Good morning, afternoon, everyone, depending where you are joining us today for the Biotage Q3 2024 earnings call. My name is Frederic Vanderhaegen, CEO of Biotage. I've joined the company a little more than six weeks ago, and I'm thrilled to share with you our solid Q3 2024 results. Joining me today on the call is Andrew Kellett, our CFO. Here's the agenda for the call today. After a short summary of who we are as a company, I will provide the highlights for the Q3 results, and Andrew will second me in detailing those. I'm thrilled to join the company as Biotage is a very resilient business model. It does equipment, services, and consumable that addresses the sample preparation challenges across multiple markets. From applied markets such as forensic, food, and environmental, all the way to drug discovery and development for the biopharma industry. In that particular market, we have solutions from discovery all the way up to downstream processing. Biotage has continued to evolve its portfolio to capture market opportunities from small molecule to the new modalities. We are pleased to announce that Q3 has posted results that are aligned with the consensus on revenue and EBITDA. Biotage delivered a solid 12% organic growth over prior year and a 9% reported growth. Astrea is now completely reported as organic. Our recurring revenue, coming from services and consumables, continues to drive our overall results, while our equipment sales remains weaker, driven by China and conservative spending from our pharma customers in Europe. As many others have commented, we are seeing some customers deferring equipment spending decisions to quarter four. We have made some progress in addressing our backlog in peptide synthesis, but the demand continues to outpace our current manufacturing capability. As we speak, we continue exploring solutions to address this. A short note on our revenue split by geographies perspective. North America posted strong results, benefiting from a diversified portfolio of businesses. In that region, the analytical testing and diagnostic business is delivering steady growth year-over-year. We're also progressing well on our priorities. We did rescale our OpEx in China to a new normal. We are continuing expanding in the area needed to support our growth, such as expanding our manufacturing site in Isle of Man, aiming for commissioning the site in October. We also did open in Canton, nearby Boston, Massachusetts, our new clean room facility that will help us to attract attractive column packing market. Lastly, we are pleased by the progress made in the market with the product we recently launched, like EtoxiClear, used for endotoxin removal. Astrea- adapt trials to adoptions focus on early adopters, which is a high-flow technology for lentiviral vector purification. We have recently launched our Biotage Selekt ELSD detectors, which has been very well received in the market, and we continue addressing the opportunities on PFAS testing with the MediSA, that is well received from a customer's point of view. I would be remiss if I didn't close by mentioning that we have signed up for the SBTi targets through the quarter three. Let me now turn it over to Andrew, who will provide you more color on our financials. Thank you. Thank you, Frederic. Good morning, everybody. The Q3 report, along with the presentation, is now available on our website, in the investor section, and then on annual reports. The business had a good Q3 performance. We delivered positive organic growth of 12% and had strong recurring revenues. Our underlying EBITDA was ahead of last year, and we were super efficient at turning that adjusted EBITDA into cash. Our business is in good shape and built on solid foundations. Our small molecule and analytical diagnostic testing businesses delivers predictable revenue stream, industry-leading gross margins, and solid underlying EBITDA and cash generation. Our large molecule business gives us access to higher growth bioprocessing market and the ability to generate superior revenue growth and attractive margins. Coupled with our expansive modality offering, our enviable broad suite of innovative must-have solutions and a balanced geographical profile gives us an attractive competitive offering. In the quarter, we saw similar trends to what we've seen and communicated throughout the year, a gradual momentum building in our key Americas and EMEA markets and continued headwinds in China. Our drug discovery and development business delivered reported revenues of SEK 349 million, up 13% or 16% organically for the quarter. For the first nine months of the year, it delivered reported revenues of just over SEK 1 billion, up 25% or 4% organically. We are working at pace with our supply partner to resolve the previously reported production capacity constraints for our peptide systems. While we are gradually seeing a sequential quarter-on-quarter increase in production capacity, there is still work to be done to match supply with the current level of demand, with this holding back some reported growth in this area. Our analytical and diagnostic testing business delivered reported revenues of SEK 141 million in the quarter, up 1% or 5% organically. For the first nine months of the year, it delivered reported revenues of SEK 451 million, up 12% or 14% organically. In the quarter, geographically, our core Western markets of Americas and EMEA accounted for 86% of total revenue, with APAC accounting for 14%. China represents less than 5% of our revenue. In Q3, we had recurring revenues of SEK 351 million, representing 72% of total revenue, up 20% over Q3 2023. We saw FX headwinds in Q3 of approximately SEK 50 million, or 3%, holding back our revenue growth. The first 9 months of the year, geography-wise, our core Western markets of Americas