Rockwell Medical Inc (RMTI) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to Rockwell Medical's Second Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call and Webcast. Please note this event is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference call over to Heather Hunter, Senior Vice President, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Rockwell Medical. Heather, please go ahead.

早上好，歡迎參加羅克韋爾醫療 2023 年第二季度業績電話會議和網絡廣播。請注意此事件正在被記錄。現在，我想將電話會議轉給羅克韋爾醫療公司高級副總裁兼首席企業事務官希瑟·亨特 (Heather Hunter)。希瑟，請繼續。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for this update on Rockwell Medical. Joining me on today's conference call are Dr. Mark Strobeck, Rockwell Medical's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Paul McGarry, Rockwell Medical's Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer.

早上好，感謝您接受我們的羅克韋爾醫療更新。與我一起參加今天的電話會議的還有羅克韋爾醫療公司總裁兼首席執行官 Mark Strobeck 博士； Paul McGarry，羅克韋爾醫療公司財務高級副總裁兼首席會計官。

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements about Rockwell Medical within the meaning of the federal securities laws including, but not limited to, the types of statements identified as forward-looking in our annual report on Form 10-K and our subsequent periodic reports filed with the SEC. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Please note that these forward-looking statements reflect our opinions and expectations only as of today. Except as required by law, we specifically disclaim any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements are discussed in greater detail in our periodic reports filed with the SEC. Rockwell Medical's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the 3 months ended June 30, 2023, was filed prior to this call and provides a full analysis of the company's business strategy as well as the company's second quarter 2023 results. Our Form 10-Q and other reports filed with the SEC along with today's press release, and a replay of today's conference call and webcast can be found on Rockwell Medical's website under the Investors section. Now I would like to turn the conference call over to Rockwell Medical's President and CEO, Dr. Mark Strobeck.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，本次電話會議將包含聯邦證券法含義內的有關羅克韋爾醫療的前瞻性聲明，包括但不限於我們的年度報告中確定為前瞻性聲明的類型表格10-K 報告以及我們隨後向SEC 提交的定期報告。這些陳述存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果有所不同。請注意，這些前瞻性陳述僅反映我們截至目前的觀點和期望。除法律要求外，我們明確不承擔根據新信息或未來事件更新或修改這些前瞻性陳述的義務。我們向 SEC 提交的定期報告中更詳細地討論了可能導致實際結果或結果與此類前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異的因素。羅克韋爾醫療公司在本次電話會議之前提交了截至2023 年6 月30 日的3 個月的10-Q 表格季度報告，該報告對公司的業務戰略以及公司2023 年第二季度的業績進行了全面分析。我們向 SEC 提交的 10-Q 表格和其他報告以及今天的新聞稿以及今天電話會議和網絡廣播的重播可在羅克韋爾醫療網站的投資者部分找到。現在我想將電話會議轉交給羅克韋爾醫療公司總裁兼首席執行官 Mark Strobeck 博士。

Thank you, Heather. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for Rockwell Medical's Second Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call and Webcast. To get started, I'd like to spend some time reviewing our business strategy and capital structure, including greater detail about our recent acquisition of Evoqua Water Technologies' hemodialysis concentrates business. And then we'll discuss our quarterly results and what investors can expect for the remainder of 2023. It's been about a year since we began making changes to Rockwell's business focus and strategy. At the beginning of the third quarter of '22, we set out the goal for Rockwell to unlock the value of its business in a way that would let us increase our revenue, reduce our expenses, reduce and eventually eliminate our debt and drive our business to profitability.

謝謝你，希瑟。早上好，感謝您今天參加羅克韋爾醫療公司 2023 年第二季度業績電話會議和網絡廣播。首先，我想花一些時間回顧一下我們的業務戰略和資本結構，包括有關我們最近收購 Evoqua Water Technologies 血液透析濃縮液業務的更多詳細信息。然後我們將討論我們的季度業績以及投資者對 2023 年剩餘時間的預期。自我們開始改變羅克韋爾的業務重點和戰略以來已經大約一年了。在 2022 年第三季度初，我們為羅克韋爾設定了釋放其業務價值的目標，使我們能夠增加收入、減少開支、減少並最終消除債務並推動我們的業務發展以實現盈利。

We continue to believe that through the successful execution of this strategy, we will be able to drive shareholder value and reduce our reliance on the capital markets to operate our business. This has been and remains our focus. In just over a year, we have made significant progress against these objectives. We've increased our net sales by 13% year-over-year. We reduced our expenses by 60% year-over-year. We enhanced our gross margin from minus 5% in the first quarter of 2022 to 13% in the first quarter of 2023. We lowered our debt by over 50%, and we set a target to achieve profitability in 2024. As you can see by our results, we are making significant progress against our strategic plan and will continue to drive our business even further over the coming months and quarters. With the addition of Evoqua's hemodialysis concentrates business and the continued improvements we are making at Rockwell, we are accelerating our guidance on profitability and now believe that we can achieve profitability from our operations starting in the fourth quarter of 2023 and going forward.

我們仍然相信，通過成功執行這一戰略，我們將能夠提高股東價值並減少我們對資本市場運營業務的依賴。這一直是並且仍然是我們的重點。在短短一年多的時間裡，我們在實現這些目標方面取得了重大進展。我們的淨銷售額同比增長了 13%。我們的開支同比減少了 60%。我們將毛利率從2022 年第一季度的負5% 提高到2023 年第一季度的13%。我們將債務降低了50% 以上，並設定了在2024 年實現盈利的目標。正如您所看到的根據我們的業績，我們正在根據我們的戰略計劃取得重大進展，並將在未來幾個月和幾個季度繼續進一步推動我們的業務。隨著 Evoqua 血液透析濃縮液業務的增加以及我們在羅克韋爾的持續改進，我們正在加快對盈利能力的指導，現在相信我們可以從 2023 年第四季度開始及未來的運營中實現盈利。

Let me review why we believe that this updated path to profitability is achievable and why our strategy is proving to be on target. Rockwell Medical is a different company today than it was a year ago. Different management team, different approach, different market dynamics, different strategy and different focus. Today, Rockwell is focused 100% on our hemodialysis concentrates business through which we generate nearly 100% of our net sales. This is where we believe we can and will be successful. As I described in our third quarter 2022 conference call, we believe that Rockwell Medical has a robust business, which has been historically compromised by a number of factors, including, but not limited to, restrictive and disadvantageous contracts, mounting expenses and competing priorities. Since freeing ourselves from these limiting factors, we have begun to unlock the value for Rockwell's shareholders.

