Latest news with #MarkFrost
Belfast Telegraph
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Twin Peaks at 35: ‘We broke all the rules — and people were horrified'
As the ground-shifting murder mystery series and its belated sequel arrive on Mubi, its co-creator Mark Frost speaks to Adam White about upsetting and offending the television establishment, that notorious second-season dip, and the death of David Lynch Allegedly, American television did exist before Twin Peaks. But there is an undeniable chop down the middle of it, with the likes of Lucy Ricardo, JR Ewing and Captain Kirk on one side, and on the other the body of Laura Palmer – the most beautiful phantom in the world, murdered, wrapped in plastic and burning with secrets. Nothing was quite the same after she washed up on the side of that riverbank in April of 1990. Twin Peaks co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost destabilised the entire television landscape with a series that was a murder mystery, a soap, a comic pastiche of the American heartland and your worst, weirdest nightmare all at once. 'There were only three networks back then,' says Frost today. 'TV was designed to sell you products in the commercial breaks, then lull you into a state of sleep.' But a murdered girl, he and Lynch thought: 'What if she was a trojan horse? And what if once we were indoors, inside our little horse, we could wait until everybody fell asleep and climb out and get to work?'
Metro
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Twin Peaks pop-up in London abruptly scrapped as full cult series hits streaming
Fans of Twin Peaks were left disappointed today after Mubi abruptly postponed its much-anticipated dining experience in London – just 24 hours before it was set to open. The pop-up, inspired by the cult show's iconic Double R Diner, was due to take over the New River Café in Stoke Newington on June 18. The event was part of a wider celebration by the boutique streaming platform marking Twin Peaks' 35th anniversary and its long-awaited arrival on Mubi's platform. However, on June 17, Mubi took to social media to announce the sudden postponement: 'We wanted to let you know that unfortunately we will be postponing tomorrow's Twin Peaks diner experience,' the post read. 'We're so sorry for the short notice and hope to bring this back in the future.' No official reason was given for the last-minute change, though it comes amid controversy surrounding a recent investment deal. Earlier this month, Mubi faced backlash for accepting a $100million investment from Sequoia Capital, a firm linked to Israeli defence technology companies. We wanted to let you know that unfortunately we will be postponing tomorrow's TWIN PEAKS diner so sorry for the short notice and hope to bring this back in the future. — MUBI UK & Ireland (@mubiuk) June 17, 2025 Mubi responded to criticism with a statement: 'The beliefs of individual investors do not reflect the views of Mubi,' adding that Sequoia's ties were unrelated to Mubi's own mission and values. It remains unclear whether the Twin Peaks diner experience will be rescheduled. For now, fans will have to settle for indulging in the surreal mystery from the comfort of their own homes. Finally, all three chapters of the acclaimed series are now available to stream in full on Mubi. That includes the original two seasons (1990–1991), the prequel film Fire Walk With Me, and Twin Peaks: The Return, the 2017 sequel helmed once again by David Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost. Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Sherilyn Fenn, and Lara Flynn Boyle, the show follows the investigation into the murder of small-town teen Laura Palmer and the eerie, supernatural forces swirling beneath the surface of the town of Twin Peaks. More Trending Beloved for its genre-defying weirdness, unforgettable characters, and unsettling atmosphere, Twin Peaks became a global phenomenon and remains one of the most influential shows of all time. Following the death of David Lynch, fans are thrilled that the series is finally available to stream in full. View More » Season one holds a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while The Return boasts a near-perfect 94%. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The murder victim who inspired Twin Peaks haunted me for years... and helped me expose her TRUE killer
