Hello, everyone. I'm Noah from the Life Science Tools and Diagnostics team. Welcome to the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, and welcome to Quanterix. This presentation will be about 20 minutes, with about 20 minutes of Q&A. With that, I'll let Masoud start it off.
Good afternoon, and thanks for having us, Noah. So today I'm here with Vandana Sriram, our CFO; Naren Bhat, head of Corp Development and Strategy; and head of IR, Ed Joyce. Before we begin, I'll point you to our disclosures page on forward-looking statements on non-GAAP financial measures. So in the healthcare space, Quanterix is unique. What we do is that we're a catalyst in translating biomarker research into the clinic. So our customers use our platform to get insights into biologic and pharmacologic responses to drive therapy approvals and clinical treatment decisions. Our mission is to create the tools and deliver those tools to improve health outcomes. So Quanterix, as a company, is a company at global commercial scale.
We have a large instrument install base, and strong adoption, with over 550 biomarkers detected using our platform and 2,500 publications. You know, simply put, our customers are pioneers. They do work at the cutting edge of research, and they look at protein signatures undetectable by other technologies. So in the healthcare space, if you're looking to catch disease early, you're identifying first traces of these biomarkers, using our Simoa platform. And we'll talk a little bit about applications in neurology today, but this has also manifested itself in oncology and immunology. And we'll, you know, in 2024, talk about some of those additional areas. So when you look... firstly, you look at the technology, we're able to deliver exquisite sensitivity from a platform perspective by looking at single molecules.
Looking at single molecules in thousands of femtoliter wells, we can produce a digital signal by separating signal from noise in a lot more effective way than a traditional method of protein detection, which looks at millions of molecules, does an average, and is very much an analog detection method. We've taken this great technology, and we've applied it to probably the, if I think about it, the largest axiom or the largest paradigm in this whole healthcare conference, or, you know, what, what we should be doing, you know, as an industry, which is identifying disease early before symptoms, so that can better be eradicated or something can actually can be done with it.
If you have a technology that can look at the very earliest signatures of protein, then you're on the right track for identifying that disease early, and that's our vision at the company, and that's what we're applying our technology for. So clearly, this is a big feat. This is a big endeavor, as a company, and the team at Quanterix has been working incredibly hard at democratizing the technology, getting Simoa in more hands, so that Simoa's technology, the platform, the assays, the services that we offer, are not just for specialty labs, but for all laboratories. And over the last year, six quarters or so, we've been working on a corporate transformation to be able to realize that potential, for future growth.
So the two top-line goals of this transformation over the last six quarters have been producing highly scaled production lines, so we wanna deliver products at high level of efficiency. And the second top-line goal for the company has been accelerated innovation rate, increasing the number of products that are coming out and increasing the cadence of products that were coming out in our menu. And so this has largely been successful over the last six quarters. We've seen you know, margin accretion, you know, in just one year, over 1,200 basis points of improvement. We've reduced cash burn by threefold since 2022 and had double-digit growth in 2023. On top of this strong foundation coming from the transformation, we've built an efficient operating framework. And what does that mean? Testing scale.
We've improved testing scale by 50% over the last six quarters. In the same period, we have over 300% more assays coming off of our production lines than they did in the same period. The number of partnerships, collaborations with pharma, and research have increased by over 80%. So strong success. The second top-line area that I talked about is innovation rate, and we define innovation rate at Quanterix as the cadence of new breakthrough assays that we've developed and we've released to the market on our platform.
And so, as you can see, from this timeline, in the last three or four years, you know, we've had some level of, assays that we've put into the market, but with this transformation, we now have the building block to increase that rate and are expecting, you know, tens of new assays in 2024, and beyond.... So you might ask yourself, you know, what are you building this scale for? Why are you building these incredibly efficient, you know, operating lines? What are you innovating for? And this comes down to, a very, you know, important point at Quanterix. We have a strong conviction that the next 10 years are gonna be renaissance years, for neurology. And if you think about, the next 10 years and, and why we think this is we've seen a lot of indicators.
