Champions Oncology - Earnings Call - Q4 2025

Executive Summary

• Q4 FY2025 revenue was $12.355M, down 12% YoY, with gross margin 41% vs 48% last year as lower revenue on a largely unchanged cost base compressed margins.
• GAAP diluted EPS was -$0.13; Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $1.016M per reconciliation, with management citing a ~$1.2M adjusted EBITDA loss in narrative due to stock comp, D&A, and an equipment disposal charge.
• CFO guided to sequential revenue increase and a return to positive adjusted EBITDA next quarter; capital spending expected to be minimal and cash neutral in the near term with cash growth in 2H as revenue/margins improve.
• CEO transition announced: Ronnie Morris to step down; Rob Brandon to become CEO, reflecting focus on scaling services and monetizing data platforms—a potential stock narrative catalyst.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well
  • Data platform monetization continued: Q4 included “new data licensing revenue of approximately $200,000,” building on Q3’s first major deal; management reiterated a growing pipeline and validation of the data strategy.
  • Operational discipline drove FY25 turnaround: record annual revenue $57M, net income $4.6M, adjusted EBITDA $7.1M, and year-end cash $9.8M with no debt.
  • Radiopharmaceutical services launched with attractive economics—expected “50%–60% margin” and ability to address capacity-constrained demand using clinically relevant PDX tumor models.
• What Went Wrong
  • Q4 revenue declined YoY ($12.355M vs $14.001M), and gross margin fell to 41% (from 48%) on lower revenue against relatively unchanged costs; adjusted EBITDA swung to a loss.
  • Q4 operating loss was $2.0M including non-cash charges (stock comp $131k, D&A $394k, equipment disposal $293k); adjusted EBITDA was a loss, reflecting near-term revenue softness.
  • Sales and marketing increased $533k in Q4 (to $2.309M) tied to expansion of the data BD team and conference spend, creating short-term OpEx pressure amid macro headwinds.

Transcript

Speaker 2

This conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Ronnie Morris, Chief Executive Officer. You may begin.

Speaker 1

Good afternoon. I am Ronnie Morris, CEO of Champions Oncology. Joining me today is David Miller, our Chief Financial Officer. Thank you for joining us for our quarterly earnings call. Before I begin, I will remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements during today's call, and that actual results could differ materially from those indicated. Additional information on risk factors can be found in our Form 10-Q and Form 10-K filings. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures is available in our earnings release. Looking back, Fiscal 2025 may ultimately be seen as the pivotal year for Champions Oncology, one marked by renewed momentum, strategic execution, and foundational growth. Following a challenging Fiscal 2024, we successfully reestablished revenue growth and returned to profitability.

A highlight of the year was closing our inaugural data licensing deals in the third quarter, followed by several smaller transactions in the recent quarter, as well as a growing pipeline showing clear validation of our long-term vision and strategic direction. Our core services business continues to be the foundation of Champions Oncology. Built on our industry-leading PDX Bank and its extensive multiomic characterization, our platform remains a critical resource for pharmacology studies across the biopharma sector. We have made targeted investments to strengthen our team and streamline operations, resulting in improved quality, greater efficiency, and increased scalability. These enhancements have contributed meaningfully to our margin expansion and overall profitability. This progress is especially significant given ongoing macroeconomic headwinds. While there are early signs of recovery, biotech and pharma R&D budgets remain constrained.

Despite the challenging market, we have begun to see a decrease in customer cancellations, leading to a greater bookings to revenue conversion rate. We have also made strengthening our relationship with Big Pharma a core strategic focus, as these customers are generally more resilient through market cycles and tend to engage in larger multi-study programs. Another major milestone was the launch of our radiopharmaceutical services platform. This achievement was enabled by expanding our radioactive materials license, adding radiochemistry infrastructure, and screening more than 30 PDX models in collaboration with pharma and biotech partners. Champions now offers fully integrated radiopharmaceutical workflows, including in vitro and ex vivo biodistribution studies and serotonin amplification testing across a range of isotopes. What truly sets us apart is our use of clinically relevant PDX Bank tumor models, allowing radiopharma developers to test compounds and systems that closely mirror human biology.

