Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the MediPharm Labs' 2023 third quarter financial results conference call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. Before we begin, please note that remarks today may contain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This includes, without limitation, statements about MediPharm Labs and its current and future plans, expectations, intentions, financial results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements, and other future events, trends, profitability, business growth, or developments. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof based on information currently available to management of MediPharm and on estimates and assumptions made based on factors that MediPharm believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. However, there can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct.
Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Additional information is contained in MediPharm Labs' filings with the Canadian and provincial security regulators, which are available on SEDAR at sedar.com. The company's remarks may also contain references to certain non-IFRS financial measures, including EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, gross profit, and adjusted gross profit. These measures do not have any standardized meaning according to International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. MediPharm Labs believes that the non-IFRS measures referenced provide information useful to shareholders and investors in understanding our performance and may assist in the evaluation of the combined company's business relative to that of its peers. For more information, please see the section titled "Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures," the most recent MD&A of MediPharm Labs, which is available on SEDAR.
I will now pass the call to David Pidduck, CEO of MediPharm. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for MediPharm Labs' third quarter results conference call. Joining me on the call today are Keith Strachan, MediPharm's President, and Greg Hunter, the company's Chief Financial Officer. I will address some of our strategic initiatives and then hand the call over to Keith and Greg to provide more detail on the quarterly results. This is our second full quarter conference call following the VIVO acquisition. As an overview, we are very happy with our margin, OpEx, and EBITDA results. Our balance sheet is the best shape it has ever been. Now, with our house largely in order, we can turn our focus to investments to drive profitable growth.
In the near term, with the cash flow and funding challenges faced by many of our peers, we look to leverage our stability and our cash position to consider M&A investments for growth. The company has been focusing on improving gross profit, reducing OpEx, and delivering significant improvement on adjusted EBITDA. All of these initiatives combine to positively impact our quarterly cash burn rate as we work on getting to a position of generating positive cash flow. We are very satisfied with the gross margin results and the continued improvement in EBITDA. Q3 adjusted EBITDA for the quarter improved to negative CAD 2.4 million, despite the softness in quarterly revenues. As we have focused on improving margins, we have been diligent in our pursuit of higher-margin business and in exiting or managing lower-margin or negative-margin business.
While this approach has had notable positive impacts on profit and cash flow, it has also negatively impacted our quarterly revenues. MediPharm has remained focused on the integration of VIVO Cannabis and delivering on the synergy targets we have previously shared. I am pleased to report that all VIVO-related cost synergy targets have been met, and Greg will share details on the associated positive results in gross profit, OpEx, and EBITDA. A further round of restructuring was implemented in Q3 that will provide an additional CAD 3 million in cost improvements starting in Q4. The acquisition of VIVO was a transformative transaction for MediPharm Labs and has allowed us to deliver 45% year-to-date revenue growth over prior year and an almost 50% improvement in adjusted EBITDA year to date.
Our combined adjusted gross profit was approximately 32% for the quarter versus a -10.5% in the prior year quarter. Year to date, adjusted gross profit has improved by CAD 6.7 million, and OpEx has been substantially reduced as well. Greg will discuss our cash position in more detail, but we are very happy to report a cash balance today of approximately CAD 19 million. The previously announced legal settlement has added significantly to our cash position. With our Q3 adjusted EBITDA of -CAD 2.4 million, a strong balance sheet, including full unencumbered ownership of our key assets and minimal debt of less than CAD 3 million, our improved cash position allows us to look for strategic investments that will drive revenue from both an organic and M&A perspective.
To summarize, revenue, gross profit, and adjusted EBITDA improved versus prior year and versus trailing 12 months, largely driven by our profitability focus, the successful VIVO integration, and cost reduction initiatives. With our profitability initiatives showing good results, we can further increase our focus on profitable revenue growth. Our experience with the VIVO integration has shown that we can quickly and profitably integrate and drive synergies with like-sized organizations, and we are confident that this approach can be repeated. As we head into 2024, we continue to focus on reducing costs, driving revenue growth in selected profitable segments, progressing our longer-term pharmaceutical milestones, and pursuing synergistic M&A. With our cost position now well-established and a very favorable cash and debt position relative to some of our peers, we believe that there may be several synergistic M&A opportunities available for consideration in the near term.
