ArcticZymes Technologies ASA

ArcticZymes Technologies ASA

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Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 12, 2026

Michael B. Akoh

Good morning and welcome to ArcticZymes Q4 and full-year 2025 report. My name is Michael Akoh, I'm the CEO of ArcticZymes, and as usual, I'm joined by Børge Sørvoll, our CFO, as well as Paul Blackburn, our Chief Commercial Officer.

Let's get started. Next slide, Børge.

A quick look at our agenda for today that we've put together for you. I'm going to start off by going through the highlights of Q4, and then I'm also going to follow with some of the highlights for the full year and the value-creating events that we have seen.

Then Paul is going to go into our business performance, both in the biomanufacturing as well as the molecular tools segment. Then Børge is going to present the key financials, and then I'm going to come back and give you an updated outlook and also talk a bit about our upcoming Capital Markets Day that we're going to host in Stockholm on March the 6th.

Finally, we're going to open up for questions and answers. Next slide, Børge.

We ended Q4, or we ended the year, on a strong note, and we saw significant revenue growth as well as improved profitability. Throughout the year, we have executed on our strategy, on our commercial transformation, and we are now seeing the results of this execution of our strategy.

If we look at the Q4 numbers, then total revenue was up 31%, just shy of 35 million NOK. On the profit side, our profit almost tripled and ended up at an EBITDA of 8.3 million NOK.

If we go into the full-year number, then we are back on a growth path, and revenue for the year was up 9%, 218 million NOK. We also saw positive development on the profit side.

Our EBITDA for the year more than doubled and ended up at 12 million NOK. Another important highlight I want to mention is diversification.

We worked throughout the year with establishing metagenomics as a new growth area for ArcticZymes, and we've been driving that for the past many years actually by working together with key opinion leaders in the field. Now we are seeing the first results of that work that have been done during the past years.

We're seeing that our role in metagenomics could be significant going forward. Metagenomics holds a lot of promise, but it's not just a future promise.

It's also being rolled out today across the UK. One of our enzymes, M-SAN, has been implemented on a number of validated protocols, and we're really excited to see what metagenomics can become in the future.

We've talked a lot about commercial transformation, and approximately one and a half years ago, we started building a new commercial organization with new processes as well as a new team. I'm happy to announce today that the first phase of that commercial organization build-up has been completed.

In December last year, we hired the last piece of the puzzle, which was a West Coast business developer. Now the team is complete, at least for now.

We have an extremely strong, talented commercial team in place. To sum it up, a strong quarter and a good year for ArcticZymes, and we have come into 2026 with a strengthened platform.

Next slide, Børge. I would like to highlight four elements that made 2025 special: a number of key milestones and value-creating events.

2025 was very much about turning execution into scalable growth opportunities. We launched a new solid growth strategy that's going to facilitate scalable growth, diversification, and increase innovation speed.

We also, as mentioned, built a stronger, more scalable commercial organization, and the team has already proven that they can execute on the sales side as well as on the marketing side and improve customer engagement in general. Partnerships was also an important element of 2025, as well as market expansion.

We launched a new channel strategy, deployed a new channel manager, and we aim at strengthening local presence, get closer to customers, and become even better at supporting them in applying our enzymes in their workflows. A notable event was also the execution of a strategic SAN partnership with Brenntag in Europe, where they're going to be selling our SAN enzymes across the region.

We expect, together with Brenntag, that this is going to start to generate meaningful revenue towards the end of the year. Portfolio expansion was also an important event of last year.

We launched M-SAN HQ GMP. We're already seeing traction of this product in the marketplace, and this is really reinforcing ArcticZymes' position in regulated biomanufacturing workflows.

I've already talked about metagenomics, but thought it would be good to mention again. We are really working with establishing ourselves as a thought leader within this space, and I'm sure that maybe some of you noticed that we had a webinar last week.

We had more than 300 participants sign up for the webinar and close to 200 that participated. Participants were from globally renowned institutions and companies.

The interest in metagenomics and in host cell depletion is real, and this is going to create diversification. We have an existing enzyme that can be used for new application areas.

