Bio-Rad Laboratories - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Q2 2025 delivered a clean beat: revenue $651.6M (+2.1% YoY; +1.0% CN) vs S&P Global consensus $614.3M; non-GAAP EPS $2.61 vs $1.75; adjusted EBITDA $124.0M vs $94.0M; management raised FY non-GAAP operating margin to 12–13% and tightened CN revenue growth to 0–1%.
• Strength came from process chromatography (strong double-digit YoY CN growth; some order pull-forward), consumables resilience, and ddPCR portfolio expansion (QX Continuum launch; QX700 series via Stilla), while instruments remained soft, particularly in academia.
• Tariff headwinds were sharply reduced to ~30–40 bps (from up to ~130 bps) on operating margin; FX now a ~100 bps tailwind to FY revenue and ~10 bps to operating income, supporting the margin raise.
• Risks: gross margin compression (non-GAAP 53.7% vs 56.4% LY), China diabetes reimbursement pressure, and continued instrument demand softness; however, segment mix and cost control anchored operating margin outperformance.
• Near-term stock catalysts: consensus beat/raise, tariff relief, process chromatography momentum, and ddPCR platform rollout; management tone constructive on H2 phasing and Q4 seasonal ramp.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Process chromatography posted strong double-digit YoY CN growth; demand normalized as customers worked down inventories, with some orders pulled into Q2 and full-year growth outlook raised from high single-digit to low double-digit.
• ddPCR portfolio expansion: launched QX Continuum and rebranded QX700 series post-Stilla closing; management highlighted “very positive” early customer feedback and intent to expand digital PCR adoption beyond existing installed base.
• Operating margin outperformed consensus and was guided higher for FY 2025 as tariff headwinds eased and consumables supported mix/absorption; CFO: “we now think [tariff] headwind is 30–40 bps”.

What Went Wrong

• Gross margin compressed: GAAP 53.0% (−260 bps YoY) and non-GAAP 53.7% (−270 bps YoY) due to higher material costs and lower fixed manufacturing absorption from weaker instrument demand.
• Clinical Diagnostics CN revenue down 0.7% YoY; China diabetes testing reimbursement cuts persisted, partially offset by quality control and immunology demand.
• Instruments remained soft globally (especially academia) despite slight sequential improvement; management continues to expect a gradual recovery and is not assuming “budget flush” upside.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Thank you for standing by. My name is Gil and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time I would like to welcome each and every one of you to the Bio-Rad second quarter 2025 results conference call and webcast. All lines will be placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, kindly press star one again. It is now my pleasure to turn today's call over to Bio-Rad Head of Investor Relations, Mr. Edward Chung.

Edward Chung (VP and Head of Investor Relations)

Please go ahead. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today. We will review the second quarter 2025 financial results and provide an update on key business trends for Bio-Rad. With me on the call today are Norman Schwartz, our Chief Executive Officer, John DiVincenzo, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Roop Lakkaraju, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin our review, I'd like to remind everyone that we will be making forward-looking statements about management's goals, plans and expectations, our future financial performance and other matters. These statements are based on assumptions and expectations of future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from these plans, goals and expectations.

You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and I encourage you to review our filings with the SEC where we discuss in detail the risk factors in our business. The company does not intend to update any forward-looking statements made during the call today. Finally, our remarks today will include references to non-GAAP financials including net income and diluted earnings per share, which are financial measures that are not defined under generally accepted accounting principles. In addition to excluding certain atypical and non-recurring items, our non-GAAP financial measures exclude changes in the equity value of our stake in Sartorius AG. In order to provide investors with a better understanding of Bio-Rad underlying operational performance, investors should review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP results contained in our earnings release.

