Qiagen at TD Cowen Conference: Strategic Growth Plans Unveiled

On Wednesday, 05 March 2025, Qiagen NV (NYSE: QGEN) presented its strategic outlook at the TD Cowen 45th Annual Healthcare Conference. CEO Terry Bernard outlined the company’s ambitions for 2025, emphasizing growth targets and operational efficiency while addressing potential challenges such as trade issues and NIH budget constraints. Despite strong financial performance, the company acknowledged the need for better communication to enhance stock performance.

Key Takeaways

• Qiagen aims for 5% growth in 2025, excluding NeuMoDx, with a focus on M&A.
• Operating margin target is over 30%, with potential for upside.
• QuantiFERON and Digital PCR are key growth drivers, aiming for significant revenue by 2028.
• The company plans to improve communication to boost stock performance.

Financial Results

• Growth Guidance: 5% growth for 2025, excluding NeuMoDx.
• Operating Margin: Targeting over 30%, with potential upside.
• EPS Growth: 9% EPS growth, considering forex impacts.
• Product Revenue Goals: QuantiFERON aiming for $600 million by 2028; Digital PCR targeting $250 million by 2028.

Operational Updates

• M&A Strategy: Focus on bolt-on acquisitions in life sciences, bioinformatics, and clinical diagnostics, targeting companies with $20-35 million in revenue.
• Product Development: QuantiFERON to grow by converting skin test users; QIAstat-Dx aims for mid-teens growth, focusing on the US market; Digital PCR expansion with multiple instrument options.
• Technology Upgrades: New automation systems being rolled out, with full launches planned for 2026.

Future Outlook

• Qiagen is committed to disciplined execution and shareholder value creation.
• The company plans to capitalize on market opportunities in diagnostics, life sciences, and bioinformatics.
• There is a focus on M&A deals that bring $20-35 million in revenue, with accretive growth within two years.

Q&A Highlights

• M&A Strategy: Emphasized accretive growth and synergistic acquisitions.
• Stock Performance: Acknowledged the need for improved communication and execution.
• QuantiFERON Development: Addressed concerns, emphasizing focus on development and commercialization.
• Capital Allocation: Prioritizes M&A but open to share buybacks if necessary.

In conclusion, Qiagen’s comprehensive strategy aims to strengthen its market position and deliver consistent growth. For more details, readers are encouraged to refer to the full transcript.

Full transcript - TD Cowen 45th Annual Healthcare Conference:

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: Did you get some comments after the dinner yesterday or I think

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: we’re live. Not yet. Greetings. Day three of the TD Cowen Global Healthcare Conference afternoon session. I’m Dan Brennan following Tools and Diagnostics.

Really pleased to be joined with me on stage here, Terry Bernard, CEO of QIAGEN. So, Terry, thank you very much

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: for being here. Thank you for having us. Terrific. Yeah.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: I thought I’d start out with some higher level questions, you know, if you don’t mind. Yeah. Maybe you can just kind of level set us, you know, as you exited 4Q in 2024 and we enter 2025. Maybe just talk about some of your priorities and kind of how you think about the outlook for 2025.

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: So as usual, I would, I would say the first priority is to execute on the guidance. We gave a guidance at 5% growth for 25% excluding NeuMoDx, which is one of the top growth guidance in the market for this year. It’s made as usual of different components that are our priorities around QuantiFERON, Kyastha, digital PCR, sample technologies and also bioinformatics. So that’s first priority here. Second is accelerating on M and A.

We have had an active allocation of capital over the last two years in share buyback. Share buyback are a good proof that we are confident in our company, but we want to double down this year in M and A. On M and A, we have the balances to do that. I mean, we are looking primarily at interesting bolt on opportunities. So I would like to close at least one or two opportunities in this regard during the year.

And obviously, last but not least, because we do live in a volatile environment is to continue in our program of extremely tight operational efficiency, what we call KA efficiency to make sure that we constantly adjust the P and L to the reality of our environment. So as you have seen, we are basically targeting to be over 30% operating margin. If we can beat that, we will not hesitate to do that. So long story short, we finished ’24 as you said Dan strong. We are strong in the beginning of Q1 and my ambition would be not only to execute on the guidance, but if we can obviously update the numbers both on the EPS side on the top line as soon as we can and as soon as we have obviously the numbers behind us.