To sum it up, we are back on a growth path, and we're coming into 2026 with momentum. With that, I'd like to hand it to Paul, who's going to talk about sales for the quarter.

Paul Blackburn

Thanks very much, and thanks for the introduction, Michael. This was a genuinely strong and encouraging quarter for ArcticZymes.

Could you go to the next slide, please, Børge? Q4 represents a clear step forwards in our growth trajectory.

It was our strongest quarter since Q1 2022, and it was the fifth-strongest quarter in the company's history. Importantly, this was also our strongest quarter outside the peak COVID years, and this underscores the quality and sustainability of the momentum that we're building.

Total revenue increased by approximately 9.6 million NOK year-on-year, representing growth of 39%. Both biomanufacturing and molecular tools delivered above their long-term quarterly averages, which we see as a very positive signal of structural progress rather than some short-term bounce.

While there were some phasing effects from larger end-of-year orders, the underlying picture is one of a broad-based, high-quality commercial execution that positions us strongly as we move into 2026. Next slide, please, Børge.

Turning to biomanufacturing, this segment continues to demonstrate steady and scalable progress. Q4 sales were approximately 15 million NOK, which is up 23% year-on-year and 17% quarter-on-quarter.

Growth was balanced across customer types, with meaningful contributions from direct CDMO engagement, pharma customers, and distributor partnerships. Product performance was broad and healthy across the whole portfolio, and SAN HQ remains the largest contributor, followed by strong momentum in M-SAN, HL-SAN, and our ELISA kits.

In fact, all our major product groups grew year-on-year. ELISA kits actually grew 84%, and M-SAN HQ grew approximately 60%, making these the fastest-growing areas within this segment.

GMP-grade sales accelerated significantly, reaching approximately 4.4 million NOK in Q4, which is up more than 100% quarter-on-quarter. This acceleration in GMP adoption is very exciting, as it reflects customers advancing deeper into regulated manufacturing workflows, and this typically translates into durable, repeat, and higher-level demand.

I will add to this GMP narrative as we look more at the full year. Next slide, please, Børge.

Turning to molecular tools, this was also a very strong quarter for this segment. Q4 sales reached approximately 19 million NOK, up 56% year-on-year and 23% quarter-on-quarter.

Growth was driven by significantly larger orders, with average order values increasing approximately 66%. Order volumes were slightly lower year-on-year, and active customer count declined modestly.

This reflects a concentration within larger strategic accounts rather than any demand weakness. Several meaningful year-end orders did support the quarter's performance, and while this does introduce some phasing dynamics, the underlying commercial engine remains healthy and diversified.

Encouragingly, the trailing 12-month trend across key growth accounts continues to move in the right direction, and this reinforces our confidence in the sustainability of our approach. Next slide, please.

What this 2025 slide shows is sustained momentum. 2025 was not a one-quarter story.

It was a year of progressive strengthening. Total revenues grew 8% year-on-year on a reported basis and 26% when adjusting for one large headwind account in molecular tools.

That tells us that the underlying engine is actually performing materially stronger than the headline numbers might suggest. Biomanufacturing delivered 23% growth for the full year, and this demonstrates that our strategic pivot towards regulated workflows and GMP-grade adoption is working.

Molecular tools was down by 5% reported, but it was actually up by 33% when we adjust for the concentration effect from our one large account. That distinction is really important, because it shows that the underlying demand across the broader portfolio is expanding.

If we step back and look at the revenue trajectory over the past four years, the direction of travel is clear. The past four quarters.

We've moved from 23 million to 26 million to 28 million, and in Q4 to 34 million in revenue. That progression reflects strengthening commercial execution, some portfolio renewal into different applications, channel expansion, and general deeper customer integration.

What excites me most, it's not just the absolute growth, it's the quality of the growth. Biomanufacturing is scaling in higher-value, more regulated applications.

Molecular tools is demonstrating resilience and diversification beyond individual customer cycles. Average order values, customer depth, and GMP adoption are all moving in the right direction.

