Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Vanessa, and I will be your operator today.
Welcome to Knight Therapeutics' first quarter 2026 results conference call. Before turning the call over to Samira Sakhia, President and CEO of Knight, listeners are reminded that portions of today's discussion may, by their nature, necessarily involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by forward-looking statements.
The company considers the assumptions on which these forward-looking statements are based to be reasonable at the time they were prepared, but cautions that these assumptions regarding future events, many of which are beyond the control of the company and its subsidiaries, may ultimately prove to be incorrect. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, except as required by law.
We would also like to remind you that questions during today's call will be taken from analysts only. Should there be any further questions, please contact Knight's Investor Relations department via email to [email protected] or via phone at 514-484-4483.
I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded today, May 7th, 2026. I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's call, Samira Sakhia.
Please go ahead.
Samira Sakhia
Thank you, Vanessa. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Knight Therapeutics' first quarter 2026 conference call.
I'm joined on today's call with Amal Khouri, our Chief Business Officer, and Arvind Utchanah, our Chief Financial Officer. I'm excited to announce that in the first quarter of 2026, we reported record revenues and record adjusted EBITDA.
Our revenues were $148 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $28 million. In Q1 2026, revenues grew by $59.6 million, or 68%, compared to the same period last year.
The increase was due to the incremental revenues from the Sumitomo and Paladin portfolios, the growth of our promoted products, and purchasing patterns of certain customers. In addition to achieving record financial results, we further advanced our pipeline.
We submitted Nextinvo for regulatory approval in Brazil and Minjuvi in Argentina and Mexico for follicular lymphoma. Furthermore, we obtained Brazilian regulatory approval for Minjuvi's second indication, follicular lymphoma.
Beyond our regulatory progress, so far in 2026 we have already executed four launches, namely Minjuvi for follicular lymphoma in Brazil, Hemoseer in Argentina, Akynzeo in Paraguay, and Bapocel in Colombia. Subsequent to the quarter, as a result of certain manufacturing changes by our partner, we unfortunately had to make the decision to withdraw the Health Canada New Drug Submission for Kelbre.
However, we do expect to resubmit Kelbre for approval at a later date. The resubmission is expected to include both the data required for the manufacturing changes, as well as the additional information previously requested by Health Canada.
On to the NCIB. During the quarter, we purchased 1.3 million common shares at an average purchase price of $6.22 for aggregate cash consideration of $8.2 million.
Under the current NCIB, to date we have purchased 2 million shares and can still purchase an additional 4.2 million shares until August 2026. I will now turn the call over to Arvind to provide an update on our financial results.
Arvind Utchanah
Thank you, Samira. When speaking of our financial results, I will refer to certain non-IFRS measures, including adjusted EBITDA per share, adjusted gross margin, and constant currency results.
This quarter, I will refer to revenues as there is no material difference with adjusted revenues due to hyperinflation. Refer to our press release and MD&A and SEDAR filings for their definitions.
Starting in 2026, we have redefined our product categories as follows: promoted, mature, and discontinued. Within the promoted, we have the promoted launch pipeline products and promoted strategic products.
The launch pipeline products are in the early stage of launch, typically within 5 years of commercial entry, while the strategic products were launched more than 5 years ago and are either close to or have reached their peak potential. Finally, the mature products require lower levels of promotional activity and have already reached their peak potential.
For the first quarter of 2026, as Samira mentioned, we delivered record revenues of $148 million, an increase of $60 million, or 69%, compared to the same period last year. Of the $60 million of incremental revenues, the mature products from the Paladin and Sumitomo transaction contributed $17 million, the launch pipeline products $13 million, and the strategic products grew by $28 million, of which AmBisome and MOE sales contributed an incremental $14 million.
The growth in the strategic products was driven by brands in our infectious disease and oncology portfolio, including Cresemba and Akynzeo. The growth in the launch pipeline products was driven by multiple launches in multiple countries over the past two years.