We have also posted a supplemental earnings presentation in the Investor Relations section of our website for your reference. With that, I'll now turn the call over to our Chief Operating Officer, John DiVincenzo.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Thank you, Ed. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased to share our second quarter 2025 results, which reflect solid execution across the business. Both revenue and operating margin exceeded consensus expectations, underscoring the strength of our portfolio and the discipline of our teams in a challenging and rapidly evolving macroeconomic environment. Our clinical diagnostics business remained stable while our life science segment benefited from the strength in our process chromatography portfolio. Product mix and a continued focus on cost control and discretionary spending helped drive an outperformance in operating margin for the quarter. While we continue to face headwinds in the academic market due to constrained government funding, we saw signs of stabilization, particularly in consumables. This resilience highlights the enduring demand for our differentiated assays and reagents, including droplet digital PCR consumables, which saw high single-digit revenue growth versus 2024.

The second quarter was a busy one for our ddPCR team as we completed the development of the QX Continuum platform and successfully closed the acquisition of Stilla Technologies, adding new platforms and a fantastic team of colleagues to Bio-Rad. Synchronized with the closing of the Stilla acquisition, we launched the rebranded QX700 Series ddPCR instruments. The combination of the QX Continuum and QX700 Series products are positioned to expand our droplet digital PCR portfolio for customers requiring a simplified workflow and flexibility at various budget levels. Although it is early, customer feedback has been very positive. We look forward to showcasing these innovations at the upcoming ddPCR World Conference in Seoul, Korea this September, along with a series of satellite events across APAC, EMEA, and the Americas. Also during the quarter, several of our key ddPCR partners made progress in bringing this technology to the diagnostic market.

Insight Molecular Diagnostics, formerly Oncocyte, announced positive clinical data for its assay in kidney transplant monitoring. We are supporting its path toward FDA approval in 2026 and the development of a kitted IVD solution, an exciting advancement for the transplant community. Genioscopy advanced its ColoSense colon cancer screening test, which is powered by our ddPCR technology. The assay was recently included in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines, a critical enabler for clinical adoption and reimbursement. We're encouraged with their progress and the potential of ColoSense. Operationally, our teams continue to drive improvements through strong execution of lean initiatives, careful cost management, and actions to actively mitigate tariff impacts in diagnostics. Strength outside of China helped offset local reimbursement pressures, resulting in 3.7% growth in our rest of world markets. In China, volume-based procurement or VBP has not impacted our portfolio beyond the previously noted diabetes testing reimbursement reductions.

We haven't faced any new reimbursement challenges. While we factored headwinds from the recent Diagnosis Related Group or DRG policy changes affecting diagnostic panels into our first quarter guidance, the impact was not significant. In the second quarter, our local team continues to diligently monitor the evolving landscape of Chinese government policies. Finally, I'm excited to welcome Rajat Mehta as Bio-Rad's new Executive Vice President of Global Commercial Operations. Rajat brings deep experience across diagnostics and life sciences, most recently leading a large regional diagnostics division of Labcorp. He has lived and worked globally and brings expertise in commercial transformation, digital innovation, and customer-centric strategies. Rajat succeeds Mike Crowley, who is retiring after a remarkable 26-year career with Bio-Rad. I have enjoyed working with Mike during my first year and personally thank him for his support. We all wish Mike all the best in his retirement, so thank you again for your continued support. I'll hand the call over to Roop for a detailed review of our financial results.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Thank you, John, and good afternoon. I'd like to start with a review of the second quarter 2025 results. Overall, we executed well during the quarter. Net sales for the second quarter of 2025 were approximately $652 million, which represented a 2.1% increase on a reported basis versus $638 million in Q2 of 2024 on a currency neutral basis. This represents a 1% year-over-year increase and was primarily driven by sales of our process chromatography products. Sales of the Life Science group in the second quarter of 2025 were $263 million compared to $251 million in Q2 of 2024, which is an increase of 4.9% on a reported basis and 3.8% on a currency neutral basis, primarily driven by the increase in process chromatography and food safety product sales. Currency neutral sales increased in the Americas and EMEA, partially offset by decreased sales in Asia Pacific.