When we talk about sustained growth, we mean structurally stronger, more diversified, and increasingly embedded revenue streams. 2025 was a year where execution translated into momentum, and that's what we're carrying forwards into 2026.

Next slide, please. Now let me turn to geography, because this slide really highlights the strength and diversification we have.

In 2025, we delivered 20% growth in the US, 17% growth in APAC, and -4% in EMEA. Starting with the US, the growth of 20% reflects strong momentum, and there are some territory nuances across molecular tools and biomanufacturing.

Importantly, the West Coast was broadly flat. Perhaps that's because we didn't have a business development manager covering that territory, which we've now rectified, as Michael suggested.

The broader US footprint continues to expand, driven by deep customer engagement and stronger life science account penetration. APAC delivered 17% growth for the year, and this reflects our expanding distributor relationships and better adoption across both portfolios.

While the scale of our business does show some phasing effects, the full-year trajectory is really positive and demonstrates strengthening regional traction. Turning to EMEA, although we reported growth at -4%, that is entirely driven by one large customer dynamic.

If we remove that single account, the underlying EMEA growth would have been approximately 39%. Now, of course, that's a really important distinction, because what it tells us is that the broader EMEA customer base is expanding strongly, and that this reported decline is focused concentration-driven rather than market-driven.

When we look at the regional mix overall, we see improving diversification. Growth in 2025 was driven primarily by molecular tools in the USA and APAC, and by biomanufacturing in EMEA.

Stepping back, excluding that one large customer, all regions grew at double-digit rates. That gives us confidence that the geographical growth profile entering '26 is structurally stronger and less concentrated than in prior years.

This is what progressive diversification looks like. Next slide, please.

For the full year, biomanufacturing delivered around 59 million NOK, representing growth of 23% over 2024. The majority of this year-on-year expansion came directly from CDMO engagement, supported by growing contributions from our distributor channels that serve similar customer groups.

M-SAN was a clear growth engine, delivering a rate of more than 100%. ELISA kits also delivered strong growth at approximately 58%, supported in part by new validations of our duo ELISA kits.

SAN HQ did decline by approximately 12%, but this is consistent with the evolution of our portfolio towards newer formats, newer applications. To expand on GMP impact, today, this is actually only coming from a few customers that are still validating our GMP versions into their processes and their pipelines.

We still have many avenues to convert customers to GMP as they grow and confirm that their pipeline is moving towards clinical phases. This is an absolute focus for the commercial team in 2026, and they shared their ambition during our recent annual commercial meeting.

They also shared that several leads should be transitioning to GMP soon. Operationally, our order volumes increased around 18%, average order value increased 11%, and active customers grew by 16%.

Taken together, this gives strong confidence that biomanufacturing growth is not only expanding, but it's doing so in a disciplined and increasingly quality-driven way. Next slide, please, Børge.

Molecular tools finished the year slightly down versus 2024, and again, this is primarily due, or only due, to a significant headwind from one large account. Excluding that headwind, the underlying performance was positive and encouraging.

Several direct life science accounts delivered strong year-on-year growth, which partially offsets this concentration risk that we've had previously. To give a few details, Cod-UNG grew approximately 31%, which reflects increasing demands from strategic accounts.

HL-dsDNase did decline. However, if we take our large account out of the picture, the underlying sales of this enzyme grew by more than 160%, and this demonstrates stronger demand from multiple customers.

R-SAP remained broadly stable year-on-year, with growth from several accounts offsetting the decline from our large customer. Overall, the core portfolio continues to demonstrate resilience, diversification, and an ability to grow beyond individual account dynamics.

Next slide, please, Børge. This slide really shows the underlying trajectory of our business using a rolling four-quarter average.

In other words, each point represents the previous four quarters divided by four. It's a smoothed or sustained performance view.

Through 2024, you can see a recalibration period as we move beyond the COVID peak and normalized our revenue levels. The rolling average gradually declined and stabilized in late 2024, reflecting that transition, and then as we entered 2025, you see an inflection, with Q1 marking the trough in the rolling average.