讓我回顧一下為什麼我們相信這條更新的盈利之路是可以實現的，以及為什麼我們的戰略被證明是正確的。今天的羅克韋爾醫療公司與一年前相比已經是一家不同的公司。不同的管理團隊、不同的方法、不同的市場動態、不同的策略和不同的重點。如今，羅克韋爾 100% 專注於我們的血液透析濃縮液業務，我們近 100% 的淨銷售額來自該業務。這是我們相信我們能夠並且將會成功的地方。正如我在2022 年第三季度電話會議中所述，我們認為羅克韋爾醫療擁有強勁的業務，但該業務歷來受到多種因素的影響，包括但不限於限制性和不利的合同、不斷增加的費用和競爭優先事項。自從擺脫了這些限制因素後，我們開始釋放羅克韋爾股東的價值。

Let's look at the changing dynamics of the hemodialysis concentrates market. To date, the dialysis market has largely been comprised of in-center dialysis clinics and hospital-based dialysis providers. Historically, suppliers of concentrates to these providers have included Rockwell Medical, Fresenius, Gambro, Baxter, Medivators, now Evoqua and others. For several reasons, the number of hemodialysis concentrates manufacturers have significantly declined to essentially 2 major players: Fresenius and Rockwell Medical. While the number of dialysis clinics in the U.S. has remained fairly stable. And the demand for dialysis concentrates has historically grown at a steady state of approximately 3% annually, which mirrors growth in patient census of dialysis clinics. While dialysis clinics saw a reduction in patient census during the pandemic, Fresenius and DaVita reported in their most recent earnings conference calls that patient census is again on the rise and is beginning to return to historical levels. We expect this will potentially have a positive impact on our business with increased volume purchases and with new and existing customers.

讓我們看看血液透析濃縮液市場的動態變化。迄今為止，透析市場主要由中心透析診所和醫院透析提供商組成。從歷史上看，為這些提供商提供濃縮物的供應商包括 Rockwell Medical、Fresenius、Gambro、Baxter、Medivators，以及現在的 Evoqua 等。由於多種原因，血液透析濃縮液製造商的數量已大幅下降，只剩下兩家主要參與者：費森尤斯和羅克韋爾醫療。儘管美國的透析診所數量保持相當穩定。歷史上，對透析濃縮液的需求每年穩定增長約 3%，這反映了透析診所患者數量的增長。雖然透析診所的患者數量在大流行期間有所減少，但費森尤斯和達維塔在最近的財報電話會議中報告稱，患者數量再次上升，並開始恢復到歷史水平。我們預計這可能會對我們的業務產生積極影響，增加採購量以及新客戶和現有客戶。

Additionally, we have seen a rise in home dialysis treatments through the increased market adoption of Outset Medical's at-home Tablo hemodialysis system. Early estimates suggest that over time, the at-home dialysis in transitional care markets have the potential to address up to 80% of the total dialysis market. We believe this is an important new segment and Rockwell is well positioned to address this expanding market. We hope to have more to say about Rockwell's efforts to address this growing home dialysis market in the coming quarters. As we have stated previously, Rockwell's hemodialysis concentrates business was focused on supplying clinics throughout the Northeast, South, Midwest and the United States. We believe there is a large market opportunity for us in the West. If we successfully access the West, it would enable us to increase our market share even further. Over the last 6 months, we have made a number of great strides on that front. We are now making select deliveries in the West to approximately 80 clinics from our manufacturing and distribution facility in Texas. With the signing of our co-promotion agreement with B. Braun, we will be looking to add new customers in the West through their targeted sales effort. Third, with our acquisition of Evoqua's concentrates business, we now serve over 400 clinics in the West, which represents a 400% increase over the number of clinics served prior to the acquisition.

此外，隨著市場對 Outset Medical 家用 Tablo 血液透析系統的採用增加，我們看到家庭透析治療有所增加。早期估計表明，隨著時間的推移，過渡護理市場中的家庭透析有可能佔據整個透析市場的 80%。我們相信這是一個重要的新細分市場，羅克韋爾已做好充分準備來應對這一不斷擴大的市場。我們希望更多地了解羅克韋爾在未來幾個季度為應對不斷增長的家庭透析市場所做的努力。正如我們之前所說，羅克韋爾的血液透析濃縮液業務主要為整個東北部、南部、中西部和美國的診所提供服務。我們相信我們在西方有很大的市場機會。如果我們成功進入西方，將使我們能夠進一步增加我們的市場份額。在過去的六個月裡，我們在這方面取得了許多重大進展。我們現在正在從德克薩斯州的製造和分銷工廠向西部約 80 家診所進行精選交付。隨著我們與貝朗簽署聯合促銷協議，我們將尋求通過他們的有針對性的銷售努力在西方增加新客戶。第三，通過收購 Evoqua 的濃縮業務，我們現在為西方 400 多家診所提供服務，這比收購前增加了 400%。

And lastly, starting in September, we will be setting up our first distribution center in Utah to distribute Rockwell's products to the West. As you can see, we are beginning to make significant inroads in the West and we'll look to enhance our presence even further as we grow this portion of our business. So what does all of this collectively mean for Rockwell? First, as only 1 of 2 major players in the U.S. market, this allows Rockwell to economically construct advantageous product purchase agreements that reflect the inherent value our products provide to patients. This has enabled us to grow our gross margins from 3% in the first half of '22 to approximately 10% in the first half of '23. Currently, our highest gross margin products are in the 50% to 60% range. Our goal in the coming years is to drive our business to achieve consistent combined gross margins between 15% and 20%. We realized, however, that there is a lot we have to do to achieve these margins. Second, we have been laser-focused on the optimal product mix for our business. Over the last 12 months, 80% of our product volume has been dry powder products and 20% liquid. We have established this mix as it's more cost-effective to distribute dry products than liquid products, especially the larger 55-gallon drums. We believe this product mix is economically optimal and we will continue to pursue a comparable ratio going forward.

最後，從 9 月份開始，我們將在猶他州建立第一個分銷中心，將羅克韋爾的產品分銷到西方。正如您所看到的，我們開始在西方取得重大進展，隨著這部分業務的發展，我們將進一步增強我們的影響力。那麼所有這些對羅克韋爾來說意味著什麼呢？首先，作為美國市場的兩個主要參與者之一，這使得羅克韋爾能夠經濟地構建有利的產品購買協議，反映我們的產品為患者提供的內在價值。這使我們的毛利率從 22 年上半年的 3% 增長到 23 年上半年的約 10%。目前，我們毛利率最高的產品在50%至60%範圍內。我們未來幾年的目標是推動我們的業務實現 15% 至 20% 之間的穩定綜合毛利率。然而，我們意識到要實現這些利潤還有很多工作要做。其次，我們一直專注於為我們的業務提供最佳的產品組合。在過去 12 個月中，我們的產品量中 80% 是乾粉產品，20% 是液體產品。我們建立這種組合是因為分銷乾燥產品比分銷液體產品更具成本效益，尤其是較大的 55 加侖桶。我們相信這種產品組合在經濟上是最佳的，我們將繼續追求可比的比率。

Lastly, we are working to customize and configure our product offering so that we can take advantage of and support the rapid market adoption of at-home dialysis treatments. So what has prevented Rockwell from achieving these improved margins for its hemodialysis concentration business historically. As we've addressed previously in 2014, Rockwell effectively sold its U.S. and international business through an exclusive license to Baxter. This agreement gave Baxter the ability to set prices on Rockwell's products. The prices Baxter established for Rockwell's products in many cases, did not result in reasonable or sustainable profit margins for Rockwell. Additionally, this agreement disincentivized Rockwell for managing or lowering its cost to produce Rockwell products because any and all additional profit generated from savings would revert to Baxter. It's no wonder Rockwell historically struggled to make meaningful margins on this business. Rockwell had no control nor any ability to recuperate its margins based on the construct of this exclusive license agreement. Last year, we purchased our business back from Baxter and terminated this agreement, freeing ourselves from these restrictions.

