Fourth quarter 2023 for the Group
Net sales amounted to SEK 0 (2,030,000)
Result before tax amounted to SEK -6,554,000 (-2,823,000)
Result per share* was SEK -0.49 (-0.21)
Equity ratio** amounted to 70% (46%) on December 31, 2023
Full year for the Group
Net sales amounted to SEK 5,534,000 (4,963,000)
Result before tax amounted to SEK -17,089,000 (-13,780,000)
Result per share* was SEK -1.29 (-1.04)
Equity ratio** amounted to 70% (46%) on December 31, 2023
Fourth quarter 2023 for the Parent company
Net sales amounted to SEK 0 (2,030,000)
Result before tax amounted to SEK -5,652,000 (-1,811,000)
Result per share* was SEK -0.43 (-0.14)
Equity ratio** amounted to 73% (47%) on December 31, 2023
Full year for the Parent company
Net sales amounted to SEK 5,496,000 (4,963,000)
Result before tax amounted to SEK -13,952,000 (-12,908,000)
Result per share* was SEK -1.05 (-0.98)
Equity ratio** amounted to 73% (47%) on December 31, 2023
Significant events during the fourth quarter
On October 16, AcouSort announces that the company has delivered a test system for automated cell handling within cell therapy as part of the company’s collaboration with a global life science partner. The partner will now evaluate the system and investigate a potential integration into their new cell therapy production system.
On October 25, AcouSort announces that the company has published proof-of-concept data demonstrating that the newly developed high-throughput test system meets important requirements for cell therapy applications.
On November 7, AcouSort announces that the Board of Directors has resolved on a rights issue of units of approximately SEK 24.8 million.
On November 30, AcouSort announces that the company changes its Certified Adviser to Carnegie Investment Bank AB (publ).
On December 4, AcouSort announces that the rights issue has been fully subscribed. Through the Rights Issue, AcouSort is thus receiving approximately SEK 24.8 million before transaction costs. In the event of full exercise of all series TO 2 warrants within the issued units, the company may receive an additional approximately SEK 11.6 million.
On December 11, AcouSort announces that the company and its partner within critical care diagnostics have updated their collaboration agreement. The updated agreement follows the FDA approval in the fall of 2023 for the partnering company’s next generation point-of-care diagnostic system containing AcouSort’s acoustofluidics technology. Minimum revenues from the partnership in 2024 are expected to reach approximately SEK 3.5 million.
On December 19, Acousort announces that the Board of Directors resolves to repurchase Warrants of series 2020/2023.
Significant events after the end of the period
On January 16, AcouSort announces that the company will attend the Phacilitate Advanced Therapies Week to extend its cell therapy network.
On January 18, AcouSort announces that the company extends its collaboration with a leading cell therapy company into a third project phase. The new assignment will generate revenues of at least SEK 485,000 in 2024.
On January 31, AcouSort announces that significant technical progress in the AcouSome project has been achieved with two novel patent applications filed.
CEO COMMENTS
Strategic advancements in diagnostics and cell therapy during the year
2023 was a successful year in many respects. AcouSort’s first partner within diagnostics achieved regulatory approval in both USA and Europe for a point-of-care system containing AcouSort technology, an important validation of both our technology and our business model. We also experienced a very positive development in our collaboration with a leading company within cell therapy production, and the AcouSome project made significant technical progress during the year. However, sales of benchtop systems were below expectations during the year. This will be met with more focused customer relations. In November, AcouSort carried out a highly successful rights issue. The rights issue was fully subscribed and brought in SEK 24.8 million before transaction costs. Total income in the fourth quarter amounted to SEK 1.2 (2.8) million. For the full year, total income amounted to SEK 10.6 (8.6) million, corresponding to a growth of 23% compared to 2022.
Diagnostics – a historical milestone
One of the absolute highlights of 2023 was that our partner within critical care diagnostics received market approval in the US and in EU for a novel diagnostics system containing AcouSort technology. With this, our first partnership is now about to enter its commercial phase, thus validating our OEM business model. The strength in our unique technology and our commercial progress fills us with confidence and energy as we continue to seek further OEM deals through our from-research-to-OEM approach.