Terrific.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: That’s a great start. Just level setting on some of the more macro things happening with all of the policy initiatives, we’d love to get your latest thinking here on NH. I’m sure you’ve gotten the question five times today or 10, but it’s a small part of your business, right, 3% to 4% government exposure. I mean, you can correct me on that if we’re off. But just maybe reflect upon kind of how you thought about that smaller end market in 2025 and in the first quarter, given the uncertainty that’s been introduced by the administration and any comment on

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: kind of how things are going? So first of all, entering 2025, we never had any illusion on NIH budget because in our assumption, we put it at 0% for this year, 0% growth and we did that last year as well and we proved to be true. Second, there are still a lot of rumors. We try to keep a cool head and look at facts. And so there are different ways to take your question.

And first of all, if I look at year to date, our numbers are not showing any impact on the NIH and affiliated account directly. Where we see still is a kind of volatility in the academia field. Not surprising, it’s normal. There are uncertainties. It’s not specific to Kogen.

I think it’s market wide. Now your numbers are 3% to 5%, three % to 4% is a correct one, but we need to go to more a bit more detail. Inside that numbers, if I look at what is directly sales to NIH and what we call affiliates accounts, it’s much lower than that, much lower than that by a significant magnitude. And then you’ve got the sales to Academia, as I said before. And true, we need to think part of those sales to Academia are generated by a grant from the NIH.

But where do you put the threshold? Do you put a 20% of those sales, 50%, sixty %, it depends. In addition to that, some of those research on the academia side are pre renewal development. They already started. They are not going to be stopped.

Last but not least, most of our sales to these sectors are consumables. I mean, it respects the traditional split of activities of Calogen, which is 90% consumables, 10% instrument. And in addition, we said they are mainly sample tech, which is a fundamental step if you want to do your research. So cutting there, it’s not that easy. What do I mean here?

Are we completely immune to that? No. Do we see some volatility on the academia? Yes. Do we see overall NIH and Academia year to date impacted at Cargent?

No. Do I believe that 4% or 5% that I read sometime in some analysis as grossly exaggerated? Yes.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: Okay. That sounds good. How about tariffs in terms of Mexico, Canada, China? I mean, most of the companies have quantified, most of them seem reasonably okay. And then we don’t know what’s going to happen in Europe.

So that’s a moving target. But net net, just how would you characterize it? I know you spoke about this, but it’s always good just to level set these two questions upfront and then we’ll move forward on the

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: good stuff for QIAGEN. So we obviously monitor this very closely. Mexico, Canada, no impact for QIAGEN. China, no impact for QIAGEN or quite no impact. Why?

Because first of all, China is rather a small percentage of our revenues, but also because we have no product manufacturers in China for the rest of the world. It’s all China for China. So where we focus the most is obviously is the bilateral relation between Europe and The U. S. And so far, we believe it’s under control.

We don’t know if there will be exemptions or not. It seems that the administration this time says no exemption. But as you probably know, I’m also chairing the AdvaMed Diagnostic, which is the industry association in The U. S. We are very active to convince the administration and also members of Congress that really we are such a small part of The U.

S. Deficit that’s probably there are rationales for exemptions. So let’s see, we are prepared. It could go it could be also a fantastic incentive for us to constantly challenge the way we are organized, you see, tax wise and try to optimize it even better.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: Okay. Maybe jumping in to M and A, I was going to go through the business, but I’d like to start there since you brought it up as a second kind of guideline or it’s in the priority this year. You haven’t been active in M and A recently since you’ve gotten there. You’ve really focused on driving the core business, driving margin, driving cash flow, which we’ll continue to do. But M and A will be a new kind of additive feature.

Not that you haven’t done stuff, I’m sure, but it seems like it’s more of a priority. So just speak a little bit towards what what is a bolt on? Like what’s the size proven around that? And what are the kind of features of a deal that you would like to underwrite? Maybe gross margin, operating margin, profitable, not growth?

Just kind of walk through some of the metrics that would make for an attractive deal.

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: So first of all, I don’t want to sound defensive, but it’s not that I focus more on organic. It’s just that I’m looking at M and A and I did a lot since I joined QIAGEN and even under this tenure of our CEO. But I’m not obsessed more by M and A, it’s just we do M and A when it makes sense for the company and when it makes sense for you guys when it creates value for the company in Finney. So what I can tell you is that first of all, we have a significant firepower. Clearly, you look at our balance sheet, you look at our leverage, basically we can act very quickly and significantly.

