Pacific Biosciences (PACB) Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2026 summary

Business momentum and strategic highlights

• Achieved record consumable sales in Q1, with strong growth in hospital and clinical segments, especially in Europe and America, driven by rare disease and carrier testing applications.

• Signed the largest deal in company history with Basecamp for a 100,000-sample metagenomic study supporting AI foundational model development, with most revenue impact expected in 2027.

• SPRQ-Nx chemistry launched commercially, unlocking consumable demand in China and expected to drive higher utilization and gross margins in the second half of the year.

• Clinical customers are transitioning from pilot to production, with larger labs expected to move into production in the second half of the year, supporting consumable growth.

• Partnership with Covaris enables access to large oncology sample archives, expanding addressable clinical markets.

Market dynamics and customer trends

• Academic and government demand remains weak, leading to a $5 million reduction in revenue guidance and removal of these segments from forecasts for the year.

• Vega platform attracted 85% new customers, mostly new to long-read sequencing, with low initial utilization but expected to increase with SPRQ-Nx release.

• Revio sales cycles remain long for academics due to funding constraints, but are shortening for commercial and hospital customers expanding their fleets.

• Consumable growth driven by continued use in academia and increased adoption in hospitals and clinics as they move to mainline testing.

Financial performance and outlook

• Q1 gross margin was 37%, impacted by a one-time promotion, higher DRAM costs, and warranty charges; margins are expected to normalize and improve to 41%-44% for the year.

• SPRQ-Nx is expected to improve gross margins due to higher chip reuse and insourcing of Vega manufacturing.

• Pull-through per Revio system is forecasted to remain stable at $225-$245, with potential upside if sample volumes increase.

• Vega ASPs to normalize in Q2 after a one-quarter promotional drop.