This includes Minjuvi for DLBCL in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina; Minjuvi for follicular lymphoma in Brazil; Hemoseer in Brazil and Mexico; Bapocel in Colombia; and Imvexxy, Bijuva, Joynepiem, Xcopri, Myfembree, and Orgovyx in Canada. Now moving on to gross margin.
The company achieved an adjusted gross margin of $70.6 million, or 48% of revenues in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $40.9 million, or 47% of revenues in the same period last year. The increase in the adjusted gross margin is explained by the growth in revenues.
I will now turn to our operating expenses, excluding amortization. For the first quarter, our operating expenses were $43 million, an increase of $13 million, or 44%, compared to the same period last year.
The increase in operating expenses was mainly driven by the expansion in structure and spend required to support our larger portfolio. Moving on to adjusted EBITDA.
For the first quarter of 2026, we reported a record $28 million of adjusted EBITDA, an increase of $15.8 million, or 130%, compared to the same period last year. The increase was driven by higher adjusted gross margin, partly offset by higher operating expenses.
Our adjusted EBITDA per share was 28 cents, an increase of 133% compared to the same period last year. I will now cover financial assets, which are valued at $95 million.
In the first quarter, we recorded a net loss of $2.8 million, driven by the mark-to-market revaluations of our strategic fund investments and our equity investments. As a reminder, our funds continue to be a source of cash and has generated $47 million since 2020.
Turning to our liquidity and cash flows. During the quarter, we generated operating cash inflows of $41 million, driven by our adjusted EBITDA and change in working capital.
At the end of the first quarter, we held $127 million in cash and marketable securities and approximately $58 million in debt. Our net cash position continues to improve from $27 million at the end of 2025 to $69 million at the end of the first quarter of 2026.
In fact, as of today, we have already repaid $40 million of the $60 million we've drawn from the revolving credit facility used to finance the Paladin transaction. At the end of Q1 2026, our debt-to-adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio was under 0.75 0.7x.
I will now turn the call back to Samira.
Samira Sakhia
Thank you, Arvind. Now on to our financial outlook for fiscal 2026.
I would like to remind everyone, this guidance is based on the assumption that there is no material adjustment due to hyperinflation accounting in Argentina. In addition, our guidance is based on a number of assumptions, which are described in our press release.
Should any of these assumptions differ, the financial outlook and the actual results may vary materially. We are increasing our outlook for fiscal 2026 and expect to generate revenues between $510 million and $525 million, and adjusted EBITDA of approximately 15% of revenues.
The increase in our financial outlook is driven primarily by the better performance of our promoted products across multiple countries, including Canada, Mexico, and Colombia, as well as an improvement in forecasted LatAm currencies against the Canadian dollar. Our team has been extremely successful in building a profitable business by executing on our Pan-American ex-US strategy of in-licensing and acquiring multiple innovative and mature products for multiple territories, submitting and obtaining approvals for these products across multiple countries, and successfully launching and growing them across all of our markets.
Our results and cash flows reflect the contribution from the growth of our promoted products, including our 15 launches over the last two years, as well as the incremental revenues from the cash flow-generating mature products acquired last year. Over the last 12 months, we have generated over $500 million in revenues, which has doubled the size of our business from 5 years ago.
We remain committed and well positioned to continue to execute on our strategy, bringing innovative products that make a difference in the lives of patients in Canada and Latin America, while driving long-term shareholder value. Thank you for your support and confidence in the Knight team.
This concludes our formal remarks. I would like to now open up the call for questions.
Over to you, Vanessa.
Operator
Thank you. We will now begin our question-and-answer session.
Before we begin, may I please remind you that questions during today's call will be taken from analysts only. Should there be any further questions, please contact Knight's Investor Relations department via email to [email protected] or via phone at 514-484-4483.
If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift up your handset before pressing any key.
If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. We have our first question from David Martin with Bloom Burton.
David Martin
Good morning, and congratulations on the quarter. With regards to the withdrawal of the NDS for Kelbre, can you provide more color?
I'm wondering what it is that you ran into that you couldn't address Health Canada's questions and you do say that you think you will submit it again in the future. What has to be done and why do you think it can be done in the future if it can't be done now?