Thirty-five years after she first captivated a television audience, Laura Palmer - the tragic beauty at the center of the Twin Peaks mystery - continues to haunt us. After the death of filmmaker David Lynch in January, the cult TV show attracted a new generation of fans who began following the series' heroine, a girl-next-door who leads a 'double life' and is brutally murdered. While the Twin Peaks town and its eccentric inhabitants are pure fiction, co-creator Mark Frost was actually inspired by the real-life murder of Hazel Drew. In 1908, Hazel was found dead in the small town of Sand Lake, New York, and, after a hasty investigation, the case was abruptly closed. Though the death of the 19-year-old was suspected to be a murder, no one was ever charged - and her ghost is said to still haunt the woods just over 150 miles north of New York City. In Twin Peaks, FBI Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan), investigates the mysterious death of Laura Palmer. Now, an amateur sleuth sleuth believes he has uncovered the truth of Hazel's murder. And he claims that it was Hazel herself who pointed him towards the killer from beyond the grave. 'I don't believe in ghosts,' insists Jerry C Drake in his new book about the case, Hazel Was a Good Girl. 'But I've seen a ghost and her name is Hazel Drew.' Thirty-five years after she first captivated a television audience, Laura Palmer - the tragic beauty at the center of the Twin Peaks mystery - continues to haunt us Hazel was just 19 when she was found dead (left) and her case inspired the fictional story of Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks (right) Drake admits he became 'obsessed… maybe even a little crazy' by the case after Hazel 'visited' both himself and a friend in their dreams years ago. In 2019, his friend had just bought a home in Troy about 10 miles from Sand Lake, and recalled a dream in which a strange woman had appeared in the house and presented a book with a turquoise cover, titled The Absence of Memory. 'A few days later as I was sick in bed, shivering with fever in my DC condo, I fell into a heavy sleep and encountered this book myself,' Drake explained. 'In my dream I opened the book, a hardback, and saw that the first blank page contained a bookplate that read: Ex Libris Hazel I Drew. 'Ex Libris is Latin for "from the library of" and was a common moniker on bookplates a century ago.' After he awoke in a sweat, he googled Hazel's name and was immediately hooked by the story of her unsolved murder. Hazel had been working as a governess to a wealthy family when she left her job abruptly. Just days later, her body - wearing a lavish dress she had commissioned the same week - was found floating face down in a local stretch of water called Teal's Pond. An autopsy determined that she had died as a result of blunt force trauma to the back of her head, ruling out suicide. The case became a national news spectacle, with lurid claims of jilted jealous lovers, prostitution, pregnancy, and scandal. Then, everything went quiet. Hazel remained nothing more than the subject of town gossip and rumor until 80 years later, when Frost - whose grandmother lived near Troy - heard about her story, and immortalized Hazel in his hit television series. Mark Frost first came up with the idea of the beautiful girl next door who leads a 'desperate double life' and ends up brutally murdered (Pictured: actress Sheryl Lee as the deceased Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks) Grace Zabriskie as Sarah Palmer, Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer and Ray Wise as Leland Palmer in the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me movie The cult show features a wildly eccentric cast of inhabitants of a fictional town Speaking to the Daily Mail, Drake claims the spirit of Hazel 'led' him to the person supposedly responsible for her murder. In the winter of 2020, he was visiting his friend in her new house in Troy when the pair sought out Hazel's grave in the local cemetery. 'Really, it was the wrong time of year to go,' he said. 'It was very, very cold, a harsh winter, but we were obsessed. 'I didn't have the right kind of boots on… and they burst open on me while I was walking around out there because the leather was so dry.' After searching, fruitlessly, for more than an hour, he suddenly and inexplicably felt a wave of sickness come over him, and was convinced he was having a heart attack. 'That cemetery is far from hospital, and there's no cell phone connection out there, and my friend could never drive my car,' he recalled. 'And I thought "I'm dying. I'm an old man who got too excited, and I'm out here in this cemetery, and I'm straight up gonna die."' As he stumbled back towards the parking lot, he took a turn and leaned against a large, gnarly oak tree. 'My world started to spin, and I could feel the little bit of food and coffee I had in my guts churning. I was getting dizzy. 'Finally, pouring cold sweat in that frozen landscape, my stomach gave up and I puked up pure liquid on the snow. I could see my friend's silhouette just staring back at me, unmoving. 'I kept pushing myself towards the car, but I'd lost the path. I was facing the wrong way now and I realized I was simply not going to make it. The ground rose up to meet me and I fell down, landing on my knees. 'And when I looked up, I had literally put my hands on a tombstone with a single word carved in bone white marble: HAZEL.' Twin Peaks gained a new generation of dedicated fans following the death of filmmaker David Lynch (pictured left with his co-creator, Mark Frost, right) The case made national newspaper headlines, including in the New York Times (left) and the Ocala Evening Star (right) He adds: 'That is one of the strangest experiences I've ever had in my life. People talk about possession or obsession or whatever, and if that was psychosomatic, OK, I'll believe it, but it didn't feel like it. 