Lucid Diagnostics Inc (LUCD) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

(inaudible) and welcome to Lucid Diagnostics third-quarter 2023 business update conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded.

（聽不清楚）歡迎參加 Lucid Diagnostics 2023 年第三季業務更新電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，該事件正在被記錄。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael Parks; VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

我現在想把會議交給邁克爾·帕克斯（Michael Parks）；投資人關係副總裁。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for participating in today's third-quarter 2023 business update call.

謝謝接線員，大家早安。感謝您參加今天的 2023 年第三季業務更新電話會議。

The press release announcing our business update for the company and financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, is available on the Lucid website. Please take a moment to read the disclaimer about forward-looking statements in this press release.

宣佈本公司業務更新以及截至 2023 年 9 月 30 日的三個月和九個月財務業績的新聞稿可在 Lucid 網站上取得。請花一點時間閱讀本新聞稿中有關前瞻性陳述的免責聲明。

The business update, press release, and this conference call include forward-looking statements, and these forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from statements made. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are described in the disclaimer and in our filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

業務更新、新聞稿和本次電話會議包含前瞻性聲明，這些前瞻性聲明受到已知和未知的風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與聲明有重大差異。免責聲明和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中描述了可能導致實際結果不同的因素。

For a list and description of these and other important risk factors and uncertainties that may affect future operations, see part 1, item 1A entitled risk factors in Lucid's most recent annual report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC and subsequent updates filed in quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and any subsequent Form 8-K filing.

有關這些以及可能影響未來營運的其他重要風險因素和不確定性的清單和說明，請參閱Lucid 向SEC 提交的10-Q 表格最新年度報告以及每季提交的後續更新中的第1 部分第1A 項，標題為「風險因素」報告表格 10-Q 和任何後續表格 8-K 歸檔。

Except as required by law, this is Lucid disclaims any intentions or obligations to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect changes in expectations or in events, conditions, or circumstances on which the expectations may be based or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those contained in the forward-looking statement.

除法律要求外，Lucid 不承擔任何公開更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述的意圖或義務，以反映預期或預期所依據的事件、條件或情況的變化或可能影響可能性的變化實際結果將與前瞻性聲明中包含的結果有所不同。

I would now like to turn the call over to Dr. Lishan Aklog, Chairman & CEO of Lucid Diagnostics. Dr. Aklog?

我現在想將電話轉給 Lucid Diagnostics 董事長兼執行長 Lishan Aklog 博士。阿克洛格博士？

Thanks, Mike, and thanks, everyone, for joining us this morning. We look forward to offering an update on Lucid's business as well as its finances.

謝謝麥克，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。我們期待提供有關 Lucid 業務及其財務狀況的最新資訊。

I don't think it's hyperbole to say that this third quarter has been the most important quarter in the company's history. We crossed several critical milestones and translating test volume growth into revenue and revenue growth. We've had eight consecutive quarters of steady growth in test volume. We performed 2,575 commercial EsoGuard tests, which is 17% quarterly growth and 137% annual growth.

我認為說第三季是公司史上最重要的季度並不誇張。我們跨越了幾個關鍵的里程碑，並將測試量的成長轉化為收入和收入的成長。我們的測試量已連續八個季度穩定成長。我們進行了 2,575 次商業 EsoGuard 測試，季度成長 17%，年成長 137%。

Even more importantly, we recognized revenue of $783,000, which is a nearly 400% increase quarter on quarter, and nearly 1,000% increase annually.

更重要的是，我們確認收入為 783,000 美元，環比增長近 400%，年增長近 1,000%。

We have strong contributions from our Lucid Test Centers, the Satellite Lucid Test Centers, and our high-volume, CheckYourFoodTube testing events, which are gaining traction as well as traction with our strategic accounts, which I'll discuss further. These include health systems and academic centers.

我們的 Lucid 測試中心、衛星 Lucid 測試中心以及我們的大容量 CheckYourFoodTube 測試活動為我們做出了巨大貢獻，這些活動正在獲得吸引力，也吸引了我們的策略客戶，我將進一步討論這一點。其中包括衛生系統和學術中心。

Our strategic accomplishments include the following. We upgraded our revenue cycle management, infrastructure, and processes as we discussed in our last call, and we've been delivering solid results with each of our claims' processing and payments in a very strong boost to our clinical utility data to support in-network payer coverage engagement. And we reported near perfect results in over 1,500 patients across three studies that have been released. The CLUE study, the PREVENT Registries, and our San Antonio Fire Department study.

我們的策略成就包括以下內容。正如我們在上次電話會議中所討論的那樣，我們升級了我們的收入周期管理、基礎設施和流程，並且我們的每項索賠處理和付款都取得了紮實的成果，極大地促進了我們的臨床實用數據的發展，以支持in-網絡付款人覆蓋參與度。我們在已發布的三項研究中報告了超過 1,500 名患者的近乎完美的結果。 CLUE 研究、預防登記處和我們的聖安東尼奧消防局研究。

Two of these have been accepted for peer review publication and one is pending. We're accelerating our activities in direct contracting with employers to offer EsoGuard as a benefit. Our first contract was signed and testing has begun this quarter. We hired a VP of Employer Markets that's pushing this initiative forward. As we announced recently, we also launched the 2.0 version of our EsoGuard assay, which has demonstrated significant improved performance and lower costs.

其中兩項已被接受進行同儕審查出版，另一項正在等待中。我們正在加快與雇主直接簽訂合約的活動，以提供 EsoGuard 作為福利。我們的第一份合約已於本季簽署並開始測試。我們聘請了一位雇主市場副總裁來推動這項措施。正如我們最近宣布的，我們還推出了 EsoGuard 檢測的 2.0 版本，該版本已證明性能顯著提高並降低了成本。

First, a couple of background slides here. A bit about our EsoGuard Esophageal DNA test. EsoGuard is the first and only commercially available test that's capable of serving as a widespread tool to prevent esophageal cancer deaths through early detection of esophageal Precancer. 16,000 annual esophageal cancer deaths are preventable. Early Precancer detection, however, is necessary to prevent cancer.

首先，這裡有幾張背景投影片。關於我們的 EsoGuard 食道 DNA 測試的一些資訊。 EsoGuard 是第一個也是唯一一個商用測試，能夠作為一種廣泛的工具，透過早期檢測食道癌前病變來預防食道癌死亡。每年有 16,000 例食道癌死亡是可以預防的。然而，早期癌前檢測對於預防癌症是必要的。

We often talk about cancer prevention rather loosely, but it's important to emphasize that our target, our goal here is to prevent cancer while most initiatives, most screening tests are just detecting cancer early, which would be insufficient in this particular cancer. Less than 5% of those who recommended for screening undergo endoscopy, and we now have an opportunity with this test to improve that number and to potentially save lives. The test is recommended in major professional society for clinical practice guidelines.

我們經常相當寬鬆地談論癌症預防，但重要的是要強調我們的目標，我們的目標是預防癌症，而大多數舉措、大多數篩檢測試只是早期發現癌症，這對於這種特定的癌症是不夠的。在建議篩檢的人中，只有不到 5% 接受內視鏡檢查，我們現在有機會透過這項測試來提高這一數字，並有可能挽救生命。主要專業協會推薦該測試作為臨床實踐指南。

Just a quick overview of EsoGuard's performance. We've used the term that the performance is really unprecedented with regard to cancer and Precancer detection. You could see here in the blue, the EsoGuard results for cancer, Precancer, and early-stage Precancer; very competitive to other comparable early detection test, whether it be Cologuard colorectal stool test, Guardant Shield's colorectal blood tests.

快速概述 EsoGuard 的性能。我們用這樣的術語表示在癌症和癌前病變檢測方面的表現確實是前所未有的。您可以在此處以藍色看到 EsoGuard 針對癌症、癌前病變和早期癌前病變的結果；與其他類似的早期檢測測試相比，無論是 Cologuard 結直腸糞便測試、Guardant Shield 的結直腸血液測試，都非常有競爭力。

But the key differentiating factor here that makes us unprecedented is its performance in the critical Precancer phase, which, as I mentioned, is necessary to have an impact in this disease. You can see that our overall Precancer detection rate is nearly 90%, which is again unprecedented and substantially better than other early detection tests.

但讓我們取得前所未有的關鍵差異化因素是它在關鍵的癌前階段的表現，正如我所提到的，這對於對這種疾病產生影響是必要的。您可以看到，我們的整體癌前檢測率接近 90%，這又是前所未有的，並且比其他早期檢測測試好得多。

And if you move earlier on to the early Precancer stages, we continue to maintain excellent detection of those levels and other screening tests really had no ability to detect the early Precancer. These results are really critical for our ability to detect early Precancer and to have an impact on esophageal cancer deaths.

如果您更早進入早期癌前階段，我們將繼續保持這些水平的出色檢測，而其他篩檢測試確實無法檢測早期癌前階段。這些結果對於我們檢測早期癌前病變和降低食道癌死亡的能力至關重要。

The EsoGuard's commercial opportunity is quite large. There are at least 30 million patients who, by existing Professional Society Guidelines are at risk, chronic heartburn patients who are recommended for Precancer screening. Medicare has established a payment rate of $1,938, and that rate has held up in pricing and payments from commercial payers. That leads to a very large multibillion-dollar total addressable market. And our gross margin of the test is over 90% even at current volumes.