Samira Sakhia
That's a great question. One of the things that we knew was that our partner was working through some manufacturing changes.
We were planning that we could answer the questions and address the manufacturing changes post-launch, given the time that we're at, that delay in submission, approval, launch because of the manufacturing changes would have actually delayed our launch. It's better for us to withdraw the dossier, have all these manufacturing changes, as well as the technical information that was previously requested, all done at the same time, have a dossier that we can submit and launch all in one shot.
It does delay our launch altogether, maybe around a year, maybe two, but then we have a substantial dossier, hopefully minimal questions, that we can get approved and launched.
David Martin
Got it. Moving to AmBisome, year after year you get this MOH contract.
You've kept competition at bay. Could this be perpetual?
What is it about AmBisome that generics can't make it to market?
Samira Sakhia
The issue you have to recall we started having the MOH contract a few years ago because another innovative branded competitor went on backorder, and they have not been able to come back to the market. The reason we have this contract is because that competitor has not returned.
The issue that we continue to monitor is that there are generics. There are several generics that are approved in the US.
We do see generics under review in Brazil at this point in time, they are not approved. As they get approved, the likelihood is high to almost certain that we will not retain the contract.
Until they're approved, MOH has no other source of amphotericin B other than Knight.
David Martin
Is it really difficult to manufacture? Is that why your competition went on backorder and I understand some have been approved generics in the US, but they've had difficulty supplying that as well.
Samira Sakhia
Yeah. Actually, that's exactly the issue.
Liposomal amphotericin B is very difficult to manufacture. That is why it has taken generics a long time to be able to formulate.
That's why they continue to have manufacturing issues. That's why AmBisome has been able to retain such large sales.
David Martin
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
We have our next question from Michael Freeman with Raymond James.
Michael Freeman
Hi, good morning, and congratulations on quite a quarter. You described 15 more than 15 launches that Knight's benefited from over the last 2 years.
Could you describe or quantify the number of launches you estimate happening in the next year, maybe 2 years? You described in your filings and in your deck a $200 million peak revenue opportunity from your pipeline.
I wonder if you could put some more numbers around this.
Samira Sakhia
Sure. In 2024, there was 3 launches.
Last year, there was 10. I Arvind outlined the 4 launches that we've had so far this year.
We expect 2026 to be approximately 10 launches. If you look at our the in our MD&A, we have a list of the pipeline kind of the estimated years of approval.
When you look at kind of let's say if we have for a certain product, let's take Minjuvi follicular, for example, we might give a range, but there's multiple launches when it comes to Minjuvi follicular, because there's a launch in Brazil, there's a launch in Mexico, there's a launch in Argentina. We have We are considering it for some of the smaller territories.
Every single time, there is an effort to launch, educate physicians, build a market. You look at a product like Akynzeo, which we launched in Paraguay.
These are some of these smaller territories may not be big drivers, but every single time we have a launch, it's incremental revenues that we would not have otherwise. Like I said, they are $200 million.
The ones that we have launched in '24 to '26 are at least $100 million of revenue. The what These products have on a year like a trailing 12-month basis have already generated $40 million of that 200 peak that we are estimating.
We're already 20% of the way there.
Michael Freeman
Okay. All right.
Thank you for detailing that. I notice Knight's balance sheet continues to strengthen.
You're accumulating a more and more significant net cash position. I wonder how you're thinking about deployment of that capital.
Of course, we noticed the NCIB activities, but yeah, how do you plan to use your cash?
Samira Sakhia
That's a great question. We are a acquiring and in-licensing organization.
I I think this time last year, I was getting a lot of questions of you are putting debt on the balance sheet, you don't have a lot of cash, how are you going to execute acquisitions? We've always we had the borrowing capacity.
Now not only do we have the borrowing capacity, but we have the cash to continue to execute on acquiring assets, in-licensing, submitting, and launching products, and that's what we're going to continue to do.
Michael Freeman
I guess associated with that, I wonder if you or Amal could describe I guess your BD or acquisition pipeline in the near and medium term.
Amal Khouri
Hi, good morning. This is Amal.