'It felt like something had come into me that didn't belong there. And in the moments it had me, it took me to that place which I could not find.' Once his hands touched Hazel's grave, he claimed his symptoms curiously disappeared. But the chilling encounter was only beginning. Looking up at his friend, her eyes grew wide as she described feeling a tap at the back of her head, accompanied by a woman's voice shouting: 'Like this! Like this!' She told him she saw what she believed was a version of the murder through the eyes of Hazel Drew. Almost immediately they claimed they both had another vision, this time of a well-dressed man approaching them, a smile on his face. 'Did you just hear a man speak?' his friend whispered, terrified. 'Yes,' Drake replied. 'He said, "Hello, beautiful."' Spooked, the pair quickly left the graveyard, trying to make sense of what they had just experienced. Visiting his friend in the winter of 2020, they sought out Hazel's grave in the local cemetery He claims that once he put his hands on Hazel's grave, his symptoms disappeared In October 2024, the Sand Lake Historical Society put up a historical marker to commemorate Hazel's death and her continued presence in the area Though he took long stretches away from his investigation over the years, Drake claims Hazel refused to leave him alone. 'I got COVID, and I had a strange dream that I was in Hazel's uncle's house,' he said. 'And her sister-in-law comes in and says, "Who is this fella?" in this thick upstate accent. And then Hazel says, "Why? He's some kind of Pinkerton man. I think we need to take care of him."' A Pinkerton man was another name for a private detective in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 'When I woke up from that dream, I suddenly started to feel better… I told my friend about it, and she said, "Hazel wants you back on the case."' On another occasion, which he describes as 'the weirdest Twin Peaks moment,' he was staying at an Airbnb in Troy when he had a dream that Hazel took him to a restaurant called Manory's. When he woke up, there was a crow walking around in his room. 'I was like, "Man, I'm getting out of here,"' he recalled. 'And I went down to Manory's - it felt just like the real version of the diner from Twin Peaks. 'That was the day I found the first photograph of the man I think was her killer,' he continued. 'That guy in the picture was the guy we saw in the cemetery who said, "Hello, beautiful." I'm getting kind of weird chills talking about it now.' Though, he concedes that all of his dreams and visions could have been his subconscious working overtime. 'I'm a pretty skeptical person, so it's almost hard to articulate that stuff, especially without a few whiskies.' Either that, or Hazel desperately wanted her story told. In his investigation, he scoured local newspaper cuttings, examined contemporary photographs, and reviewed the various theories presented to the cops. He identified what he believed were key shortcomings in the original investigation, claiming that Hazel was the victim not just of misrepresentation by a scandal-hungry press, but also of a cover-up by powerful men at that time. Investigator Dale Cooper, played by Kyle MacLachlan in the show (pictured right), claims he has finally solved the case Drake's investigations created what he calls his 'crazy wall' of evidence and clues 'I went down to Manory's - it felt just like the real version of the diner from Twin Peaks... That was the day I found the first photograph of the man I think was her killer' 'That guy in the picture was the guy we saw in the cemetery who said, "Hello, beautiful"' While other books have investigated the case in the past, his is the first to go as far as to name the man he believes is guilty for the murder. 'When I've had three pints, I'm 100 percent convinced he's the killer,' he said. 'Early in the morning on a cup of coffee, I'm about 80 percent convinced. And the reason why I am so convinced is because I'm a data scientist by profession, and the data doesn't lie. We know who kills people. We know who the prime suspects are.' And the man in the diner photograph would have been suspect number one. 'The person who I suspect was never properly questioned. He was the first person on the stand, and he lied. He told us the story incorrectly at least twice,' Drake said. 'It's very strange to me that… he never gives a reward, he never makes a statement. He just hunkers down and lets it blow over.' He hopes that, in time, more photographs may emerge that shed new light on the case and prove beyond reasonable doubt that his theory is correct. 'There will always be new clues. Every year, more and more resources come online,' he continued. 'And I do think as the silent generation passes away, people are going to clean out houses in Troy, and they're going to find things.' In the meantime, any hopes that he may have laid Hazel's ghost to rest have proved impossible, claiming that he sees and feels her presence 'a lot' - and even 'dreams about her.' 'Carl Sagan said there are no haunted houses, only haunted people. And I guess I'm a haunted person now,' he said. 'I will never be done with Hazel Drew. Not 'til the day I am a ghost - and I may haunt Troy myself.' Hazel was a Good Girl: Solving the Murder that Inspired Twin Peaks by Jerry C. Drake is published by Clash Books
