Niagen Bioscience Stock

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Niagen Bioscience Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Lauren Borzansky, Assistant Controller. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Niagen Biosciences, Inc.'s Second Quarter 2026 Conference Call. Joining me today are our Chief Executive Officer, Rob Fried; Chief Financial Officer, Ozan Pamir; and Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Andrew Shao. Dr. Shao will join the call for Q&A.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's call may include forward-looking statements. These statements relate to, among other things, our research and development activities, clinical trial plans and timing, regulatory filings, expansion into new markets, business development opportunities and our expected financial and operating performance. These statements are based on our current expectations as of today and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a discussion of these risks, please refer to our most recent Form 10-Q and other filings with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to update these statements, except as required by law.

In addition, we may reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in today's earnings release and presentation, both available in the Investor Relations section of our website.

With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Rob Fried.

Thank you, Lauren, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. This quarter marks another important milestone in the evolution of Niagen Bioscience. For many years, investors knew us primarily as the company behind Tru Niagen, the leading nicotinamide riboside, NAD supplement. Today, we are becoming something much broader, a science-driven platform company built around the biology of NAD with opportunities spanning consumer health, injectable and IV skin care, and pharmaceuticals. Our name, Niagen Bioscience reflects that evolution. It represents the company we are building and the opportunity we believe lies ahead.

As we look at the progress we've made in 2026 in developing our platform, we see this year as our springboard for growth and for value creation. Our financial results this quarter demonstrate the resilience of our core business, while our strategic progress reinforces our confidence that we're building multiple long-term engines of growth. Today, Niagen Bioscience spans consumer supplements, branded ingredients, intravenous delivery through Niagen Plus, skin care and pharmaceutical development. These businesses are connected by a common scientific foundation and increasingly reinforce one another. The scientific discoveries guide our commercial path and the commercial adoption expands awareness of Niagen. Pharmaceutical development deepens our understanding of NAD biology while expanding the long-term value of our intellectual property. That integrated platform is what differentiates Niagen Bioscience.

Global interest in NAD continues to accelerate. We estimate the worldwide NAD supplement market now exceeds $2 billion annually, while the IV and injection market has now grown beyond $500 million. We believe these markets remain in the early stages of their development, a scientific understanding of cellular NAD continues to expand. Looking forward, we believe additional opportunities in skin care, IV and injections, pharmaceuticals and other health care applications have the potential to substantially expand the overall addressable market.

For more than a decade, Niagen has helped define this category through scientific leadership, regulatory excellence, intellectual property and what we believe is the industry's largest body of human clinical research supporting NAD and nicotinamide riboside. Those advantages continue to differentiate us as awareness of NAD grows around the world. Our core business continues to provide a solid foundation, and we expect our e-commerce business to continue to be the engine for consistent growth.

During the quarter, Tru Niagen website sales increased 23% year-over-year, while Amazon sales increased 10%. We estimate Amazon growth would have been approximately 19%, absent a temporary platform issue during early June that has since been resolved. Within the ingredient business, purchases from life extension were lower than last year. affecting quarterly comparisons. We also continue to see competitive activity from NMN and NAD as a straight ingredient in certain channels. While we recognize these near-term challenges, our confidence remains grounded in our scientific leadership, intellectual property, regulatory position, manufacturing quality and extensive body of clinical evidence supporting Niagen.

Across every market in which we participate, we are seeing the same trend emerge. Organizations seeking the most scientifically validated approach to elevating NAD are increasingly choosing Niagen. And that trend is becoming particularly evident within skin care. Earlier this year, we completed a limited launch of our first branded skincare product, Niagen NanoCloud. The response exceeded our internal expectation and supports a broader commercial launch later this year. More importantly, we are now seeing growing validation from some of the world's most respected skin care companies recently published research demonstrating that nicotinamide riboside was more effective than niacinamide at increasing NAD levels and protecting against UV-induced depletion and human skin models.

Presently, we are engaged in discussions with 2 global skin care companies that are evaluating the incorporation of Niagen into one of its established skin care brands. We're encouraged by the level of interest we are seeing from leading companies throughout the industry. IVN injection represents another exciting opportunity.

During the quarter, we expanded the Niagen platform with the launch of our at-home injection kit, while continuing to grow relationships with clinic networks such as Restore Hyper Wellness. Perhaps most encouraging, several of the largest telehealth companies have approached us to explore adding Niagen injections as their NAD offering on their platform. Should these discussions ultimately lead to commercial partnerships they have the potential to meaningfully expand the reach of the Niagen platform. More importantly, they reinforce our belief that consumers are increasingly recognizing the advantages of Niagen over traditional NAD administration.

Our newest business may ultimately prove to be our most transformational. Earlier this month, we formally launched NAD Pharmaceuticals, establishing a dedicated organization focused on developing therapies for rare genetic diseases and age-related disorders. Our lead development candidate, NB4168 has already received rare pediatric disease designation from the FDA and an orphan medicinal product designation from the European Medicines Agency for ataxia telangiectasia. Rare disease development provides an opportunity to address areas of significant unmet medical need. While leveraging our deep understanding of NAD biology, we intend to invest thoughtfully, remain financially disciplined and provide updates as we achieve meaningful scientific regulatory and clinical milestones. Ozan will discuss the economics in greater detail later in today's call.

Scientific leadership remains the foundation that supports every business we operate. During the quarter, researchers reported encouraging findings, linking Niagen supplementation with reductions in measures of epigenetic age acceleration and improvements associated with mitochondrial biology. Additional independent studies explored potential applications in retinal disease, neurodegeneration, immune function and mitochondrial disorders. While many of these findings remain early stage and require further validation, they illustrate an important trend. Independent researchers around the world continue choosing nicotinamide riboside to investigate fundamental questions and cellular health, that expanding body of science benefits every segment of our business.

As we look ahead, we believe Niagen Biosciences is entering one of the most exciting periods in its history. We have a profitable and cash-generating core business. We have a growing global consumer brand. We have a differentiated intellectual property portfolio. We have an expanding commercial opportunity across skin care and IV injections and the beginnings of a pharmaceutical pipeline addressing diseases with significant unmet need. We're building the world's leading NAD platform company. Our objective is clear: wherever consumers, physicians, researchers or pharmaceutical companies seek the most clinically supported approach to elevating NAD, we want Niagen to be their first choice.

We remain disciplined in how we allocate our capital and resources and we remain realistic about the work still ahead. We're highly confident that the investments we are making today in our brand, in our science and in our pipeline are laying the foundation for a much larger company in the years ahead. This year will be our springboard for growth in 2027 and well beyond.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Ozan to review our financial results, discuss our pharmaceutical strategy in greater detail. And then we'll open the call for your questions. Ozan?

Thank you, Rob. It is a pleasure to once again address our investors, partners and team members today. As Rob stated, the NAD platform that we have built extends beyond our core consumer and our Niagen ingredient businesses. Those profitable cash-generated businesses provide the financial foundation for Niagen Plus, telehealth, skin care and pharmaceutical development. These opportunities are at different stages and are not yet fully reflected in our financial results. However, the strategic optionality they provide is tangible.

As we advance these opportunities, we remain disciplined in allocating resources across marketing, research and development and operations. Our objective is to invest thoughtfully in long-term growth, while maintaining a strong balance sheet and financial flexibility to pursue the most attractive opportunities. We believe these investments will strengthen our foundation for growth and value creation beyond 2026.

In the second quarter of 2026, we delivered $29.8 million of revenue with Tru Niagen bringing in $24.2 million, an increase of 6% or $1.5 million year-over-year. E-commerce was the primary driver of our consumer business, generating $20.5 million in revenue, up 14% or $2.5 million. Excluding the temporary marketplace listing issue experienced in June, we estimate our e-commerce business would have grown by 19% year-over-year. Our ingredient business generated $5.4 million in revenue comprised of $4.9 million in food grade Niagen and $400,000 in pharma-grade in ingredient.

Gross margin was stable at 64.8% in the second quarter compared with 65% a year ago. The modest decline of 20 basis points primarily reflected changes in product and business mix.

Selling and marketing expense represented 34% of net sales compared with 26.4% in the second quarter of 2025. This increase reflects investments in e-commerce growth, brand awareness, new product launches and our China cross-border business. China remains a meaningful growth opportunity for Tru Niagen. In fact, through May 2026, revenue from our China cross-border channel had already exceeded the revenues generated by that channel for the full year 2025.

Research and development expense was $1.5 million, a slight decrease of $100,000 year-over-year. R&D spending can fluctuate with the timing of clinical studies and external research programs. We expect it to increase as we conduct targeted study supporting new claims and products and advanced preclinical and IND-enabling work for NB4168.

General and administrative expense was $7 million, a decrease of approximately $300,000 from the prior year quarter, primarily due to lower royalties under our agreement with Queen's University Belfast. And finally, net income was $1 million or $0.01 per diluted share compared with $0.05 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2025.

Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. We generated $2.8 million in operating cash flow during the quarter. Cash used in financing activities was $2.5 million, primarily reflecting $2.8 million of common stock repurchases. We ended the quarter with $66.7 million in cash and no debt. Our balance sheet is stronger than ever, and we have $14.6 million of authorization remaining under our $20 million share repurchase program.

I would now like to take a moment to discuss how we evaluate the potential economics of our drug development program around NB4168. The commercial opportunity is driven by NB4168's differentiation as a pharmaceutical asset. Compared with NRCL, NB4168 offers enhanced bioavailability and a potentially higher therapeutic index. It is also a novel molecule that is not naturally occurring or marketed as a dietary supplement, and it is protected by composition of matter intellectual property. These are attributes that could support stronger exclusivity, specialized rare disease pricing and greater strategic value to potential pharmaceutical partners.

If NB4168 ultimately receives FDA approval and meets the applicable statutory requirements, it may also qualify for a transferable priority review voucher. Recent voucher transactions have generated proceeds of approximately $150 million, providing a meaningful potential source of value independent of product sales. We have completed a detailed risk-adjusted financial analysis of the ataxia telangiectasia opportunity, incorporating relevant assumptions around the addressable patient population development costs, regulatory timing, commercial adoption and pricing. Based on that work, we estimate that the AT indication alone could support a net present value of approximately $200 million to $400 million, excluding the potential value of the voucher.

Additionally, our review of the precedent transactions involving differentiated rare disease assets that achieved regulatory approval demonstrate that successful programs can create multibillion-dollar strategic value. One relevant example is Biogen's $7.3 billion acquisition of Reata Pharmaceuticals following the approval of Sky Claris for Friedreich's ataxia. It's worth noting that the opportunity may also extend beyond AT. We are evaluating a basket-style development approach across diseases with shared underlying biology, including, but not limited to, citrin deficiency Werner syndrome, mitochondriumyopathy and Cockayne Syndrome. Subject to supporting evidence and regulatory alignment, this could broaden the potential clinical and commercial potential of NB4168.

Our financial performance to date is supported by the combination of our consumer and ingredients businesses. For the full year 2026, we expect our e-commerce business to grow between 10% to 15% year-over-year. Our expectation of the rest of the consumer business remains unchanged. We do expect our Ingredients business to be lower than the prior year, given the more competitive landscape, but we expect to add more ingredient partners in the near term to continue to explore Niagen in different formats and formulations and in different markets. While Niagen Plus and our skincare initiatives are in early stages, we are seeing encouraging initial signs and believe it can become a meaningful contributor to the business over time.

As we look beyond 2026, our revenue streams from these core verticals will be the foundation for our continued growth in 2027 and beyond. We expect operating expenses to increase as we execute on these strategic priorities. Selling and marketing expense will reflect our broader brand initiative, refresh creative assets and support for new and developing channels. R&D spending will increase as we advance NB4168 and continue research related to our topical and injectable opportunities. G&A expense is also expected to increase as we build the infrastructure needed to support these programs and our broader market expansion. We will phase these investments thoughtfully, measure their performance and maintain the financial discipline that has enabled us to generate positive cash flow and preserve balance sheet strength.

This year is an important investment year as we allocate resources toward new market verticals, pharmaceutical development and greater brand awareness. We view 2026 as a springboard for faster growth and value creation, and we believe that we have created a business model setup for greater success. Our core business remains cash generative giving us the flexibility to invest selectively across the broader Niagen platform. We remain confident in our ability to strengthen the brand, advance Niagen Plus and NB4168 and create long-term value for our customers, partners and shareholders.

Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Ram Selvaraju with H.C. Wainwright.