Clearly, Quanterix is highly indexed to the neurology field, and some of these indicators within the company are the number of CNS programs or clinical trials in the market today. So there's over 120 CNS programs growing at one of its fastest rates in the history of neurology. We're in a large percentage of these programs, and so we can see this. We're involved in those clinical trials. They're using our platforms for their clinical trials, so we're in the front line of that. When you look at our top-line customers working on, you know, high-level disease-modifying therapies, the number of tests that they run on their Simoa platforms have increased almost fourfold over the last couple of years.
Then, you know, finally, if you look at neurology as a space and as a field, there are more disease-modifying therapies in the market today or coming out in the market today that are driven by biomarkers or blood-based biomarkers in the market. And I think, you know, finally, you know, clearly, Alzheimer's disease is the third horseman after heart disease and oncology. It's an important area that needs attention. You know, since the beginning of time where, you know, the number of folks that are growing in the age demographic is increasing, and the number of people who have dementia or Alzheimer's is becoming a problem in the field. Now, the problem with neurology is that it's hard to access the brain.
You have a blood-brain barrier, which is truly a barrier. You have a skeletal structure around the brain. You can't just go in and do a biopsy, and it's that very point that is one of the reasons why advances in neurology and therapies in neurology have lagged versus oncology and immunology. Now, Quanterix is that blood-based, non-invasive liquid biopsy for the brain, that brain health proxy that gives a sense of what's going on. And so I think the one of the clearest examples or most recent examples was with ALS.
So with the Quanterix NfL biomarker, we looked at neurofilament light, which is a scaffolding protein in the axons of neurons, and when the therapy was applied to patients, there was an improvement in that neurofilament light biomarker, which led to, you know, accelerated approval of the therapy, and now patients have access, you know, to a drug for a very debilitating disease. So, you know, we believe that, you know, Simoa biomarkers are gonna continue to enable these therapy approvals moving forward. So we've reached, you know, an inflection point in neurology. If you look at the last 20 years or couple decades, Quanterix has been building up evidence, building up, you know, through research publications, over 2,500 publications that use Simoa as the brain, you know, liquid biopsy, as the proxy for brain health.
And just in the last three years, there have been four DMTs, disease-modifying therapies, that have been approved, all powered by Quanterix biomarkers, all approved with the help of Quanterix biomarkers. And what we're seeing in the next 10 years for neurology is, as I said, a growing number of new programs that are looking to accelerate and be approved with some of our biomarkers. So up until now, everything I've talked about have been, you know, Simoa used as the liquid biopsy for the brain and accelerating approvals in the market. Now, you know, for the first time in neurology, we now have these disease-modifying therapies, and we have patients who want to get onto the therapies.
And so there's a real need in this neurology space to match a patient to that therapy, and there's been a, you know, new, renewed focus for the company to develop disease diagnostics for specifically Alzheimer's. Now, you know, as I said, Alzheimer's is one of the most debilitating, broad-based, and costly diseases from a societal cost perspective. One in nine people 65 and older have either dementia or Alzheimer's disease, and it's just been one of those diseases, I said, the third horseman that needs a solution. Now, our perspective on this has been we have an incredibly sensitive technology that detects first traces of disease. We know that if you look at the therapies on the market today for Alzheimer's disease, they work better if you can catch someone early in the progression.
When we were developing this diagnostic test, there were a few key criteria in developing the test. First, we wanted to catch the widest cohort of patients. We wanted to catch very early-stage patients in the disease progress. Two, we wanted to identify a biomarker that'd be able to do that. You need the sensitivity on our platform, but you also need that unique biomarker. Looking at the tau species, a lot of work has been done on tau and the phosphorylated position of 217. Combination of our sensitivity and the 217 protein gave us the ability to identify patients early in this, you know, this devastating cascade. A couple of months ago, we released our, you know, diagnostic test. It's called the LucentAD p-Tau 217 test.