and EMEA accounted for 85% of total revenue, with APAC accounting for 15%. So a very similar trend we saw in Q3. We had recurring revenues of just under SEK 1.1 billion, again, representing 72% of total revenue, which was up 39% over 2023. Our gross margins at 63% year- to- date are robust and ahead of last year. In the quarter, which is traditionally quieter, we did see some transitory changes in product and customer mix. What I would say is, do not get too fixated on one particular quarter as our business goes along. Yes, margins in Q3 were a little lighter, but in Q2, they were a little stronger, with an averaging of 63%. Importantly, we continued to deliver attractive adjusted EBITDA. In fact, in Q3, we delivered an adjusted EBITDA of SEK 124 million, up 6% over Q3 2023. The first nine months, we've delivered adjusted EBITDA of SEK 380 million, 17% above 2023. In Q3, we delivered adjusted cash flow from operations of SEK 153 million, up 18%, representing 124% of adjusted EBITDA. For the first nine months, we delivered adjusted cash flow from operations of SEK 399 million, up 61%, representing 105% of adjusted EBITDA, demonstrating clearly our ability to successfully convert profits into physical cash. We finished the quarter with gross cash of SEK 370 million and net cash of SEK 120 million. In the year so far, we funded acquisition earn-out payments of approximately SEK 220 million, dividend of SEK 128 million, and investments in intangible and tangible assets of SEK 132 million, approximately SEK 480 million in total. We've been able to do that because we generate good margins, good profitability, and importantly, we can convert that profit into cash. We continue to invest in our operational facilities to increase manufacturing capacity to enable future attractive growth. In the Isle of Man, additional capacity will come on stream in Q4. In Boston, our new facility has clean rooms, so we can more fully exploit the column packing market, as well as warehousing for rapid delivery of products to our customers. Additionally, our continued investment in research and development underpins our steady stream of product launches and cements our reputation for thought and innovation leadership in the markets we operate in. To conclude, we've delivered a very solid Q3 and year-to-date performance, and the business is in good shape as we enter Q4. Nothing in this Q3 announcement alters our view of the business. The fundamentals are super strong, and Biotage is well-placed, and we're confident of delivering on our full year twenty-four targets. We're now open for questions. Operator, we're now open for questions. If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Karl Norén from SEB. Please go ahead. Yes, hello, and good morning, Frederic and Andrew. A couple of questions from my side. If we start on the gross margin here in the quarter, as you mentioned, Andrew, a little bit weaker than what we've seen before. I say driven by mix. I'm just wondering if you could be a bit more explicit and tell us a bit what is the driving here in the quarter, because it seems like instrument sales are still down and consumables are growing. So I'm just wondering a little bit if you could comment on the gross margin. Yeah, I mean, I'd say it's we saw just some transitory changes, particularly, you know, in our service. You know, kind of our service business ebbs and flows, and sometimes we have a pickup in the amount of work we have to do under our service contract. So, you know, on a yearly basis, that evens itself out, but can move around in the quarter. And also, so that, you know, we had a few kind of just the mix, it can be slightly different in Q3. It doesn't alter our view, Karl, of the full year. You know, kind of year to date, we're at 63, so I wouldn't kind of think that just Q3 is a harbinger of kind of weaker margins. We don't believe that. There's nothing we see in our business that suggests that. So we still feel confident that we're going to see margin growth year- on- year. We have done, and we'll continue to see that. I wouldn't read too much into a slightly lighter Q3 gross margin. I'd say, you know we're able to protect the EBITDA. We're good at converting that EBITDA to cash. So I know there's been a bit of commentary this morning on the Q3 margin. I kind of just wouldn't kind of read much into that and see it as that, is this at the beginning of some sort of trend? No, it's not. Oh, it's very clear, and just follow up around the Astrea gross margin. Is it possible to say anything on if that was accretive or dilutive to the gross margin this quarter? Accretive. Yeah. You'll start to see great, yeah, the straight gross margin now being higher, and that, you know, we expect that trend to continue. That's good, and it leads into my next question here. As we're heading into the seasonally strong Q4 for Astrea, so I'm just wondering a little bit how we should think here, going into the fourth quarter. I mean, you said historically that seasonality should come down, but I guess we should still expect quite, quite big ramp up sequentially in Q4, so do you expect yourselves to be able to reach close to last year's Q4 in term, in the large molecule segments? Yeah, I'll say. You know, kind of what yourself and others have got penned in for Astrea, we, you know, we say we're not shying away from that. You know, we've got a solid business. We've got a good pipeline. We've got backlog. So yeah, I mean, absolutely, we, you know, are super excited about the Astrea business. You know, it's got great potential, a great growth trajectory. So yeah, we, you know, it's. You know, the Astrea business, you know, on a year-by-year basis, is growing over 70%. Yeah, and we still think, yeah, plenty in the tank yet. So, you know, in Q4, so, you know, the numbers that are