EsoGuard 的商業機會相當大。根據現有的專業協會指南，至少有 3000 萬名患者處於危險之中，這些慢性胃灼熱患者被建議進行癌前篩檢。 Medicare 設定的支付費率為 1,938 美元，且該費率在商業付款人的定價和支付中保持不變。這將帶來一個總規模達數十億美元的龐大市場。即使以目前的銷量，我們測試的毛利率也超過 90%。

We're really proud to report that we continue to show growth in EsoGuard testing volume. This is our eighth consecutive quarter of meaningful quarter-on-quarter growth in two consecutive years, and we performed 2,575 tests in the third quarter, which is a 17% increase from the prior quarter and 137% increase from the prior year. This is still well below our near-term laboratory manufacturing capacity, which is over 10,000 tests per quarter.

我們非常自豪地報告，我們的 EsoGuard 測試量持續成長。這是我們連續兩年連續第八個季度實現有意義的環比增長，第三季度我們進行了 2,575 次測試，比上一季增長了 17%，比上一年增長了 137%。這仍然遠低於我們近期實驗室的製造能力，即每季超過 10,000 次測試。

I should note that this result has been with our sales team. Headcount remaining flat. We've used the term a mid-throttle approach, which is exactly what we're doing here. We're trying to drive test volume to support claims history and clinical utility. And this is -- these volume levels -- we have sufficient volume to do that and we won't push to a full throttle until we get continued progress on payments and we plan, at least for the coming quarters, to keep our sales reps, the sales headcount flat, which may at some point in the coming quarters reach the limits of our per rep productivity, but we'll watch those numbers over the coming quarters.

我應該指出，這個結果是我們的銷售團隊得出的。員工人數維持不變。我們使用了術語“中油門方法”，這正是我們在這裡所做的。我們正在努力提高測試量以支持索賠歷史和臨床實用性。這就是——這些數量水平——我們有足夠的數量來做到這一點，我們不會全力以赴，直到我們在付款方面取得持續進展，並且我們計劃至少在未來幾個季度保留我們的銷售代表，銷售人員數量持平，可能在未來幾季的某個時候達到我們每個代表生產力的極限，但我們將在未來幾季關注這些數字。

This slide shows continuing trends with regard to the referral sources for testing and the operator. We continue to have about a 2:1 ratio between referrals from primary care physicians and referrals from specialists or institutions. One trend that continues to increase is that the percentage of -- saw collection procedures that are performed by Lucid personnel, either in physical Lucid Test Centers or in the Satellite Lucid Test Centers continue to rise and now represent over 80% of the total volume.

這張投影片顯示了有關測試推薦來源和營運商的持續趨勢。初級保健醫生的轉診與專家或機構的轉診之間的比例仍然約為 2:1。持續增加的一個趨勢是，由 Lucid 人員在實體 Lucid 測試中心或衛星 Lucid 測試中心執行的鋸齒收集程序的百分比持續上升，目前佔總數量的 80% 以上。

Now a few comments on several aspects of our commercial execution. Our field team, as I mentioned, has been able to drive steady volume growth despite a flat sales headcount and continuing improvements in productivity. As I mentioned, our Satellite Lucid Test Centers where our clinicians go to physician practices on a regular cadence and perform EsoCheck cell collections. This Satellite Lucid Test Center model remains a top driver of our test volume, has really expanded our geographic reach and our ability to be front and center with physician practices.

現在就我們商業執行的幾個方面發表一些評論。正如我所提到的，儘管銷售人員數量持平且生產力不斷提高，但我們的現場團隊仍然能夠推動銷售的穩定成長。正如我所提到的，在我們的 Satellite Lucid 測試中心，我們的臨床醫生定期前往醫生診所並進行 EsoCheck 細胞採集。這顆衛星 Lucid 測試中心模型仍然是我們測試量的主要驅動力，確實擴大了我們的地理覆蓋範圍以及我們在醫生實踐中處於領先地位和中心的能力。

Our CheckYourFoodTube Precancer Detection Event, which we started earlier this year, continued to grow. We've had dozens of events. We are expanding beyond firefighters. This has been our first event with a policeman, and we're also engaged earlier with the group leadership, whether it be a union or other entity regarding contracting as opposed to just simply submitting the claims for those events.

我們於今年稍早啟動的 CheckYourFoodTube 癌前檢測活動持續發展。我們已經舉辦了幾十場活動。我們的業務範圍正在擴展到消防員之外。這是我們第一次與警察一起參與的活動，我們也早些時候與團體領導層進行了接觸，無論是工會還是其他實體，都涉及簽訂合同，而不是簡單地提交這些活動的索賠。

Another important update is that we're transitioning to use our long-time telehealth partner, UpScript, has the physician prescriber for all events, which will greatly enhance the efficiency of these testing events and the processing of these patients.

另一個重要的更新是，我們正在過渡到使用我們的長期遠距醫療合作夥伴 UpScript，它擁有所有事件的醫生處方，這將大大提高這些測試事件和這些患者的處理效率。

As I mentioned, we are making a major push into direct contracting within an area -- that's been an area of focus for us for a couple of quarters. We've had our first contracted employer, Ancira, which we've announced and the testing at multiple sites for that employer has begun and we will continue through this quarter. And we're very excited that we've hired a new VP of Employer Markets with 30-plus years of experience in employer benefit sales and he starts this week, and we're really looking forward to a significant productivity for him.

正如我所提到的，我們正在大力推動某個領域內的直接承包——這一直是我們幾季關注的領域。我們已經有了第一個簽約雇主 Ancira，我們已經宣布了該雇主，並且已經開始在多個地點對該雇主進行測試，我們將在本季度繼續進行測試。我們非常高興我們聘請了一位新的雇主市場副總裁，他在雇主福利銷售方面擁有 30 多年的經驗，他將於本週上任，我們真的很期待他能大幅提高工作效率。

As I've mentioned on prior calls, we've been pushing harder on strategic accounts. These have longer lead times, but have the opportunity for significant yield. And we are gaining traction with health systems with academic medical centers. We have active testing now at the AdventHealth Center in Florida, Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, and even Mayo Scottsdale.

正如我在先前的電話會議中提到的，我們一直在加強策略客戶的力度。這些產品的交貨時間較長，但有機會獲得可觀的產量。我們正在透過學術醫療中心的衛生系統獲得吸引力。我們現在在佛羅裡達州的 AdventHealth 中心、芝加哥的西北醫學中心，甚至是梅奧斯科茨代爾進行了積極的測試。

We've been pushing quite hard as we've talked about on prior calls on market access. And market access, just to remind folks, really has two pillars. One is revenue cycle management, which is the process of claims submission and communications, peer-to-peer appeals, and prior authorization. We'll talk about that in some detail. And also the payer relations side, which is getting positive medical policy and coverage, are legislative advocacy work, working with managed care plans, and the Veterans Administration as well as lab benefit management. And we are pushing hard with persistence and creativity. We have a new VP of Market Access, who is working hard on payer pilots. We're quite active in the biomarker states, which I'll touch on in a bit and other initiatives to drive payers to provide coverage for the EsoGuard tests and we can continue to convert test volume growth into revenue.

正如我們在之前關於市場准入的電話會議中所討論的那樣，我們一直在大力推動。只是提醒人們，市場准入確實有兩個支柱。一是收入週期管理，即索賠提交和溝通、點對點申訴和事先授權的過程。我們將詳細討論這一點。支付者關係方面正在獲得積極的醫療政策和覆蓋範圍，正在進行立法宣傳工作，與管理式醫療計劃、退伍軍人管理局以及實驗室福利管理合作。我們正在以毅力和創造力努力推動。我們有一位新的市場准入副總裁，他正在努力開展付款人試點工作。我們在生物標記狀態方面非常活躍，我將在稍後討論這一點以及其他舉措，以推動付款人為 EsoGuard 測試提供覆蓋範圍，並且我們可以繼續將測試量增長轉化為收入。

A few more details on this. The revenue cycle management side, we announced last quarter that we had transitioned to an upgraded our Revenue Cycle manager to Quadax, and we have seen some initial very promising results with regard to claims processing and payments. I'm happy to report that that initial spike in initial positive news has held up that the allowed claims percentages, which is the percentage of claims submitted that where the payer allows payment, has remained really solid and steady as has the average allowed payment, which approaches our Medicare payment rate. So we're really excited about that and that's been driving the revenue and where we expect the revenue growth moving forward.

關於此的更多細節。在收入週期管理方面，我們上個季度宣布，我們已將收入週期管理器升級為 Quadax，並且我們在索賠處理和付款方面看到了一些初步非常有希望的結果。我很高興地向大家報告，最初的積極消息的最初激增使得允許的索賠百分比（即付款人允許付款的提交的索賠的百分比）與平均允許付款一樣保持著真正的穩固和穩定，這接近我們的醫療保險支付率。因此，我們對此感到非常興奮，這一直在推動收入成長，並預計收入將繼續增長。

We also have had meaningful activity on the appeal side. We have a robust and active pipeline of claims that are going through appeals and we are seeing successful appeals based on medical necessity versus guidance, something that once we get in front of medical directors through the appeals process, we are able to have very strong conversations, particularly when the appeal is based on medical necessity by explaining the support of existing clinical practice guidelines for our tests.

我們在上訴方面也進行了有意義的活動。我們擁有強大而活躍的索賠管道，正在進行上訴，並且我們看到基於醫療必要性與指導的成功上訴，一旦我們通過上訴流程到達醫療主管面前，我們就能夠進行非常有力的對話，特別是當上訴是基於醫療必要性，透過解釋現有臨床實踐指南對我們的測試的支持時。

As I mentioned on the payer relations side, we're pushing quite hard. As I mentioned also, our new VP of Market Access is now actively engaged with multiple commercial payers, and we're pursuing multiple pathways to commercial coverage. These include active discussions with pilot programs such as CED programs, which are coverage with evidence development programs that we look to secure in the coming quarter or two. And I can't overstate how important the burst of positive clinical utility data that we've seen over the past quarter, how important that is in support of our payer engagement.

