On February 4, 2022 Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, reported financial results and business highlights for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 ended December 31, 2021 (Press release, Twist Bioscience, FEB 4, 2022, View Source [SID1234607741]).

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"We’ve started the year strong reporting record orders and revenue, with SynBio particularly robust in the first quarter of fiscal 2022," said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. "We continue to introduce new products to enable exciting applications like liquid biopsy and minimal residual disease, expanding our customer base and our market opportunities in NGS."

"Our biopharma team added 8 new partners and 21 new programs with the integration of Abveris bringing an additional 72 ongoing programs, while advancing our internal candidates. We expect the first Twist Biopharma-discovered antibody to be in clinical trials this year. In addition, we announced that our first DNA data storage solution would be a Century Archive, storing data for 100 years," continued Dr. Leproust.

FISCAL 2022 FIRST QUARTER FINANCIAL RESULTS

·Orders: Total orders received for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 were $49.6 million compared to $33.6 million for the same period of fiscal 2021.
·Revenue: Total revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 were $42.0 million compared to $28.2 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2021.
·Cost of Revenues: Cost of revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 was $27.1 million compared to $18.2 million for the same period of fiscal 2021.
·Research and Development Expenses: Research and development expenses for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 were $22.6 million compared to $14 million for the same period of fiscal 2021.
·Selling, General and Administrative Expenses: Selling, general and administrative expenses for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 were $51.1 million compared to $28.8 million for the same period of fiscal 2021.
·Net Loss: Net loss attributable to common stockholders for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 was $45.6 million, or $0.91 per share, compared to $32.9 million, or $0.72 per share, for the same period of fiscal 2021.
·Cash Position: As of December 31, 2021, the company had $408.7 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments.

Recent Highlights:

SynBio and NGS

·Shipped products to approximately 1,800 customers in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, versus approximately 1,500 in the first quarter of fiscal 2021.
·Shipped approximately 125,000 genes during the first quarter of fiscal 2022, compared with approximately 84,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2021.
·Previewed Twist Enzymatic Synthesis 3.0, a low-cost, scarless DNA synthesis process
·Introduced the Twist Alliance Canine Exome, a whole exome target enrichment panel to enable next generation sequencing in canine genomic research.
·Began shipping synthetic RNA positive controls for the SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1.1.529/BA.1) variants first identified in South Africa.
·Launched the Twist 96-Plex Library Prep Kit, a high-performance, cost-effective library preparation kit for next-generation sequencing (NGS). This product is a Twistified version of a product acquired through the iGenomX acquisition in 2021.
·Launched the Twist cfDNA Pan-cancer Reference Standards, a high-quality standardized control for use in the development and continuous monitoring of liquid biopsy tests capable of detecting cancer from blood samples.

BioPharma and DNA Data Storage

·Announced that RBT-0813, an innovative bispecific antibody discovered by Twist Biopharma and licensed to Revelar Biotherapeutics, binds to and neutralizes the Omicron and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 in live virus studies.
·Signed a strategic collaboration with Sosei Group Corporation to discover therapeutic antibodies against G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) identified by Sosei Heptares.
·Signed an agreement with Artisan Development Labs Inc. to discover novel antibodies against five undisclosed targets, with an option to expand with additional targets.
·Announced a licensing agreement with Abcam under which Abcam will use a proprietary Twist VHH phage library for antibody discovery, development and commercialization for diagnostic and research applications.
·Announced the Century Archive, which we expect to be Twist’s first commercial DNA data storage solution.

Corporate

·Issued first ESG report which can be accessed at: View Source

Updated Fiscal 2022 Financial Guidance

The following statements are based on Twist’s current expectations for fiscal 2022. The following statements are forward-looking, and actual results could differ materially depending on market conditions and the factors set forth under "Forward-Looking Statements" below.

For the full fiscal year 2022, Twist provided the following updated financial guidance:

·Revenue is now expected to be in the range of $189 million to $198 million
oSynBio revenue including Ginkgo Bioworks is expected to be in the range of $70 million to $72 million
oNGS revenue is estimated to be in the range of $94 to $96 million
oBiopharma revenue is estimated to be approximately $25 to $30 million
·Gross margin is expected to be between 35% and 37% for fiscal 2022 which reflects the impact of costs associated with ramping our Wilsonville "Factory of the Future" facility comes online; excluding these costs, gross margin would be 42% to 44%
·Operating expenses including R&D and SG&A are expected to be $335 million for the year
·Net loss is expected to be approximately $260 million, reflecting the impact of the Abveris acquisition in stock-based compensation
oR&D is expected to be approximately $130 million
oStock-based compensation is expected to be approximately $74 million
oDepreciation is expected to be $13 million
oCapital expenditures are expected to be $80-$90 million, including building out the "Factory of the Future"

Conference Call Information

The company plans to hold a conference call and live audio webcast for analysts and investors at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time today to discuss its financial results and provide an update on the company’s business. The call can be accessed by dialing (866) 688-0947 (domestic) or (409) 217-8781 (international) and refer to the conference ID 3886933. A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available beginning approximately four hours after the call through February 11, 2022 and may be accessed by dialing (855) 859-2056 (domestic) or (404) 537-3406 (international). The replay conference ID is 3886933. The webcast replay will be available for two weeks. If a participant will be listen-only, they are encouraged to listen via the webcast on Twist’s investor page.