Hi, everyone. Welcome to Day Two of the Stevens Investment Conference. I'm Hannah Rayford. I'm on the Life Science Tools and Pharma Services team here at Stevens, and we're pleased to be joined by the MaxCyte team here today. We have CEO Maher Masoud and VP of Corporate Development, Jack Horgan. Thank you for joining us today. I guess I'll just turn it over to you two for any opening comments you want to make, and then we'll launch into Q&A.
Yeah. Thank you, Hannah. No, I just want to say thank you for having us here. It's a great conference to be at. I want to give us a chance to actually speak about MaxCyte, our role in the cell and gene therapy space, and what we see for the future of MaxCyte and cell and gene therapy. Thank you, Hannah.
All right. To start, you've had quite a few changes recently. You just announced a CFO transition, acquired SecureDx earlier this year, and then recently announced an operational restructuring. Can you just talk about your strategic areas of focus now and any changes in how MaxCyte is going to operate?
Sure. Absolutely. Great question. Let me break that up a little bit. The CFO transition, actually, Doug Swirsky and I have been partners now for two years. He's been fabulous for us. He's really helped us really solidify our finance and accounting team, since we've only been recently, I'd say, a relatively new publicly traded company. He's transitioning for personal reasons, but will stay on as an advisor. He'll be on with us until we find the next CFO to really help us continue to build out the functions in finance and accounting, such as FP&A and more data-driven type functions. Let me address where we are in terms of the reorg, in terms of SecureDx, what that does for us, what our focus is. I would like to say, let's take a step back on a higher level. MaxCyte was, right before COVID, in the 2020 period, we were about 50 employees. As we scaled up for this cell and gene therapy ramp that we began to see in those later years, we obviously got much bigger than that. With the recent reorg, my focus was bringing us back to being just a more focused scientific, engineering, commercial, and FAS team. That has really been our, what I call our secret sauce. We now have roughly about 89-90 employees compared to the 50 we had before the COVID ramp-up and anticipation of the growth of cell and gene therapy. Including there SecureDx, which we acquired, which has been truly just a great acquisition for us. The reason I say that is we see where the cell and gene therapy space is going.
Having that intimate relationship with those customers and partners where you can speak with them earlier in their development cycle, where they're still trying to decide what guide they're going to use, what nucleus they're going to use, understand what the safety aspects are, and understand what the engineering aspects are of engineering and therapeutic. That's what SecureDx is giving us right now. I mean, very recently, the FDA put out, I think it's called the Plausible Mechanism Pathway for Approval of Rare Diseases. That fits exactly in SecureDx's portfolio. What it does is actually sits perfectly for MaxCyte as well, because we can work with these customers early on, understand the safety profile, understand what they're engineering, and then help us whether they're going in vivo or ex vivo, in the case of using our engineering platform, really be part of that process much earlier in the research phase of it. We already have an FDA master file for our electroporation platform. SecureDx, with their offerings when they're being used by customers, they become part of the IND package as well for the safety profile. Really, what we've done this reorg, my focus has been, we've always been sticky with customers, truly sticky. That's why we have these SPL licensing models. This allows us to even be more sticky, always focus on science, the engineering, and I feel that will get us even more breadth of customers than we've had in the past. I hope that gives you an idea as to how we're thinking about it.
Yeah. Sticking at a high level, could you just touch on, for those less familiar with MaxCyte, what your key electroporation offerings are and kind of how you're differentiated and SecureDx to you right now?
Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'll bring it down. Basically, MaxCyte is the pioneer of what we call the non-viral cell engineering, where we work with developers when they're engineering a cell outside the body. That's ex vivo cell therapy. It can be done autologous, where you're actually taking cells from the patient, or allogeneic, where you're using healthy donor cells and producing a lot of doses that can be administered to many patients. We work with developers early in the process where they're actually engineering the cell outside the body using our electroporation platform, where you can introduce, whether it's plasmids, nucleic acids, gene editing tools. We all know about CRISPR and the advent of CRISPR a little over a decade ago. We use our state, and developers use our systems to introduce those kinds of gene editing tools into the cell, engineer the cell itself. An example of that, a few of them are, for example, the approval of Casgevy at the end of 2023 for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. That's engineered on our platform where they're engineering the cell, engineering the DNA, the gene within that cell to address sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. We do that across many multiple customers in the clinic. We're doing the same thing right now for customers, about 18 programs in the clinic currently using our system to engineer the cell. The benefit of our system, really compared to the competition, is scalability.