正如我在付款人關係方面提到的，我們正在大力推動。正如我也提到的，我們新任市場准入副總裁現在正在積極與多個商業付款人合作，我們正在尋求多種商業覆蓋途徑。其中包括與試點計劃（例如 CED 計劃）的積極討論，這些計劃涵蓋了我們希望在未來一兩個季度獲得的證據開發計劃。我無法誇大我們在過去一個季度看到的積極臨床效用數據的爆發有多麼重要，這對於支持我們的付款人參與有多麼重要。

Finally, as I hinted at there is biomarker legislation that's now in over a dozen states, which mandate coverage of certain biomarker tests in those states. And it offers us a very promising path to coverage and is something that we're actively engaged with.

最後，正如我所暗示的，現在有十幾個州制定了生物標誌物立法，要求在這些州涵蓋某些生物標記測試。它為我們提供了一條非常有希望的覆蓋途徑，也是我們正在積極參與的事情。

You hear a few more details on our clinical utility studies that we've announced. We have four studies. One of them retrospective; three of them prospective that we've previously reported on. The San Antonio firefighter study has been accepted for publication with 385 patients. The CLUE study, which is our prospective multicenter observational study. We had interim data on just under 300 patients that was submitted for peer review and is currently undergoing a review. Since that data was released, we've increased the total number enrolled and interim data that has been collected to 535, which gets us within a hairs whisker of being able to complete enrollment and close out that study and submit the full data set for peer review.

您將聽到有關我們已宣布的臨床效用研究的更多詳細資訊。我們有四項研究。其中之一是回顧性的；其中三個是我們之前報道過的。聖安東尼奧消防員的研究已被接受發表，涉及 385 名患者。 CLUE 研究，這是我們的前瞻性多中心觀察研究。我們擁有近 300 名患者的中期數據，這些數據已提交同行評審，目前正在進行審查。自從該數據發布以來，我們已將註冊總數和已收集的中期數據增加到 535 個，這使我們能夠完成註冊並結束該研究並向同行提交完整的數據集審查。

The part registries, which we have -- that PREVENT Registry, and a subset of that, which is the PREVENT-firefighters registry is a prospective multicenter observational registry that we run. And we've announced interim data that's been accepted for publication, and we'll continue recruiting -- really for the foreseeable future as this data is useful, not only for clinical utility, but also clinical validity and also to enhance the research and development efforts in our laboratory. We've had 641 patients to date. So a total of over 1,500 patients, which is a substantial amount of clinical utility data that will serve us well in our near-term engagements and discussions with commercial payers.

我們擁有的部分登記處－預防登記處，以及其中的一個子集，即預防消防員登記處，是我們運作的前瞻性多中心觀察登記處。我們已經宣布了已接受發表的中期數據，並且我們將在可預見的未來繼續招募，因為這些數據不僅對於臨床實用性，而且對於臨床有效性以及增強研究和開發都是有用的我們實驗室的努力。迄今為止，我們已經接診了 641 名患者。因此，總共有超過 1,500 名患者，這是大量的臨床實用數據，將為我們與商業付款人的近期合作和討論提供良好的服務。

Finally, the ASBE study, which is a prospective virtual patient randomized control study, is still recruiting. We're at just under 80 patients, and looking for a couple of dozen more patients before we close that out and do the final analysis. However, I'll point out and remind you that as we've noted in our press releases, the data from the three studies where we've released data has been outstanding with really near-perfect results and near-perfect concordance.

最後，ASBE 研究是一項前瞻性虛擬患者隨機對照研究，仍在招募中。我們現在有不到 80 名患者，在我們結束並進行最終分析之前，我們還在尋找更多的患者。然而，我要指出並提醒您，正如我們在新聞稿中指出的那樣，我們發布的三項研究的數據非常出色，具有近乎完美的結果和近乎完美的一致性。

What that means? This is the critical thing from a payer's perspective is that 100% of positive patients are being referred for confirmatory endoscopy. And that nearly 100% of patients who are EsoGuard negative are not being referred for endoscopy with the occasional one or two patients who are referred for indications other than screening for Precancer. So those are outstanding results, which demonstrate the ability of EsoGuard to serve as a triage test and have a substantial impact on medical decision-making, which is really the definition of clinical utility in this sense.

那意味著什麼？從付款人的角度來看，至關重要的是 100% 的陽性患者都被轉診進行確認性內視鏡檢查。近 100% 的 EsoGuard 陰性患者不會被轉診進行內視鏡檢查，偶爾會有一到兩名患者因癌前期篩檢以外的適應症而被轉診。這些都是出色的結果，證明了 EsoGuard 作為分類測試的能力並對醫療決策產生重大影響，從這個意義上來說，這確實是臨床實用性的定義。

Finally, as we reported earlier, this week, we launched our EsoGuard 2.0 version of the assay, which we're very excited about. This improves on the already unprecedented cancer and Precancer detection results that we've already shown that are based on our EsoGuard 1.0. This breakthrough was the result of implementation of a technique called multiplexing, which allows all of the genes, the two genes, to be assessed in one sample, and it allows us to run the assay three times and do a consensus call of positive and negative results, which has a significant -- which can significantly improve the performance of the assay near its cutoffs. The analytical validation studies or AV studies that were used to get this to launch, that data is being presented at this week's Association of Molecular Pathology annual meeting or AMP of 2023 in Salt Lake City.

最後，正如我們早些時候報導的那樣，本週我們推出了 EsoGuard 2.0 版本的檢測方法，對此我們感到非常興奮。這改進了我們已經展示的基於 EsoGuard 1.0 的前所未有的癌症和癌前期檢測結果。這項突破是實施一種稱為多重技術的結果，該技術允許在一個樣本中評估所有基因（兩個基因），並且它允許我們運行測定三次並對陽性和陰性進行一致判定結果具有顯著的意義－可以顯著提高偵測接近其截止值的效能。用於啟動該計畫的分析驗證研究或 AV 研究，這些數據將於本週在鹽湖城舉行的分子病理學協會年會或 2023 年 AMP 上發表。

As we also reported, we are upgrading our NGS sequencing platform to a higher throughput Illumina NextSeq 1,000 to accomplish -- to accommodate the increase EsoGuard testing volume that we have demonstrated. Both of these updates, the 2.0 version of the assay as well as moving to the NextSeq will have significant -- will allow us to have significantly lower per sample sequencing.

正如我們也報導的那樣，我們正在將 NGS 定序平台升級到更高通量的 Illumina NextSeq 1,000，以適應我們已經展示的 EsoGuard 測試量的增加。這兩項更新（2.0 版本的檢測以及遷移到 NextSeq）都將具有重大意義——將使我們的每個樣本測序成本顯著降低。

Also, as we announced, we're having a very excited. We're holding an Investor Day in New York City on December 13 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM where we and other key opinion leaders and other experts will be providing really an in-depth educational event on all things, Lucid and all things EsoGuard and further details of this will be provided on our investor website when they're available.

此外，正如我們所宣布的那樣，我們非常興奮。我們將於12 月13 日上午10:00 至下午2:00 在紐約市舉辦投資者日活動，屆時我們和其他關鍵意見領袖和其他專家將提供一場真正深入的教育活動，涵蓋所有事物、Lucid和EsoGuard 的所有內容以及更多詳細資訊將在我們的投資者網站上提供。

With that, I'd like to pass the baton off to Dennis, who will provide us with our financial update.

至此，我想將接力棒交給丹尼斯，他將為我們提供最新的財務資訊。

Thanks, Lishan, and good morning, everyone. The summary, financial results for the third quarter reported in our press release that was published last night.

謝謝李山，大家早安。我們昨晚發布的新聞稿中報告了第三季的財務業績摘要。

On the next three slides, I'll emphasize a few key highlights from the quarter, but I encourage you to consider those remarks in the context of the full disclosures covered in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which was filed with the SEC last night and is available on our website.

在接下來的三張幻燈片中，我將強調本季度的一些關鍵亮點，但我鼓勵您在我們向 SEC 提交的 10-Q 表格季度報告中涵蓋的完整披露內容中考慮這些言論。昨晚，可在我們的網站上找到。

With regard to cash at $24.1 million, this does not include the $5 million additional funding shortly after the end of the quarter. The funding occurred two weeks earlier, pro forma cash would have been $29.1 million. The sequential change in the cash balance reflects a third-quarter burn rate of $8.5 million, including a reimbursement to PAVmed of approximately $2.2 million.

就 2,410 萬美元現金而言，這不包括本季結束後不久追加的 500 萬美元資金。融資發生在兩週前，預計現金為 2,910 萬美元。現金餘額的連續變化反映了第三季 850 萬美元的燒錢率，其中包括對 PAVmed 約 220 萬美元的補償。

Absent this payments, that burn rate would have been $6.3 million, which is slightly less than the average burn rate for the first three quarters of $6.6 million. Given the pro forma cash of just over $29 million in a steady state for the burn rate below $7 million, the simple math suggests that if this rate is sustained, it puts our runway to more than a year.