Q2 starts to stabilize, and by Q3 and Q4, this upward progression becomes clear. Because this is a rolling four-quarter measure, that upward slope means multiple quarters are strengthening, not just one.

In biomanufacturing, the rolling trend shows steady improvement through 2020 2025, reflecting maturing CDMO programs and accelerating GMP adoption converting into reoccurring orders. When you look at molecular tools, the rolling average also turns upward, and this is because the underlying base business is expanding again.

The key message is that project activity is converting into sustained revenue, and that momentum is now embedded across multiple quarters. This is progressive recovery that is transitioning into scalable growth.

Because it's visible in our rolling four-quarter average, it gives us greater confidence in the durability of the trend as we move into 2026. I'd like to pass over to Børge now.

Børge Sørvoll

Thank you, Paul and Michael, for the introduction and on what's been going on in this business over the last year and the activities that we have got we have done, and also the sales that we have delivered throughout the years. I will initially look at some aspects around currency and some something about the underlying growth in the business that we we have now.

As stated in previous presentations, currency impacts the business in various ways, and a strengthening of the Norwegian krone against both the USD and the euro has a negative impact on the top line for the company. On the other hand, a strengthening of the NOK against these two currencies has a positive impact on the expense side of the of the business.

Transactions on the top line influences, you could say, the profitability of the business to a much larger extent than the expense side of the business. Over the last year, or at least Q4 over Q4 from last year, the the Norwegian krone has strengthened about 10% against the USD, and it's been basically flat for the euro.

Also, if we look at now at the underlying growth of the business, where we are using a constant currency, we are we are basically using the same currency in 2025 as we did as we ended up with in 2024, our revenues would actually have been 2.2 million higher in the fourth quarter, or a change of 6%, which also would have come on top of the 39% we all have already achieved. This would have brought us to basically 45% growth in the for fourth quarter this year.

For the full year, looking doing the same calculations, our revenues would have been 2.7 million higher for the full year. We would have gone from 112.6 million NOK to 115.3 million NOK, or a change of 2% on top of the already presented growth that we have presented.

This means basically that we have a 10% growth instead of only 8% on the total revenue for the full year. Looking at the financials for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2025, as stated both by Michael and Paul, sales revenues ended up on 34.1 million, a 39% increase from the 24.5 million we delivered same time last year.

For the full year, sales ended up on 112.6 million, or an increase of 8.2 million, or 8%, from the same period last year. Of course, if we are adjusting for currency effects like I showed in the previous slide, numbers would have been even stronger.

As with previous quarters, we also had a positive contribution under other revenues, where we where we recognized almost 0.6 million in external revenues. As I alluded to in the third-quarter presentation, this number was expected to be a lot lower in the fourth quarter than we than the average 1.5 million that we've seen throughout all of 2025.

Basically, all of the the 0.6 million we recognized in the fourth quarter are related to tax grants and not the ADEPT project that we have recognized throughout the year. Summing up, revenues for the fourth quarter came in at close to 35 million, up from 26.4 million last year.

For the full year, we ended up on 118 million compared to 108 million in the same period last year. Cost of materials and change in inventory were in the low end this quarter, with 1.6 million compared to 1.5 million in the same period last year, and we ended up on 4.7 million for the full year of 2025.

Personnel expenses are slightly higher than the same period last year. We ended up on 16.6 million compared to 13.5 million in the same period last year.

This the main difference here is, of course, like both Paul and Michael talked about, we have increased our commercial organization. We have more employees, especially on the commercial side of the business, but also the fact that during the fourth quarter last year, we reversed 1.9 million in accrued bonuses for that year.

We also did a lot less capitalization in the fourth quarter this year. We only capitalized 0.2 million this quarter compared to 0.8 million last year, and this has effect a net effect of 0.6 million comparing quarters over quarter basically.

If we adjust fourth-quarter fourth-quarter numbers last year for capitalization and the bonus, personnel expenses would have been 15.9 million, just so basically just a modest increase is what we have seen this year. Other other operating expenses are reduced slightly from 8.8 million to 8.2 million in this quarter.