Our process chromatography business experienced strong double digit growth on a year-over-year basis due to orders pulled into the second quarter by customers. The orders represented approximately 20% of the quarter's process chromatography sales. Zooming out of the second quarter results, we now expect low double digit growth for this product area in 2025 versus our prior high single digit growth outlook. Excluding process chromatography sales, our core Life Science group revenue decreased 1.7% year-over year and 2.7% on a currency neutral basis, reflecting ongoing softness in the biotech and academic research markets, which affects instrument demand. Sales of the Clinical Diagnostics group in the second quarter of 2025 were approximately $389 million compared to $388 million in Q2 of 2024, essentially flat on a reported basis and a decrease of 0.7% on a currency neutral basis.

The decrease is because of the previously discussed lower reimbursement rate for diabetes testing in China, partially offset by increased demand for our quality control and immunology products. On a geographic basis, currency neutral sales decreased in Asia Pacific, partially offset by increased sales in EMEA and the Americas. Q2 reported gross margin was 53% as compared to 55.6% in the second quarter of 2024. On a non-GAAP basis, second quarter gross margin was 53.7% versus 56.4% in the year ago period. The decrease in non-GAAP gross margin was due to higher material costs and reduced fixed manufacturing absorption because of lower instrument demand. SGA expense for the second quarter of 2025 was $208 million or 31.9% of sales compared to $195 million or 30.5% in Q2 of 2024. Second quarter non-GAAP SGA spend was $201 million versus $194 million in the year ago period.

The year-over-year increase in non-GAAP SGA expense was primarily due to higher variable compensation costs. Research and development expense in the second quarter on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis was $61 million or 9.3% of sales compared to $59 million or 9.2% of sales in Q2 2024. A slightly higher year-over-year R&D was primarily due to project-related spending. Q2 operating income was $77 million or 11.8% of sales compared to $101 million or 15.9% of sales in Q2 of 2024 on a non-GAAP basis. Second quarter operating margin was 13.6% compared to 16.7% in Q2 of 2024, reflecting the lower gross margin. The change in fair market value of equity security holdings, primarily related to the ownership of Sartorius AG shares, contributed $250 million to our reported net income of $318 million or $11.67 per diluted share.

Non-GAAP net income, which excludes the impact of the change in equity value to Sartorius shares, was $71 million or $2.61 diluted earnings per share for Q2 2025. Moving on to cash flow for the second quarter of 2025, net cash generated from operating activities was $117 million compared to $98 million for Q2 of 2024. Net capital expenditures for the second quarter of 2025 were $46 million and depreciation and amortization for the second quarter was $41 million. Regarding free cash flow, we were pleased with the generation of $71 million which compares to $55 million in Q2 of 2024. For the first six months of 2025, we generated free cash flow of $166 million resulting in a year-to-date free cash flow to non-GAAP net income conversion ratio of 117%. We continue to target full year free cash flow of approximately $310 million-$330 million for 2025.

During June, we purchased an additional 170,860 shares of our stock for a total cost of $40 million for an average purchase price of approximately $233 per share on top of the $99 million share repurchase we called out for April. In aggregate, we bought back 593,508 shares during the second quarter for a total cost of $139 million for an average price of approximately $234 per share. We will continue to be opportunistic with our buyback program and still have $337 million available for share repurchases under the current board authorized program. Moving on to the non-GAAP guidance for 2025, we are raising our 2025 full year guide to reflect the Q2 results, the close of the Stilla acquisition, the evolving state of academic and biotech research funding, and the impact of changes in the macroeconomy including tariffs.

Overall, we now expect total currency-neutral revenue to be in the range of flat to 1% growth, with the midpoint approximately 25 basis points higher than our previous guide. With respect to our life science business, we see consumable demand from academic customers more durable than our prior expectations, in addition to an improved outlook for our process chromatography business that I called out earlier. With the recent close of the Stilla acquisition, we now expect revenue for our ddPCR portfolio to increase mid-single digit in 2025 versus low single digit previously. We continue to see a slow biotech recovery and soft demand for instruments in aggregate. We now expect our life science business to increase in the range of flat to 1% for the full year versus flat to down 3% previously.