Time Out
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A replica of the ‘Twins Peaks' diner is popping up in London
It's the 35th anniversary of David Lynch and Mark Frost's landmark TV brain-bender Twin Peaks and MUBI is celebrating in style. For one day only, the streamer will be turning Stoke Newington's New River Café into a pop-up version of Twin Peaks, Washington State's famous Double R Diner – Agent Dale Cooper's morning stop-off of choice. Expect cherry pie, damn fine coffee, and maybe even a glimpse of the Log Lady passing by. The diner will be drop-in only and open from 11am-7pm on June 18. Alongside the coffee and pie, you'll be able to win limited edition Twin Peaks goodies throughout the day. The pop-up diner is the handiwork of the Mam Sham crew and creative agency Hot Sauce Presents. You'll find it at New River Café, 271 Stoke Newington Church Street. Twin Peaks (1990) and 2017's Twin Peaks: The Return are streaming on MUBI from June 13. from September 27-28.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q1 2025 Harvard Bioscience Inc Earnings Call
Kathryn Flynn; Corporate Controller; Harvard Bioscience Inc Mark Frost; Interim Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer; Harvard Bioscience Inc James Green; Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer; Harvard Bioscience Inc Bruce Jackson; Analyst; The Benchmark Company Paul Knight; Analyst; KeyBanc Operator Good day and welcome to the first quarter 2025 Harvard Bioscience Inc earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kathryn Flynn, the Corporate Controller. Please go ahead. Kathryn Flynn Thank you, [Betsy], and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining the Harvard Bioscience first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Leading the call today will be Jim Green, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Frost, the incoming Interim Chief Financial conjunction with today's recorded call, we have provided a presentation that will be referenced during our remarks that is posted to the investors section of our website at note that statements made in today's discussion that are not historical facts, including statements or expectations or future events or future financial performance are forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1, results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. Please refer to today's press release for other disclosures on forward-looking statements. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are described in the company's filings with the Security and Exchange Bioscience assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements publicly, and management statements are made as of today. During the call, management will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures which can be useful in evaluating the company's operations related to our financial condition and non-GAAP measures are intended to supplement GAAP financial information and should not be considered a substitute. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures are provided in today's earnings press release. I will now turn the call over to Mark. Mark, please go ahead. Mark Frost Thank you, morning, everyone. I'm Mark Frost, the Interim CFO for Harvard Bioscience, effective tomorrow. With us is Jennifer Cote, the current CFO for Harvard Bioscience. We'd like to thank Jen for her support of the company the last three years and her willingness to spend the last month helping me in the for those of you who are not familiar with my background, I spent the first half of my career at General Electric in a wide variety of businesses including G Capital and healthcare. After GE, I transitioned to the healthcare space and have been a public CFO at four companies, including when I worked with Jim at Analogic.I'm excited to be here and look forward to working with the team at Harvard Bioscience. I'll now move to our first quarter, 2005 results on slide 3. Now revenue at $21.8 was below $24.5 million in the prior year. This result was aligned with the higher end of our guidance communicated in March for Q1.I'll go through color on the revenue in the next slide. Gross margin was 56% versus 60.3% in 2024, and I will provide detail later as well. Now excluding a non-cash goodwill impairment charge, which I'll discuss in a expense declined $3.2 million from prior year driven by the operating actions we took in 2024, as well as further actions in the first quarter. The operating loss of $49.7 million versus $2.3 million loss in quarter Q1'24 was caused primarily by the goodwill impairment without the goodwill charge, our adjusted