some more details about revenues and the revenue split and how the sales force from Medtronic have been integrated and how the splits of the different channels between Medtronic and Kuros is going on.

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Sure. No, thanks, Alex. You know, the Medtronic relationship continues to be very positive, I think both for them and for us. From a sales force integration perspective, in the marketplaces where we have agreed to partner together, it's been a great success for both parties. We also work with independent agents outside of the Medtronic relationship. You know, with that, we continue to grow at about the same cadence inside the Medtronic relationships as well as in the non-Medtronic relationships. In addition to that, we're growing our revenue base within the extremities, which obviously is outside of Medtronic's call pattern. From all that perspective, I think we're doing a really nice job of managing the different sales agencies that we work with, including Medtronic.

We don't report out the data just as a habit. Again, I think that, you know, rest assured that the relationship has been positive, and in the marketplaces where we work together, it's done extremely well for both Medtronic and for us. Again, I guess we're a little under a year and a half into the agreement, all things moving in the right direction.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Excellent. The next question would be in terms of other segments like extremities. What is the expectation in terms of the growth dynamics also for this year?

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

I think from a growth perspective, a lot of our focus now is if we think about what we did in 2025 was validation. In 2025, we spent the time making sure we had the right product for the right applications and the right procedures. We worked with a core group of physicians to ensure that that was all working in the right direction, getting the right results. That was all affirmed. We also wanted to make sure we knew which study we were going to do and take on. Again, in this space, in the foot and ankle, there's only been one other trial in orthobiologics in the past dozen years or so. That trial was done for regulatory purposes. The lack of data in this marketplace is astounding.

We launched the ASTRA trial in support of this small group of physicians. As we were doing that, going into 2026, we began to increase our efforts on the commercial front. We identified specialists with our organization, which we're bringing on board now to work with our existing sales channel. Again, leveraging our infrastructure that already exists, servicing the spine community, we're able to add just a handful of people to provide the expertise and the knowledge in the extremity space to really make us even more effective in that market. We're adding sales agents in that marketplace. We do see exponential growth.

Now mind you, the sales, although the sales price per unit is about the same, the quantity of material used in a foot and ankle surgery is much less than, say, the quantity of material that's used in a spine surgery. It just makes sense if you look at your foot and then look at your back. One's bigger than the other. You're gonna use more material in one and less in another. But the procedures that are in foot and ankle are, you know, there's a high number of them. So the marketplace in foot and ankle is about CHF 450 million, you know, compared to the spine marketplace. We do anticipate a great deal of growth and bringing surgeons on board and expanding our foundation, our footprint in that marketplace.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Excellent. From the next person, you have two questions. Firstly, could you please elaborate on the trauma target market? Will this see you competing directly in the cement market, which previously was seen as an adjacent market? Secondly, can you give us more detail on the IDN contract wins, specifically which regions and whether this gives you more leverage over Medtronic and the selling agents in terms of commission paid?

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

I'll take the last one first and the first one last. On the IDN agreements, you know, we actually received multiple national agreements towards the end of the year. That opened up access to almost the double amount of hospitals that we were currently servicing. They are national agreements, so they're not regional, they are national agreements. With that, you know, does it provide an advantage against Medtronic or it really provides an opportunity for all of the sales agents that we integrate and work with. Whether it's a sales agent for Medtronic or whether it's an independent sales agent in another territory, this is a great benefit for them to get greater access to greater customers.

As far as leveraging that for commission reduction or things of that nature, we're focused on growing the revenue. I think that as time moves forward, as we fill the bag, it's gonna be really evident that the sales agents that we partner with, that partner with us, to keep them working with us, I think that that's gonna be a big benefit. But again, we're focused on growing the revenue, the access to the customer. We're still a growth engine relative to that. The second part of that question, which relates to target markets, and cements and bone support and trauma. The trauma marketplace for bone fusion is still actually pretty large, whether it's upper extremity, whether it's pelvic extremity, that you're not using a cement base.