I will now pass the call over to Keith.
Thanks, David. Q3 was a great quarter for MediPharm as we continued our strategic focus on a profit-first model. With a deep understanding of our costs and the business acquired from VIVO Cannabis in April, we were able to laser focus on where to reduce investment and where to invest on areas primed for growth. The record gross profit margin and drastically reduced EBITDA loss in the quarter speak to the success of this focus. I would like to take a few minutes to outline some of the examples of how we got here and what work is being done to expand revenue in the future. I will start with the Canadian adult use and wellness category. In this market, we saw a Q3 net revenue decline. However, there are good reasons for this. One, we grew cannabis oil market share, which is our highest margin adult use product.
2, we pulled back on non-profitable vapes, dry flower, and pre-roll SKUs. And 3, we stopped retail partnership programs where we would not see return on investment. In Q3, we laid a foundation to grow the top line in this category with the same guardrails of profitability. Some good examples include: we negotiated the elimination of the 10% royalty on the Wildl ife brand, making new dry flower and pre-roll launches more profitable. We invested in new sales reps in Western Canada, and subsequent to the quarter, launched 2 new oil products and 2 additional capsule SKUs, all high-margin products for us. Looking at the Canadian medical category, we maintained sales while targeting profit by rationalizing SKUs on the Canna Farms direct-to-patient portal. In the process, we removed products that carried a higher manufacturing cost and replaced them with products where we had invested in automation.
On the third-party side of medical sales, we increased our listings with My Medi, the former Shoppers Drug Mart platform, from eight to 15. We also grew listings with other major patient platforms, such as Aurora and Apotex. For future growth in the Canadian medical category, we recently entered into agreement with Tilray to take on specialty MediPharm-branded SKUs for their medical channel. Once launched with Tilray, we will have our products on all major Canadian direct-to-patient platforms, making MediPharm a go-to brand choice for patients, no matter where they purchase their medical cannabis products from. In Q3, our clinic business, Harvest Medicine, published two papers in the American Journal of Endocannabinoid Medicine, which is also mentioned in The Wall Street Journal. It is published research like this that helps physicians and specialists in making cannabis prescription decisions that will ultimately grow the medical business.
Lastly, in the international medical category, revenue was down on a quarter-over-quarter basis, but this area is where we made the most improvement on gross margin. In previous periods, the international sales included one-time bulk flower sales to some of our existing oil customers. However, many of these sales were done via third-party source flower, resulting in low margins. This also came with inventory risk based on tight GMP flower specifications. In Q3, we consciously made decisions to decrease some of the marginally profitable spot business opportunities to refocus on our long-term German partners, like STADA. Much of our international focus was growing our Beacon Medical brand. As a top three flower brand in Australia, we knew we can grow that high-margin base with more resources and expanded product portfolio. In Q3, we launched our Beacon Medical GMP vapes and oils.
The Australian vape market is poised for significant market growth, given new and more strict Australian GMP standards put in place in July 2023. We are well positioned as a partner of choice when regulations tighten. We also increased our investment in the Australian medical sales team during the quarter. Outside of those highlighted segments, MediPharm remains a leader in pharmaceutical cannabis production. We made additional progress on our U.S. FDA site registration and API filings, while our international pharmaceutical partner navigates the U.S. generic drug application process. We also completed a sizable delivery of clinical trial material to the U.S. in July, with new U.S. DEA permits recently received for additional delivery this year. We look forward to translating our leadership in quality pharmaceutical manufacturing into meaningful revenue growth in the future.
I am very excited about our position in Canada and internationally and look forward to sharing our progress as more milestones are achieved.... I'll now pass the call to Greg to discuss MediPharm's financials.