The BD pipeline, I would say it's still normal course. Similar deal flow that we've been seeing in the last 2 years, so that continues.
Of course, as in terms of deals getting to that finish line and being announced, that's not something that's completely consistent. There's ebbs and flows there.
In terms of the actual deal flow and pipeline, it remains very healthy. Could
Michael Freeman
just quickly, what would you describe as a target number of transactions per year that the company sets out to do if there is a target?
Amal Khouri
There isn't really. We look to do deals that make sense with quality assets at good valuations.
This is really the target for us. We don't set a target of number of transactions per year, because that really does not make sense for the business.
A deal has to be a good deal. If you're looking to get a sense of what to expect, I think you can look back at what we've done to date.
If I take out last year, we've been adding on average 3 products per year. Last year was much higher than that as you know with the 2 acquisitions of the 2 portfolios.
That aside, excluding those 2 portfolios, it's been an average of 3 products per year.
Michael Freeman
Thank you very much. I'll pass the line now.
Operator
Thank you. We have our next question from Scott McAuley with Paradigm Capital.
Scott McAuley
Morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions.
Obviously, I think a lot of moving parts in the quarter with the new Paladin and Sumitomo portfolios, AmBisome, and then kind of the organic growth of these launches. I don't know if you could maybe give a bit more color or how you see the organic growth kind of maybe year-over-year, or however you want to quantify it, versus those acquired products and how kind of you see that growth moving obviously for this year, but into next year as well once that increase from the acquisitions kind of smooths over.
Samira Sakhia
Sure. One of the things that we outlined was in the quarter, the Paladin mature products contributed about $17 million.
That really ties in with what we said was the size of the business when we acquired it. That's going to remain flattish to decline, because as we had announced when we announced Q4, a few older products that are being returned, and that's about $7 million on an annual basis.
If you look at our strategic products, even if you exclude the one-time MOH increase in there, they grew $14 million on a year-over-year basis. If you look at the pipeline launch products, that also is growing on a year-over-year basis, and that is what is our business, and that's what we're really trying to do.
If you look into the promoted brands, what we expect is the pipeline launch products are going to grow at a very high rate. The products that are in that strategic product bundle, that is going to be slower growth, but we're investing behind them because we know that we can retain and continue to grow.
We saw growth in Cresemba, we continued to see growth in Akynzeo, and those products will continue to grow, but not at the rapid rate that the newly launched products are.
Scott McAuley
That's helpful. Do you see the products in the mature bucket, are those fairly stable, or do you see some products falling off of that in the coming year or 2 kind of into the discontinued pile?
Samira Sakhia
We're always looking at what's in the mature, if it continues to make sense to distribute, have it manufactured, the complexity. This bundle of products is, I'm going to say, flat to slightly declining.
In some years, maybe we can take price increases. In some years, if we're having manufacturing issues or it's too complex, we may choose to discontinue.
Scott McAuley
Got you. Makes sense.
Maybe a bit on the operating expenses. Obviously, it increases with the rapid flurry of launches and bringing on those new portfolios.
How do you see that rate kind of continue to grow either in '26 and '27? Then maybe beyond that, where do you feel like you're getting into kind of equilibrium with all these launches and the new product portfolios?
I
Samira Sakhia
I think we're actually nearly there. Like one of the things that we said in our Q4 call is kind of the run rate of OpEx is what Q4 looked like Q4 '25 looked like for this year.
We may see some increases. The The biggest component of increase really comes from infrastructure of field force, whether it's sales, market access, key account management, or medical.
In the majority of our countries now, especially with the acquisitions that we did in Canada, most of our countries are built out. The place where we are continuing to add resources as we add portfolio is Mexico.
We will see that going up, but that's not going to be when I when I look at the totality and the numbers, it's not going to be big swings like we had between like '24, '25, and this year.
Scott McAuley
Yeah. Definitely.
No, that's helpful. Maybe just lastly on the improved 2026 revenue targets, which is always great.
I don't know if you could quantify or some comments around the relative impact of the kind of currency improvements that we've seen even quite recently, versus that kind of underlying growth of the portfolio.