What that means is we can work with developers very early in the research phase all the way to the clinic and into commercialization and give them an optimized process regardless of what cell they're using or trying to engineer, regardless of what gene editing tools, whether it's CRISPR, base editing, prime editing. It can also be used even outside of cell and gene therapy. That's one of our revenue lines as well, where it can be used for what we call drug discovery, where the cell is a factory. You're introducing a plasmid into the cell, and you're able to produce proteins, small-scale proteins, transmitting from that system. We have pioneered this. This is what we've done for many, many years. With SecureDx, SecureDx is a little bit before that process for the cell engineering side, where SecureDx has assays all the way from selecting what guide you're going to use to nomination of what sites on the genome potentially can be safety signals, and then confirming with those sites whether they are safety signals or not. It's based out of Waltham. We acquired them earlier this year. I call them a relatively new startup. I think they were only founded a few years before we acquired them. It's a dedicated scientific team. We are the commercial team. We are the marketing team. They're the scientific team doing these assays. A big part of the acquisition was Jack. I want Jack to speak to SecureDx as well as to why we did SecureDx, what that means for us, the strategy in terms of what your vision was as well, Jack.
No, thanks so much, Maher. I think we may get into this a little later as well, but we're definitely seeing a trend where the FDA is asking more and more questions about how you understand the safety of gene editing therapies. One of the things SecureDx pioneered was what's called a variant-aware analysis of gene editing off-target effect nomination. What that does is it helps you understand across a wide array of potential patient populations what the risk is. Amongst those patient populations, there may be different risks based upon the different people. It really helps you understand that. We know the FDA is very interested in that. We are trying to make these therapies safer. We think that's going to expand the space. SecureDx has the dual benefit of helping to understand the safety of these therapies and make them safer and get us in earlier with the customer to help be a part of that conversation.
Great. That's helpful. There have been a number of macro headwinds in the space. Could you just talk about what you're seeing in terms of demand across your different product types as well as the different customer bases and then any potential green shoots you might be seeing as well?
Yeah. Yeah. Great question. Great question. The headwinds we've seen really this year, and we started to see it last year as well, and truly from 2023, is what we call the rationalization programs. You go back to 2020, 2021, 2022, we call that the heyday of cell and gene therapy, where it was probably overextended from what it should be, where we were working with customers that were planning to take anywhere from four to five programs at the clinic, to some of them wanting to take 18 programs in the clinic. We've seen that rationalization come down. That has had an effect on us over the last few years where the number of licenses that are being used in the clinic have come down because some of these developers are just developing fewer programs or anticipation of developing fewer programs. That's what we've seen. Those are the headwinds we talk about. We had one of our largest customers really rationalize how many processing assemblies they need based on the manufacturing of the product. One of the largest customers also rationalized how many manufacturing sites they need for their product from two sites from two different companies to one company. Take that out of the equation. What we've seen, however, is we are seeing larger placements of our instruments across the board. Some of them are lower-priced systems because we have research systems and all the way CGMP systems. We're seeing those placements across customers. It is a healthy thing to see because it is actually seeding the market for us for those future SPLs that we're signing. That is the reason why we're still signing three to five of those strategic platform licenses, which we call SPLs.