out there for Q4, you know, we, we're comfortable with. Sounds good. And then, last question here on the analytical testing business. I think it seems to be down a little bit versus the previous quarters. I'm just wondering if there's anything specifically impacting that business. At least to my numbers, it looks a little bit softer than what I've seen before. Yeah, I think, I think with the particularly the analytical testing business, Karl, it's you know we have a very very strong position in the Americas in the U.S. yeah, and typically within the Q3 the holiday period it can get quieter, so you know I think it's just that. It's a particular quieter quarter particularly for that analytical testing where we're selling into the U.S. path labs. Yeah, that's great. Just a final one, if I may, on the gross margin again. For the full year, I mean, you're down 63% now year to date. Do you think that's a fair assumption for the full year as well, around 63%? Well, we think there is, you know, a bit of legs left, yeah, in that. Okay. That's great. Thank you for answering my questions, Andrew and Frederic, and have a good day. Good luck. Thank you, Karl. The next question comes from Ludwig Lundgren from Nordea. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, Frederic and Andrew. So three questions for me, if I may. So continuing a bit here on Astrea, I note this sequential growth continues in Americas, or at least looking at the large molecule segment as a whole. And I assume that, like, with this process chromatography offering, I suppose that new customers typically order small columns and then eventually scale up. Could you elaborate a bit on what type of customers are currently buying these products in the U.S.? Yeah, I'll take up the question. So, we're fortunate to have a solid business that address multiple modalities. So we are targeting plasma customers, but also we are targeting customers that are addressing large molecules, such as monoclonal antibodies. But also we have been active in expanding our customer base within the cell and gene therapies for lentiviral vector cleaning and endotoxin removal. So we have a pretty steady strategy that aim to expand the number of customers to whom we seed the product. And you are straight to the point, we need to seed it in before the process development occur so that when the customers adopt the technologies and ramp up later in production, we can enjoy a steady stream of revenue throughout the life cycle of the molecule. That's the strategy, and I think the strategy has proven to be successful so far. Okay. But then specifically, like, would you say that order volumes are typically smaller in the U.S. compared to Europe, for example, currently? No, actually to the opposite. We are performing well in the U.S. I think this is a global industry, so there's a lot of early seeds that can occur in one geographies, and ultimately the pharma industry may decide to try to do a tech transfer into another geographies or operate through a CMO. So, again, I would reiterate what is important to the business, which is to see that the process development, sometimes may occur in the U.S., or sometimes may occur in Europe, and the molecule ultimately, and the revenue may come later on into another geography. So I think what is important is not so much where the revenue does occur at small scale, but whether or not we are penetrating the downstream processing. From that perspective, the more molecules we are getting specified is, the more likely we are to see one of those materializing into revenue. The revenue can come in Europe, can come in US or in Asia. Yeah. Okay, thanks. That's very clear, and then a bit on equipment. I suppose it was up sequentially, I think, during Q3, but I suppose it's negatively affected by China. Would it be possible to elaborate a bit on this business excluding this region, and also maybe if this is mainly related to small molecules then, or like the split for small molecules versus analytical testing? Yeah. Analytical testing is characterized by a higher share of recurring revenue, so it's pretty steady from that perspective, and it's contributing to a strong growth, in particular in America, given the nature of the space we operate in that region. When it comes to equipment specifically, it's true that the biggest contributors for the equipment decline is still coming from China, as we compare to the prior year. We think that we have bottomed down right now in China, and that's what I said, we have rescaled our operating expense to this new normal, I would just say. As we think about Europe, it's mostly on the scale-up of small molecule that we have seen. This is a consumables product related to CROs, mostly, and it's a business that's a little bit more volatile when it comes to those. The fundamentals of the business remain solid, but the customers don't change columns on a large scale for small molecule flash chromatography every other week. So I think you need to see that business as being a little bit more volatile, but it's coming from the small molecule, that's true. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. And then final one, just on the peptide synthesizer business. You had a backlog, I think, of SEK 35 million in Q1, and then saying that you're sequentially improving production now. Like, is currently the ordering take somewhat in line with production, or is the order book still building here, or how should we view this? So I think we have seen a huge demand. I think it's well known that the industry is very much into the peptide and building peptide libraries. So I think we have seen an increase in the demand substantially higher than what we have been able to address through our ramp manufacturing. So we have increased our production capacity by 50% with our partners, but it's nowhere near what we see the market potential can be. So I think we are working diligently with our partners and exploring various opportunities for us to continue expanding opportunities to capture market share there. Look, regarding our backlog, you know, although we are, you know, kind of increasing that capacity, our backlog is at similar levels. So yeah, it's, you know, we can't get them out quick enough. Okay, thanks. That's helpful. Thanks for taking my questions. The next question comes from Mattias Häggblom, from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead. Good morning. Two questions from me, please. So the cost initiatives in China, can we quantify what that means in terms of numbers or structure? And then secondly, for you, Frederic, in the CEO statement, you talk about sharpening the strategy. Any early thoughts on what that entails or when we can expect more on that topic? If I do the first question, Jess, yeah, I mean, we kind of regularly look, well, all the time really, look at our businesses. China is obviously a particular focus, you know, for that business to remain profitable. You know, we've taken, you know, we kept taking heads out. You know, our aim is to bring that cost structure as a percentage of our revenue in line with pre-COVID levels. You know, we will be getting there in Q4. Yeah, China is a declining business, but we still have a business there. You know, and then, you know, we are looking at, you know, kind of the new way of doing business in China, and what does that entail for us? What do we need to do? What returns can we make? But obviously, in the immediate term, we have taken immediate cost actions to kind of align its cost structure with the business it's got now. You know, we'll continue to do that in every business that we see, to make sure that, you know, we are trading profitably. Yeah, and I guess the question was about sharpening the vision and the strategy of the company. I think this is a great company, and we say we want to address all the modalities from small molecule all the way up to new modalities. This is a pretty broad space when it comes to new modalities. As you know, today we address. We have worked on gene therapies with Astrea. We have worked on monoclonal antibodies. We have worked on peptides, oligos. I think we need to recognize that we will always be limited in terms of resource. Sharpening the strategy and the vision for the business is really to think about which market are the fast-growing market that we can platform our technologies to penetrate when it comes to the applied market, but not get dilutive onto that. I think we've provided a couple of examples of progress we're making. Most of them are at front end to mass spectrometry, if I would describe those that can address multiple applied opportunities, both in the U.S. and Europe. And if we come about the small molecule drug discovery and development, I think we'd like to build onto the fast-growing segments, the attractive ones, but also the ones that are large in scale. So, as illustrative of that, monoclonal antibodies is a very large market that we are to address. Oligos, peptides, sorry, is also a very attractive market that we have building blocks to strategically continue building upon. So I think that's what I want to. I mean, by sharpening the strategy. It's just that defining across the multiple modalities where we have a technology that we can build upon and where the market is attractive and growing, and where we can take and leverage or go to market strategy to really engage with the customers. There are some segments where we are a little bit less present that I would deprioritize over those segments. A quick follow-up, if I may. Is it possible to quantify the portion of sales that comes out of China? Is it less than 5% in this quarter, or year- to= date? It is, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. China is. Yeah, as I mentioned before, China, yeah, it's a slight headache for us as it is for, but for many other businesses, you know, so Tecan and so on, it's a major migraine. For us, yeah, we're seeing falls, but it's a small part of our business now, very manageable. So yeah, from the heady days of 15% +, we're down to less than 5%. Final follow-up. The pharma customer base in Europe and holding back instrumentation orders in the quarter, what's the confidence in that coming across in the fourth quarter? Any early signs already in October, or is that dependent on final part of the quarter, which is typically the case? We historically have a backlog view as we enter the quarter, so backlog is at a similar level as prior year and prior quarters. So I think, and as we go through the quarters, we have a funnel, and we review the opportunities diligently with our commercial team. Historically, we always saw an order flush at quarter-end, at year-end. Now, history has also proven that last year we didn't see that coming, so we are reasonably prudent as we are looking at the business, and we'll probably have to work with our customers to make sure that when we have opportunities, we capture those. But I can't tell you the level of with certainty whether or not those customers will place the order. So I think it is an ongoing process of opportunities to review. I think we are we haven't lost opportunities, which is a very good sign. It's depending on the customers to release their budget. That's very helpful. Thanks so much. The next question comes from Karl Norén from SEB. Please go ahead. Hi again. I just had a follow-up on the, on the peptide side. I didn't really hear what you said there, but, could you just comment on the deliveries you've had here, of the backlog in Q3? And, do you think that will be higher in the fourth quarter compared to Q3? I think we