最後，我們正在努力定制和配置我們的產品，以便我們能夠利用並支持家庭透析治療的市場快速採用。那麼，歷史上是什麼阻礙了羅克韋爾血液透析濃縮業務實現這些利潤的提高呢？正如我們之前在 2014 年提到的，羅克韋爾實際上通過向百特 (Baxter) 的獨家許可出售了其美國和國際業務。該協議使百特能夠為羅克韋爾的產品定價。在許多情況下，百特為羅克韋爾產品製定的價格並沒有為羅克韋爾帶來合理或可持續的利潤率。此外，該協議抑制了羅克韋爾管理或降低生產羅克韋爾產品的成本，因為節省下來的任何和所有額外利潤都將歸於百特。難怪羅克韋爾歷來在這項業務上難以獲得有意義的利潤。羅克韋爾沒有控制權，也沒有能力根據該獨家許可協議的結構來恢復其利潤。去年，我們從百特回購了我們的業務並終止了該協議，從而擺脫了這些限制。

What does this mean for Rockwell? For the first time in nearly a decade, we were able to set prices that are favorable to Rockwell and generate improved gross margins. Our team has spent the last 6 months renegotiating product purchase agreements and working to convert the more than 700 customers over to Rockwell's platform with updated pricing. Over the same time frame, we have signed new customer agreements, supply agreements, product purchase agreements and distribution agreements that rightsize pricing on our products, driving each towards improved margins for Rockwell. We have a significant pipeline of multiyear contracts that our commercial team is actively working to close. We are already beginning to see the benefits of these enhancements. One way to address gross margins and profitability is to increase top line revenue, which we've done and continue to do. An additional path to improved gross margins to adjust our expense line. As you know, we began this process shortly after I joined Rockwell, immediately eliminating expenses in areas that were not yielding value for the company. At the end of the second quarter of 2023, continuing into the third quarter, we restructured operations in our South Carolina facility and consolidated a portion of our production into our Michigan and Texas facilities.

這對羅克韋爾意味著什麼？近十年來，我們第一次能夠設定對羅克韋爾有利的價格，並提高毛利率。我們的團隊在過去 6 個月裡重新協商產品購買協議，並努力將 700 多名客戶轉變為更新定價的羅克韋爾平台。與此同時，我們簽署了新的客戶協議、供應協議、產品採購協議和分銷協議，調整了我們產品的定價，推動羅克韋爾公司提高利潤。我們擁有大量多年期合同，我們的商業團隊正在積極努力完成這些合同。我們已經開始看到這些增強功能的好處。解決毛利率和盈利能力的一種方法是增加營收，我們已經這樣做並將繼續這樣做。提高毛利率的另一條途徑是調整我們的費用線。如您所知，我們在我加入羅克韋爾後不久就開始了這一流程，立即消除了無法為公司帶來價值的領域的費用。 2023 年第二季度末，持續到第三季度，我們重組了南卡羅來納州工廠的運營，並將部分生產整合到密歇根州和德克薩斯州工廠。

To accommodate the Evoqua acquisition, we are further restructuring our operations. We have significantly reduced expenses year-over-year and continue to find ways to eliminate additional expenditures. We expect to realize the impact of these cost reductions over the coming quarters with the greatest reduction in expenses to be realized when we are able to move our product manufacturing to a more fully automated process. This brings me now to Rockwell's purchase of the hemodialysis concentrates business from Evoqua. At Rockwell, we are constantly evaluating ways to enhance our business, grow our revenue and reduce costs associated with manufacturing our products so that we can achieve profitability more quickly. We look for opportunities that deliver economic and strategic benefits, are immediately accretive and can be acquired at attractive valuations for Rockwell. Evoqua's hemodialysis concentrates business checked all of these boxes. For over 20 years, Evoqua's concentrates business through legacy brands such as Mar Cor, Medivators and Cantel has serviced clinics and patients throughout the United States and is well known throughout the dialysis community. Evoqua manufactured and sold a similar portfolio of liquid and dry acid and bicarbonate concentrates, however, they did so to a significantly different customer base than Rockwell's customer base. This represents an additional 1,500 new clinics for Rockwell. Additionally, Evoqua's business fits squarely into Rockwell's core business and offers us a number of additional advantages. One, one of Rockwell's key business objectives have been to enhance our revenue. Through this acquisition, we gained approximately $18 million in annual net sales.

為了適應 Evoqua 的收購，我們正在進一步重組我們的業務。我們逐年大幅減少開支，並繼續尋找消除額外開支的方法。我們期望在未來幾個季度實現這些成本削減的影響，當我們能夠將產品製造轉移到更完全自動化的流程時，將實現最大程度的費用削減。現在讓我談談羅克韋爾從 Evoqua 購買血液透析濃縮液業務的情況。在羅克韋爾，我們不斷評估增強業務、增加收入和降低產品製造相關成本的方法，以便更快地實現盈利。我們尋找能夠帶來經濟和戰略利益、立即增值並且能夠以對羅克韋爾有吸引力的估值收購的機會。 Evoqua 的血液透析濃縮液業務滿足了所有這些要求。 20 多年來，Evoqua 通過 Mar Cor、Medivators 和 Cantel 等傳統品牌專注於業務，為美國各地的診所和患者提供服務，並在透析界享有盛譽。 Evoqua 生產並銷售類似的液體和乾酸及碳酸氫鹽濃縮物產品組合，但是，他們的客戶群與羅克韋爾的客戶群明顯不同。這意味著羅克韋爾將新增 1,500 家診所。此外，Evoqua 的業務完全符合羅克韋爾的核心業務，並為我們提供了許多額外的優勢。第一，羅克韋爾的主要業務目標之一是增加我們的收入。通過此次收購，我們獲得了約 1800 萬美元的年淨銷售額。

With the addition of the Evoqua's concentrates business, Rockwell increased its 2023 revenue guidance to between $82 million and $86 million. This also has the potential to positively impact our revenue guidance for 2024. Second, Evoqua's business is profitable and expected to achieve over $3.3 million in annual EBITDA. We now expect with synergies this business to deliver between 20% and 22% EBITDA margin to Rockwell. Third, we are taking ownership of a fully automated manufacturing operation. Why is this strategically important for Rockwell? Today, our manufacturing operations are significantly manual whereas the Evoqua business is fully automated and currently only running at 50% capacity. We believe that over time, we will be able to take advantage of these fully automated liquid and dry lines thereby reducing the costs associated with manufacturing our products. As I stated earlier, the greatest opportunity of expense reduction for Rockwell is to fully automate our manufacturing processes. Accessing Evoqua's operations will now let us take full advantage of that. Fourth, by acquiring the Evoqua concentrates business, Rockwell is now the leading manufacturer and supplier of liquid bicarbonate products in the United States. This carries with it strategic value and positions Rockwell with unique pricing options.

