Calyxt, Inc. Aktie

Thank you for your continued patience. Your meeting will begin shortly. If you need assistance at any time, please press star zero and a member of our team will be happy to help you. Thank you for your continued patience. Your meeting will begin shortly. In the meantime, please press star zero, and a member of our team will be happy to help Please stand by. Your meeting is about to begin. Good afternoon and welcome to the CBIS second quarter 2026 earnings call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode.

After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please also note, today's event is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference call over to Carlo Bruce, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon. I would like to thank you for taking the time to join us for CBIS second quarter 2026 financial results and business update conference call and webcast. Presenting with me today is Craig Wischner, our Chief Executive Officer, and Peter Beetham, Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer. Greg Gochel, Chief Scientific Officer, is available to participate during the Q&A portion of the call. Before we begin the call, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast, including those regarding future financial results and future operational goals and industry prospects, are forward-looking and may be subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the call. in the call. Please refer to CBIS SEC filings for a list of associated risks. The conference call is being webcast. The webcast link, along with our press release and corporate presentation, are available on the investor relations section of CBIS.com to assist you in your analysis of our business.

And with that, I would like to turn the call now.

over to Craig. Thank you, Carlo, and good afternoon, everyone. This is my first earnings call as CEO, and I want to start with why I'm here. SEBAS has built something rare over 25 years. I joined the SEBAS board because the technology and the people are world class. And I accepted the job of CEO because I believe we can generate revenue at scale. That is my mission. I studied biochemistry and molecular biology at UC San Diego in the city where our labs are today, and I've spent more than 30 years building technology companies and managing investments. Over the last 17 of those years, I've managed organic and regenerative farmland on behalf of investors, where we drove higher returns on assets through the implementation of technology and smarter farming practices.

And we now have over $400 million of pristine cropland in Washington State, California, and Oregon. i know firsthand the pressures that growers are under fertilizer costs more than it used to and every grower i know is looking for a way to get more out of what they can afford that is who cebus serves a grower works with what is in front of them equipment water chemistry better practices in the field The seed is at the top of that list. It is the first decision of the season and the one you cannot take back. And it sets the ceiling that everything else is working towards. Breed innovation has been remarkable in corn and soybeans. For most other crops, it has been far slower because breeding takes years and is unpredictable. Every crop in the world is the product of plant breeding. And at Sebus, we make that part fast and precise.

Tebas is a technology company. We have an IP-protected platform that lets us make precise improvements to seeds and do it in a fraction of the time conventional breeding takes. Think of the genome as information, and think of our platform as the way we turn that information into better outcomes for farmers quickly and efficiently. and precisely. That speed is what our partners pay for. It lowers their development costs and puts their products in the market sooner. What we have built is an iterative and scalable platform. The work we do and the tools and the know-how behind it carry from one program to the next. When we develop a trade in one crop, we are not starting from scratch the next time.

We are building on what we already know, and each program costs less than the last one did. For our partners, that advantage compounds too. It can put them a generation or two ahead of their competition within a decade. This capability is what informs our path ahead. Because the platform is scalable, it allows us to be nimble as we assess market and customer needs. That is the most important idea I want to leave with you today, because it is how I want you to understand CBIS going forward. The same platform, the same foundational work creates value across our business in three ways.

The first is the revenue we are generating today through platform programs where we make edits for partners and share in the value created. Our sustainable ingredients work is the clearest example, and while it is still in the scaling phase, it drove a 35% increase in our revenue year to date. The second is our trait royalty business. This is what we are pursuing with rice, for example, where we earn a royalty on every acre planted with our traits. It begins to scale with our commercial launches, starting in Latin America, and it compounds over time as adoption grows. The third is deepening those same partnerships over time. What we offer a partner is a pipeline of traits, higher yields, resistance to disease, better quality crops for their own customers.

Not one edit in one crop, but a steady supply of improvements across their portfolio. As those relationships mature, we become an extension of their breeding program, and the trust we earn in the first two tiers is what makes that reachable for us. This framework for how we think about and operate our business provides us with the optionality and allows us to match the right model to each market opportunity. In row crops, where a small number of large seed companies dominate, the rational approach is to license our traits to that industry and earn royalties on every acre planted. We become a technology partner that accelerates their pipeline. For partners who are set up to work with us directly, we contract for platform access. As those relationships mature and partners open up their product development roadmaps to CBIS, that partnership deepens.

That is what the scalability of our platform gives us, the flexibility to leverage a singular project into a broader opportunity. set that may cover an entire crop or ingredient strategy in a time-bound, predictable, and resource-efficient manner. Again, I joined the SEBAS board nine months ago, so I came in knowing the company. Over the past two months as CEO, my conviction has grown. I've spent most of my time with our teams, and what I've found is traits and programs built up over 25 years across many crops, much of it closer to product than most people would expect. Peter will take you through where those stand. I am reviewing every program, every expense, and every opportunity with a simple lens. What drives near-term revenue, what strengthens the balance sheet, and what unlocks the value we have already built? We will run this company with capital discipline.

We are prioritizing resource allocation and increasing our investment in technology and AI to make our team more productive. Before I hand it over, I want to thank Peter for welcoming me to the team and for the capabilities he continues to add to it as President and Chief Operating Officer. Peter is a co-founder of this company, and he has led it through multiple phases of growth. My plan builds directly on the foundation that he and many other members of the company have built. the team created. With that, let me hand it to Peter to walk through our commercial progress. Peter?.

Thanks, Craig, and good afternoon, everyone. It is great to have Craig step in to lead Seavis as our new CEO. We are really fortunate here to have a farming industry leader, a scientist and a financier to lead SEBAS to the next level. I want to spend my time building on what Craig said by showing you how his vision supports our near-term commercial interests this quarter and how those approaches can translate to the amazing opportunities ahead of us as we work to deepen our industry partnerships. If I distill the quarter into one idea, it is that the conversations we described earlier this year are converting into commercial steps. Seed companies are coming to us not for a single edit in a single crop, but for an ongoing relationship where SeedBus functions as an editing engine across their breeding programs. What does that mean in practice? We are delivering value for customers in ways that weren't possible before.

A seed company brings us its own elite variety. We edit it and return it improved in that same variety. We have now done that repeatedly repeatedly. and across crops. We previously improved 10 customers' canola and winter oilseed rate lines with six returns. We've transferred our herbicide tolerance traits into elite rice germplasm. We've delivered three improved rice lines to a United States customer. And we've edited rights material and delivered it back to our first Latin American customer, Interrock.

Every one of those represents the building blocks of value and our goal is to confirm the 12-month turnaround of edits for all crops, just as we've done in canola. So let me go deeper into our two priority near-term programs, sustainable ingredients and rice. In Craig's framing, these are the first two tiers. The standard ingredients is generating platform program revenue today, and rice is a trade royalty business that scales when our customer launches in the field. Starting with sustainable ingredients, which continues to generate R&D revenue, this program includes gene-engineered yeast to produce oils that consumer product companies need. For instance, take fragrance ingredients, the molecules that give a product its scent. made in a fermenter rather than pumped from petroleum or extracted from harvested plants. This program is generating revenue and it is a proof point for the platform model.

We received our first customer payment from this program in the fourth quarter of 2025. We're now in a commercial ramp-up phase with our consumer product partner. Revenue steps up when four things happen in order. First, our partner confirms the ingredient performs in their product. Second, we produce it at full commercial scale. Third, we agree supply terms and pricing. And fourth, our partner places commercial production orders.

We are past the first. We continue to expect additional scale-up orders of our initial biofragrances in the second half of 2026. are also developing additional fragrance ingredients using a similar edited yeast and the same process that produced the first biofragrances. Each one starts from work we have already done, so it reaches the partner faster than the preceding product did. The opportunity here is meaningful. When fully commercialized, we believe our biofragrance partnerships could represent up to a $20 to $40 million annual revenue opportunity to Sebus. Just as important, this revenue is a near-term bridge that builds while our expected rice royalty ramps. And it demonstrates something I think is underappreciated. The same core capability that develops herbicide tolerance in rice is creating commercial value in the consumer products industry. One platform, multiple markets. We also continue to advance our Loric Oils program in soybean, funded by our Consumer Packaged Goods Partner.

It is the second partner-funded program inside Sustainable Ingredients, running on the same soybean platform we are building for other traits. Turning to rice, Latin America is the primary thrust of our near-term rice efforts, and it represents the bulk of the roughly $200 million annual addressable royalty opportunity across the Americas. over a combined 5 to 7 million peak addressable acres. As we've shared previously, we have seven rice seed company customers across Latin America and the United States, and we continue to advance discussions with additional seed companies in Latin America and India. We are updating our guidance on initial commercial launch timing for rice in Latin America from late 2027 to 2028. With our customer Federos on track and our customer Interox strategically focusing on hybrid varieties with the potential to be used in the future. for a limited launch in 2028 as well. During the quarter, we advanced development on both of our rice herbicide tolerance traits, including field trials of an improved first-generation trait, and worked to identify the specific genetic changes responsible for dramatically increasing herbicide tolerance and seed fertility in that trait. Importantly, testing of the traits we transferred to Interrock's rice seed in May is underway.

In August, we expanded our framework with Interoc from two rice traits to five. That This changes the shape of the relationship as we continue toward a definitive commercial agreement. Instead of licensing one trait into a customer's variety, we're working toward being a trait pipeline powering their varieties. That is the model we intend to build with C-Companies, and it is why we say speed is our product. In the United States, our launch is paired with our partner All Bars herbicide registration timeline, and our current planning targets a 2029 launch. That work towards this launch remains on track. Beyond our two priority programs, the same platform is generating interest across a broader set of crops and trades.

SEBAS has demonstrated regeneration from single cells toward enabling crop platforms in eight crops. Rice, canola, wheat, flax, peanut, potato, sugar beet and cassava and additional crop platforms including soybean are in development. This is where Craig's third tier begins to take shape. Taking this work and the operational platforms we've built to existing partnerships to determine where we can accelerate their innovations. These conversations are developing in part because of a harmonising regulatory environment, which has put the whole industry back into focus. Nutrient Use Efficiency is our program with the John Innes Centre, a leading plant science institute in the United Kingdom. The work is focused on how the roots of a plant take up the nutrients in its environment. and it targets the whole fertilizer package rather than nitrogen alone.

We expect to send them edited canola material in the third quarter of this year. And to reinforce our single-trait, multi-crop approach, this trait has potential application across rice, wheat and canola. We have two canola programs in the United Kingdom. The first is Resistance to the Light Leaf Spot, a fungal disease that erodes canola yields in Europe. And that work is funded by a UK government research program run by DEFRA, the British Agricultural Department. The second is also a yield enhancer that targets pod shadow reduction, which keeps seed pods from splitting open and dropping their seed before harvest. Following two years of encouraging field trials in England in our customers' own varieties, pod shatter reduction is moving to expanded trialling there.

It will be planted under Britain's new precision breeding rules, which apply in England to treat gene-added crops the same as conventional. ones. One more result from our canola work. Our second generation herbicide tolerance trait has progressed and this year's trials are repeating the level of tolerance to the HT2 herbicide we would expect for a novel weed management solution. Solutions for managing hard to control weeds in canola provide farmers with important options. can help to reduce the total herbicide package needed that in turn reduce cost and chemical usage. The takeaway is that our platform is performing across multiple crops and increasingly complex traits, and every one of these programs is available for partnership. Together, they represent the optionality Craig described. Finally, the regulatory environment continues to work in our favour at a moment when it matters.

In June, the European Union finalised new rules that generally treat most crops improved without adding foreign DNA the same as conventionally bred crops rather than as GMOs. Those rules entered into force in July and now enter a two-year implementation period. This is a milestone for our industry and the recognition comes from one of the world's largest and most stringent agricultural markets. States like Disease Resistance and our pod shadow reduction work in canola and oilseed rape are expected to qualify under the same conventional breeding treatment. Our first planned submission under the new framework is pod shadow reduction in winter oilseed rape. Within Latin America, Ecuador and Peru have both confirmed that our first and second generation herbicide-tolerant rice traits are equivalent to those developed through conventional breeding. Separately, the United States Food and Drug Administration has completed its review of our altered lignin alfalfa trait and issued a letter stating it has no further questions.

In the United States, USDA APHIS has determined that our traits are not regulated articles, subject to its biotechnology regulations. Those decisions span now three continents and they underpin the launch timelines I've described today. And with that, let me hand it back to Carlo for the financial review. Carlo?.