Thanks, Keith, and good morning, everyone. As David and Keith discussed, we continue to focus on growing our revenue base through organic and inorganic initiatives, reducing cash burn, and driving towards profitability as key priorities. Before reviewing the results for the quarter, let me add some additional commentary on the progress we made on these priorities. During Q3, we settled a long-standing dispute for CAD 9 million, which included CAD 3 million of cash, which was collected in October, 4.5 million of Tilray shares, which were liquidated in October for net cash proceeds of approximately CAD 4.3 million, CAD 1 million inventory credit from Tilray, and a commercial sales agreement with Tilray for CAD 0.5 million of revenue over 4 years. In addition, we sold unused land from the VIVO acquisition for CAD 1.9 million of cash proceeds, which was received in the quarter.
This additional CAD 9.2 million of cash further strengthens our balance sheet so we can continue to execute our strategy, including selective M&A. As of today, we have approximately CAD 19 million of cash. Furthermore, in September, we implemented plans to further reduce our workforce as we focus on profitability. This plan will reduce our expenses by approximately CAD 3 million on an annualized basis, starting in Q4. This CAD 3 million is in addition to the CAD 7 million of annualized expense synergies from the VIVO acquisition, and in addition to the CAD 3 million of annualized savings from the restructuring we completed in late 2022. In total, over the last 12-15 months, we have implemented approximately CAD 13 million of savings on an annualized basis as we focus on profitability. Turning to the P&L performance for the third quarter.
Revenue for the third quarter of CAD 8.5 million increased CAD 1.2 million or 17% versus prior year, while year-to-date revenue of CAD 24 million increased CAD 7.4 million or 45% versus prior year. Q3 and year-to-date revenue growth was largely driven by the acquisition of VIVO and partially offset by the divestiture of the Australian subsidiary at the end of Q3 2022. Revenue in the Canadian medical channel of CAD 3.5 million increased exponentially versus CAD 0.2 million in Q3 2022, driven by the VIVO Medical business. Revenue in the international medical channel was CAD 2.6 million versus CAD 2.3 million in Q3 2022, representing a 13% growth rate. The growth of the international medical channel was largely driven by the integration of VIVO's Australian business, Beacon Medical.
The international business represented approximately 30% of total revenue in the quarter. Revenue in the Canadian adult use and wellness channel was CAD 2.2 million, which declined versus Q3 2022 and Q2 2023, as we selectively increased prices, carefully managed sales and marketing expenses, and exited selected products. Pharmaceutical and B2B revenue in Q3 was CAD 0.2 million and decreased CAD 1.3 million versus Q3 2022, driven by the sale of our Australian subsidiary. As Keith discussed previously, pharmaceutical revenue is a longer-term strategy and will take time to pay off as the market continues to develop. Gross profit for Q3 was positive CAD 2.4 million, or approximately 28%, which is the fourth consecutive quarter with positive gross margins.
Gross profit in the quarter was impacted by several discrete items, including fair value adjustments for biological assets, incremental cost of cannabis acquired from the VIVO acquisition, and severance for restructuring. Adjusting for these items, gross margin was approximately 32%. Year-to-date gross margin is 15%, while the same period prior year was -13%. Gross profit continues to improve, driven by product mix, production efficiencies, price increases, and cost reduction initiatives. Our management team continues to aggressively prioritize driving gross profit improvements. General and administrative expenses in the third quarter of CAD 4.3 million increased versus prior year, driven by the integration of VIVO, and decreased sequentially, driven by cost reductions and acquisition synergies. G&A expense for the quarter was impacted by CAD 0.3 million of severance expense for restructuring. Adjusting for severance, G&A expense was approximately CAD 4 million.
Retrospectively, if VIVO were included in our Q3 2022 results, G&A expense in the quarter declined approximately 42%, reflecting our combined cost reduction initiatives. Marketing and selling expense of CAD 1.7 million was consistent with Q3 2022 and Q2 2023, despite the incorporation of VIVO. Total OpEx, which includes G&A, marketing and selling, and R&D expense, was CAD 6.1 million in the quarter. Adjusting for severance and some other discrete items, normalized OpEx was approximately CAD 5.9 million. Retrospectively, if VIVO were included in our Q3 2022 results, OpEx in Q3 2023 is approximately 37% or CAD 3.6 million lower, reflecting our combined cost reduction initiatives.