You're still using a product that is to grow bone like MagnetOs. That is not competitive again, I know we talk about this quite a bit, competitive nature versus, say, a bone support or any other type of cement like bone void filler. There's a huge marketplace, over $450 million, available to us just in bone grafting material for trauma indications. It is our. You know, we're getting clinical results back in currently. Those products and that study will be kicked off the second half of this year, and again, just for a bone fusion product using MagnetOs. Now, whether we compete in the cement marketplace is yet to be seen.

If we were to go down that path, that would be a separate product line or a product development effort.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Great. I have the next question, which goes a bit in the same direction. Can you give us a high-level idea of kind of new products you aim to introduce, when you expect them to launch, and by when they should start and materially contribute to top line?

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Sure. Well, obviously with a $330 million target out there in the midterm, we're gonna have to develop some new products and push them out into the marketplace as well. We're very active, as I mentioned, in the Netherlands with our R&D hub there. As far as giving a detailed product line or market, we're not at the point where we'd like to give that. We'd like to do that closer to launch. But needless to say, in the markets that we're going after, we are going to be leveraging not just our knowledge base that we have organically, but also the foundation sales force that we put in place.

We will now have a sales force in spine and a sales force in extremities and foot and ankle and trauma. You can imagine all the other biomaterials that incorporate into those sales forces is what we're looking to bring forth. Again, having an organic understanding of how the body likes to respond to bone and bone-like products, you can start to dial in what technologies we might be developing in the future. We will, as time moves forward and we get closer to the timelines of launch, we'll be able to highlight those product launches.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Great. Can you also elaborate on the market dynamics and from which segments you are taking market share of? You know, is it bone graft space, or is it allograft synthetic? Give it a granularity where we are winning market shares and how it's developing?

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

I think that the biggest market share shift we see is in cellular allografts. Cellular allografts have been in the U.S. marketplace for quite some time. However, to date, there is no publication of any Level I data that has shown effectiveness of these products. More than likely, our study that is doing a head-to-head comparison will be the first level I study to publish any information on any cellular allograft. From our perspective, when a surgeon sees the data that we're putting forth, and again, cellular allografts tend to be around a $400 -500 million marketplace, we're seeing a great deal of transition from those surgeons.

We're also seeing hospital systems wishing to remove that category because they also recognize they're spending a great deal of money on a product that has not only no clinical benefit published, but also, you know, there are still risks relative to disease transmission as has been reported before. I think cellular allograft would be number one. Any of the advanced biologics that we see out there, we do see some migration. We also see some migration from standard bone products such as DBM. Although a less expensive alternative, we're showing such a great effectiveness that in some areas are willing to spend a little bit more money on a product that they know is going to work versus a product that may or may not work.

We're seeing a little bit of migration from there as well. I would say traditionally, and the large part of this is coming from cellular allografts, secondarily from other advanced biologics, certainly some other synthetics and, yeah.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Thank you. Now there is a block with some more, let's say, about financials. Could you walk us through the key drivers behind the significant gross margin improvements? Do you expect this trend to continue? And what target gross margin level are you aiming for?

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Gross margin remained at around 90%, which is our historical gross margin. There's not really a change there. I mean, what I can say is that you know, with the tariffs now kicking in, obviously we had some implications. We always mention that it will be in the neighborhood of 1%, probably a little bit more. Obviously in 2026 we will now see how this plays out. I said it's in the neighborhood of CHF 6- 8 million. If you adjust for that, then we will remain at the 90%. What we can see by shifting to the U.S. is that you know, we see a little bit higher labor cost in the U.S.

Labor overall from a production cost perspective is just about 10% of all the material cost. Therefore, you know, we don't believe that it will have a substantial impact on gross profit. At the same time, you know, we believe that the inbound transportation cost, you know, from the Netherlands to the U.S. will obviously also be optimized. We can see that there's some leveling off there, and therefore we are quite confident to maintain the gross profit margin guidance also on a go-forward basis with 90%.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Thank you. The next question is about, let's say, top line growth. We are guiding for 35% growth in 2026. Does that mean that possibly 30% in 2027, 30% in 2028, so that we can reach CHF 333 million in sales in 2028?