We wanted, you know, a sense in spec and accuracy that was going to be on par with an invasive test. We wanted to catch the very early stages of a patient's amyloid pathology, as well as, you know, producing a scalable workflow. So we've done that. We've released the test on the market, and we're building, you know, built a commercial team, and we're going after, you know, expanding this test to more patients. So the 217 test is a best-in-class test. We're offering the test through our Accelerator laboratory, which is a CLIA laboratory in Boston. We're able to offer capacities of thousands of samples on a weekly basis. But our strategy goes much beyond that. Our goal with this test is to really build the global infrastructure for testing.
And so we're enabling, you know, hospitals and reference laboratories access to this test. So, you know, to be very clear, you know, this is a start for Quanterix. We have, you know, a strong interest to continue to increase that, you know, near 1,000 sample or instrument install base, and continue to expand that base to democratize the test. We're looking at multi-marker based tests. So by adding additional markers, we can look at differential diagnosis of the disease, and we think that's gonna be important in the market, as well as increasing and improving the workflow. So, as I said, you know, highly sensitive technology, we can measure tau in dried blood spots and think that, you know, around the world, that's going to be very important for getting broader access in the test.
This is a big focus of ours, and we've been allocating capital to advance Alzheimer's disease diagnosis, specifically around regulatory approval, reimbursement, as well as continuing our prospective clinical trials, you know, throughout 2024 to maximize access to the widest cohort of patients, widest and most diverse patients, improving access to these therapies. So to summarize, you know, we, you know, are feeling good about the foundation that the team has built. And with this transformation that the company has underwent, there's a level of resiliency we feel we have going into 2024 that starts with our diversified portfolio of platforms. We have assays that run on those platforms as well as we offer lab services on top of the products that we were able to offer to the market.
Second, we're highly indexed to well-funded projects. Usually, when we're, customers are doing a clinical trial, there's a, you know, a DMT or a therapy approval that's pending, so those tend to be well-funded, and we expect that to continue in 2024. And then finally, as I, we talked about and I alluded to, there's a growing number of new clinical trials and interest in combinatorial therapies, not just in Alzheimer's disease, but in Parkinson's, TBI, MS, and different neuropsychological disorders.
So, you know, to conclude, we, you know, the great work done by our great team at Quanterix has us feeling really good that we've built the right foundation, as demonstrated by our strong results, increasing operating leverage, and strong balance sheet, to ensure that Quanterix is the lead catalyst for neurology in the next 10 years. Thank you.
Great. And just as a reminder, feel free to submit any questions through the portal or raise your hand, and we can pass the microphone around. But just to start it off here, so you know, in your presentation, you talk a lot about, you know, you know, potential of the Simoa technology, and particularly, there's been a lot of excitement about the possibility of catching disease early. Can you talk about how Simoa is positioned against other technologies, for example, MassSpec or other competing technologies, in early disease detection and sort of the importance of that market for you?
Yeah. No, I think it comes down to, sensitivity and number of molecules. So I think when you're looking at, early signs or protein signature in the blood, you're trying to measure something non-invasively, you're looking for molecules of that signature. And if your detection mode is going to be millions of molecules, you're clearly, you know, just by that correlation, looking at something later, in that category. So on a biomarker-by-biomarker basis, we can detect something at much earlier stage of disease versus traditional technology. And then, you know, we can look at the biomarkers that are hard to look at or are diluted as they go from the brain to the CSF, compartment into blood. So for us, you know, we focus on markers that require that first trace, early sensitivity as is common in neurology.
That's awesome. And in recognizing the opportunity of creating a test that's sensitive, you know, peers have, you know, sort of been iterating on their sensitivity as well. The HD-X has sort of created a dominant position in sort of this, in sort of highly sensitive applications. You know, how are you thinking about the potential roadmap of updating the HD-X in the future?
Yeah, I mean, that's a good, that's a good question. Our view, and it's a big part of our internal focus, is next generation innovation in the company. Today, we talked about innovation from an assay standpoint, but the other component and what we focus a lot on is: what is the next level of sensitivity? If you put all your bandwidth on a single marker, we can look at things at the molecule level, right? Atto molar-l evels. Now, if you begin to add markers to that test, can you look at each of those markers at that high level of sensitivity? That requires new advancements that we're working on, you know, throughout 2023, and we'll hopefully talk a little bit more about that in 2024.