For our diagnostics business, we are further tightening our range to approximately growth of 0.5%-1.5% between 2025 versus 0.5%-2.5% previously. This represents a 50 basis point reduction at the midpoint and primarily reflects continued market softness. Reflecting the easing of trade tensions with China and delays in implementing tariffs in other regions, we now expect a reduced headwind of approximately 30-40 basis points to operating margin. The remaining tariff headwinds are primarily related to supplier cost and EU-manufactured products that are imported to the U.S. Factoring in the reduced tariff headwind, the updated full year non-GAAP gross margin is projected to be between 53.5% and 54.5% versus 53% and 54.5% previously.

Full year non-GAAP operating margin is now projected to be between 12% and 13% versus 10% and 12% previously, reflecting our updated gross margin outlook along with proactive cost actions we take in advantaging the business. We continue to anticipate incurring an IPR&D expense in the third quarter. As previously disclosed, due to a further weakening of the U.S. dollar, we now expect currency exchange to be approximately 100 basis point tailwind to 2025 revenue with a 10 basis point positive impact on operating income. Notwithstanding our updated outlook for 2025, there are still many moving pieces which we continue to monitor closely. Finally, we had previously mentioned having an investor day this November. However, after careful consideration of the continued market volatility and the global geopolitical status, we've decided to move our investor day to the spring of 2026. We will provide more detail on a specific date in early 2026. I'll now turn the call over to Norman for his remarks.

Norman Schwartz (CEO)

Thanks, Roop. I think as we all know, the second quarter remained tumultuous, but it does seem we're all getting used to it. For what it's worth, I think in any case, it's good to see our customers adapting to the current situation and figuring out how to navigate. It's nice to see some positive signals relating to NIH funding for 2026. We discussed tariffs. Obviously, it's still evolving. The U.S. Government policies are a work in process, but I think to the credit and determination of Bio-Rad employees around the world, as a company we remain resilient and continue to advance our business on many fronts. Probably good to take a moment here to welcome the Stilla employees to Bio-Rad. I've had the chance to interact with some of them in the last few weeks and I think they are a great addition to Bio-Rad.

As John mentioned, Mike Crowley, who's been leading our Global Commercial Operations, is retiring after a long and distinguished career at Bio-Rad. Mike has been an important part of Bio-Rad success over the years. Just a call out. Thank you, Mike, for all your contributions. I think that concludes our prepared remarks. Gail, I think we'll now open it up to take questions.

Operator (participant)

This time, I would like to remind everyone that in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Patrick Donnelly with Citi. Your line is open.

Patrick Donnelly (Managing Director)

Hey guys, thank you for taking the questions. Maybe first. Hey, Roop, how are you? Maybe first. On the process chromatography side, nice to see those results this quarter. I think you hinted at maybe a Little bit of pull forward can you just talk about, I guess. What you saw in the quarter, what sense you have for how much of that was pulled forward what's sustainable. Just want to talk through, given what's going on with tariffs. Everything, it felt like maybe there's a It'd be helpful if you could just talk through that and the expectations for the remainder of the year on that piece.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, of course. First of all, I'll start out with maybe for the full year. We actually raised kind of that previous guide on process chromatography from high single digits to low double digits. I think that maybe answers your question on sustainability. We think it is sustainable, yes. We've had both in Q1 and Q2, a little bit of movement between quarters because these are customer conversations where they want to pull it forward for their own purposes. Can't necessarily say it's because of tariff related. That's not necessarily the driver, just in terms of their production timeframes and these sort of things. We were more than happy to help support it. As I said earlier, I think we see that as continuing to sustain through the rest of the year and expect it to be still good for us.

