Numinus Wellness Inc. (OTCQX:NUMIF) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call January 16, 2022 5:30 PM ET
Company Participants
Jamie Kokoska – Vice President of Investor Relations
Payton Nyquvest – Founder and Chief Executive Officer
John Fong – Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Michael Okunewitch – Maxim Group
Robert Sassoon – Water Tower Research
Operator
Good afternoon, and welcome to Numinus Wellness, Inc’s. Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. A question-and-answer session for analysts and institutional investors will follow the formal remarks. As a reminder, this call is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference call over to your host, Jamie Kokoska, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please proceed.
Jamie Kokoska
Thank you, Emma. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our fiscal first quarter 2023 results conference call. Discussing Numinus’ performance today are Payton Nyquvest, Founder and CEO; and John Fong, Chief Financial Officer. Joining them for analyst questions at the end of our formal remarks are Reid Robison, Chief Clinical Officer; and Paul Thielking, Chief Science Officer.
The following discussion may include forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual financial and operating results to differ significantly from our forward-looking statements are detailed in our MD&A for the quarter year ended November 30, 2022, and in our other Canadian securities filings available on SEDAR.
Numinus does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law. Our first quarter results were made available earlier this afternoon. We encourage you to review our earnings release, MD&A and financial statements, which are available on our website, as well as on SEDAR. As a reminder, all figures discussed on today’s call are in Canadian dollars.
I’ll now turn the call over to Payton Nyquvest, Chief Executive Officer.
Payton Nyquvest
Thanks, Jamie, and good afternoon, everyone. I’d like to start by extending the utmost gratitude that our work is conducted on the unseated homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people and on sovereign indigenous lands and territories across Turtle Islands. At Numinus we are committed to a path towards reconciliation through continuous learning, reciprocity and humility.
Our strong fiscal first quarter performance demonstrates the success we’re seeing from our efforts to drive revenue and margin growth throughout our larger cross-border platform. We’re very pleased with the momentum that is building across all aspects of our business and the trajectory we’re on. To make Numinus the first publicly traded psychedelics focused company to achieve profitability, which we believe is likely to occur in the next 18 months to 24 months.
Overall, revenue for the quarter grew 35.7%, compared to prior quarter gross margin 41.9%, compared to 31.5% last quarter and gross profit grew 80% to CAD2.4 million during the first quarter. Much of this was achieved as a result of the strong highest appointment growth we saw during the last several months. In fact, nearly 19,800 appointments were completed during the quarter, a 13.7% increase, compared to our prior quarter with nearly 10% of all appointments being made by new clients, something that underscores the strong demand that exists for our services and the success we’re having — building our brand awareness.
In our most recent quarter, our wellness clinic network generated 88% of our total revenue and generated an average gross margin of 37.9%. The mix of our client appointments during the quarter continues to demonstrate the effectiveness of offering an assortment of mental health services rather than just focusing on one type of treatment. By offering a wide range of mental health and wellness services, we’re able to provide our clients with the best possible outcomes based on their unique situations and treatment needs. Approximately 24% of all appointments during the first quarter were Ketamine-assisted therapy related just over 9% of the appointments were for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and the majority of all other appointments continues to be for talk therapy and wellness services delivered in-person and virtually, which are often a gateway for clients to explore other mental wellness treatments.
We also understand that key to meeting the incredible demand for mental health services is finding enough qualified and dedicated petitioners to conduct this important work. As a result, recruiting therapists and medical professionals has been a key focus of ours over the last several months. And I’m pleased to say that, that as of the end of November Numinus had 138 practitioners across our 12 wellness clinics, a 13% increase, compared to the end of last quarter.
Even more, the first several weeks of Q2, we have welcomed 17 additional practitioners, bringing our total practitioner account to [155] (ph) [Technical Difficulty].
Operator
My apologies, please stand by as we correct this technical issue.
Payton Nyquvest
We firmly believe that recruiting and training practitioners is one of the most important factors in achieving our growth. As having a full roster of practitioners is directly linked to the number of appointments we can offer. Even more so, than the number of clinics we operate. In fact, we’re confident that we can reach profitability through our existing network of clinics once we’re able to operate these locations at full capacity with full scheduled practitioners to reach clients.
Operating as efficiently as possible remains a core component of our strategy to reach profitability as quickly as possible, we’re continuing to identify and act on opportunities that consolidate supplier and agency contracts due to leasehold expenses and decreased cash outflows, while we’re still retaining our client focus and growth ambitions.