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Yeah. I think it's a pretty much a standard math grid. Somebody wants to break out the Excel spreadsheet, they can go ahead and build that curve. Yeah, to get us to the CHF 300-330 million. Again, these are big numbers that we're growing into. Yeah. I think that, you know, at least 35% growth for next year or this year.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

The next question would be about the operating leverage. With all this operating leverage that we have currently and the scaling effects kicking in, shouldn't the EPS, the earnings per share, be a bit higher? Can this mostly be attributed to dilution from share-based compensation and therefore also the increased shares outstanding?

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

Well, I mean, first I want to say it's the first time we have a net profit, so I'm quite glad that we can, you know, now disclose earnings per share. Just to be clear. Secondly, you know, we will continue to offer LTIs to our employees also as a retention tool. You know, that's important. You know, we have overall right now about 2.8 million of LTIs outstanding. As you know, I think it's disclosure note 21. I can't remember the page, but you can look it up there. It's about 2.8 million, I said. Yeah, of course, this has a dilution effect on top of the 39 million shares.

If you do the math, it will give you the results we have presented now in the financial statements.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Excellent. Now the last question that I have online here, it's, let's see. With CHF 45 million in Q4, exiting 2025 at a monthly run rate above CHF 15 million in sales, assuming sequential growth through the quarter. If you assume no growth from this level and multiply by 12, assuming exiting close to CHF 16 million, you are already at 32% growth for 2026. Why does your guide assume no sequential growth through the year?

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Look, I think that when we historically, both Daniel and myself, we believe in providing guidance and information. Again, it's not too long ago where we didn't provide any guidance, and so we're very cautious to make sure that when we provide guidance or we provide information to the marketplace, that we achieve it. You know, I think that when we look at the marketplace and also recognize the fourth quarter is always heavily tilted, you know, when we start looking at the market's percentage of revenue in the first half versus the second half. December is traditionally the largest month because we have such a large exposure in the international marketplace. I'm sorry, to the domestic marketplace. You know, all those things come into play.

It's very difficult to basically just take the last month of the year and straight line that as suggested and take that on a go-forward basis. When we look at all the challenges we have ongoing with the organization, continuing to grow at such a high percentage, especially compared to our peers, you know, a marketplace that's growing at around 6%-7%, you know, we're putting forth saying we will at least grow 35%. We're continuing to take market share going into this. I think again, that number puts you know, in around that $200 million mark, give or take. That's a significant business in the orthobiologics space. Certainly, the largest outside of BMP, largest product line in that space. Those are massive accomplishments.

Again, part of this is caution relative to, you know, how we have communicated to the marketplace. Part of this is also looking at it's still tremendous dollar growth within those markets. We're also, you know, investing in infrastructure along the way. We feel confident in the guidance we're putting forth. Also leaning into how we have communicated to date quarter-over-quarter, as well as how we have delivered quarter-over-quarter.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Okay, thank you. There's a next question. Well, that's beyond the guidance, but what do you think the potential is for EBITDA and the EBIT margin in 2030?

Daniel Geiger
CFO, Kuros Biosciences

2030. No, I mean, look, we have given now for the first time guidance for 2026 and up to 2028, and we feel comfortable with the +20%, and after that, we'll see how we further progress. Right now, you know, this is what we are willing to offer.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Thank you. There are no further questions online, so I hand over to the operator if there are any further questions, by phone.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question via the phone line, please press star one one on your telephone keypad. Oh, we've just got a question. One moment, please. The question comes from the line of Laura Pfeifer from Octavian. Please go ahead.

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Yes. Hi. Maybe just one quick follow-up question on the MagnetOs MIS launch. I think it happened in October. Just wondering if you could share a little bit more details on how that launch is progressing, what share of revenue does it already contribute, and maybe also, what is your expectation for the 2026 contribution of MIS? Thanks.