Thank you, Peter. Looking at our financials for the second quarter, cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, 2026, was 20.4 million. We were pleased that our quarterly cash usage declined approximately 19% on a sequential basis and 31% on a year-over-year basis. taking into account the impact of implemented cost-saving initiatives, and without giving effect to potential financing transactions that CBIS may pursue from time to time, we expect that existing cash and cash equivalents are sufficient to fund planned operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into early in the first quarter of the next year. quarter of 2027. Moving to our operating results for the second quarter, revenue was 1 million for the quarter compared to 0.9 million in the year-ago period. the $6 million against $2 million, an increase of 35% earned under our collaboration agreements for the Sustainable Ingredients Program. The figures are small today and the trajectory is the point. Research and development was 8.5 million compared to 12.2 million in the year-ago period. The decrease of 3.7 million is primarily due to the cost reduction initiatives. SG&A expense was $5.4 million compared to $6.6 million in the year-ago period.

The decrease of $1.2 million is primarily due to the same cost reductions. Combined, RM&D and SG&A operating expenses declined by nearly $5 million year-over-year. It's also worth noting what sits below the operating lines. Non-cash royalty liability interest expense to related parties was 9.5 million for the quarter compared to 8.7 million in the year-ago period, reflecting interest accruing on the royalty liability balance. That is the largest single driver of the gap between our operating loss and our net loss. These reductions reflect the cost discipline that is now central to how we run the company. As Craig noted, the team is conducting a thorough review of our cost structure and capital allocation, and we'll plan to share more on our next call.

Non-operating income, net, was income of 0.2 million, compared to a nominal expense in the year-ago period. The increase is driven by partner funding for work she has performed and the fair value adjustment of the company's liability-classified common warrants. Net loss was $22.1 million for the quarter, compared to $26.6 million in the year-ago period. Net loss per share of class A common stock of 29 cents compared to 61 cents in the year ago period. The improvement of 32 cents is primarily driven by the cost reductions I described, as well as a year-over-year increase in weighted average shares outstanding. With respect to our net cash usage, we are now targeting a net cash usage run rate exiting 2026 of approximately 35 million, reflecting continued cost discipline while making additional investments geared toward growth initiatives such as technology and personnel. Now I would like to give you some added color on how we expect the RISE Royalty streams to build. scale with acres planted, so the ramp follows our commercial launch.

As our Latin American seed partners bring traded rice to the market, we expect royalties to start flowing in 2028 and to build further through 2029 as adoption expands into additional acres and additional customers. To put that in context, at peak volumes across our combined rice acreage opportunity, we have described a royalty opportunity of over 200 million annually. Heading from the first acres planted in 2028 to that scale is a multi-year ramp, and we will continue to update you on our progress in our quarterly updates. The bigger picture is straightforward. Our cost discipline is showing up in the numbers. Our near-term revenue is building in the first two tiers Craig described. The platform programs we have in place today and the potential of the Rise Royalty business as it scales in the coming years. are all oriented towards Craig's vision of strengthening our financial foundation with sound strategy. And with that, let me now turn it back to Craig for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Carlo. CBIS is a rare technology protected by more than 500 patents and patent applications and validated through demanding regulatory pathways with a clear path to value across the three tiers I described. Eight platform programs, a royalty business that scales with Rice, and deepening partnerships. Our team is a great partner. job is to execute against that framework, and that is exactly what this team is focused on. I took this job because I believe this platform can generate revenue at scale. That belief has not changed. With that, operator, let's take some questions.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your keypad. To leave the queue at any time, press star 2. Once again, that is star and 1 to ask a question. And we will pause for a moment to allow everyone a chance to join the queue. We'll take our first question from Matthew Venezia with AGP Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hey guys, thanks for taking our questions and congrats on the progress this quarter. I was wondering if you could speak a little bit more on the model of becoming sort of a trait machine for specific seed companies, rather than licensing your traits to big agricultural conglomerates and what the economics.

and moat you guys have there are. Great. Hey Matt, thanks so much for joining. Thanks for your question. This is Craig Wishner here. The question was the trait machine pushing forward with the trade machine on a more focused basis rather than just broadly across the enterprise. We are certainly continuing to provide our technology and our solutions across the industry. What we're adding here is the ability to really provide a competitive advantage for specific key partners in specific geographies by crop and partner. What we're – Interoc, for example, in rice, we have a nice broad platform of – on the technology.

We have a number of partners in the market and in the crop, and what Interoc is excited about. to have a pipeline of traits going into rice to really give them a strong competitive advantage for that. That allows us to really focus our efforts and give a lot of value to specific partners. It's our belief is that this will both accelerate the deployment and the partnerships with our company, as well as broaden the market opportunity as well, really creating a closer relationship with the key companies.

Great thanks Craig and then just 1 more if I could. What is the prevalence of hybrid rice in Latin America? I know this is a much more stable source of recurring revenue. How many acres are out there that you guys model in the geographies that you are looking to enter in 2028?.

Thanks, Matt. This is Peter. Let me take that question because I think, you know, one, you know, 2026 has been a really exciting year for us to see our colifidin tolerance rights in the field again and our partners getting a chance to see it in multiple geographies and the excitement around that trait because it's working so well. And that's been great to see and I think that where they're looking when you look at the Latin American market that has primarily been inbred or conventional varieties. is moving and they'd love to move even faster to a hybrid seed production. So you put that together with an expansion of what we're doing in deepening our relationships as part of Craig's vision. with Interoc and others, but also the ability to sort of look at the trade and go, wow, this is great. We want to get this on as many acres and market, penetrate that market really well. So, you know, right now, if you look at major crops around the world, they're all heading in the direction of hybrids. So corn has led the way. Wheat is coming right now. Canola has always been there.

And now we're seeing rice globally have the same impact. So when we model acres, see the gross acreage in that five to seven million acres coming forward with hybrids penetrating that marketplace. So you know we're working with other partners like Federal Rose that are more on the inbred side, a variety side, so it'll advance our moment greatly. Great. Thank you, Peter. And thanks, guys, for taking my questions.

Thanks, Beth. Thank you. And once again, that is SARN1 on your telephone keypad if you would like to join the queue. We will move next with Samir Yoshi with HC Wainwright. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call, Greg, Peter, Carlo. Congrats on all the progress. And congrats especially on the EU opportunity that is opening up. You mentioned, I think in your prepared remarks, a two-year implementation period. question is do you have sort of people on the ground to influence that process or how is it being managed so that you will be prepared when when things are ready to go.

Let me take that question. This is Peter. Because it's such an important question and as you know, we've, as a company, we've We've been following the EU legislation for many years and very closely. A number of industry groups like EuroSeeds and the American Seed Trade Association have have been great advocacy groups for that legislation. And I can tell you already, you know, since the vote, we've had a number of interactions already on the discussion points around the implementation. So there's, you know, I've been to Brussels already and given presentations. We're invited to a number of other conferences in the next few months, and this is helping the DG Santee, which is the group that will drive the administration as part of the commission.

uh and for the interruption this is the operator we are experiencing technical difficulties please remain on the Thank you. difficulties please remain on the line Thank you. And by the interruption, this is the operator. We are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please remain on the line. Your meeting will resume shortly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. We are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please remain on the line. Your meeting will resume shortly.

Thank you. And your line has reconnected. Please proceed with the program.

We want to know where we dropped off. Yes. Can you help us?.

I understand where we dropped off. I apologize. Yes, this is Sameer. I think you were explaining your progress in the European countries, how you are positioned there.

Did you get the answer from Craig on understanding that we have people on the ground?.

I do not think we reached. I think Peter you were speaking. Okay.

So why don't you continue? So let me continue on then. I apologize, everybody. The... I'm sure you heard my excitement over the European regulatory, but I think one of the things the question was asking how we're going to influence the implementation phase. I can assure you that we actually have people on the ground there in Europe. I'm going to let Carlo talk to that. but I think that it's important to understand that we do have clear implications from our own team in Europe and experience. So Carlo, why don't you add to that? Yes, thank you for the question. And being from Europe,.

I want to confirm, and I think important to realize, that we have a handful of people. working in Europe, business development people, and all of them have worked for the seed companies in Europe for decades. So we're super close to our European seed partners.

And I'll just add regarding that, that, for example, we have a partnership with John Innes regarding the institute, regarding the nitrogen use efficiency, which is really, to me, a poster child of the opportunity within the year. European Union. This trait helps plants create a better, healthier soil environment for them, increases nitrogen use efficiency, other nutrient use efficiency, a healthier soil biology environment. This is the kind of trait that we can extend into multiple crops across all of our platforms. And to me, it really represents the promise of regenerative agriculture and Sebas's technology. So we're, we already have a footprint in there. We have great relationships in place. Board members with great experience in the European seed industry.

So it really feels that we are really on the fast track with the regulatory changes and the relationships that we already have in place.

Thanks everyone for that. We are tracking the John in this. progress with you guys. Just one more from me for the sustainable ingredients and bio fragrances, I think you characterize the market or your peak opportunity as 20 to 40 million revenues. Are there other non bio fragrance specialty sustainable ingredient that are being targeted or is that only going to be limited to the bio fragrances right now?.

So the sustainable ingredients is very much of a broad platform. And I think about it basically scaling from one microbe to 100 million acres. And it really crosses from across the species to a unique microbe that we're working with on the biofragrance side up to being able to deploy this in plants. And it's specifically around making unique compounds. within these crops using the plant's own mechanisms basically for producing oils, for example. The initial commercialized applications are biofragrance now. It's validated commercially and we're generating revenues and moving forward with that. That will expand rapidly. we are working with partners on other uses, particularly on the palm palm, Kernel Oil as a great platform for sustainable ingredients.

We'll be talking more about that as well. There are other opportunities in that sector, in those sectors. It's a deep opportunity that we're looking forward to. We'll be rolling out more about that in the coming quarters.

It's very interesting and congrats again on all the progress. I'll step back in the queue.

Thanks for your questions. Thank you. And at this time, there are no further questions in queue. I will now turn the meeting back to management. Actually, we do have a follow-up from Samir Yoshe. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hey, I, because no one else is there, I thought I could ask this cash burn question. I think in the previous quarter, it was expected to be less than 30 million over the next 12 months, it is now around 35 million. And I do understand there's additional technology and personnel being added, but can you just give us like qualitatively some description of what these changes are?.

Thank you for the question. This is a super important subject to me, so I appreciate. I bet you've heard that we have been improving, right? So we have a decline quarter over quarter, year over year on our net cash usage, so I'm happy with that. So as we speak, As we speak, we're moving forward as planned to approximately 9 million cash usage for the quarter. with that to exit 2026 on a approximately 35 million or less net annualized cash usage. And that was exactly what you said. Still a few things need to happen, like finishing off the consolidation of our facilities. And that is just to confirm that we're trying to save on expenses where we can. So that is still main priority, save where we can.

But at the same time, we also recognize that we need to spend a little bit more on technology and on people. And that is all geared towards our priority programs, as we've talked about before, but also to bolster the opportunities we see in our pipeline. And with that, I refer to what Craig said, that there is a lot available for the future, just spending a little bit more time. Just to enable that, if that makes sense. Yes. I'll ask you.

Go ahead. Do you want to have Paul? No, I was just going to say that rather than spend, I would characterize it as an investment. So it's actually a good thing. Thanks.

Yes. So that's exactly right. We are continuing to focus on driving non-core costs down. And you'll see some additional cost savings that happen in the coming quarters as well. And at the same time, we are identifying those areas that we can put some capital into that deliver significant long-term value and help drive growth for less than the cost of an FTE. For example, we rolled out AI to everyone in the company here, and that's already delivering very significantly. results on a qualitative basis and we'll be quantifying those values going forward. But there's a lot of basically transformation that's happening in the company. We have a very clear drive towards commercialization and generating revenues. This is a real growth opportunity.

The sector and the opportunity is extraordinary. The potential that CBUS has is very significant and we wanna capture that opportunity. We're going to do it in a very smart way, in a very cost efficient way. We're focused on driving near term revenues of the company and managing costs and taking advantage, full advantage of this opportunity. So again, we'll be talking more about that going forward. This is, I think I've been here 66 days. So we're, I think we made a good start, but there's still a bit more to go.

Yes, no, thanks for that, Keller, and congrats on your first quarterly call, and good luck. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you. And at this time, we have reached our allotted time for questions. I will now turn the call back over to management for closing comments.

Great. Well, I just want to thank the management team here for welcoming me, for having built a really extraordinary company. This is an honor and a privilege, and it's tremendously fun. It's been an incredible – to actually join the company and see everything that we're doing here. is amazing and I want to share that with the investors who have followed the company and supported the company all this time because what's under the covers is really interesting and we'll be rolling that out more in the coming quarter. I... I think you'll see that the management team is transparent. We're excited and we're all committed towards really unlocking the power of SEBAS and agriculture. And we really appreciate your support. So, with that, thank you very much, and we look forward to talking with you soon.

Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation.

This live transcript is auto-generated without human intervention or review.

[Call has ended.]

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Cibus First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please also note today's event is being recorded.

At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Carlo Broos, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon. I would like to thank you for taking time to join us for Cibus First Quarter 2026 Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call and Webcast. Presenting with me today is Peter Beetham, Co-Founder, Interim Chief Executive Officer, President and COO; and Greg Gocal, Co-Founder and our Chief Scientific Officer.

Before we begin the call, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast, including those regarding future financial results and future operational goals and industry prospects are forward-looking and may be subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the call. Please refer to Cibus SEC filings for a list of associated risks.

This conference call is being webcast. The webcast link along with our press release and corporate presentation are available on the Investor Relations section of cibus.com to assist you in your analysis of our business.

And with that, I would now like to turn the call over to Peter.

Thanks, Carlo, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm so pleased to report continued momentum toward our commercial goals across our priority programs during the first quarter of 2026. If I had to distill our message today into a single word, it would be execution. We raised significant capital over the last several months, approximately $37 million in gross proceeds across 2 public offerings. And we have immediately put that capital to work, advancing our commercial objectives for our priority programs.

We are uniquely focused on changing the speed and scale of breeding. We're focused every day on moving materials through the system, advancing customer relationships and delivering on the milestones that we strongly believe will create value for our shareholders. 2025 was about building that foundation, which saw us sign up new seed company customers, establish material transfer agreements, complete pre-commercial pilot runs and importantly, position our priority programs for opportunities that Cibus is uniquely positioned to capitalize on. We executed on all those objectives, the mark of a successful year.

Now in 2026, our focus has shifted to executing on the commercial opportunities ahead of us, getting material back into the hands of our customers, negotiating pricing and volume agreements and converting our pipeline into revenue-generating opportunities. In fact, just last week, we delivered gene edited rice with herbicide tolerant traits back to Interoc, a perfect example of our commercialization progress as it is an important step toward the deployment of our commercial launch plans for the Rice royalty business. We look forward to executing more planned transfers to our Latin American partners this year.

So the backdrop for this work has never been more compelling. Today's agricultural landscape underscores the urgency and vital importance of our mission. Ongoing disruptions in global fertilizer supply chains, in terms of both nitrogen production, delivery and pricing are creating real financial challenges for farmers navigating the global geopolitical landscape, particularly in nitrogen-intensive crops within our portfolio like rice, wheat and canola. These disruptions highlight the significant value creation potential embedded across our trait development platform and reinforce why novel precision breeding solutions in elite seeds are essential to building a more resilient and productive agricultural system.

Just remember, seeds are the engine room of production in agriculture. It is precisely why we exist to make each acre more productive. And this wave of disruption and uncertainty reemphasizes what we began to see earlier this year. The seed companies want to get more deeply integrated with our technologies rather than simply accessing a single trait. They are coming to us not for one edit in one crop, but to explore broader ongoing relationships where Cibus serves as a gene editing engine across their breeding programs.

Last quarter, I described how that evolution may map to our economics. The important update is that we are now seeing it play out in practice. The commercial discussions we are having today, whether it relates to a trait license opportunity in rice, a fragrance scale-up with our CPG partner or a new partner-funded development program in wheat or canola, all flow through the same structure. Cibus makes the edit and Cibus retains part of the value created through royalties. What has changed is the pace. The number of active conversations, the depth of those conversations and the proximity to revenue are all meaningfully advanced from where they were when we last spoke in March. That is what gives me confidence that this model is not just well designed, it is working.

Now I will dive into our priority pipeline updates, beginning with rice, where we have 7 active rice seed company customer relationships across LATAM and the United States, and we are advancing discussions with additional seed companies in new markets, including Brazil, with the support of RTDC, and Argentina. We are also continuing to explore opportunities in the large Indian rice market with support from RTDC and our partner, AgVaya.

I'm really pleased to report that we are on track for our planned 2027 initial LATAM commercial launch. LATAM represents the primary thrust of our near-term efforts to build the rice business, representing the bulk of the $200 million annual addressable royalty opportunity across the Americas combined 5 million to 7 million peak addressable acres.

With respect to the United States, over the past several weeks, we have refined our launch model with our chemistry partner, Albaugh. In the near term, Albaugh is working through its chemical registration workflow with regulators here in the U.S.A., which is a key gating item for our U.S. launch. While we have made great progress, the registration process for use of their clethodim herbicide in rice is behind the initial time line we were working against, which pushes the estimated U.S. launch from 2028 to 2029. The work we are doing right now with elite seed from partners must align with herbicide registration. So getting materials through the system and into the hands of our seed company partners is the critical path for success.

In terms of our progress in Q1, in January, we executed a nonbinding letter of intent or LOI with Interoc, one of our lead Latin American seed partners, establishing a framework for the commercialization of co-developed herbicide-tolerant rice traits across key Latin American markets. This agreement targets initial market entry into Ecuador and Colombia in 2027, with phased expansion into Peru, Central America and the Caribbean, followed by U.S. expansion now in 2029.

In March, Interoc received an additional import permit to allow for the transfer of material bearing our HT traits. This was an extremely important regulatory step that clears the path for us to begin delivering gene edited trait material into the seed system in Latin America. And in May, we executed delivery of completed gene edited materials in Interoc's elite rice germplasm. This transition facilitates the immediate commencement of production and brings us one step closer to an agreement with Interoc to launch Cibus-enhanced seed products into the Latin American agricultural markets.

Turning now to Sustainable Ingredients. Last quarter, we reported receiving our first customer payment in Q4, representing a significant milestone. And as I shared with you last quarter, this sets us up to formalize our expanded partnership and target commercial scale production during 2026. The work on that front is progressing. I want to give you a sense of what that looks like inside the organization right now.

With the successful scaling of our technology validated through our pre-commercial pilot runs and continued customer payments reinforcing that progress in Q1, the program is now firmly in a commercial ramp-up phase. The conversations we are having today are about further scale-up schedules, production volumes, pricing terms and finalization of product formulations with our CPG partner.

We expect additional scale-up orders of our initial biofragrances in the second half of 2026, and development of additional fragrance products is underway using the same yeast platform that produce our initial products. This extensible feature of our platform is important. It means we are able to leverage our prior work rather than building from scratch each time we target a new sustainable bio fragrance.

Stepping back, the addressable opportunity here is significant. The global fragrance market is estimated at over $65 billion. And when fully commercialized, we believe our natural biofragrance partnerships could represent up to a $20 million to $40 million annual royalty opportunity to Cibus. Our initial biofragrance royalties also serve as a near-term revenue bridge that will ramp as our rice royalty stream builds towards its 2027 LATAM launch. And it demonstrates something I think is underappreciated, the same core competencies that enable developing herbicide tolerance in rice is creating commercial value in the vast consumer products industry and is driving discussions across our entire opportunity pipeline. Beyond biofragrances, we also continue to advance our partner-funded crop-based oleic oils program as part of the broader Sustainable Ingredients portfolio.

And finally, I should note that the regulatory environment continues to be a tailwind at a moment when it matters most. As global supply chains face disruption and farmers look for new solutions, the doors for precision breeding are opening in the jurisdictions that matter. The EU's political agreement on New Genomic Techniques legislation is advancing with the EU Environment Committee, ENVI, and the European Commission formally endorsing language, which sets up the Parliament for a vote in the upcoming plenary session.

Within Latin America, Ecuador has confirmed that our HT1 and HT3 rice traits are equivalent to those developed through conventional breeding, which is directly enabling our LATAM launch time line. And Peru has followed with a similar determination. Remember, in the United States, we now have a total of 17 positive USDA-APHIS determinations.

Our teams have been active players in these regulatory conversations for decades, and I want to emphasize the commercial significance of this momentum we are seeing. Regulatory harmonization across these jurisdictions is not just a policy headline, it is what is driving the commercial conversations we are having right now with seed companies across 3 continents. Without it, the technology readiness would not matter. With it, we have an increasingly clear runway.

I will now pass the call over to Greg to discuss the opportunity pipeline traits and programs. Greg?

Thank you, Peter. I'll focus my remarks today on the key technical milestones that support our priority programs and our broader opportunity pipeline. Our scientific progress is directly enabling the commercialization momentum Peter described. In rice, last fiscal year, we achieved an order of magnitude improvement in editing efficiency, the results of systematic optimization across reagents, cell culture conditions, delivery mechanics and regeneration.

We're compounding those gains through rapid deployment and strategic application of AI and machine learning, which is accelerating target identification, improving the precision of predictive edit outcomes and feeding continuous learnings back into each new campaign. The result is a trait machine process that is faster, more scalable and more consistent than ever.

Combined with our semi-automated workflows and robotic assistance, we now have the throughput to support the kind of deeper ongoing partnerships Peter outlined, functioning not just as a trait provider, but as an editing capability, complementing our customers' breeding programs.

Shifting to our opportunity pipeline programs, I'll keep my remarks focused on how the current environment is accelerating interest in what we've built. Peter described the disruption that farmers are facing. What I want to walk you through is why our pipeline is uniquely positioned to meet that moment, starting with nutrient use efficiency.

Our nutrient use efficiency collaboration with the John Innes Centre has always been one of strategic importance in our pipeline, but the current environment makes the case even more clearly. Remember, only about 1/3 of applied nitrogen fertilizer is typically absorbed by plants. In a world where nitrogen supply is constrained and costs are rising, a trait that improves that uptake presents an amplified value proposition. And it has multi-crop potential within our portfolio across rice, wheat and canola. This is exactly the kind of complex biological challenge our RTDS platform was designed to solve. And it is exactly the kind of trait that generates significant commercial interest when farmers are under pressure.

In canola, we have several important developments to report. Work is now underway on the DEFRA-funded consortium within our U.K. farming innovation program, where we are the gene editing partner applying our RTDS platform to develop durable resistance to Light Leaf Spot disease in oilseed rape. The program is advancing as planned with an initial funding contribution expected in 2026.

On Pod Shatter Reduction, following 2 years of encouraging U.K. field trials in customer germplasm, we are preparing to plant this fall in the U.K. under the Precision Bred Organisms framework. This is a significant commercial catalyst and is top of mind for seed companies we are working with in Europe.

On our wheat platform, we've previously disclosed successfully regenerated plants from single cells in a wheat cultivar. Single cell regeneration is the gateway to applying our full RTDS editing capability in a new crop. Having accomplished that, the entire trait development process for that crop opens up. This, in turn, spurs opportunity for future partner-funded development in one of the world's most cultivated crops. And as the European regulatory landscape becomes clearer, we're seeing increased interest.

And in soybean, we continue to build on last year's successful edit for the HT2 trait, continuing our soybean platform development in conjunction with the Sustainable Ingredients program. The regeneration in wheat mirrors the actions we aim to make in soybean once the platform is operational and represents the potential to accelerate trait development in one of the world's most cultivated crops.

The key message I want to leave with you is this, our RTDS platform is performing across multiple crops and increasingly complex traits. Every one of these pipeline programs is available for partnership. And together, they represent significant optionality for the business.

And with that, I'll hand the call over to Carlo for the financial update. Carlo?

Thank you, Greg. Looking at our financials for the first quarter. Cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, 2026, was $30.3 million. During the quarter, we completed 2 public offerings, raising $22.3 million in gross proceeds in January and approximately $15 million in gross proceeds in March. Taking into account the net proceeds from these offerings and the impact of our implemented cost-saving initiatives, we expect that existing cash and cash equivalents are sufficient to fund planned operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into late in the first quarter of 2027.

Moving now to our operating results for the first quarter. Research and development expense was $8.7 million, compared to $11.8 million in the year ago period. The $3.1 million decrease is primarily due to cost reduction initiatives. SG&A expense was $5.1 million, compared to $9.9 million in the year ago period. The $4.8 million decrease is primarily due to a $3 million litigation expense in the first quarter of 2025 as well as cost reduction initiatives. Combined, operating expenses declined by nearly $8 million year-over-year, and we remain on target to deliver annual net cash usage of approximately $30 million or less during 2026.

Royalty liability interest expense related parties was $9.1 million, compared to $8.4 million in the year ago period. The $0.7 million increase is due to the recognition of interest expense on the accumulating royalty liability.