Our ability to really enter and do the research with these customers early in their process still allows us to sign three to five of these a year. We've signed four so far this year. We signed, I think it was five last year. We feel confident we can keep signing those three to five. The difference between now and the 2021, 2022 time period is back then when we signed these licenses, companies were anticipating taking many products into the clinic. Right now, we're seeing those companies focusing on their lead assets they're going to take into the clinic. It might result in a little bit less lease revenue initially, but I see it as a positive. I believe now we're in a space in cell and gene therapy where developers are focusing on what I call the true science, the assets that they're really looking at that they believe they can have the ability to go into a clinic, see positive phase I results, the ability to raise money based on those results. Really, it's a lot of the interest to focus on what are those key assets you want to take into the clinic, unlike before where it was more of an aspiration of taking many products into the clinic. We're still seeing those green shoots as well. We're also seeing green shoots even outside the U.S. You look into Asia and China, the research and development phase there has really taken off the past few years and this year. We've placed some, we have a presence there as well. We've done it very smartly. We haven't overexpanded yet. We brought on a new Head of Commercial Sales, Ana Paula, who joined us from much larger companies in the past. She joined us early this year. She's helping us truly begin to lay that groundwork for having a global sales and commercial company, not just in the U.S. and in Europe. We have a fabulous team manager right now. It's a small team, but has really given us the ability to have that presence there. Overall, we feel very good about the future. It's a more rationalized future and what I call with better therapies going to the clinic.
Okay. With headlines earlier this year about certain gene therapies and risk of off-target edits with AAVs, that's been kind of prominent in the space. Have you seen any change in conversations with customers or additional customer interests as a result of that?
We have. I mean, obviously, we've always believed that cell therapy is the future of cell and gene therapy. We haven't seen the safety signals that you've seen with some of these AAV or even lentiviral-type transduction delivery methods. It does allow us to really speak with those companies that are looking to move away from viral to non-viral. Last year, we signed an SPL with Legend Biotech, where they're looking to develop their first non-viral therapy, which will be on our platform as they enter into the clinic. That is what it's done. It is more than just the AAV and the lentiviral. Actually, that kind of helped shape how we think about the strategy of the company, what our growth areas are, whether it's organic and inorganic. I want Jack to speak to that as to why it's not just the AAV and the lentiviral that has the safety issues. We believe there are other concerns that could be possibly causing some of the safety signals we're seeing on the market and how we're developing really products around that as well. Jack, do you want to speak to that?
Yeah, definitely. I think also adding to your previous question, one of the things that makes me really excited about the space is the number of people that are asking to go completely non-viral. We're seeing that more and more every day. I think you mentioned potential off-target risks. I think that's one thing to think about. I think also getting virus into a CGMP manufacturing process has a long lead time and creates real flexibility issues for future development. We have more and more people asking us to go completely non-viral. I think that's something that our system is perfectly set up to do. I also think we have a number of customers in the allo space, and that space is really growing and getting validated. We know our platform is, just by the nature of the way we do electroporation, likely technically superior for allo programs. We know the scale that you need for allo programs is something that we're best equipped to do. Those are two things that I think are really exciting me about the space from a completely non-viral perspective. Getting back to off-target risk, the conversations that are really changing in that regard are we're hearing customers ask about that earlier and earlier. When you find out towards the end of a process that a certain population of patients could have a significant off-target risk, you've wasted all that development time and money. It's really substantial, especially when fundraising is hard. We think customers should really be asking these questions about off-target risk assessment very early in the process.
SecureDx can really help inform how to design the entire cell engineering process to reduce off-target risk across a big swath of the population by the way you set up your guide design and maybe by the nuclease you choose. Those are things we're investing heavily in to help guide the customer and really insert ourselves into having offerings there that we can think about and try and guide them towards what the right decisions are there. Also, as people are doing more and more edits, how to avoid chromosomal rearrangements, which SecureDx can also help guide. We really feel like SecureDx, even though it's a very early company, has been very forward-thinking about where the space is going, that you need to think about this problem very early. As you do more edits, it becomes much more impactful. We really feel good about getting in early with these customers, starting with SecureDx and then continuing to have things to talk to them about getting into the rest of the MaxCyte platform.