隨著 Evoqua 濃縮物業務的增加，羅克韋爾將其 2023 年收入指導提高至 8200 萬至 8600 萬美元。這也有可能對我們 2024 年的收入指引產生積極影響。其次，Evoqua 的業務是盈利的，預計年度 EBITDA 將實現超過 330 萬美元。我們現在預計，通過協同效應，該業務將為羅克韋爾帶來 20% 至 22% 的 EBITDA 利潤率。第三，我們正在擁有完全自動化的製造業務。為什麼這對羅克韋爾具有戰略重要性？如今，我們的製造業務主要是手工操作，而 Evoqua 業務是完全自動化的，目前僅以 50% 的產能運行。我們相信，隨著時間的推移，我們將能夠利用這些全自動液體和乾燥生產線，從而降低與製造我們的產品相關的成本。正如我之前所說，羅克韋爾減少費用的最大機會是完全自動化我們的製造流程。現在，訪問 Evoqua 的運營將使我們能夠充分利用這一優勢。第四，通過收購Evoqua濃縮物業務，羅克韋爾現已成為美國領先的液體碳酸氫鹽產品製造商和供應商。這具有戰略價值，並使羅克韋爾擁有獨特的定價選擇。

Finally, we purchased this business at an attractive valuation of less than 1x sales and modest initial cash outlay for all of its strategic advantages. Our daily activities have transitioned into actively integrating Evoqua's hemodialysis concentrates business into Rockwell. We have assembled the transition team with representatives from every functional area from within Rockwell who are actively interacting with the respective counterparts of Evoqua. Additionally, we have spoken to a number of key Evoqua customers and given our reputation for consistent production and delivery of products to dialysis clinics across the U.S. and internationally, they are all excited to have Rockwell as their primary supplier of concentrates. Our teams are meeting daily with the goal to seamlessly transition 100% of the Evoqua business into Rockwell by early October. With this acquisition, improved efficiencies and improved margins, we now anticipate that Rockwell will be profitable beginning in the fourth quarter of 2023 and going forward. We are also actively in the marketplace looking at additional opportunities to expand this business into new product categories and into new geographies, and we hope to be able to discuss this more in coming quarters.

最後，我們以低於銷售額 1 倍的有吸引力的估值和適度的初始現金支出購買了該業務，以實現其所有戰略優勢。我們的日常活動已轉變為積極將 Evoqua 的血液透析濃縮物業務整合到 Rockwell 中。我們組建了由來自羅克韋爾內部各個職能領域的代表組成的過渡團隊，他們正在與 Evoqua 的相應同行積極互動。此外，我們還與一些主要的Evoqua 客戶進行了交談，並考慮到我們在向美國和國際透析診所持續生產和交付產品方面的聲譽，他們都很高興羅克韋爾成為他們的濃縮液主要供應商。我們的團隊每天召開會議，目標是在 10 月初將 Evoqua 業務 100% 無縫過渡到羅克韋爾。通過此次收購，提高了效率並提高了利潤率，我們現在預計羅克韋爾將於 2023 年第四季度開始並繼續盈利。我們還在市場上積極尋找更多機會，將該業務擴展到新產品類別和新地區，我們希望能夠在未來幾個季度對此進行更多討論。

Let's take a moment to review our capital structure and how we financed the Evoqua transaction. To give this financing some context, it's important to look back to May of 2022 when Rockwell Medical completed 2 financings for a total of $30 million, half of which came from DaVita and the other half of which came from Armistice Capital Master Fund. DaVita invested $15 million in Rockwell Medical in the form of preferred equity. DaVita's conversion price is $11 per share, which further illustrates DaVita's continued support for Rockwell and our mutually beneficial and strategic partnership. Armistice financed the remaining $15 million in a registered direct offering in which Rockwell issued and sold to Armistice, 844,000 shares of common stock at $1.39 per share and prefunded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of approximately 9.1 million shares of common stock. These prefunded warrants carried with them an ownership blocker of 9.99%, meaning that Armistice could never own more than 9.99% of Rockwell's outstanding common stock immediately after the exercise. Over the last 12 months, these prefunded warrants have all been exercised, the last of which was exercised in July of 2023. These shares entered our pool of outstanding common shares, bringing our total common shares outstanding to 18.5 million just prior to the acquisition.

讓我們花點時間回顧一下我們的資本結構以及我們如何為 Evoqua 交易提供資金。為了了解這次融資的背景，有必要回顧一下 2022 年 5 月，當時羅克韋爾醫療完成了兩筆融資，總計 3000 萬美元，其中一半來自 DaVita，另一半來自 Armistice Capital Master Fund。 DaVita 以優先股的形式向 Rockwell Medical 投資了 1500 萬美元。 DaVita 的轉換價格為每股 11 美元，這進一步說明了 DaVita 對羅克韋爾的持續支持以及我們互利的戰略合作夥伴關係。 Armistice 通過註冊直接發行籌集了剩餘的1,500 萬美元資金，其中羅克韋爾以每股1.39 美元的價格向Armistice 發行並出售了844,000 股普通股，並預先融資認股權證，以購買總計約910 萬股普通股。這些預先融資的認股權證附帶 9.99% 的所有權限制，這意味著 Armistice 在行權後永遠無法立即擁有超過 9.99% 的羅克韋爾流通普通股。在過去12 個月中，這些預先融資的認股權證已全部行權，其中最後一次行權於2023 年7 月。這些股票進入我們的已發行普通股池，使我們在收購前的已發行普通股總數達到1850 萬股。

As part of the financing transaction last May, Armistice was also granted a warrant to purchase an additional 9.9 million shares at a strike price of $1.39 per share. After Armistice exercised all their prefunded warrants, they subsequently notified us that they intended to exercise this additional warrant and purchase the additional 9.9 million shares, which generated $13.8 million in proceeds for Rockwell and brought our total outstanding shares to approximately 28.5 million. With the additional $13.8 million of cash in hand, we had a pivotal decision to make. After evaluating a number of options, we chose to reinvest the $13.8 million to purchase Evoqua's hemodialysis concentrates business, which carries with it all the expected advantages we previously described and an accelerated path to profitability. The exercise of the Armistice's warrant continues to improve our capital structure and removes the overhang on our cap table while continuing to put Rockwell in increasingly more stable and stronger financial position. As part of the transaction, Rockwell provided Armistice a reload warrant to purchase 3.75 million shares at the closing price on July 10, which has a $5.13 -- which was at $5.13 per share. Now instead of having 9.9 million shares of underlying warrants with a strike price of $1.39 a share, we have warrants to purchase 3.75 million shares at $5.13 per share outstanding, which if purchased, would provide Rockwell another $19.2 million.