Net loss was $21.2 million for the quarter, compared to $49.4 million in the year ago period. Net loss per share of Class A common stock was $0.33, compared to $1.34 in the year ago period. The improvement was primarily driven by a noncash goodwill impairment in the prior year, which accounted for approximately $0.57 in net loss per share of Class A common stock as well as the impact from our cost reduction initiatives and an increase in weighted average shares outstanding.

The big picture here is that our streamlining efforts are translating directly to the P&L. Our runway is supported by the capital we raised in the quarter, and our focus remains on near-term revenue execution by Sustainable Ingredients.

And with that financial overview, let me now turn it back to Peter for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Carlo, and thank you, Greg. Let me close by putting the quarter in context. On our last call, I laid out what 2026 would look like. We would be advancing toward a definitive agreement with Interoc, expanding our biofragrance partnerships, seeing important regulatory momentum in the EU, witnessing continued progress in our opportunity pipeline and demonstrating disciplined cost management execution. Today, I'm really pleased with where we stand against those objectives.

The Interoc letter of intent sets the framework for our pending definitive agreement. Our Sustainable Ingredients program is moving toward commercial scale. The regulatory advances are as we expected. Our opportunity pipeline is generating new engagement with potential partners. And our cost discipline is translating to the P&L. In an environment where farmers worldwide are looking for answers to some of the most fundamental challenges in agriculture, I believe Cibus is in the right place with the right technology at exactly the right time. There is more work ahead of us, but the trajectory is clear, and I'm proud of what our team is building.

Operator, we're now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today will come from Matthew Venezia with AGP.

So first one, in the PR, you guys have a bullet about the amendment to your current contract with your Sustainable Ingredients partner to expand the R&D activities there. Can you give us a little color into whether that's related to the biofragrance program or Sustainable Ingredients in soy or both? And what those increased revenues might look like? And then I have a follow-up.

Thank you, Matt. We are excited to put this in the press release because it is an extension of the hard work the team has been doing in the Sustainable Ingredients area. It is to do with the soybean oleic oils. And so with that, I think that -- the activities that we've been doing have been expanding that area and really making great advances. And the upshot of that is that we've seen the ability to amend that contract and have an expansion as part of our R&D revenue going forward.

And I'll hand it to Carlo to add any additional color.

No, I think that's spot on, Peter. When you look at the last quarter, there was also some extra work done and that was recognized by a partner, and that's why we had a catch-up payment in this quarter. That's also why you see our revenue going up. Just happy with that recognition. Hope that covers it, Matt?

Great. Yes. Sorry, I don't know if you guys can hear me. I think my connection is a little off. But in terms of the burn rate right now. Is this where you guys are expecting it to level off? Or are you expecting it to go a little bit lower even further into the back half of this year? And then if you can give just a little bit more color on the delay in the launch for rice in the U.S., I know you mentioned the herbicide labeling process, but if you can give color if that's kind of more on Albaugh's side and if you have a lot of control over the time line there at all. So those 2 would both be helpful.

Yes. Let me start. Thanks for the question. So first, on the burn. So we're working towards that target to be on a net annualized burn of $30 million or less, and we're in a transition. The reorg was late in quarter 1. So you can imagine there's triple effect into even the second quarter. So what you will see happening is that the burn goes down from quarter 1 to quarter 2, and that we're in better shape in quarter 3 and quarter 4. I suspect in quarter 3 and 4, we are very close to the targets we have mentioned so far.

Thanks, Carlo. Let me follow on with your second question, Matt. What I would like to -- everyone to remember is the Latin American market in our rice herbicide tolerance royalty business really is the bulk of our $200 million opportunity. The U.S. is smaller acres. It is a higher dollar per acre, but it really is quite small compared to the Latin American market.

And where we are with the primary thrust in Latin America, and that's why we're excited about getting material back to our customers really is -- when it comes to the U.S. shift that we've discussed today, Latin America will be in the commercial full swing by then. So really, what this update shares is that we're really sharpening the commercial plan rather than weakening it.

And I think it's really important to understand that with Albaugh, we've been working closely with them on clethodim registration over rice and it is a gating item to the commercial launch, but it doesn't constrain any of our other initiatives in the platform. And that when it comes to the time lines on chemical registration, working with the regulators in the U.S., there's a number of gap analysis that you have to do. And so the good news is we've really refined that process, and so we're really confident of, now, the time line between here and '29. Hopefully, that answered your question.

Yes. No, very helpful. Congrats on the progress and skew toward commercialization.

Our next question will come from Sameer Joshi with H.C. Wainwright.

Just a few quick ones. For the biofragrances customer, like who is the -- can you give us a flavor of what the end product is and who the end customers are for these biofragrances? Are these multiple fragrances or a particular type of fragrance?

So thank you for the question. Look, the exciting thing about our fragrance work is that it is part of a huge global fragrance market. We've mentioned it, the $65 billion global fragrance market. And we're really working on and validating the commercial scale-up right now. And look, where we are, which is exciting is that we're really understanding the scale-up schedules, the production volumes, the pricing terms and the finalization of product formulations.

We have not announced what the product formulations will be. And as we deliver that in the second half of the year, we'll keep you updated on that front. But the reality is that we're continuing that discussion around the really important commercial ramp-up agreements, but also the scale of that production in the second half of 2026. Really exciting for us because understanding that this is not just a one-off. There's -- we believe we can use the platform, which is extensible, this yeast platform to leverage our prior work to build additional fragrances into this marketplace.

Okay. And then sort of a similar question on the ingredients portfolio. You mentioned you're working on several leads on that front. What is the potential market size of the opportunities that you're pursuing right now? And maybe also give us a sense of what kind of compounds or what kind of molecules are you working on?

Thanks for the question. Let me share sort of in general terms, we're looking at Sustainable Ingredients that are fantastic with regards to replacing ingredients that have limited volume upside. And we've talked about oleic oils as one of the areas that we're being focused on. And that supply chain, as we know right now, are always tested. And I think in agriculture, the backdrop of where we are geopolitically have had impacts.

And so for us, when we're working with customers and potential clients in the future, we're looking at other sources, more sustainable sources, more consistent around that area of Sustainable Ingredients. And crops hold a great opportunity to build that out. And understanding that seeds and seed genetics using the Cibus technology, as Greg pointed out, we are the perfect technology for complex editing that allow you to get to those sorts of new characteristics in crops. That's -- hopefully, that helps on some of the overview of your question.

Our next question will come from Alex Hantman with Sidoti & Company.

Congrats on the quarter. First question, just on rice. So now that Interoc has received additional import permit and you've transferred gene edited traits in their rice seeds. Could you talk a little bit about the remaining gating items before full commercial agreements and sort of the pacing of LATAM commercialization then based on that?

Thanks, Alex. Great question. Look, we -- that's what's exciting for us, getting part of the execution that I've talked about, and 2026 is all about commercial execution, is getting our edited materials that are in their elite genetics. We've done earlier transfers to start the deployment of rice herbicide tolerance into Latin America. But getting their elite genetics into their hands starts the whole deployment. In other words, there's a number of steps that are involved in that is getting their materials into production. And over the next 18 months, there will be a number of milestones that we'll announce over our reporting that will get it to registered seed, certified seed that then will go into a launch in 2027. The difference with Interoc in Latin America is the chemical registration is going concurrently. And we see a clear path to both that and the seed being ready in the latter half of 2027.

Great context. And then just on the finances, so given the runway that you've spoken about, I'm curious how you think about the company's preference for sort of financing ahead of commercialization milestones and getting a timing buffer versus waiting for additional derisking events like the partnership agreements you've been accruing or the scale-up orders that it sounds like you're marching well towards.

Thank you, Alex. Let me start and then Peter can fill me in. I think the good news is, it's $37 million gross in the first quarter. So over $33 million net. And as you've read, that gives us runway into the first quarter of 2027, commercial revenue starting this year, ramping up pretty material in '27. So the question is, is there still a gap? And how do you want to bridge that gap? And I don't think that's any different than it has been before. So I think a couple of ways to bridge such a gap. I think most important is that commercial revenue start this year and '27 looks good. So we'll -- yes, we have sufficient time to plan for that, Alex.

At this time, there are no further questions in queue. I will now turn the meeting back to Mr. Beetham for any additional or closing remarks.

Thank you so much. As I stated, 2026 is all about execution. We've laid the foundation for a global commercial trait royalty machine, and we are on the verge of unleashing this coiled spring, and I feel really good about that. Not only that, I am so proud to lead this team into this commercial phase and really look forward to work with this great team, and you're going to see us deliver over the next few years.

So what I'd like to do is thank you all for joining today on this call. And as I said earlier, we believe Cibus is in the right place with the right technology at exactly the right time. And with that, I thank you all again for joining.

Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Cibus Fourth Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please also note today's event is being recorded.

At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Carlo Broos, Chief Financial Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon. I'd like to thank you for taking time to join us for Cibus' Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call and Webcast. Presenting with me today is Peter Beetham, Co-Founder, Interim Chief Executive Officer, President and COO; and Greg Gocal, Co-Founder and our Chief Scientific Officer.

Before we begin the call, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast, including those regarding future financial results and future operational goals and industry prospects are forward-looking and may be subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the call. Please refer to Cibus' SEC filings for a list of associated risks.

This conference call is being webcast. The webcast link along with our press release and corporate presentation are available on the Investor Relations section of cibus.com, to assist you in analysis of our business.

And with that, I would now like to turn the call over to Peter.

Thanks, Carlo, and good afternoon, everyone. By any measure, 2025 was a landmark year for Cibus. Not because of any single headline but because of a convergence of key things that are shaping the trajectory of the gene editing industry. Technology leadership, commercialization progress, scale and regulatory momentum, all arriving at the same time.

We have 7 rice customers representing over $200 million in potential annual royalty opportunities. We received our first customer payment from our sustainable ingredients program. We were selected by the U.K. government as a technology partner for its farming innovation program. And in a watershed moment, the EU finally reached political agreement on new genomic techniques legislation, something we have been helping to shape for many years.

Gene editing is no longer an experiment. We believe it's the future of innovation in farming, food and agriculture. And Cibus has been positioned ahead of this innovation curve for a long time, and we have shifted to a commercially-driven company with a powerful technology engine. What makes this current moment, particularly exciting is the intersection of our technology readiness and a change in how we believe seed companies are thinking about gene editing. For years, speed and scale were obstacles. Seed companies were interested, but the technology wasn't predictable enough to fit into their breeding programs. Our advancements in creating a more streamlined business with time-bound predictable trade development have changed that equation. We can take a customer's elite germplasm, make a specific edit and return it to them within 12 to 15 months. And because of that progress, we are beginning to see something important. Seed companies don't necessarily just want access to a trait, they want to get more deeply integrated with our technologies. This is a natural evolution of what we mean when we say that Cibus can be an extension of our customers' breeding programs. We received their elite genetics, we make the edits, and we returned improved material on a predictable schedule that allows for commercial planning and coordination that better align to their seed improvement and market growth strategies. Increasingly, the conversations we're having with potential customers are about ongoing genomic editing relationships, not just one trait in one crop but the possibility of a broader engagement throughout their entire portfolio, where Cibus can serve as a gene editing engine for their plant breeding capabilities. This is highlighting opportunities beyond traditional trade licensing, particularly in high-growth markets like India and Asia and Latin America, where we see potential for what I've described as outsourced gene editing, partners accessing our editing capabilities on an ongoing basis. As we explore these potential relationships, we are maintaining our core licensing and royalty framework surrounding the edits we make. The edits are the product. Cibus edits the genome in elite genetics, and those edits are connected to royalties. Regardless of whether a partner comes to us for a single trait or for a comprehensive editing program, the value we create resides the edit themselves, and we retain that value through our intellectual property and licensing structure. That is how we intend to build a durable recurring cash flow that drives long-term shareholder value. So whether we are talking about trade licensing, editing services, or some combination thereof, the roads lead to the same payoffs and annual stream of royalties on the edits Cibus makes.

Now turning to our Rice program, which remains the foundation for near-term revenue generation. And the clearest example of our core trade business model I just described. Remember, our 7 rice customers across the United States and Latin America represents an incredible $200 million in potential annual royalty opportunity through our herbicide tolerant traits. Importantly, we remain on track for initial market entry in Latin America in 2027, followed by the potential U.S. expansion in 2028, and entry into India and Asia closer to 2030.

Perhaps the most significant development was with Interoc. In January, we executed a nonbinding LOI establishing a framework for commercialization of herbicide tolerant rice across key Latin American markets, signing with Ecuador and Colombia in 2027, and expanding into Peru, Central America and the Caribbean. We've transferred some edited material back to Interoc for registration work. We have recently received an import permit so we can return their elite rice genetics with 2 herbicide tolerant traits, and we expect to advance negotiations towards a definitive commercial agreement late in 2026.