Second, we have an extremely rich pipelines And this is covering life science, bioinformatics, clinical diagnostic of many different sizes. It can start at only a couple of million dollars revenues to, let’s say, on average, $30,000,000 40 million dollars 50 million dollars revenues. Obviously, naturally, I’m pushing our business team, I’m sorry, to focus a bit more on the latter side. You see on the 25,000,000, 30 million, 30 5 million. Why?

Because at the end in M and A, regardless of the size of your target, it’s the same kind of work from a duty decision standpoint. It’s the same kind of work from a post merger integration, but you need to try to move the needle a bit. And so I would prefer to focus where we could get an interesting growing 20,000,000, 30 million revenue. So that’s the target. Now in addition to that, I have also some key criteria, which shouldn’t be new for you.

First, it has to be synergistic with what we are doing. There’s no way we are going to spread Caiogen FIND now that for the last five years, we try to streamline our portfolio activities with M and A. Why do I say that? It’s not just for the sake of synergies is that the objective of M and A for me is to take more share of wallets in a given customers that we know already with our cash and portfolio. And second is to be able to add to our natural core growth 100, two hundred basis points of added growth.

And so that means that we need to prove that we can accelerate the growth of the target, number one. Number two is that it has to be accretive in a reasonable timeframe. We have the strength to accept a kind of dilution, let’s say two years, but beyond that, we need to see accretion. And last but not least, valuation should be reasonable. I note that valuation seems to be more reasonable over the last six to eight months than two years ago, which is a positive point.

But it has to make sense from a value creation standpoint. We are not here to just create value for the current shareholders of the target. You see, we want to share, create value for our shareholders. So that those are the mechanisms. Maybe just

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: one more question there and then we can move on to it. So do you think to be more public or private type company? Do you lean more towards clinical or the tool side? And I guess would you buy a business that’s unprofitable today?

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: We are looking at everything and again, it can be non profitable at the point if it’s in a ramping phase. And if the product is growing 15%, twenty % per year, that’s fine. But by QIAGEN, after two years, say two years and a half, we need to see that profitability coming. So that’s then it’s across all the spectrum, it can be Life Science. And obviously, as you know, opportunities in bioinformatics, normally you are talking about smaller sizes than what you could find clinical or Life Science.

Private, public, not an issue. Again, it’s the feasibility and the value creation. Okay, great. So let’s see in some of

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: the businesses and let’s, we’ll start on diagnostics, we’ll start with QuantiFERON. So maybe just QuantiFERON, you had another good year in 2024. The long term guide reflects just a natural rate of slowing, which I think is prudent given the strength that you’ve had. It’s still a really big market ahead, but maybe you just being prudent there. Should you speak about the guidance 2025 and just competitively, not necessarily what’s driving that guidance in 2025 when you look at maybe some new tenders, when you look at just the existing business, when just kind of walk us through how you thought about the guide for ’25.

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: There is one major factor that I think I’m, sometimes the market doesn’t see as we see it or perhaps I’m not good enough at showing it is that more than 50% of the market is not converted and it’s still skin test, which is as you all know now, I hope an antiquated not patient friendly, not even clinician friendly methodology, 50% of the market. So that means that in the world as we speak today, there are probably 55, at least million test of skin test that we can convert. In The U. S. Closer to us, 16,000,000, one six significant.

I like to focus on The U. S. Because the price of a normal skin test in The U. S. Is rather high and very comparable to the price of a quantity film, so conversion.

And this is what is driving our guidance. Second, is that in full humility, we are going to go soon to the World Tuberculosis Day. We keep discovering new buckets of growth for KIAGEN and tuberculosis. Honestly, five years ago, we would not imagine that late on tuberculosis could be such an issue for diabetic patients. You go to Mexico, most of the diabetic population is under clear threat of tuberculosis infection.

So same in The U. S. Patients under dialysis. So every year we continue to discover new applications. So as you said, we give a market coming four years at 7%.

We are coming from higher than that. We grew 10% last year. We will grow again 10% this year. We believe that from four fifty million last year to 600,000,000 in 2028, so perfectly achievable guidance. And we are on our way to execute on that.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: Okay. We’ll dig back in a little later maybe on QuantiFERN for a minute. So I mean, Chiasat DX rate, I think growing 25%, right, grew 25%, I believe in 2025 is the outlook. You have really large installed base. You have some really nice menu.

Excuse me, you have mid teens growth this year after 2025. So just walk through why the mid teens growth rate this year after such strong growth rate last year. Just give us a flavor for what underpins that.