如果沒有這筆付款，燒錢率將為 630 萬美元，略低於前三個季度 660 萬美元的平均燒錢率。考慮到在穩定狀態下預計現金略高於 2900 萬美元，而燒錢率低於 700 萬美元，簡單的數學計算表明，如果這個速度持續下去，我們的跑道將持續一年多。

The burn rate for most of the year has been softened by PAVmed deferring most of its quarterly management service payments since October of last year. This PAVmed's optionality for paying the outstanding inter-company obligation in stock or cash at PAVmed's election serves to increase PAVmed's ownership while strengthening Lucid's balance sheet. This flexibility, payment in stock or cash has created some breathing room for Lucid to allow cash collections to catch up to the submitted reimbursement claims, which we will talk about in a second.

自去年 10 月以來，PAVmed 推遲了大部分季度管理服務付款，從而降低了今年大部分時間的資金消耗率。 PAVmed 在 PAVmed 選舉時可選擇以股票或現金支付未償公司間債務，有助於增加 PAVmed 的所有權，同時加強 Lucid 的資產負債表。這種以股票或現金支付的靈活性為 Lucid 創造了一些喘息空間，使現金收款能夠趕上提交的報銷索賠，我們稍後會討論這一點。

With regard to AP, accounts payable, since the beginning of the year, if you examine the trend for the key current asset accounts, namely prepaid expenses and vendor deposits, and you compare that sum against the quarterly changes in the sum of vendor payables and accrued expenses, there is no substantive volatility, just mostly timing differences. Hence, the burn rate is not substantially influenced by changes in the net working capital balance.

對於AP，應付帳款，自年初以來，如果您檢查主要流動資產帳戶的趨勢，即預付費用和供應商押金，並將該金額與供應商應付帳款和供應商應付帳款總額的季度變化進行比較，應計費用，不存在實質波動，僅時間上的差異。因此，燒錢率基本上不受淨營運資本餘額變動的影響。

With regard to the inter-company debt to PAVmed, it's flat sequentially and reflected balance is largely paid to the -- to be settled in stock issued to PAVmed. Shares outstanding, including unvested restricted stock awards as of today is 44.7 million shares, which includes 276,000 shares purchased by employees during the quarter as part of their participation in the company's employee stock purchase plan as well as 115,000 shares issued during the quarter in connection with conversion notices received from the convertible debt holders. The GAAP outstanding shares of 42.3 million are reflected on the slide as well as on the face of the balance sheet in the 10-Q.

關於 PAVmed 的公司間債務，該債務連續持平，反映的餘額主要支付給 PAVmed 發行的股票來結算。截至今日，已發行股票（包括未歸屬的限制性股票獎勵）為4,470 萬股，其中包括員工在本季度購買的276,000 股股票，作為參與公司員工股票購買計劃的一部分，以及本季度發行的115,000 股與從可轉換債券持有人收到的轉換通知。 4,230 萬股的 GAAP 流通股反映在投影片以及 10 季資產負債表的表面。

With regard to slide 17. Slide 17 compares this year's third quarter to last year's third quarter, and similarly for the nine months totals on certain key items. I trust you'll review the information of my comments in light of the cautionary disclosure in the bottom of slide about the supplemental information, particularly non-GAAP information.

關於投影片 17。投影片 17 將今年第三季與去年第三季進行了比較，並對某些關鍵項目的九個月總計進行了類似的比較。我相信您會根據幻燈片底部有關補充資訊（特別是非公認會計準則資訊）的警告性披露來審查我的評論資訊。

Revenue of $783,000 from the third quarter reflects actual cash collections for the quarter, plus a small amount of invoice EsoGuard test delivered to the Veterans Administration. As you can see, that is about a 10x increase over the prior year quarter and about fivefold increase over the second quarter of this year.

第三季 783,000 美元的收入反映了該季度的實際現金收款，加上交付給退伍軍人管理局的少量 EsoGuard 測試發票。正如您所看到的，這比去年同期增長了約 10 倍，比今年第二季度增長了約五倍。

Test volume at just under 2,600 tests for the quarter represents just about $5 million in submitted claims for the third quarter. You will recall from our discussion in the last quarterly call that we made a major change and upgrade to our revenue cycle management company. So far for the first six weeks of the fourth quarter, weekly collections have been averaging about 33% higher than the third quarter with a weekly high so far of $95,000 in a particular week.

本季的測試量略低於 2,600 次，僅代表第三季提交的索賠金額約為 500 萬美元。您會記得我們在上一季電話會議的討論中，我們對收入周期管理公司進行了重大變革和升級。到目前為止，在第四季度的前六週，每週收款額平均比第三季高出約 33%，迄今為止單週收款額最高為 95,000 美元。

With regard to revenue recognition, a key determinant is the probability of collection. And therefore, due to the fact that we are in the early stages of the reimbursement process, means revenue recognition occurs when the claim is actually collected first, when the patient reported invoices submitted for reimbursement. As you'll see in our 10-Q, this is called variable consideration in the jargon of GAAP's ASC 606 revenue recognition guidelines. And presently, there is insufficient predictive data to reflect revenue when the test report is delivered to the referring physician.

關於收入確認，一個關鍵的決定因素是收取的機率。因此，由於我們處於報銷流程的早期階段，這意味著當患者報告提交報銷的發票時，首先實際收取索賠，即發生收入確認。正如您將在我們的 10-Q 中看到的，這在 GAAP 的 ASC 606 收入確認指南的行話中稱為可變對價。目前，當測試報告交付給轉診醫生時，沒有足夠的預測數據來反映收入。

Our non-GAAP loss for the second quarter of $9.3 million reflects a 3.1% sequential decrease compared to the second-quarter loss and approximately a 9.4% decrease year over year as a result of the cost control initiatives we put in place the beginning of the year.

我們第二季的非 GAAP 虧損為 930 萬美元，與第二季虧損相比季減 3.1%，由於我們年初實施的成本控制舉措，年減約 9.4%。年。

Slide 18. Slide 18 is a graphic illustration of our operating expenses for the periods reflected. Total non-GAAP operating expenses $10 million from third-quarter 2023 and is a fairly flat sequentially -- is fairly flat sequentially and year over year. Except for G&A that included some increased IP filing fees, all operating expense categories were in line or lower.

投影片 18。投影片 18 是我們所反映期間的營運費用的圖解說明。自 2023 年第三季起，非 GAAP 營運支出總額為 1,000 萬美元，與上一季持平，與上一季相比持平。除了包括一些增加的智慧財產權申請費用的一般管理費用外，所有營運費用類別均保持一致或更低。

Cost of revenue primarily consists of EsoCheck devices, lab supplies, and fixed lab facility costs. The modest increase in cost of revenue of about $85,000 is directly tied to the sequential increase in test volume. Sequential test volume increases of about 375 tests and about $200 of variable cost controls -- cost accounts for the slight increase between the second and third quarters. Effectively an 11% marginal cost of sales for the increased test volume quarter versus quarter.

收入成本主要包括 EsoCheck 設備、實驗室用品和固定實驗室設施成本。收入成本小幅增加約 85,000 美元，與測試量的連續增加直接相關。測試量連續增加約 375 次測試和約 200 美元的可變成本控制——成本是第二季和第三季之間略有增加的原因。與上一季相比，增加的測試量實際上使邊際銷售成本降低了 11%。

The non-GAAP loss is slightly better sequentially by $0.01 per share and $0.06 per share year over year. On a GAAP EPS basis, non-cash charges accounted for approximately $0.12 per share in the quarter, including approximately $0.07 per share related to the change in fair value of the convertible debt.

非 GAAP 虧損比上一季略好，每股虧損 0.01 美元，較去年同期虧損 0.06 美元。以 GAAP 每股收益計算，本季非現金費用約為每股 0.12 美元，其中與可轉換債務公允價值變動相關的每股約為 0.07 美元。

If you normalize the loss by adding back the effect of the change in fair value of the convertible debt, the GAAP EPS improved by $0.07 year over year for the quarter and approximately $0.26 year over year for the year-to-date comparison.

如果透過加回可轉換債務公允價值變動的影響來使損失正常化，則本季 GAAP 每股收益年增 0.07 美元，與年初至今相比同比提高約 0.26 美元。

Some reimbursement details. Since the new revenue cycle manager was put in place, Quadax, to go over mid-June; 5,000 claims representing approximately $10 million in pro forma revenue have been submitted for reimbursement. About 70% have been adjudicated and 30% are pending. Out of the 70% that have been adjudicated, approximately 39% have resulted in an allowable amount by the insurance company with a mean average of $1,863 per test, essentially right at the Medicare rate.

一些報銷細節。自從新的收入週期管理器 Quadax 於 6 月中旬上任以來；已提交 5,000 份索賠申請，代表預計收入約 1,000 萬美元。大約 70% 已裁決，30% 待決。在已裁定的 70% 中，大約 39% 的結果是保險公司允許的金額，平均每次測試為 1,863 美元，基本上符合 Medicare 費率。

Of those denied, about 58% require either additional information or deemed not medically necessary or require a prior authorization, about 36% were deemed to be noncovered.

在被拒絕的人中，約 58% 需要額外資訊或被認為沒有醫療必要性或需要事先授權，約 36% 被視為未承保。

With that, operator, let's turn it open for question.

那麼，操作員，讓我們開始提問吧。

(Operator Instructions) Kyle Mikson, Canaccord.

（操作員說明）Kyle Mikson，Canaccord。

First question on the RCM situation, you said that weekly collections were, I think, turning like 30% higher. Just wondering how that flows into the P&L. You did $700,000 in revenue this quarter, I guess, last quarter in 3Q. Could you approach based on that math with the 30% higher collections everything, could you approach or exceed $1 million maybe in the fourth quarter based on the higher collections? Or it's just thinking about the run rate or the inflection point in volume and revenue going forward.