operating income was $0.3 million below prior years, $1.2 million, reflective of the cost actions we executed to offset anticipated lower revenue. Quarter 1 adjusted EBITDA was $0.8 million versus $1.6 million in quarter 1'24, with a major driver being lower revenue partially offset by our cost turning now to the goodwill impairment, we had noted indicators of a possible impairment as we exited 2024. Due primarily to the decrease in our market capitalization at quarter one, we performed additional impairment testing as we exited the a result, our quarter one results include a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $48 million. Which is reflected in operating expenses. More detail is provided in the 10-Q. Now move next to slide 4 and revenue results for the quarter by product, family, and overall news in the first quarter showed an expected seasonal decline from quarter four, finishing at $21.8 million compared to $24.6 million in the prior quarter four. Year over year revenue was down from $24.5 million last year, quarter one. Now let's now break it down to look at regional starting with the Americas, revenue in the first quarter declined sequentially by 5.4% from quarter four and we're down 9.4% versus revenues in the first quarter of last year. As shown in the light blue, CMT did not see the typical quarter four seasonal bump and continued to stay slow in quarter one, which we attribute to the lack of budget clarity for academics and NIH preclinical sales declined sequentially mid single digits driven by lower CRO sales. Now moving on to Europe, overall revenue in Europe in the first quarter declined 29% sequentially, as we exited 2024 with a strong seasonal end of year bombing. Now, compared to last year Q1, Europe revenues were down 9%.Cellular and molecular sales decline sequentially and year on year, but we continue to see growth in cell-based testing are excited to see the impact of early adopters of our new MEA systems. Now our pre-clinical sales were down sequentially in quarter one, following the quarter four bump with lower CRO and academic sales but stayed relatively consistent with the middle quarters of moving to China and the Asia Pacific, overall in the first quarter, APAC revenue was sequentially up by 6.6%. Over the previous quarter, though APAC revenue was down 17%, compared to the prior year quarter one. The APAC market has been especially difficult this past one was our second sequential quarter of improvement, but we don't see this continuing quarter two given the immediate softening of revenue in China following the tariff announcements in early April. We have considered this in our guidance for quarter two. Now cellular molecular APAC products showed some minor declines in the third quarter sequentially, and year over APE=AC sales in quarter one saw sequential growth over sales in quarter four, but we're down compared to quarter one of the prior year, which is a strong quarter for shipments. I'll now move to slide 5 to discuss further financial metrics. Now looking at gross margin first, gross margin during quarter one, 2025 was 56% compared to 60.3% in quarter one, last year, we had a change in accounting methods that benefited our gross margins by 1.6 points. The gross margin decline compared to last year, quarter one was also impacted by lower absorption of fixed manufacturing overhead and nominally by if you refer to the top right graph, our adjusted EBITDA during quarter one finished at $0.8 million compared to $1.6 million in last year's first quarter. Compared to the prior year quarter one, reduced gross profit of $2.6 million was partially offset by lower operating expenses of $1.8 moving to the bottom left where we show both reported and adjusted loss earnings per share. Now as mentioned in the past, I'll remind you of the typical differences between GAAP EPS and adjusted EPS is the impact of stock compensation, amortization, and as I mentioned earlier, during quarter one, we also recorded an impairment in our goodwill balance. These differences between net income loss and adjusted EBITDA are highlighted in the reconciliation tables on slide 10 and are all non-cash moving to the bottom middle graph, cash flow from operations were $3 million during quarter one, 2025 compared to $1.4 million in quarter one, last year. The primary driver for the improved cash flow from operations was improvements in our work in capital net debt is down $1 million from quarter one, 2024 and $2.4 million from year end '24 from $33.2 million to $30.8 million. This reflects our quarterly principal payment of $1 million and improved operating cash flow. I'll now turn from our liquidity commentary to an update on our efforts to refinance our debt facility. We are making progress and we have received indications of interest from multiple are in the process of evaluating the proposals and are moving forward with the intention to close per our amendment timing. So I'll now turn it back over to Jim to discuss a new product introduction. Jim? James Green Thank you, Mark. Good morning, everybody. Mark, it's