Patrick Donnelly (Managing Director)

Okay, understood. In the guidance, I just wanted to clean up. I know Stilla is now in the guidance. Can you just peel back what contribution that is did the organic number move I just want to make sure understand where the raise came from what's organic, what's still If you could just help us out there, it would be appreciated.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Yeah. We got a few different reasons. Stilla is now in the guide, as we had indicated we would once we closed the transaction, which we did as of June 30th. That's in there. When we take the guide up, included in there is the ddPCR growth rate moving up to that mid single digits that we talked about. That movement is solely Stilla specific because Continuum platform we already had in our original guide coming into the year because we expected it to be released in 2025, although we didn't specifically give dates as you know. That piece is in there and that contributes to that ddPCR growth rate increase, which obviously then takes our range up overall to that 0 to 1% versus the previous wider range that we had, including the down to the -3%.

Maybe just to summarize, right, there's process chromatography, which we just talked about in terms of increased growth opportunity, the ddPCR including Stilla, and then the third piece is consumables, which have continued to be more durable, which we commented on during the script.

Patrick Donnelly (Managing Director)

Yep, that's helpful. Maybe last one just on the margins, obviously a lot of moving pieces there with some of the tariff moves. Can you just talk about again the delta, the bridge from the Old guide to the new what are the moving pieces, what's tariff headwinds what's not would be helpful.Thanks, Roop.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, of course. The biggest piece, tariffs have come down significantly. That's a big piece. Right. If you remember, in the prior calls we'd indicated we could see up to 130 basis points of headwind on tariffs at the bottom line. We now think that that's 30-40 basis points of headwind on the OP margin related to tariffs. Significant change there. If you think about the OP margin change from 10%-12% previously to now, the 12%-13%, you can see about 100 basis points of that is related to tariffs. The rest of it is related to one expecting to see because of Stilla and other things, some better absorption from the manufacturing standpoint. Of course, the mix continuing to be stable for us and positive, if you will, because of the consumable pull through. Those are the different pieces there.

Patrick Donnelly (Managing Director)

Thanks guys.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Patrick.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Leonard with UBS. Your line is open.

Dan Leonard (Managing Director and Research Analyst)

Thank you very much. My first question is on the diagnostics market in China. I could use a bit of help understanding how all the headlines relate or don't relate to Bio-Rad Laboratories over there and why.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, maybe I can start. John, please jump in. Norman, jump in. There's, I guess there's three pieces if you think about right now. China still overall is soft. I'll start with that. Maybe that's four pieces. That's number one. China's continuing to be soft. With that said, I think in terms of some of the elements that, you know, John mentioned, I think in his part of the script, you know, VBP, we've not seen any impacts of VBP and we continue to not see impact from VBP. That's not something we've seen. You mentioned DRG, that's something we actually saw earlier in the year. Dan, if you remember, we actually indicated that we took our numbers down after the, during the Q1 call for the rest of the year because of some softness in diagnostics.

Part of that was some of this China DRG piece that was in there. We'd already contemplated that and we haven't seen any significant change or change from what we've commented on back then. The final piece is around the reimbursement rate changes. It's something our teams continue to monitor, as John said, but we haven't seen any news that we've got further reimbursement rate changes that could negatively impact us.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Yeah, exactly. Roop, I think. Hey, Dan, this is John DiVincenzo. Essentially, it reflects our mix versus maybe some other suppliers. We are a specialty diagnostic supplier. A large part of our portfolio are quality controls, which are not necessarily affected by reimbursement. The other areas that we called out, yes, we were affected by the diabetes reimbursement, but other areas, specialty areas, are not really targeted this time by those policies. I just think it's where they've looked at the bigger spend, larger maybe areas there, and it has not affected us. We don't think that it's part of their view moving forward.

Dan Leonard (Managing Director and Research Analyst)

John, on the panel testing pressures over there, I know you supply panel tests through the BioPlex 2,200. But from a mix perspective, is that just not a big part of your mix in China?

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Right, exactly. I think that's the okay explanation.