Adjusted EBITDA for Q3, CAD -2.4 million, improved CAD 2.6 million, or 53% versus Q3 2022, and year-to-date adjusted EBITDA was CAD -8.6 million, which improved CAD 8.3 million, or 49% versus prior year. This improvement is driven by both expansion of gross margins and the reduction of operating expenses. Retrospectively, if VIVO were included in our Q3 2022 results, adjusted EBITDA in Q3 2023 has improved approximately CAD 6 million, or 72%, reflecting our combined cost reduction and margin improvement initiatives. Said another way, in 2022, MediPharm adjusted EBITDA averaged CAD -5 million-CAD -6 million per quarter, and VIVO averaged CAD -2 million per quarter. Before the acquisition, the two companies combined averaged adjusted EBITDA of CAD -7 million-CAD -8 million per quarter in 2022.
MediPharm's standalone Q1 2023 adjusted EBITDA pre-acquisition was negative CAD 3.1 million, and now Q3 post-VIVO acquisition, adjusted EBITDA improved to negative CAD 2.4 million. This means the company was able to incorporate VIVO starting April first and improve profitability relative to Q1 2023, largely driven by cost reduction initiatives and synergy achievement. Moving to a few notable items on the balance sheet. Trade and other receivables of CAD 13.9 million includes the receivable from the legal dispute that was settled in the quarter, as discussed previously. Excluding this item, trade and other receivables is CAD 6.4 million. Our cash balance at the end of Q3 was CAD 13 million, and the company has less than CAD 3 million of debt. Contrary to many other cannabis companies, MediPharm is also up to date on cannabis excise duties, sales taxes, and accounts payables.
In addition, this CAD 13 million cash balance does not include the CAD 7.3 million collected from the dispute settlement. As of today, MediPharm has approximately CAD 19 million of cash. Although we still have work to do to get to profitability and become cash flow positive, Q3 was another step in the right direction. Gross profit was positive for the fourth consecutive quarter and expanded to 28%. Adjusted EBITDA improved sequentially to CAD -2.4 million. We implemented another cost savings program to save CAD 3 million on an annualized basis, and f inally, we have a strong balance sheet relative to our peers, with CAD 19 million of cash as of today, less than CAD 3 million of debt, and we are up to date on our liabilities, including excise taxes. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator to open the line for questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press the star key, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one a second time. Thank you, and we will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. We will take our first question from Aaron Gray with Alliance Global Partners. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning, and thank you for the questions. F irst one for me, right? N ice job there on some of the cost-saving initiatives to narrow that EBITDA loss that you guys have done. G oing forward, right, just kind of getting to that profitability, inevitably, it seems like you're going to have to get to that top-line growth. As you look to 2024, can you speak at a high level to maybe where you see those growth drivers being? Should we look at it more from Canada and some of the initiatives you have going there, maybe Germany, with the removal from the narcotics list, hopefully coming in March and opening up the medical market. You also have, obviously, Australia as well.
W here do you think will be the primary, you know, lever for that driver for growth to ultimately lead you guys to profitability there? Thank you.
Hey, Aaron, it's Dave. Thanks for the question. You actually touched on a lot of the places that we can be looking for growth. I'll turn it over to Keith. We are bullish on Australia and the opportunities in Australia with the brand that we have established and the product launches that we mentioned, a nd I think you touched on some of the other pieces. I'll turn it over to Keith, and he can give a little more color.
Thanks, Dave. Morning, Aaron. Yeah, I think there's a lot of opportunity for growth for us as we kind of pulled back in places where we saw that, you know, there wasn't a great gross margin or good opportunity for profitability. We got to start expanding in places where we see it. I think for Germany, specifically, we are really focused on the extract market there, as well as other some novel deliveries in places we weren't before, like dronabinol or CBD isolate that a pharmacist can use for compounding. Some of that takes time as far as registrations as we switch to that, and we have a lot of plans there for 2024.