關於 RCM 情況的第一個問題，您說我認為每週收款額增加了 30%。只是想知道它是如何流入損益表的。我猜你這個季度的收入是 70 萬美元，也就是第三季的最後一個季度。你能否根據這一數學計算，將所有藏品增加 30%？根據更高的藏品，你能否在第四季度接近或超過 100 萬美元？或只是考慮運行率或未來數量和收入的拐點。

First of, the collections are directly related to the future revenue that will be recognized. The only small piece we do have this study with the VA, to the extent, we have additional tests with (inaudible) last clinical study is near its conclusion, although there will be another upcoming one and that is recognized on an invoice basis. There is only a handful of revenue last quarter.

首先，收款與未來確認的收入有直接關係。我們與VA 進行的這項研究的唯一一小部分，在某種程度上，我們對（聽不清楚）最後一項臨床研究進行了額外的測試，該研究已接近結束，儘管即將進行另一項研究，並且在發票的基礎上得到認可。上個季度的收入很少。

And to my comments, our collections are increasing, increasing at an -- increasing rate. The average so far for the quarter puts us over $1 million in recognized revenue for the fourth quarter, so your assumption is correct.

根據我的評論，我們的收藏正在增加，並且以越來越快的速度增加。到目前為止，本季度的平均值使我們第四季度的確認收入超過 100 萬美元，因此您的假設是正確的。

Okay. Thanks for that, Dennis. And then the -- actually, you know what just on this note about the financials, just looking at the slide with the EBITDA and net income and everything, it's pretty similar year to year and even the nine-month data is pretty, it hasn't really contracted much. Like you're still probably burning a similar amount of cash.

好的。謝謝你，丹尼斯。然後 - 實際上，你知道關於財務狀況的說明，只要看看 EBITDA 和淨利潤等所有內容的幻燈片，每年都非常相似，甚至九個月的數據也很漂亮，它沒有確實收縮不多。就像你可能仍然在消耗類似數量的現金一樣。

What are you guys' thoughts on getting cash burn down over time or is that a priority for you as you think about profitability as you took are like it's out there in the field more broadly? And like I just would like an influx of everything out there in terms of adoption? Is that a -- like what levers can you pull? I think you mentioned something about like reps stabilizing everything, and may be possibly increasing over the long term. But how are you thinking about all these things like converging into on like expenses and cash burn?

你們對隨著時間的推移燒錢有什麼想法，或者當你們考慮盈利能力時，這對你們來說是一個優先事項嗎？就像在更廣泛的領域一樣？就像我只是希望在採用方面大量湧入？這就像你能拉動什麼槓桿一樣嗎？我想你提到了一些關於代表穩定一切的事情，並且從長遠來看可能會增加。但是，您如何考慮所有這些事情，例如費用和現金消耗等問題？

Let me give some high-level comments and then Dennis will -- I think some of your assessment of the numbers he might tweak a bit. So look, this is the balancing act. Like we've said it before, we'll say it again that what we're balancing here is driving test volume growth to now a level that is sufficient for us to really have sufficient claims to engage with the medical directors of payers and so on and so forth while trying to keep our burn rate down in this particular environment. And that involves keeping our sales headcount flat for this entire year.

讓我給一些高層評論，然後丹尼斯會——我認為你對數字的一些評估他可能會稍微調整一下。所以看，這就是平衡行為。就像我們之前說過的那樣，我們要再說一遍，我們在這裡平衡的是推動測試量增長到目前的水平，足以讓我們真正有足夠的索賠與付款人的醫療主管進行接觸，所以等等，同時試圖在這個特定的環境中降低我們的燒錢率。這意味著我們全年的銷售人數保持不變。

So that we've been really happy honestly with how that's worked and that the test volume growth has been steady. We've been able to do that with a flat headcount while making the progress that we need on the revenue cycle management side, claims processing, claims payment, and so forth. So I do think that Dennis, may be you can dive a little bit more into the impact of the reduction in force and the restructuring early this year with regard to our burn rate over the past year as well as moving into the future.

因此，我們對它的運作方式以及測試量的穩定成長感到非常滿意。我們能夠以固定的員工人數做到這一點，同時在收入週期管理、索賠處理、索賠支付等方面取得我們所需的進展。因此，我確實認為丹尼斯，您可能可以更深入地了解今年年初減少兵力和重組對我們過去一年以及未來的燒錢率的影響。

Yeah, so, Kyle, if you look at that EBITDA number of $9,251 on the slide 17, the inclusive of that is about 20 to 50 in inter-company obligations from Lucid to PAVmed. And as I indicated in my comments, ideally, the PAVmed would accept that in stock and therefore -- and which has been the case, we're the majority of time since last October.

是的，凱爾，如果你看看第 17 張幻燈片上 9,251 美元的 EBITDA 數字，其中包括從 Lucid 到 PAVmed 的大約 20 到 50 美元的公司間債務。正如我在評論中指出的那樣，理想情況下，PAVmed 會接受庫存，因此 - 自去年 10 月以來，我們的大部分時間都是如此。

If you back that out that gets you right to around the burn rate that I commented on, that's sub-$7 million. And we believe the levels of OpEx that we're seeing right now, we can maintain until we see the acceleration of collections to a higher degree of which will then definitely accelerated in our go-to-market strategy. And we know exactly where those initiatives would gear up.

如果你支持這一點，那麼你的燒錢率就會達到我評論的水平，那就是不到 700 萬美元。我們相信我們現在看到的營運支出水準可以維持下去，直到我們看到收集加速到更高的程度，然後我們的市場策略肯定會加速。我們確切地知道這些措施將在哪些方面發揮作用。

And so if you look at how that burn rate can change over the next four quarters, let's say, over through 2024, collections is a key part of that. Even if the submitted claims of $5 million a quarter stayed relatively flat, the demand side of this equation is still pretty strong. Then as you increase the amount of collections you did the calculations based upon the information I gave you for the first six weeks and you're over $1 million.

因此，如果你看看未來四個季度的燒錢率會如何變化，比如說，到 2024 年，收藏品是其中的關鍵部分。即使每季提交的 500 萬美元索賠保持相對平穩，這個等式的需求方面仍然相當強勁。然後，當你增加收藏量時，你根據我在前六週提供給你的資訊進行計算，結果你的收入超過了 100 萬美元。

As that continues to increase as a percentage of that [$5 million] submitted claims, the burn rate will go down. And we're expecting based upon the initiatives from our market access team and now having published data on clinical utility that certain -- that trend certainly should be realized. So we think that we've hit the right tone with the level of OpEx. Obviously, if those assumptions on the revenue collections are not hit, we see that as only a remote possibility. But if true, then we would seek to reduce our OpEx even further. But as Lishan indicated, we're trying to strike that balance, claims history is important to get reimbursement.

隨著該金額在提交的索賠 [500 萬美元] 中所佔的比例繼續增加，燒錢率將會下降。我們預計，根據我們的市場准入團隊的舉措，以及現在發布的臨床效用數據，這種趨勢肯定應該實現。因此，我們認為我們在營運支出水準上已經達到了正確的基調。顯然，如果這些關於稅收的假設沒有被滿足，我們認為這種可能性很小。但如果屬實，那麼我們將尋求進一步降低營運支出。但正如 Lishan 所指出的，我們正在努力達到這種平衡，索賠歷史對於獲得報銷很重要。

And it's just important because you need to have the attention of the chief medical officers for them to deal with what our market access team are presenting to them. So we think that the OpEx will remain flat. Our collections will increase. The burn rate will go down because of all those -- some of those factors.

這很重要，因為您需要首席醫療官的注意，讓他們處理我們的市場准入團隊向他們展示的內容。因此我們認為營運支出將保持穩定。我們的收藏將會增加。由於所有這些因素，燒錢率將會下降。

Okay. Thanks, Dennis and thanks, Lishan for the earlier comments. Lishan, on the EsoGuard 2.0 assay, couple of questions about that. I guess, firstly, why is that and why is not the right time for the for the assay launch? I mean, I feel like, 1.0 has been on the market for a couple of years. It's not fully penetrated just yet. It's still like on that upward trajectory.

好的。謝謝丹尼斯和李山之前的評論。 Lishan，關於 EsoGuard 2.0 檢測，有幾個問題。我想，首先，為什麼會這樣？為什麼不是啟動檢測的合適時間？我的意思是，我覺得 1.0 已經上市幾年了。目前還沒有完全滲透。它仍然像那個上升軌跡一樣。

How are you thinking about FDA approval for the new assay? How much data has been generated and like how much will be generated going forward and publications and that sort of thing?

您如何看待 FDA 批准新檢測方法？已經產生了多少數據，以及未來將產生多少數據以及出版物之類的事情？

And then how much lower in cost of goods sold with this lower -- with this 2.0 assay have compared to the former? And also the turnaround time? I feel like that's something that might improve or actually may expand or increase with this newer assays? Also some of those factors, if you could just touch on those, it would be great.

那麼，與前者相比，使用這種較低的 2.0 檢測方法銷售的商品成本降低了多少？還有周轉時間？我覺得這種新的檢測可能會改善或實際上可能會擴大或增加？還有其中一些因素，如果您能觸及這些因素，那就太好了。

So look, it's the same assay, Kyle. It's the same genes. It's the same CpG islands and at the same methylation side. So there's nothing fundamental at the core with regards to how we're interrogating the biologic process that's going on here. So this is really incremental improvement that has -- that does have a meaningful incorporation of really cutting edge technology with regard to doing this in a multiplex fashion.