IT has continued to be a little bit lower due to the lower software expenses, and we have also spent less on consultants this year. As you remember, we at the end of last year, we had we delivered on the ERP project.

We went live with our new ERP solution, and this had a we had a 1.5 million in consultancy expense at the fourth quarter last year, and this expense is, of course, no longer part of the expenses we have this year. There are, of course, other areas where we actually have spent a little bit more money than we did last year.

Our marketing efforts is, of course, also higher, and this is also part of the things we have talked about earlier. We are investing more into marketing activities, and this to drive the top-line growth of the business.

I think for those of you that are following us on LinkedIn and other social media platforms, you can see there's a lot more content that has come out of this company than you have seen in previous years, which is also part of the commercial drive that we're doing this year. Given the sales then and the expenses that I talked about in the previous slide, our EBITDA ended up on 8.3 million compared to the 2.5 million that we had in the same period last year.

For the full year, we ended up on 12 million, or close more than a doubling of what delivered delivered last year. Also looking at the graph on the right on the left-hand side here, you can also see that our margin has significantly improved throughout the year.

We ended up on 24% now, which is kind of a lot better than what we've seen over the last few years. Given the strengthened profitability and our sales throughout the year, we will this also impacts our cash changes in cash and our cash position.

For the fourth quarter, we had a change in cash of 5.5 million in positive cash, but we also had a a positive cash contribution from investments in in in in low-risk interest rate funds. For the full year, we had a positive cash change of 20.8 million, which is a significant uplift from 2024 when we had -6 million for the full year.

Basically, we have improved our cash changes in cash by 27 million. We had a balance at the end of the year with close to 265 million NOK here.

With that positive cash position, I will also hand it over to Michael now, who will tell us a little bit more about the outlook and the upcoming Capital Markets Day that we're planning for in just a month's time.

Michael B. Akoh

Thanks a lot, Børge and Paul, for giving an insight into how the business performed during the past year. I'm going to end with an outlook update as well as a bit more information on our Capital Markets Day that's coming up in early March.

In terms of outlook, as I've stated before, we enter 2026 with momentum and a strengthened platform that is scalable. If you look at where the growth is going to come from during 2026, then within biomanufacturing, we expect that we're going to continue to see growth from our GMP-grade nucleases.

We're able to get into more processes, we're able to be used broader, also for clinical phases, as well as curation. We've seen a really nice traction from our GMP launches, as Paul has already alluded to.

Another important growth vehicle within biomanufacturing is the integration in CDMO platforms. We've already been implemented into CDMOs platforms, and in one partnership with one CDMO, we're seeing significantly strong growth, which we expect to continue for 2026.

Brenntag, we also have an ambition to grow sales through this channel. It is going to be towards the end of the year before we're going to see a meaningful revenue contribution from the partnership with Brenntag.

Apart from that, we currently have our channel manager traveling around in Asia, establishing closer links to our distributors in that area. We also expect significant growth in rest of the world where we serve the markets through distributors.

Molecular tools, it's of course very much about sustaining momentum with some of the key partners that we have, but also about broadening the customer base. We're confident that we during 2026 can increase the business with some of the key partners that we have.

Then a very exciting area that we're going to talk a lot about going forward, that is the metagenomics space, where M-SAN is currently being adopted in various protocols, mainly in Europe at the moment, but there's also increasing interest from the US. We're going to continue to work with key opinion leaders and also other partners to ensure that metagenomics becomes part of more clinical laboratories.

In regards to the strategic focus ahead, then I think that it's clear for us that the current portfolio has a lot of growth potential. The M-SAN in metagenomics is clear, but we're also seeing that some of our molecular tools enzymes can also be applied for RNA-based workflows.

Currently, we're working with a number of beta customers to explore that business potential, and we aim for launching a full IVT workflow within RNA in the next couple of years, which is going to consist of some of the existing enzymes that we already have in place as well. The first more dedicated enzyme that we're going to launch within this space is going to be our restriction enzyme, ETN1, and the ambition is to launch it late this year.