As Dave mentioned, the Beacon Medical brand, which was a VIVO brand, was something that we had when we acquired VIVO, and it is a really strong one. I mentioned it, it's top three in flower sales, and before this year, they never did have an extract product such as oil or vapes. We launched those really late, Q3, so September is when they were first available to customers, and the pull-through has been good, and we expect that to grow. Replenishment order is scheduled for January, s o we'll see those products grow in 2024.
T hen finally, Brazil, which we flagged as a really good opportunity in earlier periods when we were on call, that was a bit of a slower start with one of our partners being acquired by a multinational pharmaceutical company. We do have a new partner, as we mentioned in July. They're going through the registration process now. We expect that to be approved in December. That partner is a large, generic company, one of the biggest in Brazil, s o we expect them to have, like, a satellite, movement of product in that country, obviously, with a lot of cannabis users there today, medically, and see that expand.
A lot of places, I think internationally is the place where we're going to see most of that growth as far as what's going to drive the bottom line for profitability. We continue to be, you know, gain market sh are in Canada, and the struggle with Canada is, as you're hearing everywhere, is, you know, as different companies, go through things like insolvency, they're selling things that just don't make sense, the price.
W e'll see, you know, price of a pen or a pre-roll is not a price that we can make money at, so we're not going to participate there if we can't make money. So we'll keep our high-value, high-quality products there for our consumers who are looking for those. But when it comes to seeing massive growth there, we still need to see a little bit of a wash out of some of those companies that are selling below cost.
Maybe the only other thing I'll add to that, Keith, is in the medical channel, we've been pretty successful, building up our relationships with almost all of the providers in the medical space. Our own medical channel's doing okay, although that market is declining. I think our presence on all the platforms is getting stronger, so we're feeling pretty good about that segment as well.
Great. Thank you for that, that color there in detail. Second question for me. A lot in the U.S. around potential rescheduling of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III with the HHS recommendation and awaiting, you know, initial ruling from the DEA. F rom your guys' perspective in the early days and still today, right, being an API provider for pharmaceuticals and others, could a rescheduling to Schedule III really open up that opportunity on your end as well? I know a lot of folks here are talking more about it from the 280 side, from the operators here in the U.S.
F rom your side, thinking about it from a little bit different perspective, could a rescheduling to III potentially open up opportunities for you more so on the API side, or would that not make as much of a difference maybe? Thank you.
Thanks, Aaron. It's actually a massive opportunity for MediPharm, that I think is a little bit overlooked as far as how big it is. Right now, with the scheduling of cannabis in the U.S., it is, you know, the most strict narcotic. And what that does is a few things. One, on our clinical trial material business, right now, we sell clinical trial material. We have an FDA-approved trial that's happening with the University of Southern California, and we deliver product to the U.S. We already have, and we will again this year, and that has to be approved by the DEA. And because of the scheduling of it now, it's actually governed under a quota system. So if our partner can't get the quota, then it would slow down and throttle how much product we can send.
As well as their clinical research partner has to obviously have special arrangements in place to receive and handle and distribute that product based on the scheduling today. T he rescheduling of cannabis would loosen those and allow programs like that to grow. It would also open up new clinical trial opportunities at a bigger scale. R ight now, if you're at a university and you go to the university administration to ask to run a trial and they look at the scheduling of cannabis, it would be something that would be commonly denied. As that's rescheduled, that's something that would open up to more opportunities. Obviously, there's a lot of researchers that are really eager to continue to do research.
When it comes to doing research to that scale with a proper FDA IND, you do need to use FDA-approved product. T here's not many folks within the U.S. that have that, s o here at MediPharm in Canada, we've actually had an FDA inspection, two-week inspection and a lot of back and forth with the FDA. We're a foreign site license, so our quality products and API actually meet those standards as those gates open up for more clinical trials within the U.S. A lot of U.S. operators today don't meet that because they are governed under those state-by-state laws. That's one big piece of it. The second big piece of it is on the API, as you mentioned.