所以看，這是相同的檢測，凱爾。這是相同的基因。它具有相同的 CpG 島並且位於相同的甲基化側。因此，關於我們如何探討這裡正在發生的生物過程，沒有什麼根本性的核心。因此，這確實是漸進式改進，確實有意義地結合了真正尖端的技術，以多重方式實現這一點。

So that's -- just to be clear, we're not introducing an entirely new assay. We're just taking the same underlying biology, the same genes, the same methylation and performing the assay in a more efficient way that will give us perhaps a bit of additional edge on performance, particularly as we move towards screening population towards where the magnitude of the positives could be closer to the cutoff. So we're just picking our way and doing continuous improvement, and that's honestly what we should all be doing.

所以，要先明確的是，我們並沒有引進一種全新的檢測方法。我們只是採用相同的基礎生物學、相同的基因、相同的甲基化，並以更有效的方式進行測定，這可能會給我們帶來一些額外的性能優勢，特別是當我們朝著篩選人群的方向邁進時正向因素可能更接近截止點。因此，我們只是選擇自己的方式並持續改進，這確實是我們都應該做的。

In terms of the regulatory question right now, as you know, this is being marketed as a laboratory developed test, and we have had engagement over the years with FDA through our multiple pre-submission meetings as well as a breakthrough device. And we will be reengaging with FDA over the long term to have EsoGuard presented as an IVD. But we have -- this is -- the point is exactly what you suggested, which is we obviously want to have the best version of the assay as we enter into studies that would ultimately, over the long term, get us towards an IVD, which will do and will be necessary for us to do under the current on proposed FDA rule.

就目前的監管問題而言，如您所知，這是作為實驗室開發的測試進行銷售的，多年來我們通過多次提交前會議以及突破性設備與 FDA 進行了接觸。從長遠來看，我們將重新與 FDA 合作，將 EsoGuard 作為 IVD 提供。但我們——這就是——重點正是你所建議的，我們顯然希望在我們進入研究時擁有最好的檢測版本，從長遠來看，最終使我們走向 IVD，根據當前擬議的FDA 規則，這對我們來說是必要的。

So yeah, we're just making it better and it's getting incrementally better, and we think it will be -- that will be beneficial and useful for the existing commercial volume. And then subsequently as we advance to future studies and we look to take advantage of these benefits, and we may look to continue to improve it.

所以，是的，我們只是讓它變得更好，而且它正在逐漸變得更好，我們認為這將對現有的商業量有益且有用。然後，隨著我們進入未來的研究，我們希望利用這些好處，並且我們可能會繼續改進它。

The overall cost of primary, the primary impact on the cost is on the sequencing cost, which is a meaningful portion of that. I want -- Dennis, I'd be happy if you'd like to chime in on what the magnitude of that is in terms of the COGS. I mean, obviously, we're still -- we're operating with substantial gross margin to begin with, but we do think it will have a meaningful reduction in costs.

初級的總體成本，對成本的主要影響是定序成本，這是其中有意義的部分。我想──丹尼斯，如果你願意插嘴 COGS 的大小，我會很高興。我的意思是，顯然，我們一開始就以可觀的毛利率運營，但我們確實認為這將顯著降低成本。

So I'll pass that on to Dennis, but before I do on the -- let me just comment briefly on turnaround times. Right now, our turnaround times are seven to nine days. There is certain fundamental core competence of that, which include the time it takes to transport the sample to our central laboratory and certain steps along the way with DNA extraction and the bisulfite conversion and so forth.

因此，我會將其轉達給丹尼斯，但在我這樣做之前，讓我簡要評論一下週轉時間。目前，我們的周轉時間是七到九天。其中有一定的基本核心能力，其中包括將樣品運送到我們中心實驗室所需的時間以及 DNA 萃取和亞硫酸氫鹽轉化等過程中的某些步驟。

To be perfectly honest, seven to nine days is perfectly fine. This is an elective test. The decision making around how to -- what to do with the results of the test is to schedule an endoscopy. And so we're quite happy at that level. There may be at higher volumes, an opportunity to save a day or two off of that, but that's not going -- that would not be meaningful from a clinical point of view.

老實說，七到九天就完全沒問題了。這是一個選修測試。圍繞如何－如何處理測試結果的決策是安排內視鏡檢查。所以我們對這個水準非常滿意。可能在產量較高時，有機會節省一兩天的時間，但這是不可能的——從臨床角度來看，這沒有意義。

So Dennis, I don't know if you have any further thoughts on the cost of -- the improvements in costs with the 2.0 version.

丹尼斯，我不知道您對 2.0 版本的成本改進是否有任何進一步的想法。

Yeah, look, we need to prove it out, but it's safe to assume that we think there's about a 10% improvement in our actual costs.

是的，我們需要證明這一點，但可以肯定的是，我們認為實際成本提高了約 10%。

Okay. All right. That was great color. Thanks for all that guys. Sounds like standard assay, like you said, Lishan, like fundamentally similar performance has gotten better and improved. The workflow is now more efficient. So the COGS improved as well 10% is pretty good, I would say. That was great.

好的。好的。那是很棒的顏色。謝謝你們所有人。聽起來像是標準測定，就像你說的，Lishan，基本上類似的性能已經變得更好和改進。工作流程現在更有效率。所以我想說，COGS 也提高了 10%，這已經相當不錯了。那很棒。

Let me just ask a really quick one before I hop off. This progress with commercial and private payers, what are they reimbursing on average? Remember, in the past that was like 50% to 60% of the Medicare rate. How is that looking now?

在我下車之前，讓我快速問一個問題。商業和私人付款人的這項進展，他們平均報銷多少？請記住，過去這大約是 Medicare 費率的 50% 到 60%。現在看起來怎麼樣？

Dennis?

丹尼斯？

Maybe you can restate your question in terms of -- I'm not sure exactly which -- because we talked about allowable planes at nearly the $1,900, right?

也許你可以用以下方式重述你的問題——我不確定到底是哪一個——因為我們討論過允許的飛機價格接近 1,900 美元，對吧？

What were you trying to dissect further?

您想進一步剖析什麼？

I guess, the commercial payer segment in the past on average, I believe, that was -- that bucket was paying roughly half in 1938 rate. So I think was like 1,100 or 1,200 around there, but maybe that has changed in past quarters, so (multiple speakers) --

我想，我相信，過去的商業支付部分平均支付了 1938 年費率的一半。所以我認為大約有 1,100 或 1,200 人，但也許過去幾個季度情況發生了變化，所以（多個發言者）--

I think it's correct to say it's gone up, right, Dennis?

我認為說它上漲是正確的，對吧，丹尼斯？

Yeah, it has gone up. And I'm actually reaching for the number. I don't think we've published that exactly. So the mean average of allowable claims in $1,863. The actual payment rate (multiple speakers) --

是的，已經漲了。我實際上正在伸手去拿這個號碼。我認為我們還沒有確切地發布這一點。因此，允許索賠的平均金額為 1,863 美元。實際繳費率（多位發言者）－

-- actually looking for that. The actual payment rate is dependent on a few other variables in terms of like deductibles and the portion that the patient is responsible for that varies year to year based on enrollment periods and so forth. But I think as a generic statement, the average payment that we're getting for commercial payers is actually higher than it was when we were saying that we were getting about 50% to 60% of our billed rates, so the $2,500 billed rate. So it's definitely increased if that's your question, Kyle.

——實際上正在尋找那個。實際支付率取決於一些其他變量，例如免賠額以及患者負責的部分，該部分每年根據註冊期等而變化。但我認為作為一般性聲明，我們為商業付款人獲得的平均付款實際上高於我們所說的我們獲得的賬單費率的 50% 至 60% 左右，即 2,500 美元的賬單費率。所以，如果這是你的問題，那麼它肯定會增加，凱爾。

Yes, that was perfect. Again, thanks so much, guys, for all the commentary (multiple speakers) --

是的，那太完美了。再次，非常感謝大家的所有評論（多位發言者）—

I just wanted to emphasize -- I want to reiterate one of the things. The test is not similar. It's the same test, the same tests just better in terms of efficiencies. And so just to be clear, the underlying biology is identical to the original tests. Just wanted to make sure that there was no confusion about that.

我只是想強調——我想重申其中一件事。測試並不相似。這是相同的測試，相同的測試只是效率更高。因此需要明確的是，基礎生物學與原始測試相同。只是想確保對此沒有任何混淆。

The other 2.0. Okay, got it. Got it, Lishan. Again, thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate it.

另一個2.0。好，知道了。明白了，李山。再次非常感謝，夥計們。欣賞它。

Ross Osborn, Cantor Fitzgerald.

羅斯·奧斯本，康托·菲茨杰拉德。

Hey, guys. Congrats on the progress. Thanks for taking our questions. Good morning.

大家好。祝賀取得的進展。感謝您回答我們的問題。早安.

You mentioned targeting police officers for new Precancer Detection Event. Would you discuss the rationale for this population and if you plan to create a registry from these events and larger firefighters?

您提到以警察為目標進行新的癌前檢測活動。您是否會討論此人群的基本原理以及您是否計劃根據這些事件和大型消防員創建一個註冊表？

Yeah. No, I think the expansion beyond firefighters into other groups is really -- I would think of it more generically as opposed to policemen being -- having unique risk factors associated with it. It really is a population. If you look at the risk factors for having esophageal precancer, yes, there's a reasonably high incidence amongst them, but not because of any particular occupational exposure as opposed to in firefighters where it's really very well documented that they have increased cancer rates in general and the second highest increasing that cancer rate -- and those cancer rates is amongst esophageal cancer.