Firstly, I was wondering if you could provide us with any update on the lawsuit filed against the FDA and when you anticipate any potential further progress on that front and the possibility of some decision in that proceeding.

Secondly, I was wondering if you could comment on the outlook for the Asia Pacific business, particularly the partnership with Watsons. And then lastly, with respect to any future initiatives or endeavors in the Rx or pharmaceutical space. I wanted to see if you could give us some insight into how many additional novel analogs of nicotinamide riboside you may have in addition to the disclosed one and if you have any pharmaceutical development initiatives intended for these analogs as well as whether you have any plans to move into other areas of the space in between supplements and wellness products and the Rx space, like, for example, wellness peptides.

Does that count as one question? Thank you, Ram. Those are good questions and very relevant. Let me address. First of all, with regard to the FDA, the FDA had filed a motion to dismiss several months ago. We replied to that. We expect the judge to rule on that motion to dismiss within the next 2, maybe 3 months. We feel very confident about that and the facts overall in the case.

With regard to Asia Pacific and Watsons, also another great and relevant question. Watsons is back and making purchases, and they've sold through the excess inventory that they had at the end of last year and looking quite strong. So we're very confident with Watsons. We've, as you know, been launching some new SKUs here in the U.S. and Watsons is interested in carrying those as well, NanoClouds, Beauty, et cetera. We also expect to be expanding into other countries with Watsons. We're hoping to receive regulatory approval soon in Taiwan and Korea, and we hope to pursue those channels with Watsons. We recently received regulatory approval for skin care product in Mainland China, which could be a significant opportunity, and we hope to pursue that with Watsons as well.

With regard to the Rx pharma analogs, there are actually quite a few, as you know. And we have conducted studies on several of those, and there's reason to believe that they may actually even be more potent than NB4168 and our chloride in elevating NAD. So we are excited about developing those for potential therapeutic use as well, and we have had discussions with certain larger companies in the pharma space about those other molecules.

The space in between dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals for us is what we call Niagen Plus, the IV and the injection business. We are more bullish on that Niagen Plus business today than we have ever been. As you know, Ram, Niagen is significantly superior to NAD. We believe that the NAD IV injection market is about $500 million, probably a bit more, and it's almost all in the United States at this point. This is a market for people who self-inject NAD or who get IVs of NAD either through their physician or at clinics. But we've done head-to-head comparisons. We know Niagen is superior. It takes several hours to get an IV of NAD. It takes minutes to get Niagen. That's because NAD is not bioavailable.

People who get the NAV IVs, it often takes 3, 4 hours for them to invest. They have stomach pains. They have sweats, they have fevers. There are side effects that do not exist when you do NIAGEN, but perhaps most importantly, Niagen is far more effective at elevating NAD. So we see this as a significant opportunity. And as you know, Ram, we've spent years developing this business. We got on the Category 1 list of the FDA for compound pharmacy. We've produced pharmaceutical-grade Niagen that we make available. And we've developed the commercial infrastructure and supply chain for serving this market.

The reason Niagen hasn't yet taken over that $500 million market is related to price. It's -- Niagen is more expensive than NAD. And if you go to the clinic and get and Niagen IV, it's priced not to meet the average consumer. It really just focuses on the very wealthy or on the extreme biohackers at this point. And as you know, we've discussed this in the past, one of the reasons why we added Olympia as a second compound pharmacy to Wells, who has done very good work with us, was to create a little bit of price compression.

We believe that we have solved the pricing problem, but we don't believe it will be solved for the next 2 or 3 months. We think that within the next 2 or 3 months, we will be able to reduce the price to the clinics and still make it satisfactory for the compound pharmacies and for Niagen and its shareholders to make plenty of profit and bring the price down to the average consumer. So this is one of the reasons that we are expecting the big revenue push in the Niagen Plus categories happen in 2027 and not in the second half of 2026. But we are very excited.

In fact, some of these clinics, a couple of these large clinic franchises have contacted us and said if we could get the price down to a certain level that they would like to make Niagen the flagship ingredient in the entire chain, not just instead of NAD, but overall as their flagship ingredient. And we've been contacted by several of the larger telehealth companies that are presently selling NAD as an at-home injection product or are contemplating that. So we expect some good things for Niagen Plus next year, and we're developing these things. But we don't expect it to hit its stride in 2026.

Your next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Cohen with Ladenburg Thalmann.

I guess, firstly, Rob, can you talk a little bit more about PRV and a potential priority review for the NB4168? Do you have to request that now? Or does that request come later and just prior to an NDA or BLA? When will we hear about or know more about the clarity on that pathway?

Jeff, I'll take that question. So the priority review voucher is a program that's dedicated for rare pediatric diseases and orphan drugs. Once you receive those designations and you receive approval by the FDA for that drug, there's no reason for the company to not receive that voucher. And once the company receives that voucher, it is exchangeable for money. And the recent transactions we're seeing, it's ranging between $150 million to $180 million for that voucher. It essentially is a voucher to incentivize pharma companies to develop drugs for rare diseases and create instant value and you can recover your R&D cost through that mechanism and make a profit.

Okay. Got it. That's helpful. And I guess as a follow-up, could you talk a little bit more about NanoCloud and preparations and work that you'll be doing in the back half of this year prior to more of a full-blown launch into the marketplace?

So as I think you know, Jeff, one of the properties of Niagen, which makes it challenging in certain markets is that it's highly sensitive water. So we need to solve the problem of putting it in a water-based team. NanoCloud is one solution to that problem where it's essentially pillows the covering of which are made out of hyaluronic acid. And we sell them as individual little discs, we call them pillows or NanoClouds, which when combined with liquid, a cream or water can then be applied to the face and is stable. So we developed it as an experiment to see if it worked and if it was stable and we've done numerous user studies to see if consumers liked it, they do a lot. And then we tested it on the market. We only made 3,000 or 4,000 of these things, but they sold out very quickly.

And what else is encouraging is that many of the customers that bought them repeat purchase and asked when it will be back on the market. So we're encouraged by this. Those aren't gigantic numbers, but those are numbers that indicate that there's real demand in real interest.

One of the things that we also found interesting about NanoCloud, it was a very high percentage of new-to-brand customers. It wasn't necessarily customers who are already buying through Niagen that bought it. So all of these data points suggest that there's a market here for skin care for us. So we're also developing other skin care products under the Tru Niagen brand name that do come in sort of a combined oil-based cream.

We expect to launch the additional NanoCloud that we are making right now in October. It might be November depending on when they get delivered and there'll be a marketing campaign associated with that. And of course, as you know, the way our business model works. We develop our own consumer brands and our own consumer products, but at the same time, we supply the ingredients, other quality brands. And there are several of the best-known skin care brands globally who have expressed, I would say, very strong interest in -- including Niagen and some of their well-known brands.

Your next question comes from the line of Susan Anderson with Canaccord Genuity.

I guess I just wanted to follow up on the skin care business. I guess, how are you thinking about it longer term? Do you think it's selling the ingredient to beauty companies, which sound very interested in will be bigger than your own products at some point? Or do you think it will be more balanced? And then I think you had mentioned in the past that you're looking at another topical, I guess, is that still...

Yes. Thank you, Susan. It really is an economic question. At least 1, perhaps 2 of these skin care companies are very, very large companies and have expressed interest in a significant exclusive deal. The economics would have to be very, very significant for us to agree to something like that. And of course, it would be subject to some studies that we would have to conduct. And then there's the possibility of co-exclusive. We made a deal with them and the only other brand that could exist would be ours. So at this point, it's too early to say. But we think that one way or the other, the skin care market looks fairly substantial for us in the long term. What was the second question?

The second question was the second product.

Yes, exactly.

I expect that second product to be launched around April of next year.

Okay. Great. Great. That sounds good. And then maybe just another follow-up I think you guys have talked about bringing the supplement to retail. Maybe you had moved into a club, I thought, maybe I just wanted to get an update on that. And then on the marketing expense, I guess, should we think about this as a new -- the selling and marketing, a new benchmark going forward? Or is it 1 quarter? Or how should we think about that?

Well, the first question, we are expanding into certain selected retail outlets. We just went into Sam's Club, I think, a couple of months ago and several others. We're in GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, Sams, Cloud Sprouts, and we're in discussions with a few other retails. It's too early for us to say how it's doing at this point. But we are planning a brand campaign with a series of celebrities to support our retail distribution presently. So we expect that to happen towards the -- probably in the fourth quarter.

What was the second part of that question?

It was on the selling and marketing expenses, we should expect that to kind of -- that run rate kind of the rest of the year, the 34%.

Well, we're very focused on maintaining a cash flow positive business. We have these verticals that we look at, which all have very, very dramatic significant upside potential. What we're endeavoring to do here is to minimize the downside and maximize the upside. We think that the pharma space could be very big. We think the Niagen Plus business could be extremely big, and we think the skin care market could be big. But we want to pursue all of these while still being cash flow positive and improving our balance sheet. So the answer to the question is yes. We are going to carefully increase marketing spend, especially as we roll out retail distribution and more global distribution, but always trying to maintain cash flow positive.

One other thing I want to point out that might be worth mentioning, which is this core business that we have of Tru Niagen, our dietary supplement business. There was a company that I read today sold called Thorne that sold to P&G for $3.8 billion. One of the things that people like about Thorne is that it's considered a science-based brand. But I think even if you spoke to the people at Thorne, they would say the most science-based brand is Niagen Bioscience. They've made a habit of endeavoring to poach Niagen Bioscience people. We think that the Tru Niagen business that we have, which, as you know, is really based on very few SKUs and primarily 1 ingredient is a very respected brand with very resected loyal consumers and is very much primed for expansion in that space. If Thorne can do it, we do it better.

So we talk a lot about pharma. We talk a lot about Niagen Plus, and we talk about skin care. But the Tru Niagen core supplement business is very ripe for expansion and growth. But again, we are always very focused on profitable growth and not just spending too much on marketing at risk of our balance sheet.

Your next question comes from the line of Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital Partners.

I was on for James. So my question is about how -- what can you help us with on framing the spending plans as it relates to exploiting NB4168? I know you've talked about spin-offs or partnerships. But in terms of sitting here now in the middle of '26, what should we be expecting will be incremental spending related to that effort?

Do you want to take it?

I can take that. Thanks, Sean, for the question. So with NB4168, we're approaching it the way we approach the rest of the business. We're not going to be spending millions and millions of dollars to bring ourselves to cash flow negative. We are looking to spend not a very significant amount for the rest of the year on efficacy studies and developing this candidate to an IND stage. I expect that we'll have first in-human studies done next year.

The overall program, if you take it from today to approval, is not so significant like some of the other drug development programs. It's a $30 million spend across -- spread across 4 years versus compared to some of the larger trials you may do, which a single trial would cost more of that. This is one of the primary reasons why we selected to prorate diseases and specifically ataxia telangiectasia. First of all, it is -- we have -- we understand biology, but secondly, from an economic standpoint, it makes a lot of sense.

The way we approach spin-outs and partnerships as we continue to have these dialogues, but we feel comfortable developing this molecule to a certain point ourselves. We think that we will be able to generate significantly more value for our shareholders when we generate a little bit more data.

Okay. And if I could follow up with a question on -- some spending question. So you commented on sales and marketing being -- and you talked about this beginning last year, you're going to invest in sales and marketing. So no surprise there. R&D fluctuates. You've commented on that. But is this mean the G&A was actually a little bit lower than I would have thought. Is there anything in the quarter that kind of offset normal spending? Or is this a base from which is kind of a level we should expect to see in the next couple of quarters?

Yes. What you see is reasonable for the next few quarters. There may be a slight increase. I mean we gave guidance in the past that G&A will increase year-over-year. The G&A expense will still increase, but at a smaller amount. We expect it to increase $2 million to $3 million year-over-year for the full year, not for the second half.

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Dezellem with Tieton Capital.

In your opening remarks, you discussed that you have kind of new ingredient partners that you're planning on bringing into the fold over time here. Would you please walk us through where you see those next ingredient partners that you bring on board fitting into the Niagen ecosystem and whether that be geographic focused or some target market, otherwise focused? Walk us through how you were thinking about that, please?