As highlighted before, our first beta data licensing deal underscored the potential of our rich multiomic functional PDX Bank. We licensed both existing data and prospective omics-generated data, aligning with our vision to create the world's most comprehensive clinically relevant tumor dataset. This resource aims to bridge the gap between legacy datasets and the depths required to power next-generation AI/ML-driven discovery pipelines. As the market increasingly values rich, high-fidelity datasets, Champions Oncology is well-positioned to lead in that effort. As we enter the next phase of transformative growth, I will be stepping down as CEO and passing the reins to Rob Brandon. Rob brings over 25 years of experience at the intersection of life sciences and data-driven innovation. He has a proven track record of scaling companies rooted in scientific and computational excellence.

His unique background makes him the point leader to connect our robust services with our emerging data platforms. In summary, we have made significant strides in Fiscal 2025. We stabilized and reignited our core services business. We returned to revenue growth and profitability. We validated our data platform with initial licensing deals, and we launched our radiopharmaceutical services platform. We believe that structural improvements made this year will continue to bear fruit in the quarters ahead. Despite external challenges, we have maintained strong momentum, advanced our platform, and upheld our scientific leadership. On a personal note, leading Champions Oncology has been a great privilege, and I am very proud of the extraordinary company that we have built. I am confident that under Rob's leadership, Champions Oncology will continue to advance, innovate, and excel. I look forward to supporting him in my new role.

Now I will turn the call over to David Miller for a more complete review of the financial results.

Speaker 0

Thanks, Ronnie, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll review our results for the fourth quarter and for Fiscal Year 2025 and frame our thinking about Fiscal 2026. Before I dive in, a reminder that our full audited results will be filed on Form 10-K with the SEC by Wednesday, July 29. As always, today I'll reference certain non-GAAP metrics and reconciliations to GAAP are included in our earnings release. Fiscal Year 2025 was a turnaround year for Champions Oncology. We returned to growth and profitability after the decline we saw in Fiscal 2024. Our total revenue was a record $57 million compared to $50.2 million last year, a 14% increase. Our research services revenue was $52.3 million, up 4% year-over-year, and our data revenue streams contributed $4.7 million, reflecting our initial data licensing deal.

Due to the combination of disciplined cost execution and revenue increase, including high margin data, our adjusted EBITDA was $7.1 million versus an adjusted EBITDA loss of $3.9 million in Fiscal 2024. Turning to our fourth quarter, as expected, our fourth quarter came in reasonable sequentially and compared to Q4 last year. Revenue was $12.4 million compared to $14 million last year. We recorded a GAAP operating loss of $2 million to a tangible loss of $200,000 in 2024. This included approximately $800,000 in non-cash expenses, namely stock-based compensation, depreciation, and a share charge related to equipment disposal. Excluding those, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $1.2 million compared to a gain of $900,000 last year.

Turning the focus to our cash-based results, cost of sales for the fourth quarter was $7.3 million, relatively flat versus last year, resulting in a gross margin of 41%, down from 48% in Q4 2024. The margin decline reflects lower revenue on a relatively unchanged cost base, something we expect to reverse next quarter as revenue increases and costs remain stable. Operating expenses for the quarter were $400,000, or 7%, driven by a $500,000 increase in sales and marketing due to the formation of our data sales team, along with continued marketing efforts such as conferences that were heavily concentrated in the quarter. These operating expenses were partially offset by modest declines in R&D and GMA.

We're encouraged that the business development investments are already contributing to pipeline expansion and will support growth in high margin data revenue moving forward, while at the same time we remain focused on expense management and reduction in non-core areas of the business. Now summarizing our results for the full year. As mentioned, revenue reached a record $57 million, up 14% from 2024. Cost of sales was $28.2 million, a 3% decrease from $29.2 million, enabling gross margins to expand to 50%, up from 42% last year. This improvement came from two key drivers: the addition of high margin data revenue and operational efficiencies that improved revenue conversion and contained costs. Total operating expense declined by approximately $3.4 million year-over-year. R&D was down $2.7 million, and G&A was down $1.2 million, while sales and marketing rose by $500,000.