In addition, over the past year, we've demonstrated important progress in Rice, particularly in Latin America. Remember, this is a market that historically lacked access to advanced weed management solutions and the demand for what we're offering is strong. Our partnership with CIAT or FLAR, which works with the Latin American fund for irrigated rice and participates in the hybrid rice consortium for Latin America gives us access to rice farmers across the region through a partner that has launched varieties in 17 countries. As we have previously mentioned, we also have signed agreements with Semillano and [ Semilla del Huila ], two important Colombian seed companies and completed delivery of rice lines with our HT3 trait to an existing U.S. customer.

Beyond the current partners that include our long-term herbicide partner, RTDC, we are pursuing initial access to the Brazilian market, one of the most significant rice geographies in Latin America and potentially Argentina as well, representing substantial additional acreage opportunities.

In India, we continue to work with ag buyer and AgVaya and RTDC to build seed company relationships where rice cultivation is approximately 120 million acres. Greg recently traveled to India and met with a number of leading seed companies, and even the former Minister of Agriculture. The demand there is significant. In some areas, farmers are growing two rice crops in a year, and India's regulatory acceptance of gene editing demonstrated by the recent first planting of gene-edited rice in the country. This positions India as a leading future market. We're initially targeting a commercial launch in India around 2030, and we'll keep you updated as we progress.

On the development side, we're also expanding our trade portfolio in rice. Following successful 2024 field trial results for stacked gene-edited herbicide tolerant traits, in March 2025, we expand out our efforts to include additional trade stacking to broaden weak management for crop protection.

Stepping back, in just over a year, we have built a rice program that spans 3 continents and targets the world's most important rice-growing regions. That trajectory happened because our technologies deliver something seed companies have never had before, time-bound predictable trait development in their elite germplasm. That's worth emphasizing as it is a central component to the value proposition that Cibus is delivering to customers. Another great example of how this trade portfolio model works in practice, is through our collaboration with John Innes Center on nutrient-use efficiency. That partnership is a funded program where we're applying our technologies to their breakthrough trade, with potential to apply this across our entire crop portfolio, different structure, same endpoint, elite germplasm, Cibus technologies, Cibus edits, Cibus royalties.

Turning to sustainable ingredients. Our biofragrance program uses our trade development capabilities applied to yeast fermentation to produce sustainable, low-carbon fragrance ingredients for a leading global CPG partner. Under a multiyear collaboration, we completed pre-commercial pilot runs for two biofragrance products in Q3, 2025, demonstrating technical readiness for commercial scale. In Q4, that translated into our first payments. We believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg in the global fragrance market, which is estimated to be valued at over $65 billion. We're working to expand this partnership into a broader agreement and we're targeting commercial scale production later this year. With the time line dependent on finalizing of product formulations with our partner. When fully commercialized, we believe that these natural biofragrance partnerships represent a $20 million to $40 million annual royalty opportunity to Cibus. Excitingly, we believe we can target additional fragrances using the same yeast platform. Beyond biofragrances, we continue to advance our partner-funded crop-based lauric oil program as part of the broader portfolio. The biofragrance program serves as an important commercial bridge as our rice royalty stream builds, and it demonstrates the versatility of our platform. The same call, gene editing capability that's developing herbicide tolerance in rice has the potential to create value in the consumer products industry.

Now regulatory. As part of this perfect storm of progress, we've seen very positive developments occur in the regulation of gene editing in significant jurisdictions around the world. At Cibus, we have been patient because we understood that the global regulatory framework would determine how fast this industry goes. In December, the EU reached political agreement on new genomic techniques legislation. This was a watershed moment. Europe represents approximately 100 million acres of greenfield opportunity because GMO technologies have been restricted for decades. The European Parliament plenary session is expected in late April. This is the next big milestone we're watching very closely. This comes on the heels of the U.K. Precision Bred Organisms framework going live last November. We submitted our first PBO filings in January and in February, we were selected for a Defra-funded consortium applying our RTDS technologies to Light Leaf Spot resistance in oilseed rape. Being chosen by a national government as a technology partner is a powerful, independent validation. Across the Americas, the momentum continues. California authorized gene-edited rice for planting for the first time. Ecuador confirmed our traits are equivalent to those developed using conventional breeding, and USDA-APHIS has now given us 17 positive determinations. Just last week, Peru also confirmed gene-edited products will be considered similar to conventional rice varieties. This regulatory harmonization is accelerating commercial conversations globally.

And with that great news, I will pass the call over to Greg to discuss our opportunity pipeline traits and programs. Greg?

Thank you, Peter. I'll keep my remarks focused on the key technical milestones that support both our priority programs and our broader opportunity pipeline. What I'd add from the lab side is some perspective on the scientific results that help drive our progress. In rice, in 2025, we realized an order of magnitude improvement in our editing efficiency that translates to regenerated edited plants. We've optimized the reagents, cell culture conditions, the delivery mechanics and the regeneration process. And we continue to push those boundaries with our strategic use of AI and machine learning towards identifying the right targets faster, predicting precise edit outcomes with greater confidence and feeding those learnings back into each successive campaign. Combined with our semi-automated workflows and robotic assistance, the trait machine process is becoming faster, more scalable and more efficient. That's what's enabling us to take on the kind of broader relationships Peter described. The throughput and consistency to serve as our partners' ongoing editing capability.

Turning to our opportunity pipeline. I wanted to highlight our significant 2025 technical progress across programs that are all available for partnership and represent meaningful future value. Starting with our canola traits. Our second-generation herbicide tolerant trait, HT2 delivered positive field trial results in North America last year, confirming both acceptable herbicide resistance and similar yield to the unedited parent. It's important to remember that HT2 evaluates the path for developing not only for that particular chemistry, but for any chemistry in this family, and is a trait that can be stacked with other herbicide-resistant systems.

For Sclerotinia resistance, bioassays for plants [ bearing ] 2 of our modes of action continue to demonstrate enhanced resistance, and our collaboration with Biographica using their AI platform has identified several new potential gene editing targets. Our RTDS platform gives us the precision to go after multiple modes of action for the same disease. That's something conventional approaches simply cannot do at our speed. And it's important to note that both HT2 and Sclerotinia resistance have multi-crop, multi-geography potential.

In the U.K., we completed our second year of field trials for Pod Shatter Reduction in Winter Oilseed Rape, showing encouraging performance in several customers germplasm. With the PBO legislation now in effect, our gene-edited material can now be growing light conventional germplasm and we've submitted our first PBO filing. The Defra-funded Light Leaf Spot consortium is a tremendous validation for our technology's ability to target resistance to another key disease in Winter Oilseed Rape. 12 industry and academic partners with Cibus selected as the gene editing technology partner. What makes this technically exciting is that we're applying our RTDS platform to develop durable disease resistance, a more complex challenge than herbicide tolerance, and one that demonstrates the increasing sophistication of what our gene netting system can deliver.

On nutrient use efficiency, we continue our funded collaboration with the John Innes Center on a breakthrough trait that has the potential to create significant commercial opportunities across our entire crop portfolio. This addresses the global fertilizer efficiency challenge where only about 1/3 of the fertilizer applied in the field is typically available to be absorbed by plants. This is a complex biological system that requires targeted specific edits, exactly the kind of problem our platform was designed to solve.

On the wheat platform, we've previously disclosed in 2024, successfully regenerated plants from single cells in a wheat cultivar. Single cell regeneration is the gateway to applying our full RTDS-editing capability in a new crop. Once we can do that, the entire trait development process for that crop opens up. That, in turn, spurs opportunity for further partner-funded development in one of the world's most cultivated crops. And as the European regulatory landscape becomes clearer, we're seeing increased interest.

Similarly, in soybean, in early 2025, the company achieved sufficiently high editing [ rates ], enabling expanded development of its soybean platform, in conjunction with partner-funded and/or supported programs. The key message I want to leave you with is this. Our RTDS platform is performing across multiple crops and increasingly complex traits. Every one of these pipeline programs is available for partnership. And together, they represent significant optionality for the business. Our technical foundation, combined with growing regulatory evolution positions us well to advance high-value traits through partnerships while maintaining focused execution on high-priority revenue drivers.

And with that, I'll hand the call over to Carlo for the financial update. Carlo?

Thank you, Greg. Looking at our financials for the fourth quarter, our cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2025, was $9.9 million. In January 2026, we raised $22.3 million in gross proceeds from a public offering. This capital raise meaningfully extends our runway and supports continued advancement of our Rice program and sustainable ingredients work as we move toward our near-term revenue milestones.

Taking into account the impact of implemented cost saving initiatives, including those implemented last week, and without giving effect to potential future financing transactions that Cibus is pursuing, we expect that existing cash and cash equivalents is sufficient to fund planned operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into a late third quarter of 2026. Importantly, our streamlined focus is also contributing to our extended runway, and we're pleased to have reduced operating expenses by approximately $10 million across R&D and SG&A for the full year of 2025.

Moving to our operating results for the fourth quarter. Research and development expense was $9.4 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, compared to $12.4 million in the year ago period. This $3 million decrease is primarily due to cost reduction initiatives that we have implemented as part of our streamlined operational focus.

Selling, general and administrative expense was $5.1 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, compared to $6.8 million in the year ago period. The $1.7 million decrease is also primarily due to cost reduction initiatives.

Royalty liability interest expense related to parties was $9.4 million for the quarter compared to $8.2 million in the year ago period. The $1.2 million increase is due to the recognition of interest expense on the royalty liability. Nonoperating income net was nominal for the quarter compared to income of $0.4 million in the year ago period. The decrease was driven by the fair value adjustment of the company's liability classified common warrants. Net loss was $31.9 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2025, compared to $25.8 million in the year ago period.

During 2025, we completed consolidation of operations from our Oberlin facility into our San Diego headquarters and wound down operations at our Roseville, Minnesota facility. These actions, along with workforce reductions demonstrate tangible progress toward our goal of reducing annual net cash usage to approximately $30 million or less in 2026. This disciplined approach to capital allocation, combined with the January raise extends our cash runway while positioning us to capture the significant biofragrance revenue opportunity ahead, and meaningful commercial expansion from rice traits expected beginning in 2027.

With that financial overview, let me turn it back to Peter for closing remarks.

Thank you, Carlo, and Greg. Let me close by putting this year in context. Cibus has been the consistent force in precision gene editing. We've built the technologies from the ground up with scalable and accelerated processes. We've engaged with many global regulators to provide technical guidance. We've established a customer relationship, and now those investments are compounding. 2026, is all about execution and momentum. Here is what we're focused on. On rice, we're expanding customer relationships across the Americas and India, advancing toward a definitive commercial agreement with Interoc, and pursuing discussions that could open Brazil and Argentina. We expect to report on field results from Latin America later this year, along with progress on chemistry registrations supporting our 2027 commercial launch targets.

On sustainable ingredients, we are formalizing our expanded partnership, targeting commercial scale production, and I believe we will be in a position to announce additional details on this program in the near term. This is a real revenue stream that's growing, and it demonstrates the breadth and broad potential of what our platform can deliver.

On regulatory, the EU plenary vote expected in late April is one of the next major catalysts. That clarity is already reenergizing conversations with European partners and creating new opportunities. And more broadly, I'm excited about the evolution of our commercial model. The fact that we're bringing herbicide-tolerant rice to a crop that feeds billions of people is exciting just for shareholders, but for global agriculture's future. I continue to see Cibus as a coiled spring, and I'm so proud to be leading this team into what I believe will be a transformative year.

Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Matthew Venezia with AGP.

Congrats on the progress. Firstly, I wanted to ask about the EU NGT framework. I know this is a long time coming. But does this change the company's thought towards CapEx toward the canola WOSR program in the future at all? I know that's a crop that's probably bigger in Europe than over in the Americas.

So Matt, thanks so much for the question. The EU regulatory progress is really a watershed moment. It has been the gold standard in regulatory globally for a lot of plant breeding work in the past, it was GMO. But now, we're opening up the whole gene editing world. And essentially, we're going global, which is amazing. You can tell -- why I'm excited about this is because it's taken a long time. And that has been some of our frustration, but it really does open up opportunities. For example, Europe is 100 million acres of greenfield opportunity. They've never had traits through genetics with novel traits before. So this opportunity opens up. And to your point, one of the major crops there is Winter Oilseed Rape. And for us, as Cibus, we've been developing a platform and a production system in Winter Oilseed Rape that is really efficient. And this is what I was saying in the earlier remarks is when we -- when things come together like they have for us, all of a sudden, we in the situation where the EU regulatory fits. We've got a production system. We can do it in a time bound and predictable way. And we can cut years of time lines in plant breeding programs. So what we're seeing is really a lot of interest from the major seed companies in Europe but also that opens up the rest of the world. And with that, I'll hand it off to Greg because I'm sure he's got a few extra comments.