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: I mean, because we in every guidance we give, I mean, we take into account our environment. So we were growing at more than 20% last year. I mean, still growing when we are already at around $100,000,000 revenues above double digit. It’s interesting. So let’s execute first on the guidance if we can beat it.

Obviously, we will. The second thing is that as you said, for us, the main potential in 2025 is to become really successful in The U. S. Because now our salespeople on Karyostat in The U. S, they have a full menu.

We just saw recently that we had another kits approved by the FDA. We have also our large throughput, high throughput, Chiostat rise under submission. We see when the FDA is going to approve it. So we are fairly confident in the system. But for me, the priority in The U.

S. Is basically transforming the success of regulatory approval of 2024 into sound commercial result in 2025. That’s the priority. How big is

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: the sales force selling Casa DX in The U. S? So we are going to, first

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: of all, continue to invest in it and extra specialize that. What I mean by this is, because we always managing our P and L, I believe I said that many times in sales specialization. So starting 2025, the people selling QuantiFERON will only sell QuantiFERON and the people selling, Chiostat will only sell Chiostat. So that’s an investment, obviously, but it’s driven by our numbers. Second, we want to strengthen those people selling by what we call medical liaison because you need to visit also the clinicians.

So if you could have, let’s say, three, four medical liaison over the territory of The U. S. Basically and between eight to 10 sales rep focusing on QIAstat, you’re well equipped.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: I mean, is it possible this year like you could replicate last year? I mean, I guess it’s feasible. Is there any real reason if the new menu traction was right there? Or is there something with that 25% last year that’s just not repeatable?

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: I mean, once again, I mean, it’s a good question, but let’s execute on what we have to execute before thinking about something higher. I mean, give us a time to execute already on what is a good growth on an already important franchise. So this is another way to say it. In our priorities, if there is one I think positively about and I feel comfortably about is is KAYSTA. Okay.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: So maybe on digital PCR, it’s like the biggest growth driver in your long term CAGR that you guys laid out. Talk about, you know, I think there’s been some instrument headwinds there, but just talk about the progress in ’24. Maybe it was masked a little bit by some of the instrument headwinds and kind of how you’re thinking about, you know, 2025.

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: So first of all, where are we coming from? On digital PCR, we have created, I’m sorry, the fastest growing installed base on the market. And I don’t like superlatives, but probably in history of life science and diagnostic, because beyond 3,000 system in such a record time is fantastic. Knowing that the first year we launched digital PCR, there was still COVID and digital PCR was absolutely not a solution launch for COVID. So that proves the quality of the system.

In addition to that, you know that we don’t have one instrument only. We have three instruments for low throughput, mid throughput, high throughput. So it’s very fair to say that QIAGEN is the only company at this stage democratizing access to digital PCRs to many labs in the world. It’s with the one plate. They wouldn’t have the opportunity to invest in such a technology with other competitors with Kaizen.

So small box, one box, simply in result. Second, we executed on the menu when we launched the solution three years ago, it was really academic kind of research. Then we developed the biopharma. Why is biopharma important? Because biopharma are customers that are more eight plates, so higher throughput, higher pull through, obviously, persistent.

Then we developed cell engine therapy. And by the way, at the moment, the two main growth drivers consumable wise in Life Science are biopharma and cell engine therapy. Last year, we put on the market another 100 assays, life science to our customers. This year, we are going to give them another 100 assays. Then we told you we are going to launch that solution in clinical diagnostic.

We did it. The platform is now FDA approved. We want to really focus on LDTs and to second level in hemato oncology here. And last but not least, yes, of course, last year, we were impacted by a slower environment on capital sales. But let’s keep a cool head here as well.

When we say we were not on target on capital sales, completely right. But in Q4, we put more than 200 system on the market. In Q3, we put also more than 200 system on the market. This is just cumulative instrument that are just waiting for consumables because I remind you, it’s a closed system. And so this is where I focused.

Was I disappointing a bit by the level of capital sales? Yes, of course. But what is important is to continue to put more and more system. And so we are roughly at $90,000,000 revenues. We are now penetrating also the companion diagnostic with SKIAQUITY, which is also good.