But to your point, next generation platform and our investment is happening.
That's awesome. And do you have an initial framework for the types of things that, you know, you could improve with the next-generation HD-X? For example, you know, you mentioned sensitivity. Could there be a possible, you know, multiplexing increase or throughput or something like that?
Yeah, yeah. I think the three key areas I would say is, you know, pay attention to sensitivity, increasing the throughput and multiplex is a, is a part, and then form fit and size of the platform, making it amenable to meet our goal of Simoa not just in specialty labs, but Simoa in all laboratories.
Mm-hmm. That's very pertinent. And so just relating to that, you know, the Simoa technology is used by both, you know, Quanterix internally as well as, you know, with external partners. So, for example, like, you know, other private players or other companies like ALZpath are commercializing their own tests based on the Quanterix platform. So how do you sort of manage, you know, the relationship there and sort of be a good partner externally as well as developing your test-to-sell, you know, sort of internally as well?
Yeah, you know, our key, Noah, guiding principle, is our focus on democratizing the infrastructure for testing. So if we did all of the testing in the U.S. globally, right, that wouldn't be a great thing. So we want the technology in as many hands as possible. That's hospitals, physicians, neurologists around the world. We have already started by offering that capacity in our CLIA laboratory, but we want this, broad-based, and if there's a partner that wants to use our platform and do testing, we're gonna absolutely, support them to do the testing. That being said, you know, when it comes to 217, a lot of roads come to Quanterix because it's a very difficult marker to measure.
And we've, you know, had collaborations with a few pharma companies with their 217s, for therapies, and we expect those programs to continue and for us to make those assays available to the broader market.
That's super helpful. You know, I think, you know, the Quanterix story is definitely underpinned by these strong relationships with pharma companies. You know, how do you position yourself, regardless of, you know, your partnership status, to actually become the dominant testing player for, you know, very high quality markets like p-Tau 217 in the near future? There's been a lot of focus from both investors and companies on, you know, specifically the p-Tau 217 opportunity in the next year or so.
Yeah. Yeah, you know, you know, what we have is we sort of put all of our attention on the best test. So if you look at our p-Tau 217 rule-in test, it's best in class in the market, and that's not just by coincidence. We put a lot of effort in a high-sensitivity test that would, you know, touch the most number of patients, high specificity and accuracy compared to an invasive test. And if we focus on that, and we can catch as many patients as possible, then that's the right thing for the market. And so put a lot of effort. The sensitivity clearly helps in being able to provide that.
And we think, you know, in the next year, if you look at some of the guidelines that are out there, two seventeen is the bar. If you want to detect these tau proteins in blood, it should be a two seventeen test. Not all two seventeen tests are created equally. Some are more accurate than others. Ours is, you know, at the front of the line, and we expect over the next year to be a dominant test in the marketplace.
Awesome. Yeah, and could you just refresh everybody on the sort of rule-in versus rule-out opportunity and, you know, how you plan on, you know, making that a real market?
Yeah. Yeah, so our first Lucent test was something that we worked and spent a lot of time in, which was p-Tau 181, and that rule-out test had a high sensitivity, lower specificity, which was designed to you know be used as an aid to a diagnostic for a physician who's looking at a patient and wants to decide whether they should send them a reflex to PET or an invasive CSF. That's the way that was designed. And then, with the incredible clinical trial data we've been seeing, not just from us, but with our partners, we began. You know, it became very clear that 217 is you know a better, much better test than 181, sort of now incomparable.
And it could be a rule-in test, meaning you could take the test, and that would be, you know, the diagnostic you would need before you get onto therapy. So we developed the 217 test with two cut points. Above certain cut points, you would be a candidate for the therapy, and below a certain cut point, you wouldn't be a candidate for that therapy. So it's still an aid to a diagnostic and, you know, a new advance in the field of Alzheimer's testing, staging, and monitoring.