Dan Leonard (Managing Director and Research Analyst)

For my follow-up question on the tariff environment, appreciate that there is lesser operating margin headwind due to the rollbacks. I'm wondering more, how are you managing your business given all the uncertainty? Are there actual countermeasures you've put in place for a more severe tariff environment that you've had to roll back, or are there things that are in flight which remain in flight? If you could just talk through that process a little bit for me, that would help. Thank you.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Yeah. We have taken a number of actions. Obviously we've taken a fine, fine look at all of our different suppliers across various geographies. We have already started to move some of the way we move materials around the world where we make product. We have plans in place to even be more flexible in the future and adapt to what's the best source of those products. We've worked with suppliers, we've worked with our own teams, we built, replicated in some areas, some manufacturing capabilities if it becomes necessary. We didn't want to overdo it because of all the volatility still out there. As things settle down now, we think we're in pretty good shape where we know where the challenges are. We have some flexibility from our suppliers and we have flexibility in our own plants to move manufacturing around. We feel like as much as we could be, we have some adaptability there and some resilience.

Dan Leonard (Managing Director and Research Analyst)

Thank you very much.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Dan.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Couillard with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Brandon Couillard (Managing Director)

Hi, it's Roop. As we look at the second half, how should we think about revenue margin phasing between third and fourth quarter? Did the second half organic guide actually come down if we exclude the Stilla contribution?

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

No, it did not organically. I mean, we've got some headwind in the diagnostic side, but life sciences continue to be inclusive of Stilla is helping support kind of that overall increase, if you will, in terms of the profiling. I think Q3 is going to look similar to Q2 from a top line perspective. Of course, we've got the fourth quarter with seasonal increase that we expect to see overall. We may see a little bit of strength in Q3 over Q2, but not much. We've got Q4 stepping up, kind of reasonably, although probably not as much as what we saw before. I think some of that's moved around a little bit into whether it's Q3 and Q2, etc., from an overall profiling standpoint.

From a margin standpoint, what you're going to end up seeing is Q3 margins being somewhere in the similar range of Q2, and then in Q4 because we do have part of it's the mix with higher quality systems and some of the ddPCR follow flow through Q4 margins and then the improved absorption to be better than Q3 and Q2 from an overall standpoint to land within kind of that midpoint of the range of what we provided, the 53.5%-54.5%.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

We spend quite a bit of time with our commercial teams and customers to look at that ramp that we have in the fourth quarter is a significant increase over the previous few quarters, but it's a little bit of timing and it's kind of year-over-year. We see a number of areas of our business have larger orders, and we have both high confidence in the orders coming through as well as all of our supply teams to be able to deliver that product during the quarter. Pretty good confidence level in the fourth quarter number as well.

Brandon Couillard (Managing Director)

Okay, thanks. That's helpful. On ddPCR, did you comment on how instruments performed in the quarter? Secondly, it's nice to see Continuum finally coming to market. I think you mentioned that it was already baked into the guidance, but do you think there's any pent up demand in the market for that system, and how are you kind of positioning it relative to the Stilla platforms? Thanks.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Yeah. So I recognize the team did a great job not only getting to the finish line and closing the acquisition, but keeping that focus on Continuum and having very robust quality data to be able to launch that into the marketplace. There's a lot of excitement about it I mean, the Continuum platform was designed to replace QPCR. It's a 96-well plate standard format, and there's a lot of excitement about that, bringing more precision and sensitivity to those applications. A lot of excitement there. We're kind of on track to what we had forecasted going into the year on the QX700 Series. The team's already rebranded them and positioned them. We're moving; we have hundreds of thousands of assays that have been developed over the last decade or so. We're moving those onto Continuum and to the QX700. A week after we closed the deal, we had our sales team in Pleasanton, California, being trained on them, and we continue that training globally, both in sales and service. We're doing everything possible to drive share and expand overall the market for digital PCR. A lot of excitement for both those products coming to the market on our assay content.

Brandon Couillard (Managing Director)

Any color on just how instruments, ddPCR instruments, performed in 2Q? Thanks.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, they were on a sequential basis, they were slightly better, but on a year over year basis, it was relatively weak overall.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Still very soft, particularly in the academic market where people are not sure of their budgets overall. We see softness across the board, instruments, not just digital PCR, but all the other instruments as well.