Samira Sakhia
When I kind of think about in our forecast, how much is FX, it's really what we're seeing in the last few weeks of the quarter where the FX, especially in Brazil, seems to have improved. It's adding about $5 [million?]
to $10 million of that increase in the range. The rest is all coming from products.
Hopefully that, which is what product revenues, is what we have control over, and hope to do better.
Scott McAuley
Absolutely. That's fantastic.
Thanks for taking the questions.
Operator
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. We have a question from David Martin with Bloom Burton.
David Martin
Thanks. I forgot to ask, are there any more MOH AmBisome orders expected for the rest of the year, or is that all done now?
Samira Sakhia
There is in Q2. Our initial estimate when we announced Q4 was that they would purchase about $32-ish million.
It's between FX and the likelihood we are now estimating that that's $46. Normally they order kind of rapidly, we'll see the rest of it coming through in Q2.
David Martin
Okay. Okay.
Also, I don't know if you can put a number on this, but if these new launches are estimated to generate $200 million at peak, what's the offset over that period of revenue declines for products that you're currently selling that'll be facing generic competition or manufacturing problems?
Samira Sakhia
The ones manufacturing problems if and when they come. They're really small products.
If I look at kind of the big products where we see branded generic competition, it's Lenvima in Brazil, in a couple of years Lenvima in Colombia. As we've discussed just a few minutes ago, there is a AmBisome branded generics under review in Brazil.
As we've seen, branded generics in LatAm cause a decline of the brand at a much slower pace than we see in North America. You lose market share, but it does take 3 to 5 years to really get to that 10% to 20% market share.
You're seeing Lenvima is in our strategic promoted portfolio, despite it having a generic in Brazil, that portfolio is still growing, right? That's really how we're trying to address not just the potential declines, but really accelerating beyond those fellow potential declines and add more products to our portfolio.
David Martin
Okay. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is from Doug Miehm with RBC Capital Markets.
Doug Miehm
Good morning, everyone. First question for me, Samira, you did talk about the last 5 years and how the company's grown quite dramatically from $250 to over $500 million today.
I'm just wondering if you could give us some thoughts on where the company could be in another 5 years. Are we thinking that you could double that number again to over $1 billion?
Just curious.
Samira Sakhia
I think that's a question for Amal. We are about continuing to grow.
We are financially disciplined, and we're going to do what makes sense for the business driving value, making sure that we're bringing products that make a difference. That's what we're doing all day, every day.
That's what everyone in our team is doing all day, every day. Do we want to be a billion-dollar company?
Absolutely. Am I going to commit to that in the next 5 years?
Not just yet.
Doug Miehm
That's great. A question for Amal.
When you think about the competitive environment in both Canada and in South America, Mexico, etc., has there been any impact on the potential buyers of assets, whether they be companies or products, given what's happening in the alt-credit market? Or I guess what I'm asking is, have there been any changes in the competitive dynamic around those that are trying to in-license or buy these assets?
Amal Khouri
Sure. We haven't seen any negative impact.
If you look at assets with existing sales, the acquisition of these assets, the buyers in LatAm particularly have been and continue to be privately held companies. These are family-run companies that have been around for years.
Of course they go through kind of periods where some of them take on a lot of debt, do big acquisitions. They kind of need to digest it over a couple of years and then they go back in.
You have kind of that up and down depending on the company. Overall, we really don't see kind of a sector impact per se.
On the licensing side, as the kind of the up-fronts are not massive, the big purchase prices are more on acquisitions of products with existing sales. The sector remains competitive.
Again, this is primarily I'm talking about LatAm across both, again, acquisitions of products with existing sales and in-licensing of assets. We still see healthy competition, let's call it.
Doug Miehm
Healthy competition. That's great.
Thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad.
I see there are no further questions. At this time, I will now turn the call back over to Samira Sakhia for closing remarks.
Samira Sakhia
Thank you, Vanessa. Once again, thank you for your confidence in the Knight team and for joining our Q1 2026 conference call.
Have a great morning.
Operator
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference call.
We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
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