Awesome. Yeah, and the p-Tau 217, you know, opportunity in itself is, you know, seems to be a pretty exciting opportunity, and you do seem to have a pretty leading, leadership sort of role in that, you know, that offering. So how do you sort of think about using that, leadership role to potentially, expand into multi-marker testing? Or, do you sort of view the standalone p-Tau 217 test as becoming the sort of, leader in diagnostics for Alzheimer's?
Yeah. So yes, your last question, I do expect 217 to be the lead assay in diagnostic testing. The criterion and the NIA-AA guidelines support that. Talking to neurologists support that, the conferences support that. So yes, I do expect that to be the test that's gonna be, you know, predominantly used. On the multi-marker side, there's a lot of opportunity. Let's say you're a patient, you're suffering from memory problems. You come in, you take our 217 test, you have memory problems, but the result's negative. So what is it then, right? And I think if with a multi-marker test, if we can provide a, "Hey, it's not amyloid pathology, but let's say it's Lewy bodies or frontotemporal dementia," I think that's real value added to the patient.
That's giving him an answer where he might have an answer that's sort of negative. And so that's where I think the multi-marker could be, you know, incredibly effective. I don't see it as, today, as a replacement for the standalone p-Tau 217, but an additional menu item in our journey of adding new markers for the first time in a really exciting diagnostic area.
Awesome. Yeah, and sort of can you talk about that, you know, potential path to, you know, even if it, there isn't sort of a marker expansion to how you could potentially gain, you know, additional indications or how you could, expand the ASP of, of the test that you currently sell?
Yeah. So, you know, today it's a single marker test. We're an advanced, we have an advanced prospective clinical trial that's ongoing that we should read out in 2024, where we're looking at patients that are, entering-- we're in phase II. We're looking at patients that are entering primary care physician offices with memory concerns, as well as memory centers. They get a PET, they get our blood test, we compare, the data. This is our patients that have early symptoms, mild, you know, cognitively impaired patients and, and patients that are pretty, cognitively impaired. Look at that, data and see if we can do some differential diagnosis, with the platform.
That'll read out by 2024 and, you know, we'll be able to, our goal is continue to offer these as LDTs, but submit them also for regulatory approval. As we've done, with NfL, p-Tau 181, we received FDA breakthrough designation for both of those. We intend to do the same thing with p-Tau 217 and any future multi-marker that we offer.
Mm-hmm. And just remind us, what's the initial framework for sort of like when you could see approval for some of those tests?
Yeah, I mean, we, you know, have them available as LDTs today, so it's hard to make, you know, a lot of predictions when you submit something for regulatory approval. This will be the first time. They're, they're de novo designations, meaning there's nothing of its kind in the market. But, you know, I would expect, you know, that the excitement behind it and the fast-track nature hopefully see something the next, you know, I would say... I won't make a prediction, but I'll say, you know, months and months, not, you know, several years.
That's, that's helpful. And then I guess, do you, do you see, you know, a potential approval as something that could differentiate, you know, your assays versus others? And how do you sort of view the other, types of strategies for Alzheimer's-related testing on the market right now?
Yeah, you know, I think the regulatory framework helps with reimbursement. It helps getting broader adoption for the test. I do believe that the LDT we offer today is, you know, something that patients or physicians are ordering for their patients as we, as we speak. We do a certain volume on a weekly basis with p-Tau 217, and the existing LDTs we have through our accelerator program. Regulatory approval just helps with dissemination of the test, as opposed to everyone doing their own LDT and CLIA, which we'll, you know, support. This gives them a chance to disseminate it in a broader, broader basis. So it's, it's, yeah, it helps.
Awesome. Yeah, and then, you know, I guess we've seen other players commercialize, you know, like mass spec-based tests that are getting some traction, maybe not quite with the same sort of results or, you know, quality that Quanterix is sort of trying to position for. So what is the sort of initial physician feedback they're getting from, you know, the test as you're ramping through, and sort of like, how do you think about that growth ramping over time?