Yes. Thanks, Peter, and thanks for the question, Matt. So just a couple of extra comments. So as you know, we've been running field trials for Pod Shatter in the U.K. for the last couple of years. And we see that there's excellent performance of that trait in customer material where some of those customers feed the EU market and are using the regulatory system in the U.K. to be able to advance that material more quickly. And then the last thing I'll highlight is the light leaf spot collaboration Defra-funded consortium, where we're a gene editing partner, but many of the seed companies involved are seed companies that are core within Europe.

Got it. And then next, I just wanted to ask if you could take us through the next steps to commercialization in Latin America for rice and what milestones will look like that you will report to the Street as that process gets closer when we get into late '26 and into '27?

Thanks, Matt. Let me give you the context of where we are on our commercialization path because this goes back to understanding that Cibus has been able to build a process in rice in the elite genetics. And what I mean by elite genetics is the genetics that are really at the cold phase of breeding programs. And so our partnerships, our 7 partnerships in the Americas the 5 in Latin America, the genetics that we're working on, and have worked on, are their best genetics, they're elite genetics. And so the first step in that process is getting that material in and editing that material, and getting it back to them within 12 to 15 months' time frame. So we've been able to do that already. And we've made those edits in the elite genetics. And that is the first step in that path to commercialization.

Also earlier this year, we were really excited to work with Interoc, who has been a great partner for us. On a letter of intent with regards to the full commercialization of the first 2 traits, HT3 and HT1, starting out in Ecuador and Colombia. And so we came to agreement with that, and that is opening up the path to launch in 2027. So they will take on the road of chemical registration for those herbicide to over top of our traits in those countries. And then the material that we'll report on during the year is the progress on that chemical registration, and also the trait work that we're doing in their elite genetics and getting ready over the next winter to go into launch into 2027.

We'll move next to Laurence Alexander with Jefferies.

I just wanted to touch on a couple of things. Can you give a sense for the kind of the trend line for the total number of acres touched by your technology? Maybe '25 versus '26 versus '27? If you have any kind of rough framework on that?

Thanks, Laurence. Let me go back to where I was with Latin America. I think the key here is that we're targeting 5 million to 7 million acres in the Americas. And within each of the companies that we deal with, they take up a portion of those acres. And so over the first 3 years, we'll see that growth and that scale to those number of acres with the 2 traits. And so that's the exciting part for me is that once you're in that market, it is the stickiest business in the world because they're going to continue to take those elite materials into that marketplace and expand into those acres. And as I mentioned in my remarks, that represents potential of over $200 million annually for us. So building to that is going to take a couple of years through that process. And I think that is just the [ right acres ] in Latin America and the U.S. to start. What we also achieved in 2025 was the development of a relationship with AgVaya, with RTDC support to look at the Indian market, which is a much bigger market, obviously, which is 120 million acres. We're not going to see in the first 2 years, royalties come out of India. It will be towards the end of the decade in '29, '30 that we'll see -- start to see that progress. So that opens up, again, another, over -- potentially another $200 million of annual royalties. So I think it's -- Laurence, to your question. It starts -- once you get into the market, and that's our goal in Latin American in '27, that really builds over the first 3 or 4 years.

Okay. Now secondly, can you help me with a couple of things around scale. First, given the progress you've made the last couple of years in the gene editing platform, if following the EU regulations, potential partners are coming to you with gene edits as a service, what would be the kind of maximum throughput that you could do without doing a significant increase in your R&D expense or other investments?

So this is a great thing about building it from the ground up. The team here has done a wonderful job of combining cell biology with automation and also the genotyping and automation. And so it doesn't take an enormous team to run through genetics pretty quickly. So there's some real synergies. And we're seeing that one of the -- one of the experiments we tried essentially was at Oberlin, which paid huge dividends because that really changed our production system to be more like manufacturing. Why I'm telling you that, Laurence, is because that's what drives the scale and scalability. And then you put on top of that automation and experience we've had now, you add in AI, and we see some real efficiencies coming in the next year or so. As we've reported over the last 6 months, particularly, we've really refined and streamlined our business, and that has been our major focus is building a system that we can scale to address the editing services as those people come to us. And that the exciting part of [indiscernible] global regulatory opening up, seeing companies come towards us with some really great ideas. Greg mentioned, U.K. innovate. That's a really good example. We've also worked with John Innes Center with nutrient-use efficiency, which allows farmers to use less fertilizers. So there's some really great things coming.

But I'll hand to Greg because he's in charge a lot of the scale up.

Yes. So thanks, Laurence, for your question. A couple of things to add to Peter's comment. So remember, because we're focused on using single cells from all of the crops that we work on. And because we're working with elite genetics. What we've seen both for canola Winter Oilseed Rape as well as for rice so far, is that most of the lines that we work with from customers, with many seed company customers, those lines are performing well in cell culture. We also are in a place where in addition to the royalty downstream, we'll get some funding to cover those editing expenses as we make edits for either traits that we're licensing, or traits that we develop ourselves into those materials. So with modest increases in the size of the team, we can manage multiple crops and multiple lines, whether they are parents for hybrids, or whether they're varieties within the platform for a wide variety of traits. So they may be traits that we're developing. They may be edits that a customer, or a partnership wants us to make, or they may be edits that we have a partnership where both the partner and Cibus work together to determine what those edits are. Excellent question, and thank you.

And then separately, can you help with the sort of -- when people come to you with gene edits as a service, if there is a kind of known value add, let's say, a certain percentage increase in yield on a kind of a [indiscernible] with the rolling average crop price to keep it simple? What is the plausible -- like what kind of royalty rates are you discussing with customers now? And how has that changed compared to a few years ago?

Thanks, Laurence. I think it's a great question because what we're seeing is an uptick in the idea behind getting gene editing done more as a service. But what really sets us apart at Cibus is the speed and scalability as we just talked about. Speed is critical. One of the things that I think has been challenging in the trait market previously is a trait may be handed off to a company, but you go through 5 or 6 years of backcrossing and testing before it gets to market. What we're seeing now with gene editing is we can do an elite genetics and had it back in a year's time, and that allows them to integrated into their plant breeding program as an extension. And so that -- so you stay ahead of the yield curve. You stay into the elite genetics, and that allows them to see the value add very quickly. And so when you can see the value add quickly, the negotiation on a trait royalty is very favorable for Cibus. And so we're in this to help the farmer. We're in this to help the seed company, and we're sharing that value together. And when you can you can see the value add on an accelerated basis, it's an easier negotiation.

And then just lastly on the fragrances, similarly, can you give a sense for the scale of how many fragrances you could work on in 1 year, if customers are interested at your current cost run rate?

Laurence, a great question. We've been working on a couple of fragrances to start with. I think what we see is, again, acceleration once you have a platform, to be able to build out an organism with those edits. And so in our case, it's yeast. Yeast genetics are quick. I think what we've been focused on is making sure that all the downstream production work with our partner has been done, and we've been able to show that. And I think that's the exciting part, is once you have that, the process, it can be accelerated. We know that there's probably about 17 fragrances out there that we'd like to go after. We've been focused on the first few, but I think we can scale that pretty quickly.

We'll move next to Alex Hantman with Sidoti & Company.

To start, just on the results. The collaboration revenue and earnings came in a little bit below consensus and what I projected. Can you talk a little bit about what did and did not convert in the fourth quarter? And maybe anything that didn't come through, that might come through in the next couple of quarters?

Thanks, Alex. This is Carlo. Great question. This is really timing. So from a cash perspective, we are absolutely on track, how we talked about this before. But this is the revenue recognition really linked to time spent by our people. If you look in -- if you hear about our upcoming numbers, you'll see that we're absolutely on track as we spoke before. It's purely timing, Alex.

Okay. And then maybe to follow up on timing. Congrats again on the initial commercial biofragrance sale. Can we talk a little bit about the potential to expand with the current customer and what conversations you're having with other potential customers? And how we get to that ramp that you give of $20 million to $40 million a year?

Thanks, Alex. This is Peter. Thanks for your question. I think that the opportunities are broad when it comes to sustainable ingredients program. And what we're seeing in the fragrance side of things is, in different sectors we can go after. Fragrance is used very broadly across industries. And so we're obviously always looking at that. We've got a strong partner right now. And we're working closely with them to build out later this year to full commercial scale but also to expand that opportunity. It doesn't preclude us from going and looking more broadly. So I think your question is right, very correct in that there is this opportunity that Cibus would love to expand on.

Great. And then last one from us. I know you mentioned current funds into late 2026, third quarter. Could you talk a little bit about how you're thinking of financing from here and your flexibility with that, and just kind of sort of the range of options that you're thinking about?

Thanks, Alex. I'm going to hand this off to Carlo in a minute, but I do want to say a couple of comments upfront because it's a really important question around how we're streamlining the business. It is -- the last couple of years have been all about efficiency and running to the near-term revenue. And I think the team here has done an excellent job with some tough decisions along the way, some consolidation around facilities. And -- but streamlining the business has been very much a focus for the management team, and a focus across the whole organization. And so we continue to refine that. We continue to look for synergies in the organization. But what we're also seeing is opportunities ahead of us. And so for us, the idea of automation, the idea of really utilizing the best parts of AI, not only in the science, but also in the back office and the administration of the company is allowing us to sort of really manage that cash burn.

And with that, I'll hand off to Carlo to add some comments.

Yes, thank you, Peter. I think you said it well. I think two important things happened. In '25, the streamlining and now even recently, more streamlining. And this allows us to focus on near-term revenues. So that's the big thing. And then, of course, we had a January financing transaction. And yes, that all leads to proceeds, as you said, late into the third quarter. But for me, most important, this allows us to focus on near-term revenues in rice and fragrance.

It does appear that there are no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand back to management for any additional or closing remarks.

Thank you. I've only got a couple of closing remarks today. I think we went through the details of the business and showed that we have had an amazing year. And gene editing, in general, the industry is, as I said before, it's not an experiment. This is happening now, and we are totally commercially driven going forward in 2026.

I'd like to thank you all for joining today as well. Some great questions, and I really appreciate that. And for the 3 of us here, we're really proud to represent the team here at Cibus. And we're really looking forward to a strong future here in 2026, and we'll keep you updated as we make that progress. So thank you all.

Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Cibus Third Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] And please note, today's conference is being recorded.

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Carlo Broos, Chief Financial Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon. I would like to thank you for taking time to join us for Cibus' Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call and Webcast. Presenting with me today is Peter Beetham, Co-Founder, Interim Chief Executive Officer, President and COO; and Greg Gocal, Co-Founder and our Chief Scientific Officer.

Before we begin the call, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast, including those regarding future financial results and future operational goals and industry prospects are forward-looking and may be subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the call. Please refer to Cibus' SEC filings for a list of associated risks.

This conference call is being webcast. The webcast link along with our press release and corporate presentation are available on the Investor Relations section of cibus.com to assist you in your analysis of our business.

And with that, I would now like to turn the call over to Peter.

Thanks, Carlo, and good afternoon, everyone. This past quarter has further focused our commercialization and production activities. I clearly see our company as a coiled spring, ready to deliver gene-edited traits for years to come.

Today, I am excited to share the significant commercialization momentum we have generated since implementing our streamlined strategic focus. The progress we have made in just the past few months validates our decision to focus on our highest value near-term revenue opportunities. As we've discussed previously, we are primarily focused on our weed management traits, bringing herbicide-tolerant crops to new markets and providing great options for farmers, while we also achieved early revenue for our biofragrance business.

The progress that our talented team has been able to make within our focused strategic framework is remarkable, and I believe the results speak for themselves. What you'll hear today demonstrates our drive toward our commercial goals. When we announced our streamlined focus in July this year, we committed to you that this would help solidify our path to our near-term revenue opportunities. Today, I'm pleased to report that we're delivering on that commitment.

But before diving into our results, I want to take a moment to emphasize some recent exciting news about our Board. We strengthened our Board with 2 appointments this quarter. In September, we welcomed Kimberly Box as a new Board member. Kim brings exactly the kind of leadership we need as we move into this commercialization phase. She has deep experience in technology operations, strategic transformation and scaling innovation into global markets. Experience gained while employed at

Hewlett-Packard in executive roles over 30 years.

And, just last week, we appointed Craig Wichner. Craig's deep expertise as a recognized leader in regenerative and sustainable agriculture, including farmland investment management as the Founder and Managing Partner of Farmland LP brings valuable perspective as we advance towards commercialization. Both directors will play key roles in supporting our commercialization efforts and long-term value creation.