作為去年 5 月融資交易的一部分，Armistice 還獲得了以每股 1.39 美元的執行價購買額外 990 萬股股票的認股權證。 Armistice 行使其所有預配認股權證後，他們隨後通知我們，他們打算行使這一額外認股權證併購買額外的990 萬股股票，這為羅克韋爾帶來了1,380 萬美元的收益，並使我們的流通股總數達到約2,850 萬股。有了額外的 1,380 萬美元現金，我們需要做出一個關鍵決定。在評估了多種選擇後，我們選擇再投資 1380 萬美元來購買 Evoqua 的血液透析濃縮液業務，該業務具有我們之前描述的所有預期優勢以及加速盈利的途徑。停戰令的行使將繼續改善我們的資本結構，消除我們資本表上的懸而未決的問題，同時繼續使羅克韋爾的財務狀況變得更加穩定和強大。作為交易的一部分，羅克韋爾向 Armistice 提供了重新加載認股權證，以 7 月 10 日收盤價購買 375 萬股股票，收盤價為 5.13 美元，即每股 5.13 美元。現在，我們擁有以每股5.13 美元的價格購買375 萬股已發行股票的認股權證，而不是990 萬股標的認股權證，其執行價格為每股1.39 美元，如果購買，將為羅克韋爾再提供1,920 萬美元。

As it pertains to the potential for future financings, as we've previously stated, we do not need to raise additional money to achieve profitability. If we do pursue any future financings, it would be used as growth capital, not working capital, so that we can further accelerate the growth and development of our organization, accelerate the paydown of our debt and put Rockwell in a better position to deliver value to shareholders. I hope this discussion provides better context as to how our business model works and the importance and transformational elements of this acquisition and further clarity regarding our capital structure.

由於它涉及未來融資的潛力，正如我們之前所說，我們不需要籌集額外的資金來實現盈利。如果我們確實尋求任何未來的融資，它將用作增長資本，而不是營運資本，以便我們可以進一步加速我們組織的成長和發展，加速償還我們的債務，並使羅克韋爾處於更好的位置來創造價值給股東。我希望這次討論能夠為我們的業務模式如何運作、此次收購的重要性和轉型要素提供更好的背景，並進一步明確我們的資本結構。

Now let's turn our discussion to our second quarter 2023 financial results. Net sales for the 3 months ended June 30, 2023, was $18.1 million compared to $19.7 million in the first quarter. The decrease was primarily due to timing of revenue recognition. On the timing piece, we had over $1 million of orders made and shipped by the end of June 2023. However, when we used our subsidiary of Rockwell Transportation to ship our products, revenue isn't recognized until the product is delivered to the dialysis clinic. In the second quarter 2023, while the $1 million of products shipped in June, it wasn't delivered until July and will therefore, be booked as revenue in the third quarter of 2023. Secondly, we instituted a route optimization plan designed to reduce our distribution costs in our transportation group, which is also affecting timing of realized revenue. Historically, Rockwell received an order, made the product and then would deliver the material to the clinic. This means that trucks were always running, but at times, the trucking route or the truckload was neither optimized or at capacity. Rockwell has recently employed a route optimizing software, which when applied across our 3 plants has the potential to reduce our number of deliveries by approximately 15% per month and still deliver the same amount of material. That's the plan we've initiated. It's taking time to work through our system, but we believe that these actions will begin to positively impact on our financials starting in the third quarter of 2023.

現在讓我們討論 2023 年第二季度的財務業績。截至 2023 年 6 月 30 日的三個月淨銷售額為 1,810 萬美元，而第一季度為 1,970 萬美元。減少的主要原因是收入確認的時間。在計時方面，截至2023 年6 月，我們已下達並發貨了超過100 萬美元的訂單。但是，當我們使用羅克韋爾運輸子公司來運輸我們的產品時，直到產品交付到透析中心後才確認收入。診所。 2023 年第二季度，雖然 6 月份發貨了 100 萬美元的產品，但直到 7 月份才交付，因此將計入 2023 年第三季度的收入。其次，我們制定了路線優化計劃，旨在減少我們運輸集團的分銷成本，這也影響了實現收入的時間。從歷史上看，羅克韋爾收到訂單，製造產品，然後將材料運送到診所。這意味著卡車始終在運行，但有時，卡車運輸路線或卡車負載既沒有優化也沒有達到滿負荷。羅克韋爾最近採用了路線優化軟件，當該軟件應用於我們的 3 個工廠時，我們每月的交付數量有望減少約 15%，但仍能交付相同數量的材料。這就是我們啟動的計劃。完善我們的系統需要時間，但我們相信這些行動將從 2023 年第三季度開始對我們的財務產生積極影響。

As we look to the remainder of the year, here's what we expect. With the addition of Evoqua's hemodialysis concentrates business, which we announced last month, after evaluating the expected synergies between Rockwell's and Evoqua's hemodialysis concentrates businesses and product lines, we believe that our net sales for the third quarter of 2023 will be between $21 million and $23 million. Additionally, we have updated our 2023 guidance as follows. We increased our 2023 revenue guidance from between $78 million and $82 million to between $82 million and $86 million. We are increasing our gross profit guidance from 2023 from between $7 million and $9 million to between $8 million and $10 million. And we are updating our guidance on profitability and now expect Rockwell to be profitable in the fourth quarter of 2023 and going forward.

展望今年剩餘時間，我們的預期如下。隨著我們上個月宣布的Evoqua 血液透析濃縮液業務的增加，在評估了羅克韋爾和Evoqua 血液透析濃縮液業務和產品線之間的預期協同效應後，我們相信我們2023 年第三季度的淨銷售額將在2100 萬美元至23 美元之間百萬。此外，我們還更新了 2023 年指南如下。我們將 2023 年收入指導從 7800 萬美元至 8200 萬美元提高到 8200 萬美元至 8600 萬美元。我們將從 2023 年起將毛利潤指導從 700 萬至 900 萬美元提高到 800 萬至 1000 萬美元。我們正在更新盈利能力指引，目前預計羅克韋爾將在 2023 年第四季度及未來實現盈利。

I'd like to take a moment before I turn the call over to Paul to provide you with an update on our international partnerships for Triferic. As we've discussed previously, while Rockwell has several international partnerships with companies looking to develop and commercialize Triferic in their respective countries, these international partnerships required no capital expenditure and very little operational resources from Rockwell. While these partnerships have the potential to generate near and long-term revenue for Rockwell, there can be no assurance that they will, and we have not factored this potential into our revenue forecast nor any of our projections for success. We just learned from Wanbang Biopharmaceutical, our commercialization partner in China, that the main efficacy results for its Phase III clinical studies for Triferic while safe, failed to demonstrate efficacy when compared with placebo. As a result, Wanbang will not be pursuing this program further towards registration. We are currently working with Wanbang to determine next steps while this is not the outcome we were looking for, it continues to support Rockwell's approach to deprioritize this program and exclude these international partnerships for Triferic from our guidance as they are no longer material to our overall success. Overall, we are pleased with the financial performance of our business so far in 2023 and remain focused on continuing to position Rockwell for future growth. With that, I will now turn the call over to Paul to provide you with our financial results for the second quarter. Paul?