We are looking at geographic partners, particularly in the EU and 1 or 2 also in Asia. The EU is just waking up to NAD and we have been having some discussions with potential partners there. The ingredient business is very -- we are very careful with the ingredient business. It was very strategic for us to get into that business. because we felt that we needed to get the word out that NAD was important. But also that Niagen is the best way to elevate NAD. And we knew that, that would be expensive, and we thought that getting the right partners in would help us communicate that message and it did. But 1 or 2 of those partners became a little larger than we would have expected. So we think a balance would be a little bit healthier for us rather than having 1 or 2 that are very large, maybe 4 or 5 that are a bit smaller, but still even. So we may add 1 or 2 more in the U.S. as well.

That's helpful. I'd like to switch to China if we could. A couple of different questions there. The first one is relative to cross-border sales activities. Walk through that in a bit more detail than you did in your opening remarks. And then you threw out the nugget of skin care product approval in China and would like more detail on that, please?

Well, when you enter a new country, you have to get the ingredient approved and then you have to get the product registered. And it's -- we've had a challenge in certain countries in Asia getting Niagen as an ingredient approved. In certain countries, it has to do with the manufacturing process that we use. And they would want us to replicate many of the studies that we've already done in the U.S. to get that approval. So it's taken so long. And China, in particular, is difficult. But we were able to get topical approval in China, not dietary supplement approval as the ingredient. But the ingredient approved as a topical product in China. And we still have to get the product registered of Tru Niagen as a topical product. And we're also interested in potentially partners for that territory. But that is a good milestone for an important milestone for us in the skin care market in China.

In terms of cross-border, Ozan, do you want to answer that?

Yes, I can answer that. So Bill, thanks for the question. Last year, China cross-border is the first year that we started it. We started China cross-border in Q2 of 2025. This year, I mentioned it in my opening remarks, by May, we have already surpassed the revenue that we had in China cross-border, and we expect that business to significantly increase. Last year, it was under $1 million of business in 2025. This year, we expect it to be significantly more.

Okay. And I assume that this traction that you have gained that you are benefiting from NMN having been banned in China. And if that is the case, is there a general awareness with the Chinese consumer that Niagen is actually a better NAD precursor than NMN?

Well, it is a better precursor than NMN. I don't know if the general public in China is aware of that fact. There was a point in time where the CFDA, the China FDA did ban NMN. We see it creeping back into the marketplace. So I'm not sure what the current status is. In China, it's very small, but it's still there. But we do think that there's serious demand in main China and awareness of Tru Niagen. I mean, they're aware of the popularity of the product in Hong Kong. So we think that there's an opportunity, and we're seeing the growth there through our cross-border sales of Tru Niagen into China. We expect to continue to invest in that and develop that business.

Okay. So the reason I continue to push on this is it is our sense that, that market is so large and the supplement market, in general, is very large in China. And therefore, this could grow very fast and maybe even surpass U.S. actual dollar sales level given enough time. Is that a fair assessment? Or are we a little overexuberant with our perspective?

Well, the population is much larger in China, and it's a sophisticated population, and they are aware of NAD. At one time, cross-border sales NMN and then we saw a report that showed that they believe this report believes that cross-border NMN sales was between $500 billion and $1 billion. I mean that's a fraction of that today, since -- they were making false claims and the CFDA acted upon that. But that's a fairly large market, and it's a market we would like to be in.

But as I say, for selling in country, it requires a level of ingredient approval that we have not yet been able to achieve, but we're working on it.

We have reached the end of our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Lauren Borzansky for closing remarks.

Thank you, Jillian. There will be a replay of this call beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time Day. The replay number is 1 (833) 461 5787, and the replay ID is 879107368. Thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to updating you again next quarter.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Niagen Bioscience fireside chat. Thank you all for joining us today. My name is Valter Pinto, Managing Director of KCSA Strategic Communications. And I'm happy to be joined today by Rob Fried, Chief Executive Officer; Ozan Pamir, Chief Financial Officer; and Andrew Shao, SVP of Global Regulatory and Scientific Affairs. We have a lot to cover on today's call, but I'd like to start by reminding everyone that statements made today may be considered forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied due to risks and uncertainties described in the company's filings with the SEC, including its periodic reports and investor materials.

Niagen Bioscience undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law. As a quick reminder, Niagen, which is trading under the ticker symbol NAGE is a global bioscience company advancing NAD science through its Niagen platform with a large intellectual property portfolio. Niagen power's TRU Niagen, its leading oral supplement brand and Niagen Plus, is pharmaceutical-grade intravenous and injectable brand with Niagen IV available in over 1,200 clinics across the U.S. The company recently announced the launch of a drug development program leading with NB4168, the first drug candidate from its wholly owned subsidiary, NAD Pharmaceuticals Corp. We'll focus much of today's discussion on this program, which marks the strategic expansion of the company's NAD+ platform from cellular health products into regulated pharmaceutical development, targeting accelerated aging and rare genetic diseases.

NB4168, a patent-protected, more bioavailable NR derivative is backed by 2 independent clinical studies and new nonclinical data, positioning it to address a rare pediatric disease with no FDA-approved therapies. Niagen today uploaded a new investor presentation outlining the strategy in detail, which can be found under the Events and Presentations section of the Investor Relations section of our website. At the end of our fireside chat today, we'll open the floor to live Q&A. For investors that have not submitted questions yet, please send them through the Q&A function at any time. We'll do our best to get to each question today. If for some reason, we can't get to your question today, please e-mail as always at [email protected].

Please note this call is being recorded today, Wednesday, July 15 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. A replay will be available on Niagen's Investor Relations website following the conclusion of today's discussion. Rob, Ozan, Andrew, on behalf of myself and everyone listening in today, really appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us today. I'd like to start off today's call with several incoming questions that we already received from investors. But I think first, Rob, it may be good for those that may be new to the story to hear who is Niagen and if you could tell us more about the company and your vision.

Thank you, Valter, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Thank you, Ozan. Thank you, Andrew. NAD stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. It's a coenzyme found in all living cells, plant and animal and is vital to most important metabolic processes, but notably energy metabolism, mitochondria require NAD in order to take the nutrients from food and the oxygen from air and convert it into energy, which is transferred through the cell to ATP molecules. When there's high levels of NAD, you have increased mitochondrial biogenesis, meaning you have more mitochondria and you have a higher yield per mitochondria. Essentially, you have more energy when you elevate your NAD levels. But also it's responsible for the repair of cell damage. could be physical damage, could be the presence of a virus, could be oxidative stress, could be inflammation, could be a gene mutation.

The cell has mechanisms in place for correcting that -- identifying and then correcting that damage and all of those processes are NAD dependent. So as a result, when you have elevated NAD levels, you have a stronger, more resilient cell, so better equipped to deal with physiological stressors. Aging is defined by the World Health Organization as the accumulation of damage at the molecular or cellular level. When you have an increased capacity for correcting damage and an increased ability to create energy, mitochondrial function, that ladders up to the conditions that we talk about as aging. Niagen Bioscience is the company behind all of the amazing amount of research and attention the NAD space has received.

The reason why we position it as an anti-aging company is simply for that very specific reason, that when you have elevated NAD levels, you have increased energy and an increased capacity to deal with molecular or cellular damage. But there are many conditions and diseases that are very specific that may be age-related. That elevating NAD with one of our molecules might actually have a therapeutic value, not just prophylactic preventative, but actual therapeutic value in treating that disease. And indeed, there are certain orphan diseases. There are quite a few of them that are associated with advanced aging. Children age so rapidly. In some cases, they actually die of old age in their teens. In many cases, these kids have nondetectable levels of NAD.

So here's a cohort group that very clearly shows the direct relationship between aging and NAD levels. So we think it is important and responsible for us to investigate these particular orphan diseases. And indeed, we published many studies, as Andrew perhaps will go through shortly on many of these age-related orphan diseases that showed a benefit for these kids elevating NAD by taking Niagen. The company, Niagen Bioscience is not just a consumer products company. A lot of people view us simply as that because we have a product in the market called Tru Niagen, which is one of our key molecules, nicotinamide riboside. And indeed, today, it's probably one of the most successful single ingredient dietary supplements on the market, certainly in the U.S., probably in the world.

But we are much more than just a consumer products company. We are a consumer products company with TRU Niagen, and we are soon to be expanding into topical NAD-related products. We have one on the market already, and we will soon have more. But we are also an ingredients company. We supply ingredients that elevate NAD to a small coterie of other dietary supplement companies. And the dynamics of that ingredient business are quite different than the consumer products business per se. We are also a telehealth company because we have now made available nicotinamide riboside or Niagen via IV or injection to people either through clinics, which are sold through compound pharmacies. And now we can sell direct to you in your home, an at-home injection product.

Self-administered at-home injection product that you can purchase through our website, but also now a pharmaceutical business, targeting these orphan diseases. Now those 4 business segments have slightly different economics. In any given quarter or a couple of quarters, the ingredient business is quite volatile. A customer may place an order, they may not place an order. But the core business of NAD and Niagen and TRU Niagen always steadily increases and grows as NAD awareness increases, the demand for what we provide and what we sell increases. We've shown a steady increase, and we're confident of the future. We think that if we are fortunate enough to show a benefit to one of these orphan diseases, it would be obviously extremely valuable to all of our shareholders and to all these people suffering from these diseases.

But we've managed to find a balanced sort of derisked way to pursue these pharmaceutical drugs while still maintaining profitability and growth and still shooting for these big upside opportunities.

Thank you, Rob. I appreciate that. It's obviously clear that Niagen has built an impressive platform, much of what you described, branded supplements, ingredients, and now you mentioned telehealth and topical products. At the onset of this call, I mentioned NB4168. Can you tell our audience a little bit more about that and the drug development program?

Right. So -- we actually have a fairly large portfolio of molecules that elevate NAD levels, one of which we obviously use in our ingredient business. We call it Niagen and TRU Niagen, our consumer product, but it's not the only one that we patented and researched and studied. NB4168 is another analog to nicotinamide riboside because of the studies that we've already conducted that have been very positive that Andrew will go through shortly, we have real reason to believe that elevating NAD with nicotinamide riboside has therapeutic value for these kids with these orphan diseases. We believe that NB4168 is even more bio superior than that. So we are -- we've identified it, we're pursuing it, and we're very excited about it.

Thank you, Rob. And Andrew, maybe turning the call over to you. As Rob mentioned, you all have access to a very large portfolio. From your point of view, I mean, why NB4168 is the first drug candidate in your opinion?

So as you mentioned in the outset, it has a superior pharmacokinetic profile. So NB4168 was designed to deliver more nicotinamide riboside to blood and tissues. So it has a very different pharmacokinetic profile from nicotinamide riboside. And actually, our initial studies on safety show that it has a better safety profile. The other differentiator, of course, is that it is not available in the marketplace as a dietary supplement unlike nicotinamide riboside or, of course, as a drug, which is why we're pursuing it. There are different reasons why from a business standpoint that we would want to pursue something that is not in the dietary supplement market already. Ozan can speak to that. But from a scientific standpoint, as Rob mentioned, our initial data suggests it's bio superior and also has a better safety profile than nicotinamide riboside.

Interesting. Thanks, Andrew. And just to maybe dig in a little bit further, we mentioned targeting accelerated aging in rare genetic diseases. I guess you can provide more detail the applications of this molecule beyond that?

Sure. Great question. So again, Rob alluded to the role of NAD and cell repair, particularly with DNA repair. And what you see as a common denominator in several orphan diseases or diseases of accelerated aging is an inability to properly repair DNA or mitochondrial dysfunction or both. So in the case of Ataxia-Telangiectasia, it's a mutation in the ATM gene, which is a kinase that is needed to repair double-stranded rakes in double-stranded DNA. And the inability to repair that DNA results in neurodegeneration, immune issues. These patients get cancer early on as a result of inability to repair DNA. And so what we found from both preclinical and clinical studies using nicotinamide riboside is bolstering the NAD status of these patients helps improve the DNA repair, improve mitochondrial function and also improve the symptoms.

Thank you, Andrew. Very helpful. And just as a reminder to our audience, we've received several inbound questions. [operator instructions]. This next question, Ozan, great to see you. Can you walk us through the next steps and time line required for NB4168?

Yes. That sounds great. So just as a reminder to everyone, we have done 2 investigator-initiated trials on Ataxia-Telangiectasia using nicotinamide ribocychloride, TRU Niagen. Both of those showed really promising results. And we're leveraging all of our knowledge from those studies and the decades of experience we have understanding the biology and chemistry of nicotinamide riboside as we work through this drug development program. Over the past year, we worked with regulatory consultants and have done extensive research and had many discussions with KOLs about this specific program using NB4168. As a result of this work that we've done, we now have a plan to move forward with NB4168.