Brandon Couillard (Managing Director)

Great, thanks.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

We had not factored in any kind of end of year budget flush. Potentially that's some upside for us as we speak to customers on a daily basis here. Potentially there'll be a little more confidence in their budget and there could be a little bit upside, but we have not factored into our forecast.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Jack Meehan with Nephron Research. Your line is open.

Jack Meehan (Equity Research Analyst)

Good afternoon. Hi everyone first question, wanted to ask about the process chromatography strength in the quarter. How much of this is just small numbers and easy comps versus can you talk about what you're seeing in terms of order patterns with your customers and any recovery there?

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Yeah. I think we're getting back to a normal state where it's not a matter of, you know, customers being overstocked anymore. There might be some of that in some places, but I think it's more, it's more of an appropriate relationship between how they need product, when they need product, when they're ordering from us. You're right, it's an easier comp. Last year was a soft year as we allowed our customers to adjust to kind of their inventory levels they wanted. Now we think it's more of a direct correlation between their demand and what they're ordering from us. It's more similar to the volume that we saw in years past before the volatility of supply chain challenges and overall their own managing their inventory.

Jack Meehan (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Sticking with life sciences, you call out food safety as a growth driver. It's been a while since we talked about that product family, anything to note there?

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

You know, our food safety business is an interesting one because we're essentially taking our products that are used in life science research and either developing specific content for the food applications, and that area continues to grow high single digit. We have a very strong team focused on that. It's not a huge business for us, but it is an interesting kind of additional market, applied market that does not have some of the challenges that we see today in life sciences or in biotech. It's an area that we're looking to see what more could we do there the next few years?

Jack Meehan (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. I wanted to circle back on the U.S. federally funded research customers. Just as you look at them as a customer class, can you talk about how the demand Played out throughout the quarter on consumables and instruments? Was it stable, did it strengthen, or weaken at all? How are you feeling about that?

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Yeah, Jack, it was stable throughout the quarter and improved from where it was in Q1, where I think there was a bit more paralysis, if you will. That is part of what we're anticipating for the rest of the year to see that continuity from Q2 through the rest of the year. Okay, thank you guys.

Norman Schwartz (CEO)

Thanks, Jack.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Tycho Peterson with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Matt Taylor (Managing Director)

Thanks. This is Matt on for Tycho. Roop to go back to process chromatography and appreciate the disclosures in the deck you guys gave this quarter. It seems to suggest that on a dollar basis process chromatography was up like $15 million, $16 million year-over- year. Are you saying 20% of that is Tied to pull forward maybe a few million was pulled forward, and any more color you can provide on just the strong double-digit growth, just given the revenue base of that business, in those disclosures, that would suggest that the strong double digits was something like 50%+ in the quarter. Any more clarity you can add in terms of the magnitude of the process chromatography growth and the comp you had in Q2? Thank you.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

We like you. I know, Matt, you got a lot of. I appreciate all the numbers there. Listen, I think you're a little high on some of those numbers. When we think about process chromatography and where it landed for the quarter, obviously we've got an easy comp from a 2024 standpoint. As we talked about, we've got, I think as John said, a more normalized environment. That's been good. On a sequential basis, we saw strength on process chromatography as a result and obviously very strong. On a year-over-year basis, it's not quite 50% on a year-over-year, it's kind of maybe closer to half that or slightly above half of that sort of number. How you ought to think about it.