During fall of 2023 AcouSort and the diagnostic partner updated the collaboration agreement following the regulatory approvals and forthcoming launch of the partnering company’s novel diagnostic system containing AcouSort technology. Minimum royalties from the partnership will be SEK 3.55 million in 2024. Since our technology in the system is semi-disposable, we expect to see growth in revenue as the installed base of our partner’s system grows. Both minimum and per product royalties are index-adjusted going forward.
The FDA and IVDR approvals validate our technology and greatly strengthens our market position across all discussions with potential diagnostic and life science partners.
Strategic collaboration with academia. During 2023 we continued to pursue important collaborations with our partners in academia. We delivered one AcouWash system to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Porto, Portugal, where it will be used in a research project which aims to develop new methods to isolate, detect and characterize cancer cells in urine samples. A second AcouWash system was delivered to NIH to enable the researchers to continue the development of automated radio-labelling methods for monitoring cancer treatments. During the year we also continued our successful collaboration with Lund University in a project concerning isolation of circulating tumor cells. Applied research projects as the one described above are important steps towards developing novel diagnostic tools. Partnering with academia continues to be important to AcouSort as collaborations with leading scientists pushes us to continuously expand the boundaries of what our technology can achieve.
Cell therapy – continues to grow in importance
In 2023, cell therapy emerged as a very important market for AcouSort. During the year, our collaboration with a global life science company developed very favorably, reaching an important milestone in October with the delivery of a test system for automated high throughput cell handling. The test system is designed to meet the partnering company’s specifications enabling the partner to pursue important verification tests concerning the robustness and integrability of the technology. The collaboration continues in 2024 with an ambition to widen the applicability of AcouSort technology to cover all cell washing and up-concentration steps required. If successful, this represents a very important step towards implementing AcouSort OEM components into the partnering company’s future cell therapy system.
The high throughput cell wash OEM modules resolve an important bottleneck for designing closed cell therapy systems, but we also see opportunities to transfer the technological advancement of significantly increased throughput to other separation-based OEM applications.
Strategic collaboration with academia. In 2023, we installed an AcouTrap system at Karolinska Institutet (KI) as part of the Vinnova-funded IndiCell project. The system at KI will be used throughout the remainder of the IndiCell project to automate the isolation and wash of stem cells used in the research efforts to develop new stem cell-based therapies.
Innovation – significant technical progress in the AcouSome project
In August 2022, the European Innovation Council (EIC) awarded the AcouSome project SEK 26 million to develop groundbreaking technology enabling exosome-based diagnostics. The aim of the project is to develop a low cost acoustofluidic thin film actuated chip for separation of extracellular vesicles from blood. Started in the beginning of 2023, the innovation project has already made significant technical progress resulting in the development of two novel patent applications.
Of the SEK 26 million granted by the EIC, SEK 12.2 million go directly to AcouSort, and the remainder of the funding is distributed to AcouSort’s partners Lund University, DTU, and Day One. The project will run for 36 months and is fully funded by the EIC.
Successful rights issue
In December 2023, AcouSort completed a highly successful rights issue. The rights issue was fully subscribed and has provided AcouSort approximately SEK 24.8 million before transaction costs. In the event of full exercise of all series TO 2 warrants within the issued units, AcouSort may receive an additional SEK 11.6 million in March 2025.
I would like to thank all our loyal shareholders as well as all new shareholders who took part in the rights issue for your confidence and invaluable support.
Outlook
In 2024, we will build on our strategic advances within diagnostics and cell therapy. Our research-to-OEM strategy has proved to be successful, and we will continue striving to become a preferred supplier to partners within the diagnostic and cell therapy markets. Developing OEM-partnerships is a process which requires a number of years before a steady stream of revenue can be achieved. To strengthen our current cashflow, we will intensify our efforts to increase sales of our benchtop systems to the research communities within academia and industry with a specific focus on the new AcouTrap.
Torsten Freltoft – CEO
ACOUSORT AB
The report is attached below and can also be found at https://acousort.com/investor/financial-reports/
ACOUSORT AB 