Then it's clear that we've built a really strong commercial engine during the past 18 months. The focus is going to turn more towards building a strong innovation engine, and that innovation engine is going to both consist of internal components as well as external components.

We are exploring different possibilities, both for in-licensing as well as more value-creative M&A possibilities. The ambition long-term is to create sustainable double-digit growth, and we're going to get more into that financial ambition during our upcoming Capital Markets Day that I'm going to talk a bit more about now.

Next slide. We're going to host a Capital Markets Day.

It's going to be March 6th in the morning, that's a Friday, and we're going to start off with coffee at 8:30, and then the program is going to kick off at 9:00 AM and it's going to last until noon. It's going to be held at Nordea's facilities in Smålandsgatan 17 in Stockholm.

I hope as many as possible would be able to join in Stockholm, but if you're not able to travel to Stockholm on March 6th, then you're also of course very welcome to join virtually, and we're of course also going to make it available on demand. The main theme of the Capital Markets Day, that is from transformation to scalable growth.

We're going to deep-dive into our growth strategy, which is a focused strategy that is built on customer-centricity, innovation, diversification, and also operational scalability. We're also going to focus on the markets where we operate, and we're going to focus on how we're going to win in these markets across both advanced therapies and molecular tools.

The most important part of the Capital Markets Day, that's of course the customer side, and we're really looking forward for this session. We're going to dive into how customer insight, improved segmentation, and engagement can translate to durable revenue growth.

We've invited two customers to present as well. On metagenomics, we're going to have a presentation by Professor Rafi Ahmad from University of Inland Norway in Norway.

On the viral vector side, we're really pleased also to welcome Senior Director Lee Davies from OXB. OXB, they have implemented M-SAN on one of their platforms, and Lee is going to be talking about why they decided to implement M-SAN on their platform, and he's also going to speak to what impact this has had for their platform.

Really looking forward for both Rafi and Lee and their talks on March the 6th. Finally, we're going to end up by talking about the ambitions, both from a strategic point of view as well as a financial point of view.

What is important to understand also in regards to our ability to provide guidance is that we're still scaling the company, and at the current scale, a few big orders in one quarter makes a rather big difference. Our goal throughout 2026 is to work with improving our visibility, our forecasting.

We've come far, but we still need to become even more confident on our visibility to give really clear financial targets and guidance. It's clear we are a growth company, that's why we're all here, and our ambition is to grow the business double-digit over the next years.

Hope you're going to be able to join either in Stockholm or virtually. I think it's going to be worth your time.

With that, please turn to next slide. I'd like to end here, and thank all stakeholders for 2025, especially thank you to ArcticZymes employees.

Thank you for your dedication, and thank you for executing during 2025, and also thank you to partners and all investors that have supported us throughout the year. With that, I would like to see if we have any questions that we can answer.

Børge Sørvoll

I think we haven't received that many, but I think the question we have right now, Michael, is someone is wondering about how our sales are tracking now into the first quarter of 2026, or can you say anything more about that?

Michael B. Akoh

I think that's a question for Paul. We're halfway through the quarter, what is your initial impression?

I know in general things are progressing according to plan.

Paul Blackburn

I think that's fair to say. It's a solid start to the year.

However, as Michael mentioned, the scale of our business means that it's highly dependent on a few customers or orders being placed, and kind of the good news as we've gone through our commercial transformation is we're starting to get more control, well, more understanding and some control on those orders. I'd also like to take the opportunity to highlight or to remind you that a lot of our business is project-based, and that can also cause some fluctuations in some parts of the portfolio.

I would say that we've had a good start to the year, but I'd like to caveat that with the fact that we've got work to do. Thank you.

Michael B. Akoh

Yeah. Thank you for that answer.

Also I think just one comment from my side on how the business or the revenue development can be looked upon is that our expectation is year-on-year growth, not necessarily quarter-on-quarter growth. We saw quarter-on-quarter growth throughout 2025, but what we're expecting for 2026, that is to grow the business on an annual basis, but the quarters might fluctuate.

Paul Blackburn

Yeah.