increased our delivery by 50% over what our history was. So I think we, we believe we have, we have reached a plateau right now that is driven by the resource and the capability of manufacturing that our partners has right now. So we don't envision that Q4 will be higher than what is our ability to deliver in quarter three. It is a journey. We have started to increase. We have to continue working with the partners to get to the next plateau of our operation. I think we believe the market is attractive and large enough for us to continue expanding into that field, and that's what we're working on. But it doesn't occur overnight. So I think that as we need to find the resource, we need to find the materials, we need to train the people. So it's a steady, steady ramp-up. But I would take a conservative view for quarter four, which would be we won't be less than what we have done in quarter three. Obviously, Karl, just to kind of just comment on that, that's obvious, the backlog is the same. So while we are increasing production, the backlog is maintaining, it's now slightly increasing. So you know, that just tells us there's some great demand out there. Yeah. Sure, and just another one on the small molecule side. I mean, looking at the numbers here, it looks like, Americas back to growth again, while, I mean, a bit weaker. Can you just comment on the, like, the overall, demand trends within small molecules? Are you seeing a continued strong or comeback in demand, or, has it leveled off, or what would you say? I think we are as I said, if we strip out the component of China and the scale of countries, I would say Europe would be probably not as solid as the U.S. is right now, but flat to moderate growth already. So, we by no means will small molecule be driving growth as much as the new modalities. I think that's well known. All the large molecules are addressing large therapy areas that small molecule cannot. But we believe the worst is behind us. Yeah, if you look, Karl, at the. If we look at the kind of decline in the organic decline in, in you know, system sales in, in Q2, it was like -1 0, and it's now like - 5. So we are, you know, we are seeing light, you know, it is, it is, it is easing. You know, we just, we just see that, you know, as continuing to, you know, easing further. So I think there would be, you know, I suppose never say never, but, you know, we think that, you know, the worst is behind us now, and those, you know, we hopefully will start turning that, you know, that dropping that minus in front of the numbers soon. Yeah. Okay. And one question on the level of personnel in the company. I I just noticed it was a slight increase during the quarter, you know, 675 employees. Do you think that will remain approximately at that level in the coming quarters as well, you think? Or do you see an immediate need to increase the headcounts? I think, Karl, w e will add resources for the critical gaps that we may have in order to execute the strategy, but we'll continue being mindful about how the business can evolve or what could be the volatility in some of the areas of the business, and we adjust resources to the business so that we can continue delivering strong results. Clear. Thank you. The next question comes from Ludwig Lundgren from Nordea. Please go ahead. Ludwig Lundgren, Nordea, your line is now unmuted. Please go ahead. The one from me as well, if I may, so just looking at the Astrea bookings here for Q4, I think you typically book up these manufacturing slots ahead. Could you elaborate a bit on how this is looking compared to last year? Yeah, I mean, it's similar. We 've got similar profile. Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's anything, you know, different, Ludwig, from what we've been seeing in, yeah, from last year and into this year. I mean, you know, the plant is running well. We've got, you know, some good bookings, very solid bookings. We've got some very solid pipeline that we, you know, kind of, we are expecting to close, you know, progressively as we go through the quarter. So, it's no new news. It's, you know, well, as it goes. And if I may add, I think I had a privilege to review the final review with the commercial leaders. I think they have a very robust process, very good customer intimacy to understand what is needed by the customers, and one which enabled the site to level load its capacity and allocate the slots appropriately, so we can address the demand when it occurs. Okay, thanks. Sounds good. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments. Please go ahead. Well, thank you all. Apologies for the slight delay starting the conference, but hopefully we've shown that we've delivered some very solid Q3 results. You know, organically, our business is growing 12%. I'm sure if you cast your net around a bit around the market, you'll struggle to find businesses delivering organic growth of 12%. You know, we've advanced. You know, we're delivering solid year-to-date gross margins over last year. We're delivering solid adjusted EBITDA generation, up both in the quarter and last year. Very, very importantly, we are turning those profits into cash. Our cash generation is above our adjusted EBITDA. I think we're going to Q4 very confident. There's nothing in this announcement and results that suggest that, you know, we're shying away from anything that's, you know, our targets. You know, we are very well placed. The fundamentals of the market are very strong. I think Biotage is very well placed, and, you know, we're very lucky, I think, to have, you know, to attract the caliber of Frederic and his experience, and knowledge of the market into our business, and I'm sure that's gonna have a major positive effect, as we, as we go into Q4 and in future years. So thank you very much for joining us.