Yeah. Let me add one thing here as well. In terms of the AAV, that was always seen as a way really to more streamlined delivery method, right? It's in vivo. It's in the body. With allogeneic therapies really coming about and as we begin to see positive data from allogeneic therapies, it in essence addresses that delivery hurdle that maybe has been seen for cell therapy. We saw very recently with Caribou's announcement, I think a few weeks ago now, for their CB-010 and CB-011 program for multiple myeloma and lymphoma, very good positive phase one results where in line with approved CAR-T therapies that are autologous CAR-T therapies with a safety profile that allows for outpatient administration. That in essence is doing what in vivo is doing. As we begin to see more of that, that's where we see customers come to us. The reason they come to us is because of the scale. We have the ability to, with our GTX system, that's our CGMP system that's used in the clinic and for commercial, to really transfect the number of cells that our competitors can't do and do it consistently. As of, I think I said, we have 18 programs in the clinic right now. I think half of those, maybe more than half of those, are allogeneic programs. We have at least, I think, four of those programs we believe will be entering pivotal trials in the next six, we keep saying 18 months, probably 15 months now. These are all allogeneic programs that will address some of the advantages that maybe were seen by viral initially for the seamless delivery with having allogeneic approvals out there. Really, we're geared for that. We've been building protocols for not just autologous, but for allogeneic therapies across cell lines, protocols that we've been developing now for 10, 15 years. We have over 1,000 protocols regardless of what the cell type is, what the gene editing tools are being used, what you're actually loading into the cell itself. Truly, that's where we're seeing more of a shift from AAVs or LVs. It's more to the allogeneic side, and we're right for that.
Kind of expanding on that, across cell and gene therapy, it seems like you're supporting more and more different varieties of cell and gene therapies. Can you just touch on if you're seeing any particular activity or interests or opportunities across any certain cell types or indications?
Sure. Absolutely. The majority of cell and gene therapies still are CAR-T cells. I think it's 75% or roughly a little bit more than that or around there. That's the majority of what cells that are being engineered. However, you are seeing engineering of TILs, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. We're supporting those programs as well. TCRs, we're supporting those programs. A few of the companies we signed recently as well are developing TCR therapies, NK cells. That's really what we're seeing. What we're also seeing is not just what cell type, it's the indications. We're seeing a broadening use of really cell therapies, not just for initially blood cancers, but more for solid tumors now, autoimmune diseases, rare diseases, B-cell malignancies. We're seeing that across the board. In fact, we call it a, we believe we have a franchise on many of these indications where we're working with many developers, oftentimes on the same indication, or with many developers for broadening of indications. We expect some of the developers, maybe their products will not be successful through the clinic. By working with multiple of these developers on the same indication, we know we can participate when that one product or two products is successful. It is really, it is a breadth of cell types, majority are all still T cells, but it is a breadth of indications that I think six, seven years ago was not the case. It was mostly just blood cancers. Now we are seeing a true broadening of disease states that are being addressed by cell therapies.
All right. Turning to approvals and fast-track designations, you've talked about how, as you approach these, the timing of revenues can get a little bit lumpy. You have pointed towards 2027, 2028 being a time when you could have quite a few potential approvals coming up. Should we expect more turbulence in the timing of revenues as you approach that? How much insight do you think you'll have, I guess, quarter to quarter into how the timing of those revenues should shake out?
Sure. Absolutely. Let me address it first, and I'll turn it over to Jack as well to speak about this. Turbulence is a tough word, but we'll use turbulence as well. I think we learned a lot from the commercial product that we helped engineer in terms of the approval of that commercial product a few years back, which is oftentimes you'll see a ramp up in terms of how many systems that a customer might need for manufacturing, how many processing assemblies they need for patient dosing as well. We anticipate the same thing with those approvals as they begin to go through the product approval process in that 2027 time period, 2028 time period, hopefully in 2027, where we probably will see a ramp up in terms of the number of instruments they need, which translates into new lease revenue, probably a ramp up in terms of how many processing assemblies they need. It is a wait and see to really see what is the ramp of that product. Is that going to have the ramp that we believe that that product can have or that developer believes that product can have? I do not know if it is turbulence. It's just more of a learning curve that really is dependent upon the initial commercial success of that therapeutic will dictate at that point whether those revenues kind of moderate for a year or two before they pick back up or they just take off right away. That's part of our business model. That's what we're building into our forecasting. That's why I talk about being more of a data-driven organization. That's part of building out the finance function and really the commercial organization to understand the trends, understand the data, and be able to speak to it without it being turbulent, if that makes sense. Jack, anything else to add there?