Now, let me start with the headline accomplishments for the quarter and year-to-date. We have now signed 7 Rice customer agreements in the USA and Latin America, now representing approximately 5 million to 7 million addressable acres for our Rice herbicide tolerance traits, HT1 and HT3, and if fully developed, represent an opportunity to capture over $200 million in potential annual royalties.

The expansion of our customer base, including additional customers in Latin America and our recent positioning for entry into the massive Asian markets via India, showcase the commercial opportunities driven by our technology and the value proposition we can deliver to seed companies worldwide.

Now let me move to our priority pipeline traits and programs. I'll begin with an update on our Rice herbicide tolerant traits, HT1 and HT3. These 2 traits, as I mentioned, continue to represent over $200 million in potential annual royalty revenues across our initial target geographies. These traits are progressing on schedule toward targeted initial commercial launch in Latin America beginning in 2027, followed by expansion to the United States in 2028 and then Asia closer to 2030.

Every quarter, we are moving closer to that pivotal revenue expansion inflection point. Our year-to-date commercialization progress in Rice has been exceptional. This is especially true within Latin America, where we now have 5 Rice customer agreements signed. Latin American markets have historically lacked access to advanced weed management solutions in Rice, representing a transformative opportunity to Cibus to deliver significant value to farmers while building our commercial foundation ahead of our U.S. and Asia targeted launches.

Recent examples include our agreements signed in August, expanding our Latin American customer base through a partnership with Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical or CIAT, which works with the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice or FLAR and participates in the Hybrid Rice Consortium for Latin America, HIAAL.

Cutting through this web of acronyms, I want to emphasize that through this important collaboration, we have the opportunity to make our HT traits available to rice farmers across Latin America. FLAR will be a great partner and has a great track record that includes launching rice varieties in 17 countries.

Further, we signed a collaboration agreement in August with Semillano, then more recently with [indiscernible]. Both of these are important Colombian rice seed companies, marking continued momentum in this strategically-important geography. Then, just last month in October, we began collaborating with strategic growth advisory firm, AgVaya, to develop a comprehensive strategy for establishing Cibus' access to seed companies in India.

This is tremendously exciting because India is the world's second largest rice producer and the world's largest exporter with approximately 120 million acres under cultivation. This collaboration will focus on enabling joint development and commercialization relationships for advanced herbicide and sustainability traits, creating opportunities for Indian rice seed companies and public agencies to integrate our cutting-edge gene editing solutions.

So, when you step back and look at what we've accomplished just in 2025, the commercial traction is undeniable. We've expanded our Rice program to a global platform spanning 3 continents and targeting the world's most important rice growing regions. We've built relationships with both large multinational seed companies and regional leaders and we're on track to initiate our first field validation trials in Latin America by year-end with delivery of initial Cibus HT traits to our Latin American customers anticipated in Q4 2025.

What's enabling our customer momentum is our standardized Rapid Trait Development System or RTDS that allows us to edit customers' elite germplasm and return it with specific traits in approximately 12 to 15 months. RTDS represents a fundamental breakthrough in agriculture's innovation, offering the industry a dependable, time-bound model for trait development using gene editing that seed companies have never had access to before. Our RTDS is becoming recognized as an essential extension of seed company breeding programs, and that recognition is translating into expanding commercial partnerships.

I'll shift now to an update on our partner-funded and supported sustainable ingredients program. I'm pleased to share that we achieved critical milestones this quarter with the successful completion of pre-commercial pilot runs for 2 biofragrance products, validating our technology is ready to expand to full commercial scale. This positioned us to receive initial payments, offsetting related R&D expenses in Q4 2025, representing our first proceeds from this program.

This is a monumental milestone for our entire team who have been working tirelessly. And this is yet another element supporting our conviction that our business represents a coiled spring showing great promise. From there, we're positioned for targeted expansion throughout 2026 as we advance our Rice traits toward full commercialization during the subsequent years in 2027, 2028 and beyond.

Our biofragrance program demonstrates the versatility of our capabilities in creating value beyond crop productivity traits. We're generating strong interest in the consumer-packaged goods industry for bio-based fragrance products that can replace expensive natural extraction processes or less preferred synthetic alternatives. We believe the long-term opportunity in this area is immense.

Now, let me move to regulatory, which we believe is a key catalyst for acceleration of the global growth of gene edited products and continues to improve. The EU regulatory process for new genomic techniques remains active and on a path to completion. Key legislative language has now been agreed upon with final text being refined across remaining amendment categories and anticipated to resolve within the next few months.

Beyond Europe, our positive determination in Ecuador, ongoing approvals across North and South America and progressing regulatory clarity in India and parts of Asia are creating a foundation for global market access. The California Rice Commission's approval of our field research proposal marks the first time that gene edited rice has been authorized for planting in California, another important validation of how our technology is synergizing with the broader regulatory environment.

So, turning briefly to our operational progress. We've made significant progress on our commitment to disciplined capital allocation. We successfully completed the consolidation of our Oberlin, California facility into our San Diego location during Q3. These and other actions are driving us toward our target of approximately $30 million in annual net cash usage for 2026. This capital discipline extends our runway while ensuring we are resourced to capture the revenue opportunities ahead of us. We continue to allocate resources to our highest value programs while maintaining the development momentum required to hit our commercialization targets.

And with that, I will now pass the call over to Greg to discuss our opportunity pipeline traits and programs. Greg?

Thank you, Peter. I'll keep my remarks focused on the key technical milestones we achieved this quarter that support both our priority programs and our broader opportunity pipeline.

On the Rice platform, I'd emphasize that the enhanced editing efficiency we've achieved is directly enabling the customer expansion Peter described. We're not only signing agreements, we're actually delivering edited, elite germplasm back to customers on predictable timelines. That technical execution is what's driving the partner interest we're seeing, and it's validating our industrialized breeding approach.

Using our RTDS, we are changing the way plant breeders think about the future of trait development. The unprecedented speed of our technologies to edit elite genetics will only accelerate with our continued improvement and strategic use of AI/ML technologies.

Turning briefly to our opportunity pipeline. I want to highlight 2 significant technical validations this quarter. First, in our North American field trials, our HT2 herbicide tolerance trait validates the path for developing not only for that chemistry, but for any chemistry in this family. For sclerotinia resistance in canola, bioassays for plants bearing 2 of our modes of action demonstrate enhanced resistance. It's important to remember that both HT2 and Sclerotinia resistance have broader potential application to crops like soybean.

Further, these results position both traits well for potential partner development. Our HT2 trait is being offered to seed licensing partners for funded, continued development opportunity. Second, we completed our second year of field trials for our Pod Shatter Reduction trait in Winter Oilseed Rape, showing promising performance in several customers' elite germplasm.

For the 2026 field season, we're pleased to see implementation of the U.K. legislation, enabling our gene-edited trait germplasm to be growing like conventional germplasm as we seek funded partnerships for continued development. Finally, the soybean platform continues to generate partnership interest as we seek to access a 125-million-acre opportunity.

The key message I want to leave you with is this. Our RTDS platform is proving its value across multiple crops and increasingly complex traits, whether it's delivering Rice traits to 7 different customers, scaling up biofragrance production or validating next-generation herbicide tolerance traits in canola, we're demonstrating the versatility and commercial potential of our technologies.

This technical foundation, combined with our growing regulatory track record, positions us exceptionally well to advance high-value traits through partnerships while maintaining focused execution on our priority revenue drivers.

And with that, I'll hand the call over to Carlo for a financial update. Carlo?

Thank you, Greg. Looking at our financials for the third quarter. Our cash and cash equivalents as of September 30, 2025, were $23.9 million. Taking into account the impact of implemented cost-saving initiatives and without giving effect to potential financing transactions that Cibus is pursuing, we expect that existing cash and cash equivalents is sufficient to fund planned operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into early in the second quarter of 2026.

I'd note that our commercialization focus has enabled us to streamline our expenses and operations significantly. We have reduced operating expenses by almost $5 million in the first 9 months of 2025 across our SG&A and R&D spending.

Moving to our operating results for the third quarter. Revenue for Q3 was $615,000 compared to $1.7 million in the year ago period. This decrease reflects timing of partner-funded program activities. Research and development expense was $10.8 million for Q3 compared to $13 million in the year ago period. This $2.2 million decrease is primarily due to cost reduction initiatives that we have implemented as part of our streamlined operational focus.

Selling, general and administrative expense was $5.2 million for Q3 compared to $7.7 million in the year ago period. The $2.5 million decrease is primarily due to cost reduction initiatives. Royalty liability interest expense was $9 million for Q3 and in the year ago period. This is due to the recognition of interest expense on the royalty liability.

Nonoperating income net was nominal for Q3 compared to income of $7.7 million in the year ago period. The decrease in income is driven by the fair value adjustment of the company's liability classified common warrants in 2024. Net loss was $24.3 million for Q3 compared to $201.5 million in the year ago period. The significant year-over-year improvement reflects the $181.4 million noncash goodwill impairment charge taken in Q3 2024.

As Peter mentioned, we successfully completed consolidation of our Oberlin facility during Q3 2025, and our Roseville facility consolidation remains on track. These actions, along with the reduction in force completed in July, demonstrate tangible progress toward our goal of reducing annual net cash usage to approximately $30 million by 2026.

This disciplined approach to capital allocation extends our cash runway while positioning us to capture the significant revenue opportunity ahead with initial revenues beginning in 2026 and meaningful commercial expansion thereafter.

With that financial overview, let me turn it back to Peter for closing remarks.

Thank you, Carlo. Let me close with the key message I want you to take away today. The gene editing revolution in agriculture is happening now, and Cibus is positioned like a coiled spring at the forefront of this transformation.

As I have mentioned previously, crop seed genetics are the engine room of the world's food and feed production. The fact that we are prioritizing Rice is exciting, not only as an extraordinarily large potential annual royalty for shareholders, but a much needed advancement for helping to improve productivity of a major crop that helps to feed billions of people.

When we look at what we've accomplished just so far in 2025, 7 Rice customer agreements spanning 3 continents, successful biofragrance scale-up with an initial payment for our pre-commercial product, and we believe a clear path to approximately $200 million in potential annual royalty revenue from Rice traits alone.

Our commercial traction is tangible. We have traits moving into customer germplasm, and we continue to see positive field trial results. We're operating in an increasingly favorable global regulatory environment. And we have commercial launches beginning in 2027 with initial revenue starting in 2026 with biofragrances. This isn't a distant aspiration. This is the reality of our near-term commercial opportunity.

Our streamlined business focus is working. We remain laser-focused on executing our right commercialization timeline, scaling our sustainable ingredients revenues and building the foundation for sustainable cash flow generation. We're displaying disciplined capital management, extending our runway and positioning Cibus to capture significant value as gene editing becomes one of the standards for agricultural innovation.

I'd like to thank you for your support, and we look forward to updating you on our continued progress next quarter. Operator, we're now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] We'll go first this afternoon to Laurence Alexander of Jefferies.

This is Kevin Estok on for Laurence. I guess my first question is around, I guess, what the chances were for potential R&D sharing or bespoke R&D projects in 2026?

Thanks for the question, Kevin. This is Peter. I'm going to start this -- answer this question, then quickly hand it over to Greg because I think there's some wonderful opportunities in this space. I think the key message here is that, as I just mentioned in my closing remarks, the gene editing is happening now.

It's not about the technology coming of age, it's actually come of age. And what we're finding now is the real catalyst behind getting to commercial products is regulatory with tailwinds from a regulatory standpoint. And so, we're seeing a lot of inbound interest in regarding partnerships on expanding beyond our current focus, which is rice, canola and soybean and our productivity traits. So, I believe there is significant opportunity in 2026 to expand some of our R&D collaborations. Greg?

Thanks, Peter. I think we have, as Peter said, a lot of opportunity. The opportunity is not only in the platforms that we're focused on today, but also well beyond that. We've developed really, I think, a unique approach within the industry of starting with single cells that we edit and regenerate to whole plants. We have that capability for a broad variety of crops, and we've developed many platforms in our past.

Further, we've also got multiple traits that we believe are primed for development. For instance, our HT2 trait as well as various modes of action for Sclerotinia resistance that show really great promise in controlled environments and we're working through validating those in the field. So, thanks for the question, Kevin.

Understood. And I guess my second question, you guys -- I read your commentary about sort of the EU regulations. And I guess I was just -- obviously, we're kind of getting towards the end there, but things have moved a little bit slower than originally expected. And I guess I was wondering what your thoughts were on sort of when you think that will finally be finalized.