This molecule is currently in preclinical stage. This year, as a result of that gap analysis that we've done and the conversations we've had, we're focused on conducting efficacy studies of NB4168 in worm mouse and organoid models of A-T. For these studies, we're leveraging our network of researchers through our external research program. In addition to these studies, we're also starting IND-enabling work such as rodent PK/PD studies, genotox studies and drug-drug interaction studies. Looking ahead to our clinical plans, safety of NR is very well established. So we feel comfortable eventually designing our program to a Phase I/II with patients enrolled, then do a single pivotal trial.

This is still in its planning stages, so it's not final yet. But if we follow this path and do a Phase I/II on patients, that will require us to do additional IND-enabling work such as a 6-month and 9-month tox studies on rodents and non-rodents. These 2 will take place next year. I also want to flag that our intention is to eventually partner, license or spin out this program, even though we expect the full cost of the program to be manageable, we still would like to leverage our expertise of other industry partners.

Thanks, Ozan. I appreciate that. And coincidentally, that was one of our questions about partnering or what the plan is for the future. So I appreciate that. And Rob, maybe back to you before we get to our audience questions. Both Andrew and Ozan have incredible backgrounds. But I want to talk about the rest of your team. Can you give us an idea about the scientific team and their expertise in this space?

Most of the people that know Niagen Bioscience know that the team that we've assembled internally as employees, advisers, scientific advisory Board and researchers with whom we work are among the best, certainly the best NAD researchers in the world and probably amongst the best general scientific researchers as well. Bill Bohr, who recently left the National Institutes of Aging is helping us spearhead these initiatives on these orphan diseases. He's done a lot of extensive work on Ataxia-Telangiectasia with us, but also Cockayne syndrome and Werner syndrome, even Friedreich's ataxia, now mitochondrial myopathy. These are all areas of high opportunity for us. Of course, Dr. Charles Brenner, who's our lead scientific adviser and the inventor of nicotinamide riboside. We will be announcing a couple of additional additions to our team, scientific additions to the team, world-class people in the study of anti-aging research as well as orphan diseases in general.

And then we've already lined up various researchers from some of the greatest research institutions in the world to develop these studies that Ozan just described.

Thanks, Robert. I appreciate that. [operator instructions]. And our first question from our audience. Ozan, maybe you're the best to answer this. The company recently filed a prospectus for an ATM. What are the company's plans for the ATM going forward?

We see the ATM and the S-3 filing that came alongside it as a housekeeping item. We have no reason or need to raise any capital. So it's just for us to be mindful.

Great. And Rob, just a bit about capital allocation. What are the priorities for management and the Board over the next 12 months?

Well, for those that have followed Niagen Bio over the years, you know that we're very focused on cash management. We have no debt. We have plenty of cash, and we're very focused on being a profitable business. We've been profitable every quarter for several years in a row. We expect to continue to be conservative and fiscally responsible in our approach. We know that there are other companies in the -- that sell dietary supplements that look only towards top line growth and buying influencers and spending a lot on marketing, and they could show top line growth there, but they don't show profitability. However, as we've said in previous quarters, it is likely that we will increase our marketing spend towards an awareness campaign and a brand campaign with the addition of some influencers and celebrities to help drive awareness.

We will continue to be very fiscally responsible and focus on our balance sheet and focus on our profitability. But we may, from time to time, increase our investment in marketing in order to just -- it's a balancing act between top line and bottom line.

That makes sense. Just a few questions from our audience that I think are interesting. And maybe, Andrew, this is a question for you, and it may be too early to tell. But at some point, based on the data that you're going to gather, could NB4168 also become a supplement product?

Well, actually, if we move forward with drug development and eventually receive an investigational new drug, that will preclude it from being used as a dietary supplement. So that's a provision in the existing law that protects the investment of drug companies, drug development to prevent supplements from coming to the market, the same molecule coming to the market as a supplement after it's been authorized for investigation as a new drug.

Understood. That makes sense. And just one final point, and Rob alluded to it and maybe, Andrew, you want to add a little bit more, just the safety profile that you all have seen thus far on NB4168.

Well, what I could say at this point is at comparable molar equivalent doses between 4168 and nicotinamide riboside, NB4168 is safer.

Great. Thank you. It looks as though we don't have any further questions from our audience. This does conclude today's fireside chat. I really want to thank Ozan, Rob and Andrew for their time today. Really appreciate it. As a reminder to our audience, we will be reporting our quarterly results here shortly. As always, we will have a conference call to discuss those results. Thank you so much for your time. If you have any further questions, please e-mail us at [email protected].

Thank you, everyone, until next time. Thank you.

Thank you, Valter.

Thank you, Valter.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Niagen Bioscience Inc.'s First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Karina, and I will be the conference operator today.

[Operator Instructions]

As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Earlier today, Niagen Bioscience issued a press release announcing its financial results for the first quarter of 2026. If you have not reviewed this information, it is available within the Investor Relations section of Niagen Bioscience's website at www.niagenbioscience.com.

I would now like to turn the call over to Lauren Borzansky, Assistant Controller. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Niagen Bioscience Inc.'s First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. Joining me today are our Chief Executive Officer, Rob Fried; Chief Financial Officer, Ozan Pamir; and Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Andrew Shao. Dr. Shao will be joining the call for Q&A.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's call may include forward-looking statements. These statements relate to, among other things, our research and development activities, clinical trial plans and timing, regulatory filings, expansion into new markets, business development opportunities and our expected financial and operating performance. These statements are based on our current expectations as of today and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

For a discussion of these risks, please refer to our most recent Form 10-Q and other filings with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to update these statements, except as required by law. In addition, we may reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in today's earnings release and presentation, both available in the Investor Relations section of our website.

With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to our CEO, Rob Fried.

Thank you, Lauren. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's investor call. In the first quarter, we delivered $31.5 million in revenue, a 5% year-over-year growth, excluding revenue from the recently divested reference standard business. We generated net income of $6.3 million and ended the quarter with $66.5 million in cash and no debt.

We had an increase in working capital of about $5.4 million from the prior quarter, leaving a total of $82.3 million. The core e-commerce business grew 14% year-over-year. The direct-to-consumer website grew twice as fast as Amazon.

As anticipated, two of our customers did not order this quarter as much as they did a year ago, which impacted overall growth, but we do see promising indicators to start the year. The awareness around Niagen and the benefits of NAD supplementation continues to gain media attention.

Over the last year, we've garnered many features with major media outlets, including a cover feature in the business by L.A. Times Studios and additional digital features on L.A. Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Business Insider, People Magazine, GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair, BioTuesdays, The New York Post, U.S. News and World Report, Everyday Health, L, Allure and others.

These features serve as a powerful validation that overall awareness of the importance of NAD is growing stronger and major media outlets are recognizing the strength of our science and the quality of our products and our leadership in the industry. An example of why experts and industry journalists understand Niagen to be unique in this space is our recent launch of the Niagen+ at-home injection kit and our telehealth capability. There are numerous federal and state requirements that had to be met in order to offer a product such as this.

And the ingredient itself must be pharmaceutical grade. It must conform to very high purity and sterilization standards. And it has taken many years and countless hours from the exceptional Niagen Bioscience team to get here. I am very proud of this achievement. It is the first product launched through our very owned telehealth platform and places us firmly in the heart of a growing and important longevity trend. Of course, as we do with most things, we're approaching this new endeavor carefully and methodically, and I expect it to iterate and improve with time.

Niagen+ is not our only new development in our product pipeline. In March, we pilot launched the Niagen Nanocloud, our first skin care topical product. Early demand has been extremely strong, and we're already nearly sold out. The wide launch will be in October. Surveys of the early adopters of Nanocloud has yielded enthusiastic results. They see visibly more youthful, smoother and more moisturized skin and improved skin texture. These results are consistent with the recently completed independent study.

In addition to our own Tru Niagen consumer products, we expect to supply Niagen as an ingredient to reputable and trustworthy skin care brands. Last month, we announced that NR chloride patented as Niagen, has achieved a published USP dietary supplement ingredient monograph. The USP monograph is usually reserved for approved drugs and rarely dietary supplements.

There is now a global benchmark for what high quality NR chloride should look like in dietary supplements and that benchmark is Niagen. Niagen is the only ingredient among the NAD and NMN companies to reach this standard.

This is merely one of many examples of our dedication to investing in science and innovation and in high quality and makes our company truly unique in the NAD space. NAD science continues to evolve. And as the leader in NAD science, we take pride in contributing to research that advances the understanding of NAD and its implications for human health.

In March, we were the lead sponsor of the inaugural NAD for Health Scientific meeting hosted by the University of Copenhagen. This brought together world-renowned researchers, clinicians and industry partners. A prominent discussion at this conference was a new development in the understanding how, when and where different NAD precursors exhibit their effects. We learned that while whole blood NAD remains an important biomarker, tissue NAD may be the key determinant of functional outcomes.

Emerging evidence suggests that NR administered through IV or injection can support more rapid, direct and substantial NAD augmentation in peripheral tissues such as the liver, kidney, brain, skeletal muscle and skin.

Additionally, recent evidence suggests that combining NAD boosting supplementation with exercise may produce additive or potentially synergistic effects on certain functional outcomes such as blood flow and aerobic capacity. These learnings will require further validation in human clinical trials, and we look forward to this next phase of research.

We continue to make steady, but deliberate progress towards pharmaceutical applications of our NAD precursor portfolio in orphan indications, particularly ataxia telangiectasia. We are working with CROs to design and execute key IND-enabling preclinical studies, a portion of which were initiated earlier this year, and I hope to have more updates or key developments on future calls.

Niagen Bioscience continues to set an example in the industry. We are dedicated to doing things the right way, to advancing the science and to promoting the understanding of how Niagen plays a critical role in improving health. This is what sets us apart from all other NAD companies.

I would now like to hand the call over to Ozan to run through the quarter's financials, and then on to Q&A and closing remarks. Ozan?

Thanks, Rob. It is a pleasure to once again address our investors, partners and team members today. We had a solid start to the year with strong e-commerce growth, coupled with exceptional net income. In the first quarter of 2026, we delivered $31.5 million in revenue or $31.1 million, excluding the reference standard segment, an increase of 5% year-over-year. Tru Niagen revenue grew by 4% to $22.4 million, a $900,000 year-over-year increase driven primarily by e-commerce revenue of $19.2 million, which was up by 14% or $2.4 million.

Our Niagen ingredient revenue was $8.2 million, up 2% or $185,000 year-over-year. Within the ingredients business, we delivered $7.3 million in food-grade Niagen sales to key partners and $850,000 in pharma-grade Niagen sales. Tru Niagen international and domestic distribution is an area of opportunity for the company.

Sales to Watsons and other B2B partners were down by $1.5 million year-over-year due to timing of orders and changes to inventory management. We can continue to expect quarterly fluctuations in sales to Watsons, a valued partner and an important component of our international distribution strategy.

We do expect sales to Watsons to increase during the year based on their forecasts. Gross margin improved to 63.5% in the first quarter, up 10 basis points compared to 63.4% a year ago. This improvement was driven primarily by changes in product mix and business mix.

Selling and marketing expense as a percentage of net sales was 30.7% compared to 26.6% in the first quarter of 2025. The increase in selling and marketing expenses reflects investments in marketing and advertising to drive e-commerce growth, brand awareness and to support commercial launches of new products.

Research and development expense was $1.5 million, $220,000 higher year-over-year. The driver of the increase is continued investment into clinical studies for new product launches and providing materials and resources to support external research.

General and administrative expenses totaled $7.2 million, a $2.1 million increase compared to the previous year. The increase in G&A expenses is driven by the absence of a $1.3 million recovery of credit losses related to our legal settlement with Elysium and higher share-based compensation. And finally, our net income for the quarter was $6.3 million or $0.08 per share, an improvement compared to $0.07 per share for the first quarter of 2025.

Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. Our balance sheet remains strong. We ended the quarter with $66.5 million in cash and no debt. For the 3 months ended March 31, 2026, net cash used by operations was $1.2 million compared to net cash provided by operations of $7.9 million in the same period last year. Cash used by operations was driven primarily by investments in inventory of $3.6 million and timing of customer orders and collections and a larger outstanding balance from a partner, which was subsequently collected in April.

Trade receivables was also impacted by an updated Amazon policy where a 7-day hold on sales proceeds is implemented, which was a onetime impact on operating cash flows. We expect inventory levels to decrease throughout the remainder of the year.