Matt Taylor (Managing Director)

Okay, thanks, that's helpful. Just to go back to the new digital PCR launches, it sounds like you had the whole team out there right after it closed. Can you just talk about what you're doing on the commercial side to stimulate demand? Are you running any promotions for existing ddPCR customers? I understand it's a different part of the market. Are you running any kind of targeted programs for high end QPCR customers? Just talk about how you're kind of positioning the 700 Series in the Continuum going forward. Thanks.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Yeah. We will share more details at a webinar coming up here. It's exactly the point that this is not to replace our sole base. It's really to expand the number of users for digital PCR. It is a very simple workflow at the right kind of price points to take share from qPCR. Also, as you said on the high end, with the QX700 instruments and our existing QX600 products, we continue to have the Hisense products in the market. We see a number of applications where, rather than next gen sequencing, they can apply digital PCR for faster and less expensive solutions for them. It's expansion of the marketplace primarily. Of course, there's some areas where it'll hit kind of the center of the existing ddPCR market, but in general it's to expand the number of users of Droplet Digital PCR.

Matt Taylor (Managing Director)

Thanks. Maybe if I could sneak one more in, on U.S. academic government, would just be curious kind of what demand trends look like both in Asia and Europe in Q2, and kind of how you're thinking about the funding and demand backup ex-U.S. for the rest of the year. Thank you.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Yeah, maybe Roop will give more details on it. When we say academic, we're specifically talking about global academic. Some countries in Europe have shifted budgets to defense or other areas. It's a zero sum game in some areas, so they're slowing down some investments in academic. It's not just a U.S. phenomena, it's a global phenomena. Can't say I know exactly in China if it's really seen that way or not, but certainly U.S. and Europe are similar in pressures on academic funding.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

I think you're spot on, John. Just from an APAC standpoint, China is continuing to be soft. We're seeing some movement, positive movement in Korea and Japan, which is great to see because they've been kind of jammed up for a bit of time now. China is kind of in that softness category, if you will.

Matt Taylor (Managing Director)

Super. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, everyone.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

From an academic standpoint, just to reiterate what we said, our customers are focused on keeping their people and keeping the research going. I actually commend them for their ingenuity in making that happen. It shows in our results for our assays and reagents that are continuing to be used. We can see the research is continuing even in uncertainty. They're moving science forward. I think it's commendable that with all the disruptions and unknowns they continue to do that. We see that in our numbers.

Operator (participant)

Okay, your next question comes from the line of Connor McNara with RBC. Your line is open.

Hi, this is Ricardo for Connor. I just wanted to ask about, can you confirm if the organic number for Q3, which goes from like a -3%, that goes to about +5% in the fourth quarter?

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

That sounds about right because you're looking at it from a total company standpoint, is that right?

Yeah, that's correct.

Yeah. That's right. In terms of how that progresses through the year.

Johathan DiVincenzo (President and COO)

Part of that is in the fourth quarter. Last year is when we first saw the reimbursement changes in China. That's annualized at that point in time. It's not necessarily because all of a sudden there's a better market dynamic. It's more of the comp to it.

Just to follow up on the Continuum, how has the response been for the lower throughput customers? Good. That was one aspect of the portfolio. There was a gap for that, for the ddPCR. How is the uptake from that portion of customers?

I think it's too early to give you actual results, but actually the flexibility on the Continuum platform, where you can have one sample or 96 samples, it's cost effective and it also meets those customers more episodic when they're actually using the platform. That's one of the advantages that we're touting to the product, but probably a little too early to tell that there's direct customer user feedback yet. Give us a month or so.

Okay. Still early rounds. No problem. Thank you.

Roop Lakkaraju (EVP and CFO)

Thank you, Ricardo.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, everyone. That concludes our Q and A session for today. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Edward Chung for the closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Edward Chung (VP and Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you for joining today's call. As previously discussed, we are planning to host a webinar on Droplet Digital PCR and our updated portfolio on August 26 at 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time, 10:00 A.M. Pacific. We will post registration information on the Investor Relations section of biorad.com shortly. As for upcoming investor conferences this fall, we'll be participating at the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference in Boston and the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference in New York. Our CEO Norman Schwartz will also be participating on an industry panel at the Nephron Healthcare Summit in Napa. As always, we appreciate your interest, and we look forward to connecting soon.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect. Have a nice day ahead, everyone.