If and when our pharmaceutical partner is successful in their generic application to produce a generic Epidiolex and distribute it under the current scheduling, they are, t hey do have some hurdles under the same quota system. W ith the rescheduling comes, the quotas will be bigger, and that will allow our international partner, when they're making that generic drug, to import more API from MediPharm to finish that product in the U.S. and get it out to U.S. patients. So it does. It is very significant for us. Not the, as you mentioned, not the same as an MSO with a 280, but on the regulation side, it really does open it up, given our FDA approval and FDA status.
Okay, great. Thanks for giving the color and highlighting that. I'll go and jump back in the queue.
We will take our next question from Scott Fortune with Roth MKM. Your line is open.
Yeah, good morning. This is Nick on for Scott. First question for me, just looking for some color on your oil offering in Canada. You called out increasing share, despite it being kind of a high price point skew in the marketplace. Just your sense of the consumer uptake there and the opportunity going forward would be helpful. Thank you.
Morning, Nick. Yeah, we continue to lead in that category in many ways as a high-quality provider. Many folks that are looking for a wellness product via the recreational channel, that oil business for us remains steady, even as the category is slightly declining. W e see the category of wellness being put into different subcategories. At first, it was all oil, and now you have different formats, a nd what we've done to meet the customer demand is we actually just recently launched capsules. W e had some THC capsules that launched in the summer, and just subsequent to the quarter, some CBN and CBD capsules. W e'll hopefully see that grow as far as dollars as well as market share.
A s we grow market share, we saw a little bit of decline in month-over-month actual sales on the oil category, but that's why we added those capsules. We are still number two in dollars spent in oil, but we are closing that gap every month between the number one, which is a Redecan product now owned by Tilray, just low cost. O bviously, it's just moving volume from a low-cost perspective, but we are that kind of number one quality go-to product, and we'll continue to own that space going forward.
No, I appreciate that color. Thank you. T he second one for me, just on the cash balance. You called out the M&A opportunity. Just your sense of the environment and the multiples you're seeing out there, given the pressure on some of the smaller international companies out there, just, and any specific category you're targeting.
Yeah, maybe. Thanks, Nick. It's Dave. I'll kind of make a comment about it, and then I'll turn it over to Greg, and he can give some more color. I think the short answer is there's lots of opportunities out there now, particularly in the Canadian market, and the multiples are very low in terms of some of the opportunities, depending on the state of the various players. W e think it's actually the timing is very good for companies that have a strong balance sheet, that have cash, and we don't intend to spend all the cash with any transaction that we do.
We intend to invest, look for partners, potentially where we can deploy that cash for investments for growth, and probably more looking at equity-related transactions. P art of the question was, we are open to opportunities, internationally as well for international growth, b ut the current market right now in Canada, we think we've proven through the VIVO acquisition that our ability to integrate and synergize and really run two companies for the cost of one, which is essentially what we've been able to do. We think there's several opportunities to do that again, with potential Canadian targets. So, maybe as background, I'll turn it over to Greg, and he can give a little more color.
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Dave. Thanks for the question. Yeah, so as Dave said, you know, with our cash balance, where it is about CAD 19 million today, that gives us some flexibility. Obviously, as Dave said, we don't want to do a deal all in cash, and we'll use equity. We are seeing, you know, in the Canadian market, Dave indicated the multiples are relatively low, s o now is a good time. The watch out or the thing that we're being very careful with is to find the right partner, like another VIVO, that isn't burdened with excessive amounts of debt, which we see across the market today, a nd when we say debt, that includes some folks that have been not paying excise duties.
We've seen a lot of that, where there's a burdened on debt and excise duty. You know, in the international market, where we continue to look for opportunities as well, you know, the valuations are a little bit higher than what we see in Canada. A gain, we want to be careful there and make sure we select the right partner, which is what I think we did with VIVO, as we've shown some synergies to really help drive that profitability improvement that we've seen over the last couple of quarters.
Great. That's it for me. I'll pass it on.
There are no further questions at this time, so I will now turn the call back to Mr. David Pidduck for closing remarks.
Thank you, operator, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to sharing our year-end results in March. Everybody have themselves a great week.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call, and we thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.