Cash from investing activities is primarily comprised of the sale of the Reference Standards business for proceeds of $5.8 million, while cash used in financing activities include $2.4 million of common stock repurchases during the first quarter as part of our increased share repurchase program of $20 million.

Regarding our full year 2026 outlook, detailed information on key financial metrics can be found in our earnings press release and presentation. For our top line growth, we are reaffirming our guidance of 10% to 15% growth year-over-year. Awareness around NAD+ is yet to reach its peak, and we remain confident in our opportunities for growth in this year and beyond.

We anticipate that our e-commerce channel will be a consistent growth engine, and we expect that our innovative launches will provide upside. While sales to certain distribution or ingredient partners may fluctuate quarter-to-quarter, we remain confident in the year ahead.

We're also revising our outlook for selling and marketing expenses to increase in absolute dollars and increase as a percentage of net sales compared to our previous expectation of remaining stable as a percentage of net sales and increasing in absolute dollars.

While we're not ready to commit to a broader brand initiative or investment, we are expecting to invest in marketing to generate refreshed creative assets to push brand awareness on all channels. Finally, we are revising our outlook for general and administrative expenses. We now expect expenses to be up $3 million to $4 million in absolute dollars year-over-year compared to the previous expectation of $4 million to $5 million. This change in outlook is primarily driven by shifting our investments from infrastructure to supporting brand awareness efforts.

With the first quarter behind us, we are focused on building on the momentum we have established. We have the right operational foundation and focus to position the company for a strong year and for longer-term success. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions]

Your first question comes from the line of Jeffrey Cohen with Ladenburg Thalman.

I guess, big picture, could you talk about the FDA and the last motion and the ramifications of NMN as far as its sales as well as its sales through Amazon? And what's the impact there upon your business? What's the outlook there as well?

Well, we think NMN is a good ingredient and it does effectively elevate NAD. It doesn't do it nearly as well as Niagen. In fact, there was a study published this quarter out of Norway that showed that NR increased blood NAD levels 2.3x of the equivalent amount of NMN. Also, every NMN product that we have tested infringes on existing patents for NMN. We've also done studies and others have done studies that show that percentage of NMN products in the market that meet what's on the label is very low. We think that the reversal of the drug preclusion ruling by the FDA in September was a bad decision and a questionable decision.

And we think it has a very good chance of being reversed yet again. So for all those reasons, we're not bullish long term on NMN. But unquestionably, we are seeing an increase in NMN sellers and NMN sales on Amazon and elsewhere, and it is impacting our sales. In fact, there's more than 300 SKUs now on Amazon, whereas in September, there were 0.

So Rob, what would you speculate the ramifications to Niagen have been over the first quarter?

Well, I can't give you a precise number. But we see an increase in bidding costs for keyword searches on Amazon and elsewhere. And we see more difficulty getting new-to-brand customers. Many of the NMN sellers are selling at a very, very cheap price, which probably coincides with the fact that look, some of these companies have come out of the Belarus or China, they don't have any scientific research. They don't meet label claims and they charge a very small amount. So for those buyers that are basically price influenced, I think we're -- a lot of those are going to NMN. But as I say, I don't think it's a long-term thing, but it has affected us and it is -- I can't give you a precise amount or a number, but it is creating some headwinds for us that did not exist a few months ago.

Okay. That's super helpful. And as a follow-up, could you talk about the IV locations out there? I know you were in approximately 1,200 locations last quarter. Could you talk about any trends there as far as placements, utilization, pricing, demographics? Anything there you can give us some color on?

Yes. As you say, it's in 1,200 clinics now. We're seeing the order rate is very strong and the repeat rate is strong. It tends to be a more affluent consumer and they're in the major cities. Most of them, it's very well represented in the larger cities. We're also in these cruise ships and seems to do very well in these cruise ships.

They still charge a great deal for it. The average price is still between $800 and $1,000 per IV, but people do experience a benefit and they're very enthusiastic about it. We have some partners like Restore that are doing an excellent job of educating the consumer when they come in of the benefits of Niagen IV over NAD IV, and they tell us that they're having great success and great repeat purchasers.

Your next question comes from the line of Susan Anderson with Canaccord Genuity.

I know it's early days. Any initial thoughts on the Niagen+ IV injectable launch, I guess, any initial consumer response. And then also do you have plans in place yet to roll it out to other telehealth platforms? And I guess if so, like what would the timing of that be?

Very good questions. So as you know, we launched over the weekend of our Niagen at-home injection kit, it's taken us many years that they are very, very excited to be there. It's only so, it's only 4 or 5 days, but it's been, I would say, outstanding those first 4 or 5 days. And in terms of traffic and conversions, but our expectations, obviously, are low. There's no marketing yet. The only marketing that we're doing is some e-mail campaigns and some media, press releases and it's been picked up in some media. We haven't done any paid ads at all as of yet, but the response is right out of the gate quite enthusiastic. So we're extremely encouraged.

We're not yet available in California, which represents a very, very disproportionately large percentage of the consumers of products such as these. And that's because our primary 503B pharmacy, Wells, is not licensed to supply in California, but they believe that this problem will be resolved in the next few weeks. So we're hopeful for that.

Okay. Great. That sounds good. And then I guess, just thinking about the distribution of the consumer products, so Niagen supplements, et cetera, I guess how are you thinking about just the channels as we look forward? I guess, will you eventually maybe go into retail with things like the core Niagen supplement? Or are there other channels that you're looking?

Yes, we do expect to broaden the footprint, the distribution footprint, in other countries and also in retail in the United States. There are a few new companies in the dietary supplement space brands to whom we will be supplying Niagen as an ingredient. So we will be expanding the distribution. Additionally, we will be rolling out additional products. As you know, we launched the Nanocloud product recently, and that's done extremely well. We expect to do a wide release of that in October. But similarly, we expect to supply Niagen as an ingredient to other skin care companies. As always, we'll be very careful about the companies to whom we supply Niagen as an ingredient. They will be reputable, trustworthy companies with existing brands. So we see an expansion in that regard as well.

I guess what's the demand been from other skin care or beauty companies for the ingredient, I guess, especially after you rolled out your own Nanocloud, have you seen any of those companies like kind of something you are interested in also adding the ingredient to their products?

Yes. And we've been in discussions with two major skin care brands.

Your next question comes from the line of Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital Partners.

I wanted quick-picture questions for Rob, and then a couple of clarifications for Ozan. Rob, what do you expect is going to be the impact kind of in the near and midterm of adding a new compounding pharmacy? And when do you think we'll see that impact?

We're hopeful for two things. One is a wider distribution of sales to clinics. So we're in 1,200 clinics at this point, but there are some thousand addressable clinics. So we're hoping to expand the number of clinics to whom we're selling. But also we're hoping that the ultimate price point to the end consumer comes down. We think $800 is a lot to pay for many people. But we think if we can get that price down through more clinics, more competition and more pharmacies, that we can expand the addressable market.

Okay. And do you expect to increase beyond these two as well as Olympia, right? And will you be expanding beyond those? And when do you think we'll see that impact?

I think we'll see the impact of Olympia in the summer, the end of the summer. It's possible we would talk to other pharmacies. There are 503B pharmacies and 503A pharmacies. But at this point, we don't know.

Okay. It takes a while to ramp them up anyway, okay. A couple of points of clarification for you, Ozan. One, was the increase in the inventory number was -- what drove that? Is that any indication of an acceleration in your expectation of sales? Or was there something else going on there?

And then in your commentary on G&A and sales and marketing and the outlook, would you expect the reduced outlook for spending in G&A to be kind of offset by the increase in sales and marketing, so we wind up effectively with the same operating income level.

Sean, regarding the inventory level, the main driver is that we have made commitments to make these purchases from our primary supplier, W.R. Grace about 6 months ago. So this was all scheduled inventory that was coming in to support us for the year. We do expect that throughout the remainder of the year, the inventory levels will come down. And I think you were asking -- can you repeat the other 2 questions?

In the outlook piece, it will be -- have you effectively raised the outlook for sales and marketing spending, right, by saying it's going to be increasing as a percentage of revenue. Do you think that's going to offset the savings or are you spending outlook for G&A?

Yes. That's a fair assumption.

Your next question comes from the line of Raghuram Selvaraju with H.C. Wainwright.

[indiscernible] sitting in for Ram. To start, how have recent developments on the compounded GLP-1 front affected demand for Niagen+ IV?

We only know in the sense that we get many calls and inquiries from these clinics and these compound pharmacies, especially the compound pharmacies who often are saying, what's the next big thing after GLP-1. And it seems like NAD is teed up for that.

Got it. And so how do you think the telehealth indicative impact -- will impact operating efficiency? And what emerging promotional strategies do you expect to deploy under the scope of this approach?

We're going to market it similarly to the way we market Tru Niagen. It's mostly in the e-commerce business. So it's the use of social media, paid ads, free media, use of influencers, and we do studies, and we publish these studies and these studies tend to get picked up by people who pay attention. So we've already put out 2 studies, and there are several more ongoing. And as we learn them, we put them out, there's a network of people that absorb this information because they're very curious about how they can improve the way their body ages.

Got it. Okay. And lastly, would you be able to go into what the status of the complaint aimed at removing NMN product from the U.S. market is?

So we sued the FDA to -- because we think that their ruling reversing the drug preclusion of ruling was incorrect. The FDA replied to that lawsuit recently like last week. And we're awaiting hearings on that reply, and then the judge's decision. We think his final decision will be within a year.

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Dezellem with Tieton Capital.

Great. Relative to the Nanocloud skincare product, would you walk us through how you are marketing that and how you ended up getting such great traction so early on? And then secondarily, what you are learning from having that product in the market?

We're marketing very little at this point. It's mostly existing Tru Niagen consumers that are also purchasing Nanocloud as a bundle. So they're seeing it on the website when they order Tru Niagen. There is some social media discussion about Nanoclouds. But the amount of our actual paid advertising is very small at this point. We've done surveys of these consumers because it's now been on the market almost 2 months. So the people that purchase once, we send out a survey, and we've gotten some extremely positive responses from these early consumers on the impact that it's had on their skin.

And Rob, as you see the consumer behavior, has that led to -- has that led to any learnings in terms of how when you do your commercial launch in October, how you want to approach it? And what are you seeing or learning from any of the social media that's taking place?

Yes, we're learning that it's predominantly a female product, at least, thus far. It seems like there's a very high repurchase rate. We've also -- we also realized that we could probably charge a bit -- we can change the pricing a bit. We'll probably increase the pricing a bit for the product. There's been some interest from retail on Nanoclouds and skincare products, and we're considering that. And yes, in terms of the effectiveness of the advertising, yes, of course, we buy these ads, and we track their performance, and we optimize it. Those winnings will inform the larger ad campaign that happens in October.

And just following up on the retail stores, how Niagen has had a couple of, I'll just call them, fits and starts in, I think, it was Walgreens many, many years ago in Walmart many years ago. How would this launch be different if you were to go that route? And how would you convert that to a greater level of success than you were able to have the first couple of times?

We weren't the first couple of times. We did probably once in Walmart. We were never in Walgreens. And that was just about timing. It actually sold quite well in Walmart, extremely well in Walmart. It's just that it took us a year to get our TV campaign going in conjunction with the launch of Walmart took too long.

What we learned from that experience is that there needs to be marketing in connection with the retail launch. And you need to have that marketing campaign ready to coincide with the retail launch.

We don't -- there's not going to be a wide retail launch. It will be slow. I mean, we're in certain retail locations now. And outside the U.S., we're in Watson's locations, in Hong Kong, Singapore. We are in vitamin shop presently, and we're in a few specialty shops as well. I expect that it will be -- there won't be a broad wide retail launch. It will be a partner by partner and regional.

Our last question comes from JP Mark with Farmhouse Equity Research.

Quick question for you about Niagen+ and really about the 3 customer segments. You a meaningful overlap between the oral supplement user, the high-end IV user and this newer at-home injectable user? Are they completely distinct populations? Or do the overlap do you think. I know, it's early for them. What's your thought on that?

It's a bit early to know that, but we think that the Niagen injection product is more of an acute product. In other words, we understand the NR pathway that Dr. Charles Brenner discovered, which we call the NR kinase pathway is located mostly in certain types of cells, that skeletal muscle cells, brain cells, spleen, kidney and skin cells. So people that are interested in some sort of acute therapy are perhaps more likely to go with the injection. And the oral would be more of a maintenance product. And then we -- but we do think that some people will use both intermittently, but we don't yet know because the at-home kit is only recently on the market, and we will see how it plays out.