During the first quarter, we successfully reduced G&A expenses 8.5% from the prior quarter mostly through supplier negotiations and rationalization, reduced office expenses, renegotiated insurance contracts and other operational efficiencies in all areas of our business. We’re also continuing to look at how we allocate — how we are allocating our clinic space and infrastructure to ensure we’re best utilizing our clinic capacity as we grow our client base. This may include expanding our clinical trial management services into additional existing facilities where unused clinical infrastructure exists. Until wellness clinic demand requires full use of the clinical space.
In fact, Cedar Clinical Site Research or CCR, our CRO service division continues to perform remarkably well. CCR manages clinical trial sites for a variety of third-party life science companies, including many well known psychedelic and traditional drug development organizations. CCR uniquely positions Numinus well for a variety of regulatory and drug approval tracks, as our clinical teams are trained and experienced in the specific protocols used during the clinical trial process of many third-party psychedelic drugs currently being researched.
Should any of these drugs reach FDA approval? These companies are likely to need clinical infrastructure to provide those — their protocols through, which Numinus may be exceptionally well positioned to provide. In total, the CCR team managed clinical trial sites for 14 clinical trials during the first quarter with a total of 191 clinical trial participants. These services generated CAD680,000 of revenue during the quarter and an impressive 70.9% gross margin, firmly establishing CCR’s clinical trial management as our highest margin activity.
To further establish Numinus as a key provider of psychedelic assisted therapy training, during this quarter, we were pleased to submit a clinical trial application to Health Canada to conduct experiential psilocybin-assisted therapy training research. This new experiential training study will enable practitioners training to provide psilocybin-assisted therapy, the ability to experience and observe psilocybin session and further their understanding of the treatment. This is one of the first training programs with experiential option and something that further differentiates our broader practitioner training program from others offered. We are initially launching this program at our clinic in Vancouver, but we expect to expand it to other locations across Canada in the future.
Just as important, the dosing used for this experiential training clinical trial will use our new EnfiniTea psilocybin tea product. This means that the trial will also measure the safety of using whole psilocybin mushrooms as therapeutic appropriate doses, something that has surprisingly not yet been conducted in a clinical trial setting to-date. We believe this data should facilitate further access to psilocybin-assisted therapy by Health Canada, and we’re pleased to assist in driving that forward.
During the first quarter, we also completed all treatments of Canadian participants in the mass USX study known as a multi site open label crossover study of the Phase III MDMA assisted-psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder clinical trial at our study sites in [indiscernible] in Vancouver and Quebec. The study sponsored by MAPS and the MAPS Public Benefit Corp, but managed by Numinus treated clients with MD&A for treatment resistant PTSD. The study has been a focus of our Canadian research team this last year and we’re very proud to have successfully treated all participants and seen this collaboration with MAPS through the completion. We continue to explore ways to collaborate with sector participants including MAPS to grow access to these important therapies.
With that update, on our strategy and operations, I’ll turn the call over to John to review our fiscal first quarter financial results in more detail. John?
John Fong
Thanks, Payton, and good afternoon, everybody. Our first quarter — our fiscal first quarter highlighted our ability to drive margin improvement as our clinical activity grows within our existing infrastructure. Total revenues for the quarter were CAD5.7 million, a 618% increase from revenue generated in the same quarter last year and a 37.5% increase from the prior quarter.
Revenues from our Wellness Clinic network comprised 88% of total revenue during the first quarter, in line with last quarter, indicating all revenue generating division of our businesses are growing. U.S. Operations comprised 86% of total revenue for the quarter, highlighting the important contribution from the acquisition of Novamind, which we completed in 2022. Overall, Wellness Clinic revenues for the quarter were approximately CAD5 million, a 35.3% increase, compared to just last quarter, eue entirely to the 14% growth in clinic — in client appointments.
Our U.S.-based CRO business, CCR generated 682,000 of revenue, up 38.8% from last quarter and continues to show great opportunities for growth. Our gross margins continue to benefit from economies of scale and our ongoing efforts to enhance the operating efficiency of our business. Fourth quarter gross margins were 41.9%, a vast improvement from 31.5% just last quarter and a significant increase, compared to 24.4% in the quarter before acquisition of Novamind.
Gross profit grew to CAD2.4 million, an 80% increase, compared to CAD1.3 million in the prior quarter. Gross margin improved partially, due to our ongoing costs and payment and operational improvement initiatives. As Payton discussed earlier, much of this is reflected in the 8.5% reduction in G&A expenses brought to the last quarter. More specifically, we’ve captured significant cost savings through lower office expenses and insurance costs and reduced various other costs containing to non-revenue producing departments.