We have the target to be at $250,000,000 with the menu in life science, with the progresses in biopharma in cell and gene therapy with what we are trying to do in minimal residual diseases in oncology plus diagnostic, I think two fifty million by 2028 is realistic. So maybe just one more. I know

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: at the Investor Day, you guys had a lot of slides, that was a little while ago. But just when you think about sizing this, just I think investors can get excited about like, well, well, this could really be x in five years versus, you know, even where you guided to. So how do we think about, like, either maybe you can use install base of PCR, I don’t know, clinically. I’m I’m sure you guys have done your math about how you’re thinking about the opportunity ahead. What is the predicate example about the addressable market for digital PCR you think?

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: So our numbers and I believe it’s supported by many data and in addition they are more conservative than somewhat some of our competitor numbers. As of today, I really believe that the digital PCR market is at least at $500,000,000 at least $500,000,000 It’s growing double digit and it’s high double digit. So we are not talking 10%. We are talking higher than that, which means that in a visible, let’s say, plan period, you see that 1,000,000,000 clearly. And then we always said that Cajun since we started in this field that the total potential addressable market over time is probably around 2,500,000,000.0 to 3,000,000,000.

For Cajun, I mean, beyond ’28, obviously, so I’m not hearing in the midterm plan discussion, but should it be a 500,000,000 revenues? Yes, for sure. I mean, there is no reason why digital PCR, an activity where we control the instrument, the reagents and the bioinformatics that we are also in companion diagnostic shouldn’t be at least the size of QuantiFERON at a given time in our portfolio clearly. Great.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: All right. So let’s maybe we’ll kind of shift off that in a moment, if you don’t mind. Let’s maybe talk about sample prep and extraction. You have a next generation sample tech coming in, more automation coming in ’twenty six. Just talk about sample tech and kind of how do you think ’twenty five and ’twenty six plays out?

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: So we believe that in ’twenty five, we continue to see the shift from manual sample prep to automated sample prep. And if you look at our numbers, manual is flattish to negative, automated is positive. So that proves that our strategy to constantly upgrade our instrumentation for the last three years and a half is the right one. I remind you, KAYAQUBE became KAYAQUBE Connect, EZ1 became EZ2. And now the next one is the Flaxx system, Kaya Symphony, becoming Kaya Symphony Connect at the end of the year.

End of twenty twenty five is going to be a pilot launch because we really want to make it right. And the full launch will be 2026. At the same time, in ’26, we will have a very smart system in Sempertek, which is a one shot fully benched up the size of your laptop. Imagine a researcher having this in her or his bench and ready to be used shot by shot whenever they want. Cheap price for the instruments so that they don’t have to go to a budget process of approval and obviously, related consumables.

This is launched in 2026, we call it Kaya Mini. At more or less the same time, probably one or two months difference, we want to go into the very high throughput market of SampleTech. The only market where we are not at the moment with what we call Kaya Street. And there is only one competitor there and basically that had not been upgraded for many years. So we believe that.

So what do I see for us? First of all, this year, probably flattish to very small growth. Starting next year, because of the impact of this instrument coming back to a 2% and the numbers that we gave on our CMD, which was 3% growth, we can achieve that. So some people are telling me, yes, 3%, it’s a bit it’s a mature market, but it’s 3% at a significant profitability. And so it’s fueling the P and N.

Second, it gives you position in the labs that are very nice because once they take your sample tech, they can obviously move to other products in your portfolio. Once again, the importance of share as well. And something that the market I think needs to understand, when we are going to launch the Kaya Symphony, connect the Mini, just the just the accessible base that we just have to replace or to complete, it’s around 30,000 systems. So even without focusing on 18 new customers, we have 35,000 people using QIAGEN, convinced about the quality and say, you’re bringing something new. So the renewal of this base is already phenomenal.

Those are the trends that I see for us.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: So when you roll out those two new products, like what’s I mean, what’s the impact? Is there an instrument upgrade cycle? Is there a pull through opportunity?

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: It’s always you need to give time to time. Customers most of most they might be very interested. They need to validate it. So you have a trial period. I mean, for me, if you really launch Kaya Symphony, Kaya Mini, I’m sorry, and Kaya Sprint by mid-twenty twenty six, you should be in full speed of sales mid-twenty twenty seven.

Clearly, you will have sales before, but full speed, you see. And Kaya Symphony Connect, I mean, I remind you at the moment, the normal Kaya Symphony, so no instrument, we’d still put more than 100 system per year on the market. There is no reason we should be doing less than that starting at 2026.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: Right, right. But 3% is where that growth goes. So I mean, it can’t get to four or five given the size of your installation.