And in terms of the marketing to different segments, have you already identified what you think are the most promising social media tests or specific opportunities you think that you can sort of tap into? I think you mentioned influencers. Are there certain kinds of influencers or certain influencers specifically who are more likely to reach your target market?

Well, in the early stages, we know that the Biohacker community, the strong anti-aging community, the Peptide community, if you will, are more inclined to try the Niagen at-home injection product. Indeed, even the IV product, although to a lesser extent. So we think that's our early stage primary addressable market. In the longer run, though, we think that elevating NAD with Niagen IV or injection or Tru Niagen has a beneficial impact on things like fatigue or muscle repair or even inflammation in general across many cell types and organ types.

And overall, we think it serves well as a anti-aging product. So we think it's complementary to GLP-1s. So we're hopeful that in the long run, the at-home pit becomes addressable and as a complement to people who are presently self-injecting a GLP-1 agonist.

And Rob, last question. I just wonder are you teed up on a bunch of podcast because that would be -- that's the best marketing you can possibly do, I think?

We've done a few, and I think we've signed up a few more. There are many podcasters that have requested an IV or an injection that we're supplying to them, and we'll hear back from them and see if they want to follow it up with an interview.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Lauren Borzansky for closing remarks.

Thank you, Karina. There will be a replay of this call beginning at 07:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. The replay number is 1 (833) 461-5787 and the replay ID is 828848803. Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to updating you again next quarter.

This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Niagen Bioscience, Inc. Fourth Quarter of 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Tiffany, and I will be the conference operator today. [Operator Instructions] And as a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

This afternoon, Niagen Bioscience issued a news release announcing the company's financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025. If you have not reviewed this information, both are available within the Investor Relations section of Niagen Bioscience website at www.niagenscience.com.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Kendall Knysch, Senior Director of Publicity and Public Relations. Please go ahead, Ms. Knysch.

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to Niagen Bioscience Inc.'s Fourth Quarter of 2025 Results Investor Call. With us today are Niagen Biosciences' Chief Executive Officer, Rob Fried; Chief Financial Officer, Ozan Pamir; and Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Andrew Shao.

Today's conference call may include forward-looking statements, including statements related to the company's research and development and clinical trial plans and the timing and results of such trials, the timing of future regulatory filings, the expansion of the sale of Niagen products and ingredients in new markets, business development opportunities, future financial results, cash needs, operating performance, investor interest and business prospects and opportunities as well as anticipated results of operations.

Forward-looking statements represent only the company's estimates on the date of this conference call and are not intended to give any assurance as to actual future results. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause Niagen Biosciences actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements.

These risk factors include those contained in Niagen Biosciences' annual report on Form 10-K most recently filed with the SEC, including results of operations, financial condition, cash flows as well as global market and economic conditions on our business. Please note that the company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this conference call to conform with the forward-looking statements' actual results or to changes in its expectations.

In addition, certain financial information presented in this call references non-GAAP financial measures. The company's earnings presentation and earnings press release, which were issued this afternoon and are available on the company's website, present reconciliations to the appropriate GAAP measures.

Finally, this conference call is being recorded via webcast. The webcast will be available at the Investor Relations section of our website at www.niagenscience.com.

With that, it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Rob Fried.

Thank you, Kendall. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's investor call. We delivered another quarter of strong financial performance. In the fourth quarter, revenue was $33.8 million, growing 16% year-over-year with net income of $4.1 million. So for the full year of 2025, we delivered $129.4 million in net revenue, representing 30% growth year-over-year and net income for the year of $17.4 million. We ended the year with $64.8 million in cash and no debt.

I'm very proud of what the Niagen Bio team accomplished in 2025. We began the year with an initial top line guidance of 18% growth and finished the year at 30%, and we dramatically exceeded expectations on the bottom line as well. But most importantly, we're well positioned to deliver a great 2026. There are some challenges. There's increased competition in this fast-growing NAD space, a space that is only hitting the tip of the spear, but we have spent many years laying a strong foundation. We have the expertise. We have the intellectual property. We have the relationships and we have the trusted brand. We're ready to build on this foundation.

The most critical element of this foundation is our science. Niagen Bioscience continues to be the undisputed global leader in NAD science. Since our last earnings call, a total of 29 studies involving nicotinamide riboside were published, and these studies were clinical studies. So I've asked Dr. Andrew Shao, Senior VP of Global Scientific and Regulatory Affairs to summarize some of these studies on this call.

Of note, is a study out of Finland that showed NR supplementation slowed biological aging according to several epigenetic clocks. Also a comparison study from Dr. Tazulis in Norway between NR and NMN that showed significant superiority of NR. We're seeing some consistent trends in these studies that show fatigue to be a consistent positive functional benefit from NR, as was displayed in the recent Harvard long COVID study. Some of these studies did not show a clear benefit such as the no Park Parkinson's study, but still provide great learnings for future research. We can see how elevating NAD with Niagen improves people's lives. And we will continue to further our understanding of how it works, when it works and how to best deliver it.

Another important component of our foundation is Niagen Plus. Last week, we announced that the company secured a patent that covers the methods of use of NR and derivatives in intravenous and injectable formulations. There is great opportunity for Niagen Plus. We're now present in over 1,200 health clinics and will be adding doctors' offices and med spas this year.

Now those locations mostly offer Niagen IV, but we plan to launch our Niagen Plus brand at-home injection kits through our own telehealth platform during the first half of 2026. And we hope to partner with other telehealth providers to distribute our at-home Niagen Plus injection kits later in the year.

We also plan to expand our presence in the beauty, cosmetics market this year. Following the successful launch of Tru Niagen Beauty in late 2025, we've developed topical products featuring Niagen. In addition to our own Tru Niagen branded topical products, we're in discussions with large cosmetics companies for Niagen ingredient partnerships. And I hope to share more about these partnerships in the near future.

As mentioned on the previous earnings call, last September, the FDA reversed its prior determination that NMN could not be lawfully marketed as a dietary supplement. This decision by the FDA has been met with confusion within the industry as the agency did not provide a clear rationale for its seemingly arbitrary reversal. Earlier this year, we commenced litigation in federal court in Washington, D.C., challenging the FDA's reversal. We believe we have a strong case. And as a reminder, all NMN sellers in the market are at their own risk as they are all infringing on existing patents that cover the commercially available forms of NMN.

Last December, we announced the acquisition of existing patents for multiple NR salt forms, including NR and NR tartrate and other NR derivatives. This consolidation of core intellectual property not only provides protection to Niagen in the marketplace, but also provides the company with enhanced flexibility and control over our portfolio to advance innovation in NAD science. And we continue to work with our NAD precursor portfolio for pharmaceutical applications in orphan indications, particularly ataxia to lunactasia. We've identified NB4168 as our lead development small molecule candidate for AT. We intend to continue to make strategic R&D investments to further characterize NB4168 with the long-term objective of advancing towards regulatory approval. Potential value creation pathways for this asset include a spinout transaction or an out-licensing partnership. We'll continue to update shareholders as we achieve key development milestones.

And last month, we announced the sale of the ChromaDex Reference Standards business. This divestiture further streamlines Niagen's operations, advances the company's strategy to exit non-core activities and focuses resources on NAD science, intellectual property and commercial growth. NAD+ remains at the forefront of health and longevity discussions with continued coverage across mainstream press, health care practitioner channels and general discourse with consumers from social media platforms. NAD is not just a trend or a fad, it is a fundamental component to cellular health and overall healthy aging.

While awareness of the benefits of NAD is expanding, we believe that the category has not yet reached its tipping point. As I repeated in the past, NAD itself, the molecule NAD, in any form of administration has not proven to directly and effectively boost NAD levels. Individuals require an NAD precursor to properly boost NAD levels, and Niagen remains the gold standard for NAD precursors and remains the most trusted and clinically and scientifically validated solution to effectively raise NAD levels.

As the leader in this space, we will continue to stand by our scientific research to drive innovation and I look forward to future announcements of new ways and new products for Niagen to benefit everyone's lives.

I would now like to hand the call over to Andrew to provide an update on the scientific research, Ozan will then run through the financial performance in greater detail, our outlook and we will then end on Q&A and closing remarks. Andrew?

Thank you, Rob. It is my pleasure to address our investors, partners and employees and provide an update on the state of NAD science. As the leader in NAD science, Niagen Bioscience is committed to remaining the global scientific authority on NR and NAD research. I'm pleased to share some of the exciting results from newly published studies since our last update.

On our last earnings call, Bob briefly touched on the completion of a study involving individuals with long COVID conducted by Mass General Hospital. The study published in the November issue of the Lancet clinical medicine, demonstrated NR supplementation resulted in significant within group improvements in executive functioning, fatigue severity, sleep quality and depressive symptoms. These findings highlight the therapeutic potential for those that are impacted by long COVID, but also reflect promising benefits of NR supplementation for general challenges such as fatigue, sleep and depression.

Regarding Parkinson's disease, as Rob mentioned in his remarks, the NOPARK study did not achieve its primary end point. We've been close contact with the investigators from Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, led by Dr. Shaalampos, Suzulis, we, together with Dr. Suzulis, believe when it comes to Parkinson's, the benefit of NAD augmentation with NR may be best applied prior to disease and treatment onset. In other words, as a preventative. We plan to collaborate with Dr. Suzulis to examine the preventative effects of NR and its mechanism related to Parkinson's, through a new partnership we will announce soon. In the meantime, Dr. Suzulis is continuing his research on the therapeutic effects of NR in Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative conditions, including ALS and MS.

In January, a clinical study published in the prestigious journal cell assess the pharmacokinetics and systemic and brain impact of oral supplementation of NAD precursors, including a head-to-head comparison of Niagen and NMN. One of the key findings was that Niagen produced approximately a twofold greater increase in blood NAD levels compared to NMN even after accounting for the molecular way difference, underscoring the superiority of Niagen. Another study released in January assessed the impact of NR supplementation and high-intensity interval exercise training on epigenetic age acceleration in human blood and skeletal muscle using a collection of different biological clocks.

Interestingly, results showed that Niagen reduced epigenetic aging while high-intensity interval training resulted in increased Epigenetic age metrics. The findings suggest that NR supplementation and exercise may differentially modulate the aging at the genome and that metabolic interventions and intense physical activity may have distinct impact on muscle aging biology. Two recent preclinical publications highlighted NR's positive effect on brain health.

First, in November, a preclinical study investigated the impact of NR supplementation on cognition, neuroinflammation and microglial cell metabolism in groups of young and old mice. Results showed NR supplementation in the old mice prevented cognitive decline, improved memory, produced neuroinflammation and shifted microglial metabolism toward that of a young mice. A second preclinical study published in February in the Journal brain used both nematode and mouse Alzheimer's models to assess the upregulation and activation of an important transcription factor linked to Alzheimer's disease progression known as REST. The study found that increasing NAD levels through NR administration, increased rest expression and activity, which led to improved mitophagy and synaptic function and in the case of the nematode models, extended lifespan. Collectively, these preclinical studies help to elucidate the mechanisms behind the therapeutic effect of boosting NAD through NR in the brain.

In February, a study demonstrated that maternal supplementation improved gestation, litter weaning weight, weight gain and improved milk yield and composition among other beneficial effects in These findings are remarkably consistent with those first published in 2019 by Dr. Brenner, our Chief Science Adviser, who showed similar effects in rats. We eagerly await the results of an ongoing clinical study being conducted at UC Davis examining the effect of Niagen supplementation on and mothers who have given premature births.

In preparation for the launch of Niagen injection, we've just completed a clinical trial investigating the safety and efficacy of intramuscular and subcutaneous injection. Both modes of administration were demonstrated to be safe and were associated with reduced fatigue improved quality of life, trends toward improved sleep and lower oxidative stress. Another recent clinical study conducted by our partners at ReSTOR Hyperwallet compared Niagen IV and NAD IV in a head-to-head study to assess infusion time, tolerability, safety markers, in metabolic outcomes. The study published in the Journal front tiers in aging, the deal that Niagen IV was far better tolerated and required only 1/3 of the infusion time versus NDIC, findings consistent with our own Niagen IV versus NAD IV clinical study.

Furthermore, Niagen IV resulted in a small but statistically significant reduction in HbA1c, the biomarker of diabetes, whereas the NAD IV group showed a small but significant reduction in HDL or good cholesterol. With now two independent head-to-head studies, the results are clear. Niagen IV is far superior to NAD IV. Nonetheless, we will continue to expand the evidence base around Niagen Plus and plan to conduct larger, longer-term studies to replicate and expand upon these results.