Again, demonstrating that focus on strategic cost control while investing where required to our commercial expansion efforts. Adjusted EBITDA for the year was $70.1 million, a dramatic swing from a loss of $3.9 million in Fiscal 2024. This is a testament to the team's disciplined execution and our ability to translate top-line growth into bottom-line improvement. Turning to cash, we ended the year with $9.8 million in cash, up from $2.6 million a year ago, and we remained debt-free. Operating cash flow for the fourth quarter was $6.4 million as we converted our accounts receivable and increased our deferred revenue. Looking ahead, we expect to remain cash neutral over the next quarter, with projected cash flows in the second half of the year as revenue increases and margin improvements take hold.

We do not expect any significant capital expenditures this year, and we believe we're in a strong position to fund operations and organic strategic growth. To summarize, Fiscal Year 2025 was a turnaround year for Champions Oncology with record revenue and a return to profitability. As we look ahead to next quarter and beyond, we should see a sequential quarterly revenue increase and adjusted EBITDA profit, and we have growing confidence that revenue will increase over the next three quarters, along with expanding operating margins. Our balance sheet is strong, with growing cash and no debt. As a result, we remain confident in our long-term growth trajectory, expanding our data business, enhancing profitability, and driving shareholder value. We look forward to updating you on our third-quarter results in about six weeks. We'd now like to open the call for questions.

Speaker 2

Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Once again, please press star one if you have a question or a comment. First question comes from Matthew Hewitt with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed.

Good afternoon, and congratulations on this improved year. Before I have my questions, Ronnie, it's been nice working with you and best wishes in your new role at Champions Oncology. As far as the first question, you kind of used this a little bit in your prepared remarks, but the current environment, obviously, 2024 was a very challenging environment. We've seen that maybe this calendar year is going to show us some improvements. You noted that you've seen a decline in cancellations. I'm just wondering if you could maybe provide a little bit more color on what you're seeing in the current environment and what your expectations are for Fiscal 2026.

Speaker 1

Yes. Thank you, Matt, for your well wishes, and it's always great getting your questions. The current environment is still not great, right? It's still pretty tight out there. We definitely agree with you that there are some glimpses of things turning around, and I think everyone's expecting it to turn around. The general markets have kind of turned around, and some of the other sectors have turned around. We are waiting for biotech to fully come back.

Having said that, I think when we look at things like opportunity generation, the amount of conversations we're having with big pharma, middle pharma, biotech, and some of the services that we've added that are really much in need out there in the marketplace, we feel pretty confident that even though it's a tight marketplace, we still feel like we're going to be able to sustain the growth and be able to continue to grow. Just because of the niche where we are, we're kind of, you know, the PDX Bank that we have, which is somewhat of a differentiated product. There's a place for us. People need our services.

Not as easy as it was a couple of years ago, but those are the times where we continue to double down and just become more efficient and get better using better tools for marketing and for sales and for how we think about our R&D and all the other stuff. It just makes us have to be a little bit better, but we feel cautiously optimistic that the next couple of quarters and the next year or two are going to be okay for us.

That's very helpful. Kind of just moving down the list here, the data licensing opportunity, another little win here this quarter or follow-on. I'm just wondering what that pipeline looks like, what your expectations are for contribution in Fiscal 2026.

Yeah. As I think about the data, as I think we described on this call, it's somewhat of an early business for us, although we've been collating data for a long time. We've always known that it's valuable and that it's going to be important at some point. We really still feel like we're at the right place at the right time. The pipeline is growing. Some of the licensing deals will be smaller, and those will happen sooner, and some of the larger licensing deals take more time. I think that it's reasonable to expect that our licensing revenue will be somewhat in the same range for the next year or so, and then I think it's going to grow from there.