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Thanks, Laura. Love repeat callers. You know, the MIS was a great launch for us. We launched that in the fourth quarter, and we are seeing great uptick. I'll tell you a couple things we've validated but also learned. We're finding that surgeons are using it not just in MIS procedures, but also in open procedures where they traditionally weren't using that delivery mechanism. The reason being, they had greater access into what I'll call the nooks and the crannies of the space, whether it's in the spine or other areas of the body of applying our material. I think that from an MIS perspective, it certainly has achieved the results, and we're seeing uptick in surgeons requesting the product.

I think also from a spine perspective, we're getting access into spine procedures and open procedures where we didn't anticipate it. All that is a positive thing because it also increases the ASP of those surgeries. As far as breaking out the revenue, we haven't done that to date. We haven't broken down product line contributions, and I don't wanna start that habit today. As far as going forward, we think that we're seeing certain procedures in foot and ankle who are desiring you know, a similar mechanism, maybe even a smaller joint. We're looking at ways to optimize that technology to get into smaller crevices and smaller joints. We're also seeing even in trauma.

Once we put the product out there, it certainly met the indications, but we're finding new nuances and new procedures that we can apply this to. It also helps from a contract perspective as we look to add the product to existing contracts or open up new doors and new contracts. Because quite frankly, there's not many other technologies out there that have such a delivery mechanism. It certainly is a door opener for many surgeons who may not be using our product. For all intents and purposes, you know, the MIS delivery platform has been a home run for us.....

Laura Pfeifer-Rossi
Co-Founder, Octavian AG

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further phone questions. I will hand the call back to Alex.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Thank you. There is one last question here online. Of the surgeons that are using MagnetOs, do you have a feeling for how the product is growing in terms of the share of their procedures?

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Yeah. We don't have the data to be able to put forth, but I'll tell you what traditionally happens with physicians when using a technology for the first time. Normally, they'll have a subset of patients that are a challenge for their healing. For example, they don't wanna use a specific product for an application. It may be an advanced biologic that has challenges in posterior cervical, so they might give us a chance to work with them in posterior cervical. They'll do a handful of patients and then wait and watch and look at the results. Once those results come in, that tends to be around the three-month mark, four-month mark, five-month mark, where the patients come back post-operatively and they're seeing the results.

If they feel confident in those results, then they're expanded to other parts of their practice. That is a traditional pathway that we see physicians take. What's interesting in the spine marketplace is that, you know, we are no longer in the early adopter part of the curve. We're in the meat of the curve. What we're seeing in that marketplace, we're seeing surgeons who have seen their partners have great results, and they're adopting the technology into their practice. They're not going through the same cycle, but our extremity physicians are doing the same behavior that the spine surgeons. They will take a challenging fusion patient population, start there, see how that works, collect the results, and then move on to their other fusion-based procedures. Same thing happens in the trauma market.

Right now we're, you know, identifying the right procedures in the trauma marketplace to do this. That is the methodology of how a surgeon will walk through how they incorporate it into their practice. When we report the results of 7%-14%, again, just trying to get the actual data on procedures is a little bit of a challenge in the U.S. marketplace. But we're able to identify surgeons and how they're growing within their practice and what procedures. At least in one portion of their market and one portion of their procedure volume, they are using us, you know, on a continuous basis. That's how we reported out that 7%-14% jump. We may not have 100% of their practice, but we're certainly evolving into it.

Alexandre Müller
Head of Investor Relations, Kuros Biosciences

Excellent. Since there are no further questions, I would like to hand over back to you, Chris, and for the final remarks. Yeah.

Chris Fair
CEO, Kuros Biosciences

Again, thank you for all the questions. Thank you for listening to us today for this past hour. A tremendous 2025 all around. I think that as you've listened today, the infrastructure that we as an organization have put in place is truly foundational. We've been able to grow this business at, you know, again, since I've been here for the past three and a half years or so, 1,000% plus whatever it is. Again, the team that we have assembled, Daniel talked about the number of people, truly tremendous professionals across the board. We are so happy and excited for what the future holds.

2026 is off to a great start and, you know, again, between the pipeline, the operational infrastructure that we're putting in place, yeah, we're excited and, you know, great things to come. Thank you for your support, and thank you for your time. With that, I guess we'll say goodbye.

Powered by