In summary, Biogen Bioscience continues to advance NR and NAD research, and doing so with responsibility and integrity. The growing body of clinical research supports the potential therapeutic benefits of NR administration, and I look forward to potentially sharing more results in future updates.

With that, I'll pass the call over to Ozan. Ozan?

Thank you, Andrew, and thank you to our investors, partners and team members for joining us today. It is a pleasure to speak with you and to present yet another quarter of outstanding results. As Rob highlighted, 2025 was another strong year for Niagen Bioscience, as the company delivered on its latest financial outlook across all metrics. The results of the fourth quarter and the full year is a reflection of our team's dedication to delivering shareholder value by advancing strategic initiatives, and maintaining Niagen Bioscience's position as the gold standard in NAD science. .

For the full year, we delivered $129.4 million in net sales, up 30% year-over-year, which is well ahead of the 18% growth we guided to at the start of the year. Gross margin came in at 64.3%, reflecting improvements in operational efficiency. On the expense side, we continue to scale with discipline. Selling and marketing expense improved by approximately 220 basis points as a percentage of net sales year-over-year, while R&D investments increased by $300,000.

General and administrative expense was up $8.7 million year-over-year, primarily driven by an increase in employee-related expense and stock-based compensation of $3.8 million, increase in consulting fees of $1.5 million and higher royalty expense of $2.9 million due to the absence of a $3.5 million reversal of previously accrued royalties and license maintenance fees which occurred in the prior year.

Under operating income, we also recognized a $2 million gain on settlement of royalty obligations in connection with our agreement with Queen's University Belfast. Net income for the year was $17.4 million compared to $8.6 million in fiscal year 2024, and we generated $13.5 million of cash from operations.

Lastly, adjusted EBITDA for the year was $20.4 million, an $11.9 million improvement compared to fiscal year 2024. Our revenues in the fourth quarter of 2025 were $33.8 million, a $4.7 million or a 16% increase from the same period last year. That growth was led by Tru Niagen where revenue grew by 21% to $27.5 million, a $4.8 million increase. The primary driver was e-commerce, which generated $20.2 million, up 17% or $2.9 million.

On the ingredient side, Niagen ingredient revenue was $5.6 million, up 5% or $300,000 year-over-year. And within that, we delivered $4.7 million in food grade NIAGEN sales along with $900,000 in pharma grade Niagen sales. In the fourth quarter of 2025, revenue from our B2B distribution partners totaled $7.3 million, driven by contributions from existing and newly established strategic partnerships such as the one Rob mentioned earlier.

Although we continue to anticipate quarterly fluctuations in sales to Watsons, we expect the partnership to remain an important component of our broader distribution network as we partner closely with Watson on strengthening Tru Niagen's brand presence in Hong Kong and expanding into additional Asia Pacific markets.

Gross margin improved to 64.1% in the fourth quarter, up 160 basis points compared to 62.5% a year ago. That expansion was driven mainly by a more favorable product mix, along with the benefit of selling through lower cost inventory.

Selling and marketing expense was 30.8% of sales in the fourth quarter compared to 29.9% in Q4 2024. This reflects our continued targeted investments to build global brand awareness while staying disciplined and focused on operational efficiency.

Research and development expense was $1.7 million, up $400,000 year-over-year. Scientific integrity remains the cornerstone of our company, and we continue to invest strategically to deepen the clinical evidence behind Niagen and support innovation in the NAD industry.

General and administrative expense was $7.5 million, an increase of $6.4 million versus last year. The primary drivers were the absence of a $3.5 million reversal of previously accrued royalties and license maintenance fees, along with higher share-based compensation expense.

And finally, our net income for the quarter was $4.1 million or $0.05 per share, another profitable quarter to close out the year and a clear reflection of our continued focus on disciplined execution.

Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. Our balance sheet continues to strengthen. On the back of this year's growth, we ended the year with $64.8 million in cash and no debt, reinforcing the financial flexibility and stability of our business. For full year 2025, net cash provided by operations was $13.5 million compared to $12.1 million in the prior year. The year-over-year improvement was mostly driven by an $8.8 million improvement in net income along with several favorable shifts in operating activities compared to the prior year period. Specifically, we saw higher accounts payable and prepaid expenses, improved collections on trade receivables, higher share-based compensation and the absence of last year's reversal of previously accrued royalties and license maintenance fees.

Those benefits were largely offset by growing inventory levels to support the scaling of our business. which were significantly depleted at the beginning of 2025. As Rob mentioned earlier, last week, we announced the sale of the ChromaDex reference standard business in a $6 million all-cash transaction adjusted for working capital. This was a non-core legacy business that generated approximately $3 million in 2025 and was not a profit center. This divestiture is a meaningful step for Niagen Bioscience to streamline and focus operations on advancing NAV science, which should result in efficiencies in our resources and capital allocation and a boost in our cash reserves.

Finally, I will close with our full year 2026 outlook. Detailed information on key financial metrics can be found in our earnings press release and presentation. Starting with net sales, for full year 2026, we're projecting between 10% to 15% growth year-over-year, excluding revenue attributable to the Analytical Reference Standards & Services segment. This outlook reflects continued scaling of our e-commerce business, growth from our established partnerships and additional upside from new partnerships and sales channels.

We anticipate a slight improvement in gross margin as we continue to benefit from improvements in our supply chain and product mix.

Selling and marketing expenses are expected to increase in absolute dollars but remained stable as a percentage of net sales, which was 27.4% in 2025. This demonstrates our continued focus on strategic investments to drive brand awareness and support the launch of new channels and verticals while maintaining optimized and efficient spend in customer acquisition.

R&D expenses are also expected to increase in absolute dollars driven by incremental investments in pharmaceutical development and external and research initiatives to advance product development and innovation.

And lastly, general and administrative expenses are expected to increase by approximately $4 million to $5 million in absolute dollars year-over-year. This increase is primarily driven by investments in infrastructure to support scalable growth and increased share-based compensation expense.

To conclude, 2025 marked another year of disciplined execution and meaningful progress. I am proud of the focus and dedication our team showed in delivering on key initiatives, work that continues to strengthen Niagen Biosciences position as the leader in the rapidly expanding global NAD market. Their efforts reinforced our operational foundation advanced strategic priorities and positioned us for long-term success. With this momentum, we're entering 2026 with confidence as we continue executing our vision and deliver lasting value to our stakeholders.

Operator, we're now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Jeffrey Cohen with Ladenburg Thalmann.

As you I guess, firstly, to jump into the injections. So I think you have one SKU now for the IV bags and injections to come. What are you expecting on number of SKUs? Or would that be just one? And initially on your own telehealth platform? And then on the back half of the year, you're expecting to get on to other platforms? And talk about the audience there as well, be the overlap with the current clinics?

We will initially have just one SKU. We think that the market, the audience, as you -- as it were, for the product will initially be the biohacker community, the people that are especially excited about longevity interventions, people that are presently doing peptides. We think it will grow to expand to include some people who are doing presently GLP-1 agonists. We think there's a market out there for people who are interested in self-injecting for -- to stay thinner mill be interested in self-injecting to stay younger. The initial product will be a syringe and we'd be separating the powder from the liquid. So it's a slightly complicated process. So the more sophisticated people that are more used to this process will be the early adopters. Eventually, it will be in a pure liquid form and will be a much simpler process. And even after that will be a pen that looks much more like the GLP-1.

In terms of the overlap with the clinics, well, the price point is significantly different and the dosage is significantly different. The clinics are mostly giving 500 milligrams to a full gram in one session. These will be 100-milligram injections initially and people will do it a few days or 3 days per week. So we think it's slightly different audience in terms of dosage. And then in terms of price point, we expect that the injections, the shops will be less than half the price as the current -- than the IV.

Now on the other hand, the IVs in some ways, because it doesn't -- because it's not subcu, it's directly into the blood stream are even more effective. So that's how we differentiate those two products. Andrew, is there anything else you want to add to that?

I think you covered it, Rob.

And then just one follow-up. Could you talk about your guidance, I guess, briefly, right, you did call out last year that your guidance started out in the high teens and literally double as the year went on. So is this kind of cautionary guidance to get started on the year subject to revisions down the road? Or is this something that you feel pretty strong about the full year?

I would say the former more than the latter. I think we've been pretty consistent over the years. We don't want -- the company or high to stock. We want to be conservative in our approach and circle revenue that we have a high degree of confidence in. Remember, a big part of our business also is B2B, where we supply the ingredients, and that's far less predictable than the e-commerce business as it was.

Your next question comes from the line of Susan Anderson with Canaccord Genuity.

Maybe if you could kind of parse out, I guess, what you're seeing as the growth drivers for this year between, I guess, the original in our supplement and also the IV and then also the new products that you're rolling out, but just like the beauty supplement?

In terms of growth?

Correct. Yes. And then also just any new channel distribution you're expecting to go into?

Yes. We do the latter portion first. We do expect to expand the distribution channels. We will be expanding into certain selective retail channels and even by the end of the year, we might even broaden that further. We are expanding also internationally into some territories, particularly in Asia and perhaps in the EU. In terms of the growth products, of course, awareness for Niagen and Tru Niagen continues to grow. So we think there's just basic organic growth. As more and more people write about Niagen Bioscience as a company in Tru Niagen as the products and we continue to conduct these studies and go on podcasts. And there seems to be a general acceptance amongst those that do the research that we are the reliable brand, the reliable company and the experts in the space. So we do see just steady consistent growth in our exits with the existing Tru Niagen products in the existing channels. But it's difficult to know how much the cosmetics products and the IV and the injection products will grow, so we're endeavoring to give conservative assumptions there. Until we're out there and we see how the market reacts to it, we don't really know yet. But of course, the upside potential is fairly significant, we think. And we just don't really yet know how it's going to break down.

Okay. Great. That's helpful. And then maybe you mentioned just increased competition in the space with NMN now I guess, what do you guys -- you talked about getting out there on podcast and stuff. I guess what are you guys doing this year to kind of get the message out there to consumers, maybe getting them to switch over to your product versus a different product that they're taking right now?

Well, of course, we have the best product. I mean, the ingredient that we sell is the most effective. Our quality team is the best quality team, the way we operate the business, and we have a high degree of confidence as do most people in the industry know that the best way safest way, the most tested way, the most informed company to elevate NAD levels is to take Niagen or Tru Niagen. We do see increased competition. NMN did get reversed by the FDA, the ruling. We think there's a good chance they're going to re-reversed that decision in the year. And of course, all those NMN products are infringing on patents. So the only companies you're seeing selling NN are companies who never really cared about the FDA ruling in the first place and now don't really care much about the patent rules. But it is increased advertising that you're seeing. Most of that element is cannibalizing NAD itself. These are companies that were selling NAD as a molecule in a bottle, which doesn't work at all. It's not bioavailable, doesn't elevate NAD. So what we're seeing is transfers from NAD selling over to NMN zone. But our view on it is pretty much the same as it was when NAD was growing, which is it only helps increase the market. We'd rather have 20% of $10 billion than 50% of $500 million. They're advertising it. Many of them get it wrong, they make false claims, but many of them get it right, and they're explaining to people that elevating NAD is good for your health, especially as you age or as you heal. And the more you research, the more you realize that the best way to manage it is with Niagen or Tru Niagen.

Yes. We think what we've seen is that when people sometimes they'll start out by taking NAD or NMN or NMNH or something that the low price version of a product that markets NAD. And if eventually they come around to read in the science or reading our market materials, they come around to Tru Niagen.

And then the first part of your question. Yes, it's -- there's a very good chance that sometime during 2026, we will launch a more aggressive awareness brands type campaign for the company. especially if we expand into certain retail outlets to increase awareness and brand familiarity. We're working on that presence.

Your next question comes from the line of Ram Selvaraju with H.C. Wainwright.

I was just wondering if you could comment at this point regarding what you anticipate the next steps to be in the lawsuit filed against the FDA and the associated parties regarding the influx of NMN products? And also, if you could give us a sense of what percentage of prosecution of that legal initiatives is represented in your overall legal expenses anticipated for 2026? Also, if you could please comment on how you are thinking about future evolution of your share repurchase strategy?