Thank you, Kevin, for the question. This is Peter. I like the fact that you think it's a little bit slower because for people in the industry, this last year has been accelerated beyond what we expected. It's exciting for us in that the fact that Europe for many years -- for literally over 2 decades has been recalcitrant to understanding how to get regulatory through for genetically-modified organisms.

What's been exciting for us on the gene editing front, which is different is that from 2018, they've made a concerted effort to bring forward legislation. And that legislation was voted on last year in 2024. And this 2025 has been the year where they've been working on the final text. And we believe, based on our understanding through industry groups in Europe as also some of our seed company partners is that by year-end, they'll have completed that text. And so that final text will start the process of implementation across Europe. And that's a really exciting moment, not just for us, but the whole industry.

Can I fill in like a few seconds, Peter? Kevin, sorry, this is Carlo. I'm from Europe. So, I always like these questions, of course. I was not at Euroseeds this time, but we had a few colleagues over there. And it was quite remarkable. I think almost all the seed companies were realizing that new breeding technologies and gene editing is to come. So, I think it was a theme #1 at Euroseeds this year just a few months ago. So that makes me super excited just realizing what that will mean for us.

We'll go next now to Matthew Venezia of AGP, Alliance Global Partners.

So, firstly, when we look at the major rice markets that you guys are going to be selling in Latin America, U.S. and India, how should we be looking at the acres that you have accessible, the total addressable market and kind of what is put into the calculation of your total addressable market in these markets?

Matt, thank you for the question. This is Peter. Yes, look, we're super excited about the AgVaya collaboration. I think that this is a group that has years of executive experience in large multinationals and building businesses in the seed and trait business in India. And I think we've been very fortunate to work with these guys to really map out our opportunity in India. India has over 120 million acres of rice. It is the second largest exporter of rice in the world. It's a market that we believe we can access through this sort of collaboration with AgVaya.

Again, we're looking at this in the -- to build relationships with seed companies, bring in material and get it back to them so that we can launch towards 2030, 2032. As you understand, we do collect royalties. So, our estimated trade fees around this will be in alignment with what we've seen and talked about in Asia, which can be $1 to $2 per acre, a little bit more. That's exciting for us because I think there's an opportunity to really expand that.

And I'm going to hand it to Greg because he's just actually come back from India where he talked to a number of seed companies.

Yes. Matt, I'm really, really excited about what -- I mean, we're on the beginning of a path with our -- with Indian seed companies, working with AgVaya, who's helping us with those relationships and helping us develop our presence within India. There is massive demand for rice, but also massive demand for potentially other crops there. In some areas in India, you're rotating rice twice a year. So, it becomes like some of the markets within Latin America. So excellent question. Yes.

And in Latin America and the U.S., how many acres are addressable through the current customers that you have right now for Rice?

So, Matt, thank you for the question. As we mentioned in our remarks, this last quarter, we've signed on some additional seed companies in Latin America. We're up to 7 total, 2 in the U.S. and 5 now in Latin America. And that allows us to really address that market. What we're saying right now is between 5 million to 7 million. So we've increased it by a couple of million acres from where we were last quarter in Latin America. And that takes us again over this $200 million annual royalty goal and objective we have.

Got it. And then lastly from me, obviously, canola Pod Shatter Reduction, that was not a trait that panned out right away the way that you thought. Why are HT traits different from PSR? And why are they easier to fit into breeding programs for seed distributors and seed companies?

Thanks, Matt. That's a great question. What we've known in this industry for many years is that weed management or herbicide tolerant traits are really like the operating system for many crops. So when a farmer plants seed every year, they need to control their weeds, and they either use selective herbicides or non-selective herbicides. And what is really well known now is that that business model is really well understood.

In fact, on the GMO side of the business, they're still collecting about $4 billion of annual royalties on a trait that was developed in the '90s. What we're able to do is bring novel traits to the marketplace to give farmers options to control their weeds. And so I believe that herbicide tolerance or weed management solutions have a lot of traction quickly into the market. And that is one of the reasons we're signing up a number of companies in both U.S. and Latin America.

And as we mentioned in our remarks, HT2, another herbicide tolerance trait, we had great field trials this year. We reported on those early. And that's in canola, and that is in North America. So, there are basis for planting crops. And I think that trait is not only multiple geographies but multiple crops. A little different to Pod Shatter in that Pod Shatter Reduction is more confined to smaller geographies, and the option now we are looking at is further in the U.K. and Europe for our Pod Shatter trait in 2028.

And to add a little bit to Peter's comments on weed management. So, weed control systems are an operating system for farmers. It's an expectation in developed agriculture that you have a weed control package to enable cultivation even on smaller acreages I mean, like Latin America and India. Weeds take away water, nutrients and sunlight away from plants that reduce yield.

And so, we -- I mean, we are not a chemistry company. but over our history, we've been able to develop gene-edited weed control solutions for at least 4 groups of chemistry, and I believe there's even more potential beyond that. So, we're excited with where we are, and we believe that there's strong value for both seed companies, growers and our shareholders in the weed control traits we're developing.

We'll go next now to Sameer Joshi with H.C. Wainwright.

It's good to see there has been some initial commercialization of biofragrances. Should we expect sort of ramp-up quickly in 2026 on this and get to double-digit millions? Or should we expect sort of single-digit million revenues from this in 2026?

Thank you, Sameer. This is Peter. I really appreciate your question. Biofragrance, we're excited to run through our pre-commercialization scale up this year and has been very successful. We see opportunity beyond the 2 fragrances that we have scaled. And so, we do see a ramp-up in 2026. We see that the total opportunity in the $20 million to $40 million revenue range. But for -- early on, that will be -- it will be in the single-digit millions. But it is just the tip of the iceberg in our minds. The fragrance market is over $65 billion, and this area is looking for alternatives, particularly for the natural fragrances out there. So, there's an opportunity, I think, that could expand beyond that.

Understood. And then, as I understand, the cost-cutting efforts included focus on HT1 and HT3, but there are pipeline traits that you have available for partnership. And there was some announcement in October about the HT2. So, I was just wondering, are there any money being spent still on these pipeline traits? Or -- and should we expect that to reflect in the R&D or some other line on the income statement?

Sameer, thank you for your question. I think that you've captured this fairly well. I think that -- with regards to our expanded pipeline traits in crops like HT2, we're excited with the field results this year. We are in discussions and looking for partners for this area. Right now, it's not a lot of resource. For us, we've developed that trait. We've been able to do the edits very efficiently, and we're excited to sort of think through the next steps with -- again, this is a multi-crop, multi-geography trait. So, I think this is exciting for 2026.

Understood. And then last one from me. The AgVaya relationship that is being developed, and I think Greg mentioned other crops as well. So, it's relationship with seed companies in India, but how about the regulatory environment? And what kind of requirements do you have to meet in order to sell in India?

Excellent question, Sameer. This is Greg. So, one of the people who I had the opportunity of meeting was the former Minister of Agriculture in India. And as I think you realize from some press releases over the last 6 months or so, the first gene-edited rice has been planted in India. So, there's a lot of appetite for traits in India. And because of that, we're excited with the acceptance, but also with the demand for -- in the first instance, our HT1 and HT3 traits there.

We'll go next now to Austin Moeller at Canaccord.

So just my first question here on the biofragrance products. So, will those be hitting store shelves in 2026 in a pilot capacity and then scaling up into 2027? And then, how much should we think about the ramp in '27 being in terms of revenue?

Thanks, Austin. This is Peter. I'll answer the first part of this question and hand it off to Carlo. We are working with an, as yet undisclosed CPG, with regards to fragrances and getting into products. So, there's -- what our role is with regards to Biofragrance is the scale-up that we've already done on a pre-commercialization step this year and going through to a full commercial scale next year. That will be included in various formulations is our understanding.

We don't know exactly which products will end up in next year. We have some guidance on that, which we've given the market. And we look forward to announcing when those products actually hit the shelves.

Peter, the only thing I would like to add because you specifically asked about '27, that's still single digit, but then we take off.

Okay. And do you have any specific updates you can provide on the European parliament?

Yes. Thanks, Austin. Let me start. I'm going to dive into what's happened in the last couple of months because I think we've talked about the history of the EU regulatory, but the trialogue as they call it, which is the discussion around the Parliament, the Council and the Commission has gone very well with the Danish leading that -- the council discussions.

They are working on a number of areas, what they call the amendments to the legislation for the final text. And we've been very encouraged with where they've ended up, particularly on some of the detail around how many edits and how many genes within a plant genome are acceptable. It all matches everything that we do internally here at Cibus. And beyond that, labeling and patent discussions have also gone well.

So, they're very close to, I believe, final text. The next 4 to 6 weeks are going to be very interesting to watch as they move through that. The next country who will take this on is Cyprus. If it does flow over into Q1 2026, which we don't expect today, they are also very supportive of completion based on the understanding of how the amendment should be changed.

We go next now to Alex Hantman at Sidoti.

Just given the current cash position and runway into early Q2 '26 that you mentioned, could you talk a little bit about kind of the size and range of non-dilutive, dilutive financing options you're exploring? And what milestones do you expect to achieve with the next [ period ]?

Thanks, Alex, for your question. This is Peter. I think that I'm going to let Carlo answer most of that question. But to start with, we have made a lot of great progress with regards to our near-term revenue opportunities. A combination of that with the catalyst of the tailwinds, we believe, from the regulatory front allows us to be well positioned to look at strategic alternatives of financing the company. And at this stage, we don't have anything more to report on it than that.

Yes, I think correct, Peter. I think all options are still on the table. Like in the past, right, it is not any different at the moment. I think most important is that we progress so well on our milestones. And I think that's what investors want to hear to continue to support us in the near-term. What you said on the burn, I think you've seen that very spot on. I think quite impressive. A couple of things we did.

So, we implemented RIF just after summer, but we did much more than that. So, there's also streamlining facilities. We've shut down the Oberlin facility, some other cost saving initiatives, all to get ready for that $30 million annualized net burn next year. But I think most important is that we continue strongly to deliver on the milestones.

Great. And congrats again on the biofragrance side, initial payment. I had a question on the trait side. Can we get an update on automations and improvements on the real-time -- real delivery system? I think we heard a little bit about AI and ML technologies from Greg, but just curious about from edit to stable trait line technology these days.

Yes. So, excellent question, Alex, and really proud of what the team has been able to accomplish and is continuing to, in our facilities, we're always pushing to become more efficient. So, efficiency is improving editing frequency, which I'm really impressed with for Rice over the last year, it's increased by an order of magnitude.

The regeneration frequency for our key crops, really impressed by the improvements there. And to your point, in terms of automation, so we're a semi-automated process, but a lot of the really repetitive mundane tasks we're able to do with robotic assistance, which really enables our team of scientists to focus on the hard problems and the more repetitive tasks are handled by robots, both for some of our cell culture process, but also for a lot of the liquid handling.

And then, because we've been around for a quarter of century, we're able -- we have a lot of data in the editing space, in the what to edit space where -- and also with what you've seen generally for structural biology and intelligence there in terms of predicting and helping support some of the edits and accelerating the what to-edit space so that we're making the right choices as we move edits into our production pipeline. So, excellent question, Alex.

And gentlemen, it appears we have no further questions this afternoon. Dr. Beetham, I'd like to turn things back to you, sir, for any closing comments.

Thank you, and thank you all for joining us on today's call. As I've said in the past, I continue to be so proud to be part of the Cibus team. As you've just heard, we've made excellent progress this past quarter with a renewed focus and streamlined business. What I hope you've heard is that gene editing is happening now, and it's delivering across multiple sectors.

As Greg just mentioned, some of the incredible things that are going on in the company with regards to the understanding of what to edit with AI and ML as well as automation for us to be time-bound and predictable for our seed company partners, delivering back their elite genetics is really going to drive our near-term revenue. So, we're excited to be leading this charge in the ag industry. And we do see these near-term revenue targets like herbicide tolerance in Rice, a clear path to that market, which is fantastic.

You think about the focus with regards to the different geographies we're targeting. This is a huge commercial expansion of trait royalties. That's why we see ourselves as a coiled spring. But finally, we clearly see the seed industry also recognizing the global harmony of regulatory. As Carlo mentioned, our team just coming back from Euroseeds, understanding that this is a tailwind behind our expanded business opportunities, and we really look forward to a great year in 2026 and beyond.

So, again, thank you for joining. Thank you for your support and time today.

Thank you, Dr. Beetham. Again, ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude the Cibus Third Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. Again, thanks so much for joining us everyone, and we wish you all a great remainder of your day. Goodbye.