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: If we can beat it, you’ll be the first to know as usual. And at the same time, you see there are promising application where we are. I don’t want to use customers name, but I mean, a very good name in liquid biopsy go to Natera as it’s impressive. We are talking about more than 100 Kaya Symphony side by side there and we continue to put more Kaya Symphony. So choosing to invest in automation, I’m sorry, plus added value applications such as liquid biopsy, M and A and so on, if we can beat that, we will obviously.

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: So talk about the long term margin guide versus where you exited 2024 and wouldn’t there be a lot of upside to that long term margin guide? Just walk us through kind of how you guided 2025 versus where you exited and when would you contemplate raising the long term margin guide?

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: There is upside. We always said that. I think it’s fair to say that in the volatile environment in which we are, one, we strongly believe in our 7% CAGR on the top line, but obviously you need to sweat because the environment is volatile. Well, I believe we have more margin of quick upside is on the operating margin. So we will not hesitate to review that number quickly if we see that we have solid rationale behind that.

And so what should be the next target? I don’t know, it’s premature, but it would be higher than 31%. But I’d like also to insist then if I may. And again, I absolutely do not want to sound defensive, but eliminating the ups and downs of COVID, this company in the last five years have increased its level of activity top line by 30 three-zero. In an incredibly moving environment, improving profitability, we will be this year above 30% operating margin.

Still now raising EPS faster than the top line. This year guidance for EPS is 9%. Obviously, you need to take into account and discount the Forex. You take at least 200 basis points of Forex, but 9% versus 5% top line growth. In let me insist on that also very volatile tax environment.

You know that Pillar two is in Europe, obviously, is increasing the level of tax rate we are submitted to, we are submitting, and generating a cash flow that is unprecedented. So the last five years are proving that the company is really stronger than ever. It’s not translated into the current share price. That’s why I invite you to be more active on it. But at the same time, definitely, we proved to be on top of our peers with solid P and L, improving profitability and very solid cash flow to do and deploy on M and A.

So let me just ask you one final question. I think there was a Sure. So

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: the question was on M and A and the push to be more acquisitive, how you would contemplate M and A in terms of ROIC? Would you underwrite a certain ROIC level for this new M and A?

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: Well, no, because I mean, it depends, I mean, the timeframe that you are considering, obviously. So for me, the answer is clearly no. What I’m looking at clearly at the moment is really accretive from a growth standpoint, because I believe that Cajun should focus on continuing to be a growth case to you. And we have proven with past acquisition that we were very good at making them extremely profitable and then improving our return on capital invested. We have proven you as well that despite giving it some time when it doesn’t work, we do not hesitate to basically diverse.

Next example is obviously new modics. So the mindset will not change here. Maybe final one, I know

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: we’re a minute past, but just with the stock where it is and you’ve kind of outlined the growth, the margins, the cash flow, the focus. Do you think investors are is it think people are hung up on QuantiFERON? Do you think people just kind of what do you hear back as we wrap it up? You’re doing what you can delivering, executing into plan, but like what do you hear back about maybe what might be misunderstood about QIAGEN?

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: So first of all, I would say that management should always be extremely humble here and never hesitate to question itself because it’s always easy to say, oh, it’s QuantiFERON or it’s China or it’s NIH. We need to look at our own belly button, perhaps the way to translate our performance, the way to communicate, the way to we need to improve there, first of all. Second, I believe that obviously the rumors on QuantiFERON for me are largely unfounded when you look at what we deliver even since those rumors have started given the potential of market that we still have to convert from skin test, but that’s the way it is. So what are our action, continue to develop the product, continue to raise also commercially the barriers to entry and to execute. Last Q4, it was the seventh quarter of more than $100,000,000 of revenues for QuantiFERON.

But clearly, I mean, rumors, especially when they come with absolutely no details on product performance, product specification dates and so on. They are just rumors. The current environment is not specific to QIAGEN, but clearly it creates a bit of volatility. It’s not specific to QIAGEN. Once again, I think for us, the story is stay humble and continue to execute quarter after quarter.

At the end, it needs to pay off. If not, I mean, some, I don’t know, there might be some other decisions to be taken. That’s,

Dan Brennan, Analyst, TD Cowen: Well, terrific. Well, thank you very much again, Terry, for being with us. Thanks everyone in the audience. And, let’s finish strong on day three.

Terry Bernard, CEO, QIAGEN: Thank you. Thanks a lot for the time, guys. Thank you.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.