在將電話轉給 Paul 之前，我想花一點時間向您介紹我們與 Triferic 的國際合作夥伴關係的最新情況。正如我們之前討論的，雖然羅克韋爾與尋求在各自國家開發和商業化Triferic 的公司建立了多個國際合作夥伴關係，但這些國際合作夥伴關係不需要羅克韋爾的資本支出和很少的運營資源。雖然這些合作夥伴關係有潛力為羅克韋爾帶來近期和長期收入，但不能保證它們一定會產生，而且我們尚未將這種潛力納入我們的收入預測或任何成功預測中。我們剛剛從我們在中國的商業化合作夥伴萬邦生物製藥獲悉，其 Triferic III 期臨床研究的主要療效結果雖然安全，但與安慰劑相比未能證明療效。因此，萬邦將不會進一步推進該計劃的註冊。我們目前正在與萬邦合作確定下一步行動，雖然這不是我們想要的結果，但它繼續支持羅克韋爾降低該計劃優先級的方法，並將Triferic 的這些國際合作夥伴關係排除在我們的指導之外，因為它們對我們的整體不再重要。成功。總體而言，我們對 2023 年迄今為止的業務財務業績感到滿意，並將繼續致力於繼續為羅克韋爾的未來增長做好準備。現在，我將把電話轉給保羅，向您提供我們第二季度的財務業績。保羅？

Thank you, Mark. Net sales for the 6 months ended June 30, 2023, were $37.7 million, which represents an 8% increase over $34.8 million for the same period in 2022. Overall, product revenue for the 6 months ended June 30, 2023, was $36.1 million compared to product revenue of $33.1 million for the 3 months ended June 30, 2022, an increase of $3 million. Net sales for the 3 months ended June 30, 2023, were $18.1 million compared to net sales of $19.7 million for the 3 months ended March 31, 2023, and $18.7 million for the second quarter of 2022. The difference between the first and second quarter 2023 net sales is a result of product revenue recognition timing. Gross profit for the 6 months ended June 30, 2023, was $3.6 million, a 278% increase over $1 million for the same period of 2022. Gross profit increased by $2.6 million, primarily due to restructuring and supply contracts, onboarding of new customers, increased pricing to other customers and recognition of the remaining deferred revenue related to the termination of the Baxter distribution agreement.

謝謝你，馬克。截至2023 年6 月30 日止6 個月的淨銷售額為3,770 萬美元，較2022 年同期的3,480 萬美元增長8%。總體而言，截至2023 年6 月30 日止6 個月的產品收入為3,610 萬美元。截至 2022 年 6 月 30 日止 3 個月，產品收入達到 3310 萬美元，增加 300 萬美元。截至2023年6月30日的三個月的淨銷售額為1,810萬美元，而截至2023年3月31日的三個月的淨銷售額為1,970萬美元，2022年第二季度的淨銷售額為1,870萬美元。第一季度和第二季度之間的差異2023 年淨銷售額是產品收入確認時間的結果。截至 2023 年 6 月 30 日的 6 個月毛利潤為 360 萬美元，比 2022 年同期的 100 萬美元增長 278%。毛利潤增加 260 萬美元，主要由於重組和供應合同、新客戶的加入、提高對其他客戶的定價，並確認與終止百特分銷協議相關的剩餘遞延收入。

Gross profit for the 3 months ended June 30, 2023, was $1 million compared to gross profit of $2.6 million for the 3 months ended March 31, 2023, and $1.7 million for the second quarter of 2022. The difference between the first and second quarter of 2023 gross profit is a result of product revenue recognition timing. For the 6 months ended June 30, 2023, Rockwell's net loss was $5.1 million compared to $12.1 million for the same period of 2022. For the 3 months ended June 30, 2023, Rockwell's net loss was $3.3 million or $0.18 per share compared with a net loss of $5 million or $0.43 per share from the same period of 2022. Cash and cash equivalents and investments available for sale at June 30, 2023, was $14.9 million, compared to cash and cash equivalents and investments available for sale of $16.8 million at March 31, 2023, and $21.5 million at December 31, 2022.

截至2023年6月30日的三個月的毛利潤為100萬美元，而截至2023年3月31日的三個月的毛利潤為260萬美元，2022年第二季度的毛利潤為170萬美元。第一季度和第二季度之間的差異2023 年毛利潤是產品收入確認時間的結果。截至2023 年6 月30 日的6 個月，羅克韋爾的淨虧損為510 萬美元，而2022 年同期為1,210 萬美元。截至2023 年6 月30 日的3 個月，羅克韋爾的淨虧損為330 萬美元，即每股0.18 美元，而2022 年同期的淨虧損為330 萬美元，即每股0.18 美元。與2022 年同期相比，淨虧損500 萬美元，即每股虧損0.43 美元。截至2023 年6 月30 日，可供出售現金和現金等價物及投資為1,490 萬美元，而2023 年6 月30 日，可供出售現金和現金等價物及投資為1,680 萬美元。截至2023年3月31日，截至2022年12月31日為2150萬美元。

On July 10, 2023, which was after the end of the second quarter of 2023, Rockwell received gross proceeds of approximately $13.8 million from the exercise of warrants which the company used to fund the Evoqua's hemodialysis concentrates business acquisition. Rockwell acquired Evoqua substantially all of the assets related to Evoqua's business of its manufacturing, marketing, distributing and selling hemodialysis concentrates products for $11 million upfront in cash plus approximately $1.2 million for the estimated inventory amount. Following the close of the Evoqua transaction and taking into account the exercised warrants, Rockwell had approximately $16.2 million in cash and cash equivalents and investments available for sale on a pro forma basis. I will now turn the call back over to Mark.

2023 年7 月10 日，即2023 年第二季度末之後，羅克韋爾從行使認股權證中獲得了約1,380 萬美元的總收益，該公司用這些認股權證為Evoqua 的血液透析濃縮物業務收購提供資金。羅克韋爾以 1100 萬美元的預付款現金加上約 120 萬美元的估計庫存金額收購了 Evoqua 的幾乎所有與 Evoqua 的製造、營銷、分銷和銷售血液透析濃縮產品業務相關的資產。 Evoqua 交易結束後，考慮到已行使的認股權證，羅克韋爾擁有約 1,620 萬美元的現金和現金等價物以及可供出售的投資。我現在將把電話轉回給馬克。

Thank you, Paul. Operator, please open the phone lines for any questions.