是的。不，我認為從消防員擴展到其他群體確實 - 我會更普遍地認為它與警察相反 - 具有與之相關的獨特風險因素。這確實是一個人口。如果你看看食道癌前期的危險因素，是的，其中的發病率相當高，但這並不是因為任何特定的職業暴露，而消防員則相反，有充分的記錄表明，他們總體上增加了癌症發生率，且癌症發生率第二高的是食道癌。

So a good opportunity for me to emphasize that we remain very focused on firefighters as a specific population. That's why we've split our registry to include a dedicated subset of firefighters. I would view the police that has basically just a broader expansion of our findings a captive audience a group that has a reasonable rate of having the risk factors and being good candidates for testing and having them aggregated and entities such as [police unions], that give us an opportunity to target a larger group at once and to improve access.

因此，這是我強調我們仍然非常關註消防員這一特定人群的好機會。這就是為什麼我們將我們的登記冊拆分為包含專門的消防員子集。我認為警察基本上只是對我們的發現進行了更廣泛的擴展，是一個受限制的受眾，是一個具有合理比例的風險因素的群體，是測試和匯總這些因素的良好候選者，以及諸如[警察工會]之類的實體，讓我們有機會同時針對更大的群體並改善准入。

And so we'll continue to expand these CYFT events into other groups. There's public service employees, and it really starts to meld into the broader direct contracting initiative that we're just getting off the ground with our first employer. So if you think of employers and self-insured entities, unions, they really are part of the same spectrum of just collected groups of patients where we have potential for high yield events such as our CYFT events. The firefighters are special and that they have a clear elevated risk and require justify targeting focus.

因此，我們將繼續將這些 CYFT 活動擴展到其他組別。有公共服務僱員，它確實開始融入我們剛剛與第一個雇主開始實施的更廣泛的直接合約計劃中。因此，如果你想到雇主和自我保險實體、工會，他們確實屬於剛剛收集的患者群體的同一範圍的一部分，我們有可能舉辦高收益活動，例如我們的 CYFT 活動。消防員很特殊，他們的風險明顯較高，需要證明目標重點是合理的。

Did that makes sense?

這樣有道理嗎？

Yes, makes perfect sense. And going off of that, and apologies if this was addressed in prepared remarks, showing a couple of calls, but would you discuss how your conversation is going with additional employers for direct contracting? Do you think it should be a key driver for '24?

是的，很有道理。就此而言，如果在準備好的評論中解決了這個問題，並顯示了幾個電話，那麼您會討論一下您與其他雇主直接簽訂合約的對話進行得如何嗎？您認為它應該成為 '24 的關鍵驅動力嗎？

I think it should. The conversations we've had and the conversations we had with our first employer contract, the ones that are undergoing testing right now this quarter as we speak, it's really interesting. There's a sweet spot of small-to-medium employers who are self-employed, where one esophageal cancer patient amongst them are one cancer, other kind of cancer can have a really big impact, both economically if they're self-insured, and they have some reinsurance or other opportunities to cover that.

我認為應該是如此。我們進行的對話以及我們與第一份雇主合約的對話，就在我們說話的時候，本季正在接受測試的對話，這真的很有趣。有一個中小型雇主的最佳選擇，他們是個體經營者，其中一名食道癌患者是一種癌症，另一種癌症可能會產生很大的影響，如果他們有自我保險的話，無論是在經濟上還是在經濟上，他們有一些再保險或其他機會來彌補這一點。

But right now, the esophageal cancer diagnosis will typically cost about $1 million or more once you get through all the surgery and chemo and radiation and immunotherapy. And so there is a strong economic argument to be made for these, particularly for the small-to-medium companies.

但目前，一旦完成所有手術、化療、放療和免疫治療，食道癌的診斷通常需要花費約 100 萬美元或更多。因此，對於這些，特別是對於中小型公司來說，有強而有力的經濟理由。

There's also a human element there where these tend to be close-knit organizations and the impact of a cancer, a cancer death within that organization is really meaningful to human level. And so our ability to have these conversations and there's a real motivation on leadership at these employers to provide their patients with something that they would deem to be a real benefit to them.

還有人為因素，這些組織往往是緊密結合的組織，癌症的影響，該組織內的癌症死亡對人類層面確實有意義。因此，我們有能力進行這些對話，而這些雇主的領導層有真正的動力為患者提供他們認為對他們真正有益的東西。

The whole area of offering testing as part of a broader health and wellness benefit program separate from your medical insurance coverage under your medical insurance through standard claims process is really a blue ocean. It's something that other companies, other diagnostic companies have had good success with. And there's a whole untapped ecosystem out there that we are about to really dive headfirst into with [Jim Fraccione], our new VP of employer markets, of working within the ecosystem of brokers and others that work with employers to get their health and wellness benefit programs package together.

透過標準索賠流程，將檢測作為更廣泛的健康和保健福利計劃的一部分，與您的醫療保險承保範圍分開，這整個領域確實是一片藍海。其他公司、其他診斷公司在這方面都取得了巨大成功。還有一個尚未開發的生態系統，我們將與我們新任雇主市場副總裁 [Jim Fraccione] 一起真正深入研究，在經紀人和其他與雇主合作以獲得健康和保健福利的生態系統中工作程序打包在一起。

You think of that more along things like smoking cessation and nutrition and other things add-on things that are benefits -- that employers can offer their employees but targeted testing and particularly testing that's designed to prevent cancer falls within the same rubric there. So super excited. Theirs a cyclical nature of this, they tend to peak around open enrollment periods, but there is a lot a lot of opportunity there and an opportunity that supplemented in some way, short circuit, some of the even more traditional routes going through payers. So yes, super excited about diving forward into this.

你會想到更多的事情，例如戒菸和營養以及其他附加的東西，即雇主可以為員工提供的福利，但有針對性的測試，特別是旨在預防癌症的測試也屬於同一範疇。太興奮了。它們具有周期性，它們往往在開放註冊期間達到頂峰，但那裡有很多機會，並且有機會以某種方式補充，短路，一些通過付款人的更傳統的路線。所以，是的，我對深入研究這一點感到非常興奮。

All right. Sounds great. Thank you, guys. Congrats on progress.

好的。聽起來很棒。感謝你們。祝賀進步。

Mike Matson, Needham & Co.

麥克‧馬特森，李約瑟公司

I guess I wanted to ask about, Dennis, just given the trends you're seeing with the revenue cycle management and collections and so forth, do you have any feel for what ability to predict when you could maybe start to recognize revenue when the tests are actually performed as opposed to when you get paid for them?

我想我想問一下，丹尼斯，鑑於您在收入週期管理和收款等方面看到的趨勢，您是否有能力預測何時可以在測試時開始確認收入是實際執行的，而不是當您獲得報酬時？

Yeah, Mike, I think that's still several quarters out. I would think we would be -- actually we're collecting the data to be in a position to do so. But I don't think that that's going to happen until the end of '24.

是的，麥克，我認為還需要幾個季度。我認為我們會——實際上我們正在收集數據以便能夠做到這一點。但我認為這要到 24 年底才會發生。

Okay. I understand. And then just on the CheckYourFoodTube events. I mean, it's good to see the traction there, but I'm just wondering about the scalability of that as you grow and do more tests. I mean, is that something that you can scale with the company?

好的。我明白。然後就是 CheckYourFoodTube 事件。我的意思是，很高興看到那裡的吸引力，但我只是想知道隨著您的成長和進行更多測試，它的可擴展性。我的意思是，這是你可以與公司一起擴展的東西嗎？

Oh, definitely. I think I thought you were going to ask the other question about whether it's cannibalizing our core business, but we love the CheckYourFoodTube events. They are highly efficient. The input into a large number of tests that come out of these events in terms of the person hours of sales interaction as well as the efficiency of having our nurse practitioners or other clinicians perform the EsoCheck, is highly efficient, and so it's very scalable.

哦，當然。我想我以為你會問另一個問題，即它是否會蠶食我們的核心業務，但我們喜歡 CheckYourFoodTube 活動。他們效率很高。這些活動產生的大量測試的輸入，包括銷售互動的人時數以及我們的執業護士或其他臨床醫生執行 EsoCheck 的效率，都是非常高效的，因此具有很強的可擴展性。

I mean, you typically will have an engagement with, let's say, a fire department in a location, as our prototypical example that's a rep and maybe their area director working with them to get this organized. We have a single person on the sales team that coordinates all of these in a fairly efficient fashion.

我的意思是，您通常會與某個地點的消防部門進行接觸，作為我們的典型示例，該部門是代表，也許是他們的區域主管，與他們一起組織此事。我們的銷售團隊中有一個人以相當有效的方式協調所有這些工作。

And then when they're scheduled, we have one of our nurse practitioners or other device administrators come in, and they're doing 50 in a day. We'd love to have that in the more traditional environments where we're engaged more in the trenches with physicians. So it really is a highly efficient and absolutely very scalable way to do this.

然後，當他們安排好時間後，我們會讓一位執業護理師或其他設備管理員進來，他們一天要做 50 次。我們希望在更傳統的環境中實現這一點，在那裡我們更多地與醫生一起參與戰鬥。因此，這確實是一種高效且絕對可擴展的方法。

But, again, I just want to be clear, even though this wasn't your direct question that our approach to this remains all of the above. Everything we can do, whether it's our -- the traditional in the trenches, working with physicians and institutions, working through these health events, working with employers and unions and other self-insured entities, we're attacking it on all fronts anywhere we can enhance patient access. So, yeah, it does remain -- it is a very important -- very attractive modality and an efficient one that is definitely scalable.