good to be back working with you again. Let's go ahead and move to slide 6 and let me update you on progress on our key new product launches in a little more new product introductions are aligned into three categories. The base business, which makes up approximately 76% of total revenue, and this is from FY24 from last year. Also, we break up, we break out and look at electroporation and bio production related systems, which is about 16% of last year's revenue, and EMEA and organoid related systems, which was about 8% of FY24 the top section of the table on this slide highlights the commercial status of two new products we consider part of our base business. We've long been a leader in implantable telemetry for pre-clinical safety and tox in 2024, we began production shipments of our new SoHo family of implanted telemetry devices which allow animal models to live in shared housing environments. Our initial launch was focused on measuring activity and temperature. In 2025, we're expanding the SoHo platform to also now cover cardiac and neuro launched these expanded capabilities at the society for Toxicology show in March, and we see strong pipeline of industrial customers and academics alike. We plan to begin production shipments in Q3. The second row of our base section is the VMR first delivery of this new system which automates it's called VivaMARS and it automates neuro behavioral monitoring systems, and the first system went to Labcorp, one of our large customers. We've been working with Labcorp to tune the system and to support the integration into their testing network. We're now in discussions with Labor to add additional the middle section of the table highlights the commercial status of our products targeted to high growth opportunities of electroporation and bioproduction. Bioproduction applications are especially attractive because consumable usage scales with our customers' production first to our BTX systems, we were pleased to see that we reached approximately $1 million in consumable revenue from our first large file production customer. Looking to 2025, this same customer is in the process of launching a second file production application in we're exploring a new opportunity with a large biotech to adopt our BTX for bio-production of a CAT therapy which they used in development of the therapy. As a result, our BTX, I guess I should say as a side, our BTX Agile Pulse is a leader in peer reviewed literature on Car-T applications in the research and discovery respect to AAA systems, also in 2024, we began shipping our new CGMP compliant amino acid analysis system to pharma companies for bio-production applications. For 2025, we're working to expand adoption of our AAA system for bioproduction the bottom section of the slide highlights our exciting new mesh EMEA organoid platform. This system is the industry's first in vitro data acquisition and analysis system capable of monitoring neuro and cardiac organoids over much longer time periods measured in months, not new system includes both instrumentation and mesh EMEA consumable chips, and it's designed to help identify new drug candidates, more likely to successfully make it through preclinical testing, which can improve yields and reduce time and reduce costs going to 2024 we initiated beta testing and also had numerous early adopters, including sites such as Stanford and the Mayo Clinic. Now recent policy changes in Washington are encouraging a move to new alternative methods called NAMs for improved efficiencies in new drug development, specifically mentioned is advancing the use of human derived new policy is driving increased interest from industrial customers and we believe presents a great opportunity for expanded adoption of our MeshMEA organoid systems for higher volume applications in both drug discovery and in safety toxicology year we see expanding adoption to more leading academic sites plus government labs in the US, the UK, and Europe. We're focusing on potential high growth industrial applications in biopharma, and finally we see growing interest for In-vitro to in In-vivo studies targeted to safety and toxicology with why don't we move to slide 8, take a look at our outlook. With uncertainty around NIH and academic research funding and the China tariff situation, we now expect second quarter revenue in the range of $18 million to $20 million and we expect gross margin to be in the 55% to 57% we're going to focus on expanding adoption of our new products while we continue to lower costs. As such, cost actions already implemented are expected to reduce operating expense by an additional $1 million a quarter starting in the second quarter you. Now I'll turn the call back over to our operator and open for questions. Thank you. Operator (Operator Instructions)Bruce Jackson, The Benchmark Company Bruce Jackson Hi, good morning. Can you tell us a little bit more about the impairment charge? Mark Frost Sure. This is Mark. I'll start and Jim may add in some points. So, it's a normal process of assessing your goodwill. You usually do it