Total net cash outflow during the quarter was CAD6.6 million. Comprehensive loss for the first quarter was CAD6.1 million or CAD0.02 per share. In terms of liquidity, we ended the quarter with CAD26.4 million of cash on hand. With growing revenue streams and margins offsetting some of our expenses, we continue to believe we are well positioned financially to sustain our business model, pursue our long-term strategy and achieve operating profitability.
And with that overview of our financial results, I’ll turn the call back over to Payton for some closing remarks. Payton?
Payton Nyquvest
Thanks, John. We are continuing to see regulatory reform take shape across many parts of North America, setting new benchmarks for the future of psychedelic-assisted therapies. In the last several weeks, both Oregon and Alberta outline their final regulatory frameworks, which we’re sure will provide great examples and lessons for other states and provinces as legislation continues to evolve. And we’re seeing great progress across several psychedelic drug and therapy clinical trials.
As many of you may have read MAPS recently completed their Phase III trial with very positive results, and anticipates publishing their final study data and making their new drug application to the FDA later this year. We expect MDMA assisted therapy will be the first to get approval at a federal level in the United States. Thanks to the important work MAPS has done. Estimates of these treatments will be available in the beginning in early 2024.
Importantly, with federal FDA approval, we expect MDMA assisted therapy will be covered by many if not all U.S. Insurance providers for approved cases. Numinus has steadfastly focused on acquiring and building clinics that can meet the needs of psychedelic-assisted therapy protocols we expect to be approved in the future. This includes ensuring our clinics have therapy rooms large enough to comfortably hold a patient and two therapists, appropriate soundproofing and patient access to private bathrooms. Not all wellness clinic companies currently offering ketamine-assisted therapy have taken the same strategy and we’re confident that Numinus is the best positioned clinic network to offer MDMA or psilocybin-assisted therapies as soon as they’re approved.
Our unique clinical infrastructure, market leading practitioner training programs and familiarity with many psychedelic therapy protocols currently being studied at CCR clinical trial sites have positioned us exceptionally well to launch psychedelic-assisted therapy services as soon as the regulatory landscape allows. Our strategy and focus remains on achieving profitability as quickly as we can. Doing so ensures our work will reach as many people in need as possible with a sustainable model, while rewarding our shareholders for their trust and commitment.
We are reallocating capital towards only projects that grow our client base and revenue continuing to evaluate wave to reduce costs wherever possible and executing a strategy that is both fiscally responsible and aligned with where the industry is going, not just where it stands today. In recent investor conversations, I’m pleased to say our unique sector positioning is already being recognized and I hope to continue growing that understanding.
We have a well recognized internal practitioner training program, which drives practitioner interest and helps develop a pipeline we can recruit therapists and medical professionals from. Our clinics have the infrastructure needed to provide MDMA and psilocybin-assisted therapy protocols most likely to get approval in the future. We have long established relationships with Max and psychedelic drug development companies through our clinical research site management business, and our fiscally responsible approach to growth and directing growth through existing clinical capacity is driving sector leading gross margins.
In fact, we expect Numinus will be the first publicly traded psychedelic focused company to reach profitability. With a defined pathway to get there most likely in 2024, this is something I think we ought to be very proud of.
And with that, I’d like to open the call to questions from analysts and institutional investors. Operator?
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Your first question today comes from the line of Michael Okunewitch with Maxim. Your line is now open.
Michael Okunewitch
Hey there. Thank you for taking my questions and congratulations on the fantastic quarter. So I guess to kick off, I’d like to see if you could help quantify where that revenue growth came from, because it was pretty strong growth over the quarter. Was this mostly coming from the more mature clinics based in the U.S.? Are we seeing growth across some of the clinics that are earlier in their trajectory?
Payton Nyquvest
Yes, the growth was really across, kind of, across the board, compared to last quarter Canada appointments grew about 26%, but off of a lower base. U.S. Appointments grew by 11%, but off a much larger number. So continue to see growth across the platform.
Michael Okunewitch
All right. Thank you for that. And then on — as a follow-up, I’d like to just given the MAPS update that you mentioned earlier in the call, could you help understand how an approval in PTSD or MDMA could potentially impact the landscape for the delivery clinic model? Would you expect this going to increase volume and you expect pent up demand? Would there be an impact to margins and top line given the massive economic benefit we’ve seen from the initial analyses? Could you just provide a bit more color on that?