I think it was an especially unusual year for revenue variability for MaxCyte in general. I think we mentioned early on that we had some customers exit the space, which is unusual, and we think we're mostly through that. It was just a testament to the times we were in that we had a few groups completely exit ex vivo cell therapy, which had an impact on us, which is unusual. I think we mentioned that there was a very large customer that had some inventory planning, which caused some variability in the revenue forecast. I don't think that that's something that we expect to be usual. I think as these customers go clinical into commercial, they're finding out things that have never happened before for them, and that created a little bit of variability. I think for the programs that are coming up that we've talked a lot about, a lot of those are allo programs, as we've mentioned. It's just a little bit more predictable on the revenue side, especially on core revenue. I think from a core revenue perspective, it was an unusually variable year. As we move forward, we think we're going to have a lot more visibility into that. For non-core revenue, the nature of that is not variable. We'll have milestones associated with a lot of clinical milestones that the customers go through that are one-time events that are difficult to predict and create some variability. I think one of the things that Maher has done is really tried to bring some discipline to the operations of the organization so that there's visibility into the way in which we will operate this business to have positive cash flow in the future without a large leap of faith on just the core business alone. People can start to think about those milestones and those royalties as potential upside to our cash position. That's the way we've been running the business, and we hope that a lot of the variability is behind us.
Turning to SecureDx, now that this is fully integrated, can you just talk about what you're seeing in terms of demand from customers? You kind of talked about how it gets you in with the customer maybe a little bit earlier. How has this impacted your ability to develop relationships across the space?
Yeah. I mean, I feel and we feel very good about SecureDx going into next year. This year, as I mentioned, we acquired them. They're a relatively new startup. We took the time this year to really optimize our products, optimize our processes, ensure that we can meet the demands of the customers that are really coming to us. We're looking at the bookings. We're looking at the number of customers that are coming to us for either small-scale services to large-scale services. It's quite a lot going into next year. We feel very excited about that. It is not just on the revenue line we feel excited. It is what you talked about. It really gets us into those customers extremely early. It allows us to have more of a breadth not just in the cell therapy space either. SecureDx's assets are needed whether you're doing in vivo editing, whether you're doing LMPs or viral editing. It really allows us to play to really understand the entire cell and gene therapy space and work with those customers across that space. Oftentimes, we might be able to converse with those customers from a viral program or an in vivo program to an ex vivo program. Even if we don't, it still allows us to work with them in that safety profile assessment as they take products through the clinic as well. We feel very good about them. SecureDx has the ability to do services, and oftentimes, they also license some of their assets. We have two ways of generating revenue from SecureDx that we feel very, very good about. Jack, anything else to add? I'd like to turn to Jack because that was his acquisition for us, where he helped spearhead that for us. I want to thank him for that. Any insights on SecureDx you want to talk about?
We acquired a great team. I think one of the things we've learned is, as that business continues to scale as a very early organization with a good team, and as Maher mentioned, the pipeline looks very good for future bookings, one of the other positive indications is how much the FDA has spoken about validating their technology. I think many people are aware of the baby KJ treatment and study. There was a substantial amount of the paper in the New England Journal of Medicine that was dedicated to off-target risk assessments. All of those use assays that were developed by SecureDx. As they talked about the plausible pathway for future approvals, they're really, without giving a lot of specifics, continually referencing that event, which for us indicated that they're really trying to point to what they did in that circumstance and say, "This is the pathway that we think is appropriate." In our minds, there's just been a lot of FDA-based validation of their approach, which we think will lead to future revenues for them, either on the project side or on the licensing side. We invested in them because we thought that would be the case. We really think it is the right way to think about safety for the patient.
Do you have much of a sense yet for how you see this business growing in the future?