annually, but because of our drop, Bruce, in our market cap, we're forced to take further measures to evaluate the valuation of that goodwill, and there's a number of selected a DCF approach and one of the key aspects of doing that is you have to reconcile to your market cap and that in the end led to the $48 million charge, which is non-cash, Bruce but we needed to take that charge unfortunately, and it was recorded this quarter. Bruce Jackson Okay, and then, if I could ask you a little bit more about the the bioproduction business and the Car-T in particular. Is that something that's being considered for a domestic location or is it international? James Green Yeah. Hi Bruce. This is a domestic customer of ours, our BTX system and especially the agilepole system is one of the leading. It's one of the leading technologies that's used for creating a number of these new forms and new types of therapies, and Car-T is one of the leaders. And so, if you look in the peer reviewed literature, you'll see our system referenced many times throughout the industry and in academic this particular customer is an advanced biotech. They've been working on this new technology, this new Car-T related therapy, and they were using our agile pulse to create the new therapy. So, what we've done is we're working with them to to adopting the system for bioproduction of this same again it would be a new expansion for us into, again one of these advanced drugs for here designed and manufactured here in the United States and targeted to human populations and going into. I believe at this point they are they're in various various stages of the testing on humans. So again, I believe it's still in first stage, first stage clinical. Bruce Jackson Okay, and then, last question from me is on the [SNEA] product line. So we've got some cross currents here. HHS, of course, with their name, pronouncement is a positive for the space. NIH funding has been kind of unpredictable. How do you see this all netting out and what's the the inbound interest on the product given this, given that environment? James Green Well, the interest on the product came in very strong, and you even saw it last year with early adopters picking up the system, starting with academic researchers and then researchers in certain biopharma companies. But academics really led the way and with really heavy emphasis on neuro neurodevelopment and then also with as far as you know what we saw happening there was, there has been a slowing just in general with academic research and with NIH funded now it's certainly, the interest has gone up. In fact, we see the funnels growing for opportunities to place this technology into academic research sites, but it's taking longer to get through the met with the with the NIH a couple weeks ago at their facilities. And what we were told by them was that the budgets are there, but that there were a number of, there was quite a large reduction in force, but really targeted to the folks who are involved with purchasing. So it's kind of slowed up the purchasing in academics, the demand is certainly there and growing and growing big and we still see, I would say, if you look at our academic research revenues this quarter, it started late in Q4, but it's slowed down some but it's running consistent. So it's still moving along, and we think that's going to get the other big push, as you suggested with the announcement from the government, is this push toward the use of NAMs and and specifically organoids and neuro organoids in testing and development, and that's causing a lot more interest for us with the biopharma have a lot more inbound calls with even with the CROs that are much more interested in looking at this technology and knowing that the government's expecting them to start to move to some of these newer methods. So, overall you're right, this is going to be a good long term driver for us for adoption of organoids into the development cycle. Bruce Jackson Okay, great, that's it for me thank you. Operator Thanks Knight, KeyBanc Paul Knight Hi, Jim. James Green Hi, Paul. Paul Knight Thanks for the time today. The BTX technology, I think you've been talking about certainly getting traction. When will it ever be, do you think able to compete in the sector that MaxCyte participates in? James Green That's a great question. We figured certainly we could get into that level, but MaxCyte tends to focus really on high volume applications and they use a licensing structure. We felt like for us the value proposition was for us to use the razor blade method, but also to go after these early we don't have such a high cost of entry if we were as some of the biotechs and the pharma companies are exploring these new drugs. So we think that's a good space for us. If it made sense for us to go to a much higher volume, we certainly have to put some real work into the initial real value proposition for us we felt was was time to market and the ability to bridge, especially if somebody used us like in Car-T therapy, if they used us to create the drug, that now we can