Yeah, so, you know, look at your question as two parts. One, the initial neurologist feedback that we're getting from physicians has been incredibly positive. Right now, you have to imagine there hasn't been a DMT on the market for Alzheimer's for decades, right? And there's a lot of people suffering, or have family members who are suffering from this disease. Now, for the first time, last year, there's a new therapy. Lilly has another therapy we'll hopefully hear about in Q1, and there's a demand. "Hey, can I get onto the therapy, or can I put my loved one on the therapy?" But there's a lack of tests. Right now, if you wanna go and get a PET scan, there's, you know, a backup. There's only 2,000 PET centers in the U.S. It's a $5,000 test.
So the neurologists are telling us we need more tools to be able to triage and test these patients before they first come to see the neurologist, but too, before they can get, or be considered for, the therapy. And so that demand, and that need for a test that goes along with cognitive workup, is important. Your second question, or the first part of that was, on mass spec. MassS pec is a super sensitive platform. It requires a lot of workflow steps prior to the platform, so scalability, you know, is an important question. But mass spec sensitivity is solid, and if I look at who and what systems can offer 217 today, it's our platform, and MassS pec.
Those are the only two systems or platforms I've seen with real clinical data and sensitivity level that'll be able to detect the earliest patients.
Awesome. Yeah, and do you view the structural costs of a mass spec-based test as higher, potentially?
I do. I think the MassSpec platform, you know, overall as a system is much more expensive, but I think it's the... I think scalability is a question. MassSpec does very well when you're a single site or a single laboratory. Scaling and disseminating the platform and the 10, 15 steps of isolation, the dry ice required to submit samples, that's, you know, that can be challenging and takes time to work out. In our platform, we're a sample-to-answer platform, so you put a blood tube into our system, and you're able to get an answer out. We're able to, on each platform, look at around 300 samples in an eight-hour shift.
So it's that scalability and that sample-to-answer, which, you know, tends to be, you know, a little bit more amenable, especially in the diagnostic segment.
Great. Yeah, maybe zooming out a little bit for a second. You know, you're both, again, you know, an instrument business and then also, again, a service business with these tests.
Mm-hmm.
So, you know, you've recently flagged that the instrument business, you know, was seeing a little bit more of CapEx pressure, as you know, many other companies have faced in recent quarters. Do you have any update on that or how we can sort of think about it? Is it possible that the Alzheimer's trends that, you know, you flagged, for example, like strong clinical trials and the initial update of these commercial drugs, could sort of buoy the demand for, you know, instruments this year? How should we think about that?
Yeah. I mean, you know, one of the... So certainly, CapEx pressure with biotech and pharma on instrumentation. One of the unique advantages at Quanterix is that we also offer lab services. So we've had, you know, several in the pharma and the biotech space say, "I need the Simoa sensitivity. I don't have CapEx today, but let me send my samples to your accelerator lab, or let me send samples to a CRO that you're using, and let me offer, you know, do services." And so what we've seen is services through our accelerator almost fully offset any sort of CapEx pressure.
So that accelerator program and our increase in the number of consumables, which is more assays being run on a per instrument basis, you know, together fully offset any kind of CapEx pressure that we've seen on instruments. That said, going into 2024, we're seeing backlog improving. Also, you know, we'll point out that, you know, for the first time in our history, we're going after a new category that we hadn't gone after before, which is hospitals and, you know, these new reference laboratories with a test. So I expect that to be a strong tailwind for us. And, you know, we feel good about that story in 2024.
That's awesome. And then just thinking a little bit more about, you know, your relative markets there, you mentioned that it's been, you know, an improving, potentially, instrumentation market here. You know, how should we think about geography? You know, are you still selling through your partner in China? Is that seeing any signs of picking up? What are you seeing in America versus others?
Yeah. Majority of our business today is in North America.
Mm-hmm.
In China, we've had a view. We have distribution for our research products. We've also done a collaboration deal with a company, UltraDx, around diagnostics. And so, you know, our view there is if we work with a company in China for that market, that we'd be a lot more effective, be able to offer diagnostic solutions. And recently, Alzheimer's therapies have been approved over there, and we think that, you know, with the size of the population, that there's a strong demand for these types of tests, and we feel good that our partner is going to be moving that category forward.