Yeah. I mean, we haven't guided in terms of how large they can be and what it means. I feel very good about next year. I think we'll get more of a sense next year. We can speak about what it means for the future years thereafter. We acquired them, and I've said it before. I think they can really become the mainstay of how you do off-target assessments across the board. One time, I said, "I think it could be as big as MaxCyte." We're not there yet, obviously. We won't acquire, we're not going to develop a product or acquire a company unless we truly believe in what that TAM is and how large it is. We think it's fairly substantial. Feel good about next year, and let's see how that goes. We'll talk about it more next year.
All right. You've mentioned a new product that's an extension of the ExPERT platform that is set to commercially launch early next year. Is there anything more you can tell us about this new product and how it expands your customer reach or any expectations for how it might contribute to 2026 revenue?
Absolutely. I have not said much about it for competitive reasons, obviously. It is in beta user hands right now. Technically, you would call that a soft launch, but it officially commercially will launch early next year. It is an extension of our ExPERT electroporation platform. I would say it is earlier in the research process than our current platforms. It allows us to work with companies that are earlier in the process, not academic, but early research translational center when they are still selecting what guides they are. They are selecting what nuclease they want. They are selecting what cells they plan to engineer. It is working with them also while we are working with them with SecureDx and the safety profile. It is across the board. It has the ability to not just work in the ex vivo space. is also for the in vivo space as you are doing some of your assessments as to what product you plan to develop as well. I know I am not giving much, but for a good reason. It really gives us the breadth that will touch upon even more customers than we ever have, similar to how SecureDx is on that. This is even more than that. It really lets us get in with customers earlier on the research side. We have more of that intimate scientific approach that we have built our company on and expand upon that. We see meaningful revenue from that going to the second half of next year as we launch the first half. That is part of one of our growth drivers that we think we will begin to see in the second half of next year as well.
Turning to margins, you've always had historically very strong gross margins. These have been weighed on a bit recently by the mix of instruments. Could you just talk about where you see gross margins going over time and then maybe remind us how process assemblies differ from instruments?
Sure. Absolutely. I'll have Jack speak to that. Obviously, our gross margins are very healthy. We have a percentage here and there for various reasons. Probably is not a major effect. We're still in the 80%, so to speak. In the industry, you'd consider us a stalwart for gross margins. Jack, would you like to talk about the gross margins and any changes there from a GAAP or non-GAAP and the reasons for it?
Yes. I think historically, as you already mentioned, the reason our margins may fluctuate has much more to do with mix than any other factor. We have large control over our manufacturing. There are a few things that relate to absorption based upon revenue, but those things are not as large as the impact of mix. One of the things you could point to and see is during the last couple of quarters, our % of revenue in licenses has gone down, which is basically the leases for our platform, which are our highest margin product. That was a direct result of some of our customers exiting the space. That is what has really caused that short-term fluctuation. As Maher mentioned, they are still very healthy. As we move forward, we expect that leases are very likely to increase because of the amount of customers that we have that are going into a commercial phase that need those. That has a direct impact on margin improvement. It's really, really hard to guide on the future of margins without discussing revenue because it's a mix-based issue, which is why I won't give many details to how that will evolve. Hopefully, it's just helpful to know. It has a lot to do with mix, and it has a lot to do with the lease mix that causes that change. As we move forward, we see positive signs for the return to lease growth.
We see it back to being those same margins we've had in the past, which is maybe rather than 82%, it's 84%-85% again as revenue grows. We feel confident we can get back to those same margins. They're healthy already, Hannah. Really healthy.
All right. Thinking longer term, given your recent announcements about cost savings initiatives, it seems you're better positioned to achieve profitability. Do you have any targets for a timeline or maybe a revenue level where you would expect to achieve that and maybe talk about puts and takes to get there?
Sure. Let me take that first part. Then I'll give a little bit to Jack as well. Obviously, we disclosed last week we've taken about $17 million-$19 million out of our operating costs on an annualized basis. We believe our cash burn next year will be anywhere from $10 million-$15 million. It is a substantial difference from what it used to be in years past. We haven't given a timeframe as to when that profitability would be. You can probably do the analysis and say, with a burn of only $10 million-$15 million, and that's with very little growth in the year next year, actually little to no growth in the year next year, that's what the burn anticipation is. The puts and take from that in terms of that timeline of profitability, some of that has to do with what milestones are coming in, timing of milestones. Some of the approvals we are talking about as well coming in as well. We feel very confident where we are with the burn of $10-$15 million, that it can begin to improve from there as our business continues to improve and truly grow over the coming years. I mean, Jack, anything else you would like to add there?