they can use us for the initial bioproduction and then depending on the volume needs that determines whether or not we could be the long term solution for bioproduction or either way it's a great place for us to start, and many of the biotechs, they really just need to know, can they produce the product in a GMP environment so that they can get through their preclinical phases and get through at least their early to late stages of human and then it comes down to what's the volume needs, but you've also noticed with the release of the product that's already now reaching a million dollars a year on the application that we have already up and says that we can certainly get into some reasonable reasonable size of the volume and it really just depends on the number of doses and the amount of in each dose whether or not it's required to go through a transpection and the use of electroporation or electrofusion. Paul Knight And then regarding the MeshMEA product line, the announcement seems like the NIH wants to focus on it. Would you not agree that there's no way animal testing really slows down for a long time. It'll be just a co development process. Wouldn't you agree with that? James Green Yeah, I do. I think, and if you look at where where our technology is used, we're used in the later stages, the formal stages of safety and talks, and that's when you, that's when the animals are really used for verification that it's safe and effective, and that nobody believes that's going to we do know with the new therapies for monoclonal antibodies and by the way, our BTX system is used by, one of the leaders there, Regeneron, in creating those monoclonal antibodies. So for us that's a positive thing. Now you could argue whether or not long term testing should be necessary on a drug that's like this, that is really primarily targeted late stage it makes sense that they may want to not have to take on the cost of long term effects of something of a drug that really is only used in palliative care in late stages. So, that we don't see as an issue, but for the vast majority of new drugs, they're going to be used on children and people chronically for years and do have to do, we believe you have to do the full testing, and we just can't see any real pharma company introducing a drug that where they haven't done that level of safety and to be able to correlate that back to data for for years and our systems have been used for safety and tox telemetry for many years with most of the main drugs that have come just can't see, a major pharma company saying we're now going to stop that level of testing. But we do think the move toward things like organoids might help in the use of getting the early testing so that you don't maybe have to go through large volumes of large populations of small animals to filter out in a very inefficient way and a costly once you get through that phase, there's no question we believe you have to do the safety and tox testing with implant inflammatory, and that really means using our technology. Paul Knight Mark, I just missed the first question. I think you were talking about the refinance or if you didn't, my question is, what kind of rate are you looking at somewhere around what, 12%? Mark Frost Yeah, it's going to be higher than a commercial rate. We are still in the negotiation process to finalize that, but yeah, it will be more expensive than commercial debt to answer your question. Paul Knight Okay. And what is it what kind of term is it five year out or is it payments as you go through it or what are you what what what's the structure of that? Mark Frost Yeah, we're still in the process of negotiating all that. So that kind of detail I can't really share at this point in time. We will obviously as we get closer to finalizing deals, but not at this point in time. James Green I think we do, I think it's fair to say we're going to be looking at multiple years. Mark Frost Yeah, yes. It will be four or five years out for sure. Paul Knight Okay. Alright. Thank you. Operator This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jim Green, CEO, for any closing remarks. James Green Well, thank you everybody for joining us today. We're certainly glad to hear the news that just came out this morning about the US and hopefully reaching some kind of an agreement with China. As China for us is, it's probably somewhere around 10% of our were coming into this thinking that we might be, we might not, we might be looking at a $2 million a quarter kind of headwind, hopefully that's not the case now. So again, this is good news for us because, we were assuming that that with the tariffs as they are, that it will certainly expected to be a real problem for us this I do think there's some good news there. But again, thank you for your time today. This ends today's presentation. I hope you'll join us again in August when we discuss the fiscal 2025 second quarter results. Thank you, and this ends the call for today. Thank you. Operator The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. Sign in to access your portfolio