That's awesome. So maybe just thinking a little bit more about, you know, generalized testing capacity. You know, it's been definitely a question about, you know, when could, you know, some of the new therapies in Alzheimer's sort of start taking off. You know, if new therapies were to start taking off at a certain point, you know, what... when do you think that would be as, like, an initial estimate? And, you know, what do you think that, you know, you would need to invest into the business in order to meet that demand?
Yeah, so, you know, at Quanterix, we have a, you know, a very unique perspective into neurology. We had that page of the indicators, right? Why we have conviction that this is a renaissance in the next 10 years for neurology. And, and that's- we have the, the best product manager in the entire world in that, in our accelerator program. So we see early-stage programs that won't come to market for another eight years. So things happening with mood, things happening with neuropsych disorders, brain injury, traumatic brain injury. These are early-stage programs that we expect in four or five years for there to be therapies, and we're helping drive those programs with our biomarkers. So today, we're talking about Alzheimer's, Parkinson's-...
MS, ALS, but there's a future category that is gonna be, you know, around neuroinflammation, and other biomarkers that we're very bullish about. And so that's why we feel good about the next 10 years and the kind of programs that we're seeing at this early stage that will power moving forward. So, yeah, I think I would say if you agree with some of the indicators we've seen both in, you know, internally and externally, that we should see neuro move in a way that oncology moved, you know, 15 or 20 years ago, or the way immunology grew in the last, you know, 10 years.
That's awesome. And then, you know, just thinking about the transformation of the company that, you know, you recently went through, you know, does that position you well for this growth period? You know, can you walk us through, like, you did an assay, sort of like redevelopment transformation, you know, how is that possibly going to, you know, position the company better, whether from a growth or margin perspective going forward?
Yeah, you know, six quarters ago, we sat down, you know, after I took on this role, and we did a strategic review from top to the bottom of the company. And we talked to our customers, and what we saw was that Quanterix was an incredible research tool, but our new customers were demanding that they take, you know, this research tool, and they do longitudinal studies. Meaning, look at a patient or do a clinical trial and repeat that over a long period of time, and the quality requirements from those customers were a completely different level than a research company. And so what we undertook was this, you know, large transformation. There's probably three or four areas we could have focused on.
And as a culture of the company, we took the hardest road, redeveloped the assays completely, you know, from scratch, and now... You know, it took six quarters, but we have completely new, redeveloped assays rolling off the manufacturing floor at the beginning of this month. And that has enabled us to take on more Accelerator projects, as we've seen the ramp with Accelerator improve the number of consumables our customers have, as we've seen the ramp over the last six quarters, and improve our margins. So assays that you can make, that are manufacturable, have less scrap, you know, less returns, and assays that we can put on the shelf and get to our customers sooner are going to improve margins, and we expect a tailwind from that going into the next several years.
Awesome. So I guess just as a final takeaway, you know, what do you think that investors should sort of take away from your presentation today, and what should they look for, you know, potentially in 2024 from Quanterix?
You know, Noah, I have to say, you know, everyone probably says this, but you know, I think it's the people at the company that are just remarkable, right? It's a culture of going down the most difficult path to produce the great results that we see. The mission is incredible. We're doing big things that haven't been done before in Alzheimer's and the neurological space. We're taking the most difficult paths to get there. It comes down to the culture of your people and the resiliency of your people. We did this six-quarter transformation. It was very difficult. Results were great. We, I think there was a slide that said, "Hey, we're done with that assay redevelopment and transformation," but this is just the beginning.
We have a lot of confidence that now, with this transformation, with the assays, with the new testing that we have, that the market and the opportunity in neurology for these additional clinical trials, biotech work, pharma work, diagnostics category is just the beginning. So, you know, I'd say we're just getting started.
Awesome. Well, thank you, everyone, for coming, and thank you to Quanterix.
Thanks, all.