Børge Sørvoll

We've received a few more questions here. "Very impressive sales on the molecular tools side in the fourth quarter.

Were there any one-off orders in the quarter, or would you say it was kind of a broad-based growth?"

Paul Blackburn

I would be happy to take that one. There were, I would say, a handful of orders there that contributed to the growth.

What's very satisfying is, frankly, the reliance on our one large customer is decreasing. The orders that we took for molecular tools were between sort of biology kit providers and OEM sales, sort of resellers of our enzymes in the US.

There is diversity there. I think what's very satisfying is that the molecular tools enzymes, they've been with us for a relatively long time, but their relevance in new applications is doing remarkably well at the moment.

These enzymes still have a place in modern molecular biology, and that's what we're seeing.

Børge Sørvoll

Okay. One follow-up question regarding the large customer you are talking about.

Is the level that we've seen in the second half this year, is that kind of what we should expect moving into 2026 from this customer as well?

Michael B. Akoh

I think we should look at it on an annual basis, right, Paul? I think that as I mentioned, the annual sales to the key customer in '25, we expect to be able to grow business with them in 2026.

We're confident that we're able to do that.

Paul Blackburn

Absolutely. We're in several different lines of discussion with that one large customer at the moment.

One of them is clearly securing 2026 business, but there's also other opportunities, potential opportunities, that we're exploring with them. There's multiple threads to those discussions.

Børge Sørvoll

Okay. A little bit about the China region, given that there's a biotech boom in China now.

Are you seeing any progress there?

Paul Blackburn

Again, I can take that one if that's okay. Yes, we've just placed a dedicated channel sales manager whose primary focus is to take care of Asia.

We are seeing progress. I think it's fair to say it's a challenging market, of course, from a price and copycat perspective.

We do have some traction with our salt-active nucleases. There's a lot more potential growth opportunity, hence the investment in a dedicated person.

We've got to in 2026 seize that opportunity more to take advantage. It's clearly not an easy market, it's going to take a dedicated focus there.

Børge Sørvoll

Okay. Also in regards to new technologies, are you trying to implement AI into more parts of your organization, and do you see any benefits of it today?

Michael B. Akoh

We have worked with AI throughout the year on multiple levels, but I think the area where we've explored AI the furthest is in the innovation part of the business. Here we see traction in regards to the discovery process, enabling us to turn out more new interesting enzyme candidates.

I think it's safe to say that we're going to invest more within this area going forward. That was a brief comment on our AI initiatives.

Børge Sørvoll

Okay. Regarding kind of innovation, new products now, can you say anything, address something about the pipeline development within RNA or some other areas?

Michael B. Akoh

Yeah. I would actually like to save that question for our Capital Markets Day, because there we're going to have a dedicated presentation on the future portfolio.

We have a clear plan, a clear RNA strategy, and the exciting part is what we're seeing currently is that some of our existing enzymes can most likely, the proof is in the pudding, but we're seeing interesting data from some of the partners we're working with currently that they can be with success applied in IVT RNA workflows. That's diversification, use of existing enzymes for new applications, a lot better than having to develop a completely new enzyme, which we're also going to do, but it's going to be a combination to build the RNA portfolio.

As mentioned, please tune in for our Capital Markets Day. There you're going to get a lot more information on our future portfolio.

Børge Sørvoll

Kind of the final question we have here is on you talked about nine CDMOs at the Q3 presentation. Can you give any update on this?

Paul Blackburn

I think the statement we made is that we're involved with nine out of the 10 top CDMOs. I can now make that 10 out of 10 of the top CDMOs.

I think one thing that's happened recently, frankly with the unfortunate deaths in some of the trials that have happened is that companies are reassessing and perhaps bringing a little more rigor to the way that they might [have?] gone back to the drawing board.

That's given us an opportunity to get ourselves involved in some more evaluations. Nothing has materially changed.

I would say that our involvement in more projects within those as got better.

Børge Sørvoll

I think that was the last question we had, and with that, I think we will say thank you for everyone listening in and sending in questions, and we wish everyone a great day. Have a good day.

Bye.