Got it. Maybe one last one, I'll hop back in the queue, but the new radiopharmaceutical services platform opportunity, what will those agreements look like? You know, size, margins, any color that you could provide there would be helpful. Thank you.

Yeah. Those are going to look like the same types of statements of work that we've done for in vivo work. It's going to have a higher price tag because radiopharmaceutical services cost more than regular just in vivo either cell line or PDX work. You can think of it as a fairly high margin, you know, somewhere 50% to 60% margin business. The reason we're super excited about this line of business is because it's a very hot field right now, and there's a capacity constraint out there in terms of being able to get this work done. We feel like there's a demand, and we have a great PDX Bank, and those are the type of models that people are going to want to test their radiopharmaceutical platform against.

Got it. Thank you very much.

You're welcome, Matt.

Speaker 2

If there are any remaining questions, please press star one on your touch-tone phone. We have a follow-up question coming from Matthew Hewitt. Please proceed.

All right. Thanks. If no one else is going to jump in, it may be first up. How should we be thinking about the capital allocation? Obviously, a nice improvement this year versus last year. You're now sitting with a healthy amount of cash. Where do you see investment necessary to drive additional growth going forward?

Speaker 1

I think that a lot of our investment going forward is going to be in the creation of this data, the new data, and to go deeper into the data and build different types of datasets. I don't know that that is going to be its own cost without the revenue associated with it. I think that we're going to see what the market's interested in. We're going to build datasets that that is going to be revenue-producing. That is where I see a lot of our R&D dollars. I don't see other capital expenditures. I see a lot of spend going into the data.

I guess kind of on the data side and some of the work that you have previously done with your Corellia AI, are you still kind of pursuing partner programs there or any updates you can provide would be helpful?

Yeah. We have several programs within the Corellia portfolio we are super excited about. One of the nice things about working on thousands of compounds for hundreds and hundreds of biotech and pharma companies is we see everything. We test all of these drugs that come through our clinic, come through our labs, and we generally know which of the drugs that are going to become the billion-dollar drugs out there. We see them before they get approval. We have some drugs that we've developed, and we don't want to waste time. Things that don't work in our playground, in our platform with the PDXs, we don't waste a lot of time on. We're super excited about the portfolio that we have, and we're out there raising money. As you know, it's a tough environment.

We are talking to a whole bunch of people, and we really hope that over the next couple of months we're going to be able to fund that company with outside capital. We remain super excited about the methodology of how we came to these targets and the team that's been able to develop first-in-class drugs against these targets.

That's great. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Our next question comes from Richard Bafarin, private investor. Please proceed, Richard.

Speaker 0

Thanks for your leadership over here at Champions Oncology. I want to say I'm pretty excited about your announcement about your relationship with Corellia AI, and I wanted to get some nuance to this relationship. Is the plan to monetize your data licensing together in some percentage or format? How do you expect this partnership to accelerate your data licensing revenue? That's the color of the stuff.

Speaker 1

That is one example of, at the stage we're at right now, we're pretty much licensing out our data to companies like Turbine and some others. At the current stage, the licensing agreements are purely licensing agreements, and we haven't really built in any type of milestones or royalties. We certainly see over time as we go further down this step and we kind of work more with pharma and develop a deeper dataset and have more experience that we will do more of a partnership and really work with some of these companies to develop drugs together. I would say it's exciting because they're using it for what we always dreamed and thought was possible with our data, and they're getting great value out of it. Over time, I think that the relationships with companies like Turbine and others will just become more of a partnership.

Speaker 2

Thank you. We have no further questions in the queue. I would like to turn the floor back to management for any closing remarks.

Thank you very much for tuning in to our quarterly and end-of-year call. We look forward to giving you another update in the middle of September. We're certainly super excited about not only the core business but our data. We're also excited about the drug development efforts that we have. There is a lot to be excited about, and we look forward to updating everybody in another six weeks. Have a good evening, and thank you for joining us.

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.