Nothing substantial. I completely agree. We tried to increase our disclosures on what we expect from a cash burn perspective next year, specifically so people could understand how core could model out their own core growth and understand how we could develop a path to profitability just on the core business. It is really hard for us to forecast milestones and royalties, which should improve that picture. Some of those milestones are one-time events. While they will really help with our cash position when we go profitable, it impacts quarter to quarter exactly when we will have positive cash flow. That is a lot of the puts and takes on how that will evolve. We tried to give a little bit more detail into how costs will evolve so that people could project their core revenue out and really get an understanding that we feel strongly that the way Maher set up this business is that we will have a substantial amount of our cash available for the right use just on core business alone.
All right. And then on capital allocation, you acquired SecureDx earlier this year. What are your priorities for capital allocation now? Could we see more M&A like this in the near term, or are you more focused on organic investments?
Absolutely. Obviously, organic investments is always top priority of ours. That is why we are launching a new product early next year. We are looking to launch an additional product in future years as well. Building out SecureDx as well is obviously a core function of ours and really focusing on the rest of the core business. We have, I talked about, a franchise across the U.S. states we are going to continue to build. That is always a core focus of ours. At the same time, M&A is something that we are always looking at. As we can see the ability to, just like with SecureDx, broaden our offerings in the cell and gene therapy space and drug discovery space, we are looking there as well. It is not necessarily one or the other. You always start with your core business, and you improve upon your core business. That is our main focus. As we see opportunities, as we see another SecureDx or type broadening of offerings, absolutely, we'll look there as well. That is a focus of ours as well.
All right. To wrap it up, on 2026, I believe you said you're expecting the environment to stay roughly the same in the first half and then maybe a pickup in the second half that should result in overall core growth for the year. Can you just talk about the puts and takes for your expectations during 2026?
Sure. Absolutely. When I say the first half of next year, minimal growth, a lot of that resulting is from those leases that were rationalized this year. We were able to take some portion of those leases this year that will, in essence, we will not be able to recognize next year. That is all relative in the first half. That is why it is a tough first half to first half comparison. Our focus is not just on the half or on the quarter. It is really throughout the year and in the future years. We see the growth begin to come back in that second half where we obviously are growing the core business. We are growing SecureDx offerings. We have a new product launched early that can help with that offering, that revenue in the second half as well. Continued expansion in Asia as well. I mean, this is where a global company, cell and gene therapy and drug discovery is global. We now know the U.S. is not the only territory that has a franchise on research. It really is a global paradigm. We feel confident going to the second half, we can get back to that growth, even dealing with those headwinds that we dealt with this year that's going to have an effect in the first half. We feel very good. We feel very good. I mean, my focus and our focus is always long term. We do not focus on the quarter to quarter. Sometimes we are going to have headwinds. We will deal with that. The long term has been really exactly what we expected. To wrap up, for wrap up here, we are still the only company that can sign three to five licenses a year. These are three to five licenses that really are going to have the benefits someday. You hope, knock on wood, where these are therapies that are going to address patients that are going to do something that small molecules and biologics have never done. I've said it before, and I truly believe this is a space of the future of medicine. You're going to cure diseases as we've seen and we're seeing now, or you're going to let people live what I call disease-free. That's something that we're building towards. I feel very good about that. Very good about that. Jack, anything you want to add to wrap up?
No. I think the CapEx hesitancy headwind was a real impact on the entire space for the first part of the year. That hangover continued. We are seeing some positive momentum towards next year that allowed you to give that confidence that we will return to growth absent that tough comp from the leases rolling off in the first half of last year. Overall, I think the group's done a good job of building up the pipeline and trying to execute through that hesitancy, which sets us up for a really good 2026.
Yeah. Good job.
Before we wrap it up, does anyone in the audience have anything they'd like to ask? All right. That is all I've got. Thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you.