謝謝你，保羅。接線員，如有任何問題請撥打電話。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Dipesh Patel from H.C. Wainwright.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 H.C. 的 Dipesh Patel。溫賴特。

And I got a few questions regarding the acquisition and then a few questions regarding Triferic. How is the integration of the latest acquisition going? And has the sales effort been optimized?

我收到了一些有關收購的問題，還有一些有關 Triferic 的問題。最新收購的整合進展如何？銷售工作是否得到優化？

Yes. Thank you for the question. The integration is going incredibly well. Evoqua has been a tremendous partner for us and is working seamlessly with our transition team to move the business over into the Rockwell platform. We feel very good about the progress that the team has made and believe we'll be able to meet the objective of transitioning the entire business over to Rockwell by the middle of October. We are now similarly taking a path to integrating the sales activity. And so with that, we're loading all of our new customers into our systems so that we create a uniform customer database for us to interact with. Similarly, we're also undertaking a strategic evaluation as to how to optimize the utilization of that manufacturing facility. That's a process that's also similarly underway as we look to move some of our manufacturing activities into that fully automated process. Our goal is to be able to provide more of an update in our third quarter conference call as to the success of that transition and the savings that we'll see associated with that.

是的。感謝你的提問。整合進展得非常順利。 Evoqua 一直是我們的重要合作夥伴，並且正在與我們的過渡團隊無縫合作，將業務轉移到羅克韋爾平台。我們對團隊取得的進展感到非常滿意，並相信我們能夠實現在 10 月中旬將整個業務移交給羅克韋爾的目標。我們現在正在採取類似的方式整合銷售活動。因此，我們將所有新客戶加載到我們的系統中，以便創建一個統一的客戶數據庫供我們交互。同樣，我們還對如何優化該製造設施的利用率進行戰略評估。當我們希望將一些製造活動轉移到完全自動化的流程中時，這個流程也在進行中。我們的目標是能夠在第三季度的電話會議上提供更多有關過渡成功以及我們將看到的與此相關的節省的最新信息。

Got it. Got it. And what do you think are the key marketing strategies you expect to employ to expand the market for hemodialysis concentrates?

知道了。知道了。您認為您希望採用哪些關鍵營銷策略來擴大血液透析濃縮液市場？

So for us, being 1 of only 2 players in this marketplace for dialysis organizations that are seeking to purchase hemodialysis concentrates really have 1 of 2 options to go to. So for us, from a marketing perspective, it's important that we continue to supply partners on a consistent basis. We continue to provide the sort of the white glove customer service that we provide all of our customers and that we continue to get positive feedback that they appreciate and is one of the reasons why they select Rockwell. We need to be able to demonstrate that we have an ability to continue to expand our distribution into the West. We believe opening this first distribution warehouse in Utah will certainly expand that for us. And then I think, finally, as I mentioned during the call, working to find products that will begin to satisfy the at-home dialysis market will also be incredibly important for us, and we're actively working on that as we speak.

因此，對於我們來說，作為這個市場上尋求購買血液透析濃縮物的透析組織僅有的兩家參與者之一，我們確實有兩種選擇中的一種可供選擇。因此，對我們來說，從營銷的角度來看，繼續為合作夥伴提供一致的產品非常重要。我們繼續為所有客戶提供白手套客戶服務，並繼續獲得他們讚賞的積極反饋，這也是他們選擇羅克韋爾的原因之一。我們需要能夠證明我們有能力繼續將我們的分銷範圍擴大到西方。我們相信在猶他州開設第一個配送倉庫肯定會擴大我們的業務範圍。最後，我認為，正如我在電話會議中提到的，努力尋找能夠滿足家庭透析市場的產品對我們來說也非常重要，就在我們發言時，我們正在積極努力。

Great. I know we did or you had mentioned profit margins. Do you think there is room for meaningful, I guess, additional gross profit improvement in the hemodialysis concentrates business? If so, how do you think might this be achieved? I know you kind of mentioned the increasing revenue, but could it be through pricing increases, manufacturing improvements or a combination of both? And then how long do you think this might take to actually achieve?

偉大的。我知道我們做到了或者你提到了利潤率。我認為，您認為血液透析濃縮液業務的毛利潤還有進一步改善的空間嗎？如果是這樣，您認為如何實現這一目標？我知道您提到了收入的增加，但這可能是通過提高價格、改進製造還是兩者結合來實現的？那麼您認為這可能需要多長時間才能真正實現？

Yes. So I think it's going to be a combination of, frankly, all 3 of those, and that process has already begun. As I mentioned, once we purchased our business back from Baxter, we undertook a process to begin to renegotiate agreements with our existing customers put agreements -- new agreements in place with new customers, all that would have updated pricing that reflected the value that our products bring to patients. We've similarly begun the process of reducing expenses within the organization. And now we'll have the opportunity to begin to look to improve the way in which we manufacture our products through utilization of a more fully automated manufacturing platform. All of those are going to contribute to what we believe will be improved gross margins. As you can tell, we've already made improvements. I think we've reported 3% for the first half of '22 to 10% in the first half. We think there's more room to go, and we're going to continue to drive our business to access that.

是的。所以我認為坦率地說，這將是所有這三個因素的結合，而且這個過程已經開始了。正如我所提到的，一旦我們從百特收購了我們的業務，我們就開始與現有客戶重新談判協議——與新客戶簽訂新協議，所有這些都會更新定價，以反映我們的價值。產品帶給患者。我們同樣開始了減少組織內部開支的過程。現在我們將有機會開始尋求通過利用更全自動的製造平台來改進我們製造產品的方式。所有這些都將有助於提高毛利率。如您所知，我們已經做出了改進。我認為我們報告的 22 年上半年增長率為 3%，而上半年增長率為 10%。我們認為還有更多的發展空間，我們將繼續推動我們的業務實現這一目標。

Great. And then just several questions on Triferic, it sounded like you said you were going to deprioritize when -- if and when this is applicable, when do you expect to finalize a revamped clinical development path for Triferic? And at what point would you consider it most advisable for the company to deploy substantive resources into developing Triferic in the U.S. as a prescription product? And how large do you think that market opportunity is?

偉大的。然後是關於 Triferic 的幾個問題，聽起來您好像說過，如果適用的話，您將取消優先級，您預計何時最終確定 Triferic 的改進臨床開發路徑？您認為公司在什麼時候最明智的是部署大量資源在美國開發 Triferic 作為處方產品？您認為這個市場機會有多大？

So shortly after I joined the company, we took the determination to deprioritize the existing commercial product in the U.S. and allow the existing international partnerships around Triferic to continue to progress. As I've mentioned, none of the -- none of our guidance or our future financial success is really based off of those international partnerships, they required no additional resource really from us. So in a sense, they were an opportunity to see whether we could secure any additional value off of Triferic. I think what we're seeing is that, that opportunity continues to be somewhat limited. And therefore, the strategic choice that we made over a year ago to essentially deprioritize Triferic, I think, is sort of proving out.