但是，我想再次澄清，儘管這不是您直接提出的問題，但我們的處理方法仍然是上述所有內容。我們能做的一切，無論是我們的傳統方式，在戰壕中與醫生和機構合作，應對這些健康事件，與雇主、工會和其他自我保險實體合作，我們在任何地方的所有戰線上都在攻擊它。可以增強患者的可及性。所以，是的，它確實仍然存在——這是一種非常重要的、非常有吸引力的模式，而且是一種絕對可擴展的高效模式。

Okay, got it. And then just finally now that you've got or you're close to having some of the clinical utility data, do you have any plans to go back to Medicare? I understand that you're focused on the payers and employers and things like that. But Medicare is a big opportunity, so do you have any plans to go back to them? And what would be the timing of that or is there some cycle there that you have to wait for or something?

好，知道了。最後，現在您已經獲得或即將獲得一些臨床實用數據，您是否有計劃回到醫療保險？我知道您關注的是付款人和雇主之類的事情。但醫療保險是一個很大的機會，所以你有計劃回到他們那裡嗎？那個時間是什麼時候，或者是否有某個週期你必須等待或什麼？

Yeah. So I think -- so, yeah as you know, we've made substantial progress there. We have two published of two of the three clinical utility studies are published. And so we'll wait till the third. But the way we engage with Medicare is somewhat different than where we engage with payers, right?

是的。所以我認為——所以，是的，正如你所知，我們已經在這方面取得了實質進展。我們已經發表了三項臨床實務研究中的兩項。所以我們會等到第三次。但我們與醫療保險打交道的方式與我們與付款人打交道的方式有些不同，對吧？

The payer process is more blocking and tackling pilot programs, small and regional plans, larger plans. It's a continuous process. With Medicare, it's much more binary. And so we will wait till we have all our ducks in a row, have all of the clinical utility studies published in the peer literature. We'll have some initial conversations with them in the first half of next year about how to structure our submission under the existing [LCD].

付款人流程更多的是阻礙和解決試點計劃、小型和區域計劃、更大的計劃。這是一個持續的過程。對於醫療保險來說，它更加二元化。因此，我們將等到我們一切順利，所有臨床效用研究都在同行文獻中發表。我們將在明年上半年與他們進行一些初步對話，討論如何在現有的 [LCD] 下建立我們的提交內容。

And we may wait till later in the first half to get the results of our additional clinical validity study, the BE2 study that's actively enrolling. And so, yeah, we'll engage with them in the first half of the year to plan that out and work towards a submission of the full package of the clinical utility and clinical validity data sometime later in the year.

我們可能要等到上半年晚些時候才能得到我們額外的臨床有效性研究的結果，即正在積極招募的 BE2 研究。因此，是的，我們將在今年上半年與他們合作，制定計劃，並努力在今年稍後提交完整的臨床效用和臨床有效性數據。

So that's an active process. But it's qualitatively different than the more incremental processes that we're working with the commercial payers. And as you noted, just to reemphasize, a key missing element there had been the clinical utility data. And now that we have that moving forward and lockdown, the opportunity to reengage with [multi X] is approaching.

所以這是一個積極的過程。但它與我們與商業付款人合作的增量流程有質的不同。正如您所指出的，只是再次強調，臨床效用資料是一個關鍵的缺失要素。現在我們已經向前邁進並進行了封鎖，與 [multi X] 重新接觸的機會即將到來。

Mark Massaro, BTIG.

馬克·馬薩羅，BTIG。

This is Vivian. I'm for Mark. Thanks for taking the questions. It's nice to see the progress with establishing claims history and clinical utility data, I guess, supporting conversations with commercial pay. You called out the revenue cycle management as well.

這是維維安。我是為了馬克。感謝您提出問題。我想，很高興看到建立索賠歷史和臨床效用數據方面的進展，支持與商業支付的對話。您也提到了收入周期管理。

I guess, how should we think about remaining levers to pull for ASP improvement? What growth we could see off of Q3 ASPs?

我想，我們該如何考慮剩餘的手段來拉動 ASP 的改進？我們可以看到第三季平均售價的成長如何？

ASP (multiple speakers) --

ASP（多位發言者）--

Yeah, Dennis (multiple speakers) so the ASP growth is really just a matter of the collections against the submitted claims. First of all, our price per test is just under $2,500. Medicare rate is just under $1,900 -- just at $1,900. And we think that those numbers will continue to hold for us as we go forward is the benchmark to be paid against.

是的，丹尼斯（多位發言者），所以平均售價的增長實際上只是針對提交的索賠的收集的問題。首先，我們每次測試的價格略低於 2,500 美元。醫療保險費率略低於 1,900 美元——僅 1,900 美元。我們認為，隨著我們前進，這些數字將繼續成為我們支付的基準。

Now, we're all out of network, and at the allowable amount of $1,800, just under $1,900, we're out of network, not in the coverage policies by the private pay. We think that's an indication that that becomes a pretty good floor for us.

現在，我們都脫離了網絡，並且在允許的金額 1,800 美元，略低於 1,900 美元的情況下，我們脫離了網絡，不在私人支付的承保範圍內。我們認為這表明這對我們來說是一個非常好的地板。

So in terms of actual revenue recognized, divided by number of tests delivered in a quarter, we think that ratio changes purely based upon collection and the movement in the market access from out of network to in network over time. So I think that's where you're aiming at in terms of ASP, getting to that benchmark. But we don't see that benchmark eroding at any time soon.

因此，就已確認的實際收入除以一個季度內提供的測試數量而言，我們認為該比率的變化純粹取決於收集以及隨著時間的推移從網絡外到網絡內市場訪問的變化。所以我認為這就是您在 ASP 方面的目標，達到該基準。但我們認為該基準不會很快受到侵蝕。

So a qualitative response to that is that the levers are what we're doing on the coverage side, which is utilizing the clinical utility data now that it's coming out. Engaging with payers on pilot programs and a variety of other ways to leverage that data and actually get in-network coverage as we are improving collections with the processes that Dennis mentioned. So the levers are really focusing on medical policy coverage as the RCM, the revenue cycle management, activity is improving and gearing up.

因此，對此的定性回應是，槓桿是我們在核保方面所做的事情，即利用即將發布的臨床效用數據。與付款人一起參與試點計劃和各種其他方式來利用這些數據，並實際獲得網絡內覆蓋，因為我們正在透過丹尼斯提到的流程改進收款。因此，槓桿真正集中在醫療政策覆蓋範圍上，因為 RCM、收入週期管理、活動正在改善和加速。

Ed Woo, Ascendiant Capital.

艾德·吳，Ascendian Capital。

Yeah, congratulations on the quarter. As you guys continue to have consistent high growth and scale up the testing business in the US, have you thought about international opportunities?

是的，恭喜這個季度。隨著你們繼續保持持續的高成長並擴大在美國的測試業務，你們是否考慮過國際機會？

Yeah, that's a great question. That comes up a lot. I think I might have mentioned this on previous calls. We have previously done an analysis in Europe, the EsoCheck has CE mark, and we have the ability to run the assay there. Europe is very tough for molecular diagnostic screening tests.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。這種情況經常出現。我想我可能在之前的電話中提到過這一點。我們之前在歐洲做過一次分析，EsoCheck 有 CE 標誌，我們有能力在那裡運行檢測。歐洲對於分子診斷篩檢測試非常嚴格。

Some of the genomic profiling tests and so forth have a strong presence there, but even tests like Cologuard and others have struggled in Europe because the overall reimbursements there are low. We've had some discussions about Canada, and that's really been our focus at this point.

一些基因組分析測試等在歐洲有著很強的影響力，但即使是像 Cologuard 和其他這樣的測試在歐洲也舉步維艱，因為那裡的整體報銷很低。我們已經就加拿大進行了一些討論，這確實是我們目前的重點。

So we get occasional input from other parts of the world, but that's not been a major focus right now. We're really laser focused on the US market.

因此，我們偶爾會收到來自世界其他地區的意見，但這並不是目前的主要焦點。我們確實非常專注於美國市場。

Great. Well, thanks for answering my questions, and I wish you guys good luck. Thank you.

偉大的。好的，謝謝您回答我的問題，祝大家好運。謝謝。

Yeah, thanks a lot, Ed.

是的，非常感謝，艾德。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference over to Dr. Aklog for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉交給 Aklog 博士做總結發言。

Great. Thanks, operator. And, hey, thank you all for your attention this morning, and thanks for all the great questions. It's always enjoyable to discuss the results. As I said, we couldn't be happier with how, with this quarter, it really is a result of incredibly hard work that's laid the groundwork on clinical research, on our laboratory, on market access team, and so forth. And we're looking forward to a bright future for Lucid and its technologies.

偉大的。謝謝，接線生。嘿，謝謝大家今天早上的關注，也謝謝大家提出的好問題。討論結果總是令人愉快的。正如我所說，我們對本季度的成績感到非常高興，這確實是令人難以置信的艱苦工作的結果，為臨床研究、我們的實驗室、市場准入團隊等奠定了基礎。我們期待 Lucid 及其技術的光明未來。

We look forward to continuing to update you on our progress through press releases and follow-up calls. And, as always, feel free to contact us through Mike Parks at mep@pavmed.com, and to follow us on social media. So thank you all, and have a great day.

我們期待繼續透過新聞稿和後續電話向您通報我們的最新進展。一如既往，請隨時透過 Mike Parks（郵箱為 mep@pavmed.com）與我們聯繫，並在社交媒體上關注我們。謝謝大家，祝您有美好的一天。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。