Payton Nyquvest
Yes. Obviously, I think all of the above from a demand standpoint, in particular, with PTSD, I think the demand is extremely significant and continuing to grow. MAPS has done an exceptional job of really being the steward and leader of this resurgence in psychedelic research. And obviously, the results that they’ve had from their clinical trials continue to be extremely impressive. I think with that and because this will be going to the FDA clinical trial process, the opportunity for insurance reimbursement only drives to more and more interest and accessibility. And I think with that also, with the clinical infrastructure that we built and really continuing to stay extremely focused on where we think the psychedelic therapy market is going.
We’ve always really ensure that our clinical infrastructure is set up to be able to hold MDMA assisted psychotherapy, which as I mentioned on the call, is quite a bit more rigorous and requires a particular, kind of, infrastructure that you don’t see more broadly within the mental health space. So we think this is a huge opportunity for us to greatly impact the lives in a positive way of our client. And I think we’ll see that in regards to revenue and higher margin as well.
Michael Okunewitch
All right. Thank you for that and then just one more for me and I’ll hop back in the queue. So you identified a target for profitability of around 18 months to 24 months. So could you provide us a bit more color on what steps you’re taking and what you would need to achieve in order to reach that milestone?
Payton Nyquvest
Yes, over the last couple of quarters, burn rate has been a little bit higher as we’ve been integrating the Novamind transaction since closing that transaction and I think really highlighted by these financials. There’s a lot of room to grow within the existing clinical infrastructure that we’ve got. And now that integration is going well and we’re continuing to see growth. It’s really just driving inefficiencies. And we believe that with the full roster of practitioners, we’ll see profitability. And so the main focus is now around practitioner recruitment and just filling the capacity that we’ve got and as we get prepared for some of these other psychedelic products that we anticipate coming online early next year.
And also with that, just continuing to look at ways obviously leveraging the CCR business as well, which continues to go exceptionally well, not only from a margin standpoint, but preparing us for when those other psychedelic drugs are approved as well. So we’re really — the service provider of choice for a number of those companies, which also helps our practitioner recruitment strategy as well.
Michael Okunewitch
All right. I really appreciate your insight and thanks for taking my questions.
Payton Nyquvest
Thanks, Michael.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Robert Sassoon with Water Tower Research. Your line is now open.
Robert Sassoon
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for taking my questions. First question, how did your Canadian wellness, I think network platform actually do on a same-store basis in terms of growth?
Payton Nyquvest
Yes. So from just mentioned before from a growth standpoint, Canadian clinics performed well overall on a same-store basis revenue grew about 21% on the Canadian side. So very pleased to see the Canadian clinics growing, as well as the United States [indiscernible].
Robert Sassoon
And what about the U.S.? Do you have a sort of a same-store figure for that too?
Payton Nyquvest
John, do you have? [indiscernible]
John Fong
Yes, so our U.S. affluence grew about 11%, but on a much larger basis and then earlier.
Robert Sassoon
Okay, thank you. Any plans on the clinical research side, any plans to grow Cedar Clinical research into other regions or location?
Payton Nyquvest
Yes, absolutely. Within the existing sites that we’ve, but also we see capacity within our clinical infrastructure to leverage more of the space that we’ve got into other locations as well, so definitely a focus of ours over the next little bit and especially again with more and more psychedelic companies moving into later stage clinical trials gives us an opportunity to also engage with those companies, who ultimately will have products that will need to flow through a clinical infrastructure and we continue to position ourselves as that service provider of choice for those different drug development companies.
Robert Sassoon
Right, right. And one more question for me. In terms of the cash burn, it seems like the cash burn in the first quarter was similar to that in the previous quarter. What is the profile going to be looking like in the coming few quarters now? Is that sort of going to remain stable? Or is it going to stop trending down?
Payton Nyquvest
Yes, we definitely anticipate that number to continue to trend down. This quarter in particular was really about learning — doing more learning and growing the revenue and profitability side and margin side of the business. But with that, we definitely have identified places where we can continue to reduce the burn rate and while also being able to grow the business at the same time.
Robert Sassoon
Very good. Thank you very much.
Operator
There are no further questions at this time. I turn the call back over to you, Payton.
Payton Nyquvest
Thanks, operator, and thank you everybody for joining us for our conference call today. I look forward to speaking with you in April when we’ll report our fiscal second quarter 2023 results.
Operator
Thank you for attending today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.
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