因此，在我加入公司後不久，我們就決定取消美國現有商業產品的優先級，並允許圍繞 Triferic 的現有國際合作夥伴關係繼續取得進展。正如我所提到的，我們的指導或未來的財務成功都不是真正基於這些國際合作夥伴關係，它們實際上不需要我們提供額外的資源。因此，從某種意義上說，它們是一個機會，讓我們看看我們能否從 Triferic 獲得任何額外價值。我認為我們看到的是，這種機會仍然受到一定程度的限制。因此，我認為，我們一年多前做出的從本質上取消 Triferic 優先級的戰略選擇已經得到了證明。

On the FPC platform, which is the basis of Triferic, which we still have access to and could potentially develop further into some of the indications and markets that we've discussed previously. We've really put that on the shelf for now until we have the ability to generate positive cash flow for the company so that we can use that to potentially reinvest into that program. That's the strategy that we've employed. And I think now that we're moving towards profitability in a more accelerated fashion, we may have the opportunity to begin to evaluate that sooner. I similarly think because we are very active in the business development marketplace that there may be opportunities that we will identify that could be potentially equally or more attractive than investing further in that particular technology. And so we'll need to evaluate those. But the way we look at it is, we need to get to profitability first to provide us the foundation that will allow us to grow significantly bigger.

在 FPC 平台上，這是 Triferic 的基礎，我們仍然可以使用該平台，並有可能進一步發展到我們之前討論過的一些適應症和市場。我們現在確實把它擱置了，直到我們有能力為公司產生正現金流，以便我們可以用它來潛在地再投資於該計劃。這就是我們採用的策略。我認為現在我們正在以更快的速度實現盈利，我們可能有機會更早地開始評估這一點。我同樣認為，由於我們在業務開發市場上非常活躍，因此我們可能會發現一些機會，這些機會可能與進一步投資該特定技術具有同等或更有吸引力。所以我們需要評估這些。但我們的看法是，我們需要首先實現盈利，為我們提供顯著增長的基礎。

Okay. And then finally, I have to ask this one. What milestones could be achieved, do you think in the next 12 to 18 months with Triferic outside the U.S. via Rockwell's partners? And would any of those trigger sizable payments to Rockwell?

好的。最後，我必須問這個。您認為在未來 12 到 18 個月內，Triferic 通過羅克韋爾合作夥伴在美國以外的地區可以實現哪些里程碑？其中任何一個都會觸發向羅克韋爾支付大筆款項嗎？

Yes. So over the next 12 months, our commercial partner in Korea is going to continue to commercialize that product. That relationship carries with it royalties based on sales. So I think that could be a -- we will continue to see how that product develops. In addition, our partner Drogsan in Turkey is in the process of seeking to register Triferic in Turkey. If it is successful in doing that, there is royalties based on sales associated with that program. And at this point, all of the other partners that we have established, effectively, the programs are on hold or are no longer being pursued. So those are the opportunities that we have going forward with respect to Triferic. But as I said, I mean, as much as those offer potential lottery tickets for the company, the core business is where we are focused and where we believe we'll deliver profitability and will give us the platform to allow ourselves to expand even further. So if those opportunities deliver value, fantastic. But at the end of the day, they're not critical for us to be successful at Rockwell and for us to continue to grow this business well beyond where we've been.

是的。因此，在接下來的 12 個月內，我們在韓國的商業合作夥伴將繼續將該產品商業化。這種關係伴隨著基於銷售額的特許權使用費。所以我認為這可能是——我們將繼續觀察該產品的開發情況。此外，我們在土耳其的合作夥伴 Drogsan 正在尋求在土耳其註冊 Triferic。如果成功做到這一點，則根據與該計劃相關的銷售額收取特許權使用費。此時，我們已經建立的所有其他合作夥伴，實際上，這些計劃都被擱置或不再進行。這些就是我們在 Triferic 方面向前邁進的機會。但正如我所說，我的意思是，儘管這些業務為公司提供了潛在的彩票，但核心業務是我們關注的重點，我們相信我們將實現盈利，並將為我們提供進一步擴張的平台。因此，如果這些機會能夠帶來價值，那就太棒了。但歸根結底，它們對於我們在羅克韋爾取得成功以及我們繼續將這項業務發展到遠遠超出我們的水平來說並不重要。

(Operator Instructions) And there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Dr. Strobeck for some final closing remarks.

（操作員說明） 目前沒有其他問題。現在，我將把電話轉回給斯特羅貝克博士，讓其做最後的總結髮言。

Thank you, everyone, for joining us on today's call. Before we conclude our call, I'd like to take a moment and say thank you to a few key members of the Evoqua team who were instrumental in supporting Rockwell's acquisition of this hemodialysis concentrates business, Doug McFarland and Beth Huddleston, over my 20-year career, I have completed many transactions and partnering with Doug and Beth to complete this acquisition has been one of the most productive experiences to date. Their professionalism, experience, understanding and balance makes them among the best in this business. On behalf of the entire team at Rockwell, I want to take a moment and thank them for their hard work to complete this transaction. We look forward to partnering with them through this transition and wish them continued success under their new structure with Xylem. We have accomplished a lot in the last year, but there is more work ahead for us. While a lot of this discussion has been focused on top and bottom line revenue, profitability, improved margins, et cetera. All of this is being done with the sole purpose of ensuring the longevity of our business to support clinics and the patients they serve for years to come. Thank you to all of our employees for all their hard work and continued dedication and to our shareholders for their continued support. I look forward to sharing our progress on future calls as we continue to work diligently to unlock the value of Rockwell.

謝謝大家參加今天的電話會議。在我們結束電話會議之前，我想花點時間向Evoqua 團隊的幾位關鍵成員表示感謝，他們在我20 多年的職業生涯中為支持羅克韋爾收購血液透析濃縮液業務發揮了重要作用，他們是Doug McFarland 和Beth Huddleston。在一年的職業生涯中，我完成了許多交易，與 Doug 和 Beth 合作完成這次收購是迄今為止最富有成效的經歷之一。他們的專業精神、經驗、理解和平衡使他們躋身該行業的佼佼者。我謹代表羅克韋爾的整個團隊，感謝他們為完成這筆交易所做的辛勤工作。我們期待在這一過渡期間與他們合作，並祝愿他們在與賽萊默的新結構下繼續取得成功。去年我們取得了很多成就，但我們還有更多的工作要做。雖然很多討論都集中在頂線和底線收入、盈利能力、提高的利潤率等方面。所有這一切的唯一目的是確保我們業務的長久發展，以支持診所及其在未來幾年所服務的患者。感謝我們所有員工的辛勤工作和持續奉獻，感謝股東的持續支持。我期待在未來的電話會議上分享我們的進展，因為我們將繼續努力工作，釋放羅克韋爾的價值。

This concludes today's conference call and webcast. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議和網絡廣播到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。