Ram, we don't think it's going to be a significant expense. We think that this is going to be a summary judgment case. We think both the FDA and we would prefer a summary judgment. So it's likely to go that way. They've selected a judge they will have a chance to respond to our claim, and then we will respond to that. There will be a hearing or two, we think will take a year, maybe slightly more than a year for a judge to make his decision. We think the case is pretty good. I think that the decision that the FDA made was hard to substantiate why they made it. We don't know what the factors were that led to that decision, but we think it was harmful to the general public. So we think there's a good chance that, that decision will be reversed once again. And no, I don't think it will have a meaningful impact on our costs or expenses for the year. The other one again?

I just wanted to ask about share repurchases, what's kind of impacting the evolution of your strategy there?

Right. So as you know, we announced a $10 million buyback. We use $250,000 of it to date. We expect -- we will be using the rest of it under the guidelines that we set forth in that buyback provision. We would have used more of it before, but we got blocked out because of the timing of the announcement to earnings, among other material inside information. But we do expect to be using it more and buying back as we think it's a great investment at this price.

And then just very quickly, can you comment on any near-term plans you have to advance clinical exploration of NR in Parkinson's disease at this time?

Well, we're waiting for the final manuscript and discussion with azoles. He's very bullish on this idea that it's a preventative before the standard care of L-dopa and the diagnosis of Parkinson's and he has a fair amount of data to support that idea. But at this point, we're waiting to hear from him on that. Andrew, is there anything more you want to contribute to that?

Just like you said, Rob, the manuscript be submitted for publication shortly here. And so we can't divulge any of those details. But we will be collaborating with Dr. Gazulis, as I mentioned in my remarks, with a focus more toward looking at prevention.

Your next question comes from the line of Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital.

In terms of looking for a little bit more color on the guidance, can you give us a sense of whether the phasing of the revenue growth in '26 is expected to be materially different from what we saw last year? Is it more front half or back half? And also a little bit more color on the gross margin guidance, where would you see that gross margin uptick coming from the slight increase? Is it -- are we going to see slight improvements in Consumer & Ingredients? Or is it going to be more focused in 1 or the other of those segments?

Sean, Ozan here. So with regards to the pacing of the sales, we're expecting it to be more back loaded compared to previous years. And with regards to gross margin, we expect a slight improvement, but it's not -- it's driven by supply chain efficiencies and also the changing of the product mix. We're seeing our 1,000 milligram SKU perform well, and e-commerce is also performing well.

Okay. And similarly, looking for color, the -- does your sales and marketing guidance anticipate the kind of step-up in brand marketing that you referred to earlier? Is that -- would that be additional -- I think at you might see some additional promotion -- I mean, advertising around. Is that anticipated in that already?

It's not anticipated in that. It would be an addition.

That concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to for closing remarks.

Thank you, Tiffany. There will be a replay of this call beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. The replay number is 1 (800) 770 2030, and the replay ID is 8584242. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today and for your continued support of Niagen Bioscience.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Niagen Biosciences, Inc. Third Quarter of 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Tamika, and I will be your conference operator today. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

This afternoon, Niagen Biosciences issued a news release announcing the company's financial results for the third quarter of 2025. If you have not reviewed this information, both are available within the Investor Relations section of Niagen Biosciences website at www.niagenscience.com.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Kendall Knysch, Senior Director of Publicity and Public Relations. Please go ahead, Ms. Knysch.

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to Niagen Bioscience, Inc. Third Quarter of 2025 Conference Call. With us today are Niagen Biosciences' Chief Executive Officer, Rob Fried; Chief Financial Officer, Ozan Pamir; and Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Andrew Shao. Dr. Shao will join the call for Q&A.

Today's conference call may include forward-looking statements, including statements related to the company's research and development and clinical trial plans and the timing and results of such trials, the timing of future regulatory filings, the expansion of the sale of Niagen products and ingredients in new markets, business development opportunities future financial results, cash needs, operating performance, investor interest and business prospects and opportunities as well as anticipated results of operations.

Forward-looking statements represent only the company's estimates on the date of this conference call and are not intended to give any assurance to the actual future results. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties.

Many factors could cause Niagen Biosciences' actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements. These risk factors include those contained in Niagen Biosciences' quarterly report on Form 10-Q most recently filed with the SEC, including results of operations, financial condition, cash flows as well as global market and economic conditions on our business.

Please note that the company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this conference call to conform with the forward-looking statements, actual results or to changes in its expectations. In addition, certain financial information presented in this call references non-GAAP financial measures. The company's earnings presentation and earnings press release, which were issued this afternoon are available on the company's website, present reconciliations to the appropriate GAAP measures.

Finally, this conference call is being recorded via webcast. The webcast will be available at the Investor Relations section of our website at www.niagenbioscience.com.

With that, it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Rob Fried.

Thank you, Kendall. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's investor call. For the third quarter, I am quite pleased to share that we delivered yet another record performance with $34 million in revenue, a 33% increase year-over-year and net income of $4.6 million compared to net income of $1.9 million last year. We ended the quarter with $64.3 million in cash and no debt.

Our e-commerce business continues to anchor our growth, delivering net sales of $19 million, a 29% increase year-over-year. The distribution business grew 109% year-over-year with $7 million in revenue, while our Niagen ingredient business remained steady, bringing in $6.9 million.

During the third quarter, we onboarded a new strategic partner with access to a network of over 8,000 medical and health care practitioners, strengthening the Tru Niagen distributor revenues. This partnership supports our ongoing mission to educate health care practitioners, patients and consumers that Niagen is the most efficient, effective and only legal and highest quality NAD booster available. It also expands our communications engine to amplify awareness of Niagen's 40 peer-reviewed published clinical studies, our new study results and the healthy aging benefits of Niagen.

Niagen Plus remains a key strategic focus for the company. In August, Niagen us at-home injection kits were launched, now only available to patients with a prescription from their practitioner, but we plan to expand distribution of the at-home injection kits via our own telehealth platform and leverage our e-commerce expertise to reach more patients. Last month, we announced that we added iCRYO to our clinic network and are currently in over 50 of their clinics nationwide. As of today, we have now onboarded more than 1,000 wellness and health care clinics across the United States to offer our Niagen Plus product line.

As most of you may have noticed, the NAD market, in general, continues to expand quite rapidly. Yet it is still only met a fraction of its potential. The supplement and injection markets are still at early stages, but there also remain considerable opportunity for NAD boosting innovations in skin care, cosmetics, food, beverage and, of course, in drug applications. But it is critically important for everyone to understand that the NAD molecule itself is very large and is a nucleotide meaning it cannot enter cells directly. It is, therefore, ineffective at directly boosting NAD levels.

One needs a precursor to enter the cell and then convert into NAD. And of course, the best precursor by quite a lot is Niagen NR. This is likely the reason why NAD IVs take hours to ingest and they have significant unpleasant side effects. There are no studies that show that oral NAD supplementation increases cellular NAD yet as you know, we have over 40 published peer-reviewed clinical studies in NR.

Indeed, last month, the National Advertising division, an independent advertising review arm of the Better Business Bureau agreed with this position. Niagen Bio made a formal challenge against 1 particular company that was making false claims about its products that feature the NAD molecule. The National Advertising division found that this company lacked human clinical evidence to support claims that NAD itself elevates NAD levels in the body.

Since NAD itself is not bioavailable and there are no published human studies oral or otherwise, demonstrating that it elevates cellular or tissue NAD. The National Advertising division's decision of firms, the importance of scientific substantiation for safety and benefit claims in an industry quite crowded with brands seeking to capitalize on this big trend.

At the end of September, the FDA reversed a prior determination that nicotinamide mononucleotide, NMN could not be lawfully marketed as a dietary supplement. We believe this decision will face quite strong our position, and we expect further challenges. But even when NMN was prohibited from being on the market, the companies that are selling it presently were selling it, they were ignoring the previous FDA decision anyway. And what we see in the month since the decision is the same companies are continuing to sell at a comparable pace.

We also will note that we and others have tested many MMN products in the market and most do not meet product label claims. It's important to highlight that the businesses that have been and continue to sell NMN are likely infringing on existing NMN patents that are owned by Niagen Bioscience and another company throughout the global market. So technically, NMN continues to be illegal. While MMN as an NAD precursor does elevate NAD levels, Niagen is the superior scientifically validated, safe and most efficient and effective way to elevate NAD levels.

Last quarter, I discussed 2 studies investigating the effects of NR supplementation on patients experiencing symptoms of long COVID. One study conducted by Harvard University examined the effect of NR supplementation on fatigue, depressive symptoms, sleep quality and cognition. This study will be published later this month. There's also another study conducted in Norway that is undergoing peer review. We continue to make steady progress toward the Parkinson's disease and ataxia-telangiectasia or AT indications.

As mentioned last quarter, the Phase III NOPARK clinical trial was completed in June, and we expect the results of that study to be published in early 2026. We are incorporating the FDA's feedback into our strategy for AT and continue to engage with the agency to prepare for an investigational new drug application.

In an industry often marked by unverified claims and inconsistent quality, Niagen BioScience stands apart for its scientific river, authenticity, integrity, transparency and innovation. While we maintain a portfolio of several NAD precursors, nicotinamide riboside patented as Niagen is the most efficient, effective and extensively researched NAD precursor as we have said, supported by over 40 year reviewed clinical studies with more than 50 patents and used in over 300 research collaborations.

I am, and I remain proud of the team's commitment to the company's initiatives and of the progress we have made over the years. Our 25-plus year mission is rooted in one goal, delivering scientifically proven solutions to address one of life's greatest challenges, aging.

I would like to hand the call over to Ozan to run through the quarter's financials and then on to Q&A and closing remarks. Ozan?

Thanks, Rob. It is a pleasure to once again address our investors, partners and team members today and present another quarter of exceptional results. As Rob highlighted, we delivered another quarter of record revenues and continued profitability. This performance we're seeing is a testament to our team's commitment to operational discipline and delivering on our key initiatives and to the growing general awareness of Niagen as the premier solution to boost NAD levels.

In the third quarter of 2025, we brought in $34 million in revenue, an increase of 33% or $8.4 million from the same period last year. Tru Niagen revenue grew by 44% to $26 million, a $7.9 million year-over-year increase driven primarily by e-commerce revenue of $19 million, which was 29% or $4.3 million higher. Our Niagen ingredient revenue was $6.9 million, up 4% or $300,000 year-over-year. Within the Ingredients business, we delivered $6.4 million in food-grade Niagen sales to key partners and $0.5 million in pharma grade Niagen sales.

Tru Niagen distribution remains a key growth opportunity, both domestically and internationally. While we anticipate quarterly fluctuations with Watsons, we continue to work closely with them to strengthen Tru Niagen's brand presence in Hong Kong and to launch Tru Niagen in additional Asia Pacific markets. Domestically, we're focused on expanding our distribution through partners with access to health care practitioners and other key channels, which contributed to the growth in the third quarter.

As Rob mentioned, our new partner will give us access to thousands of medical and health care practitioners, a key part of our efforts to reinforce that Niagen is the most effective, efficient and clinically validated NAD booster while amplifying awareness of the growing body of clinical research supporting it.

Our gross margin improved to 64.5% in the third quarter, up 100 basis points compared to 63.5% a year ago. This improvement was driven primarily by changes in product mix, improvements in labor and overhead utilization and the use of lower-cost inventory purchases in production. While we expect that gross margins will improve year-over-year on a full year basis compared to 61.8% in 2024, we expect that gross margins will normalize on a quarterly basis moving forward.

Selling and marketing expense as a percentage of net sales improved to 25.8% compared to 27.5% in the third quarter of 2024, reflecting our continued investments in growing global brand awareness of Niagen and doing so efficiently. Research and development expense was $1.8 million, $0.5 million higher year-over-year. Science continues to be the cornerstone of our company as we continue to invest in research and innovation to further our studies and R&D projects.

General and administrative expenses totaled $7.1 million, an $800,000 increase compared to the previous year. This increase is primarily driven by increased share-based compensation expense. And finally, our net income for the third quarter of 2025 was $4.6 million or $0.06 per share, a significant improvement compared to $1.9 million or $0.02 per share for the third quarter of 2024.

Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. Our balance sheet continues to strengthen. We ended the quarter with $64.3 million in cash and no debt. For the 9 months ended September 30, 2025, net cash provided by operations was $12.8 million compared to $3.5 million in the same period last year.

This year-over-year increase was mostly driven by an $11.9 million increase in net income, along with other positive shifts in working capital, such as higher accounts payable, significantly improved collections on trade receivables, and increased share-based compensation expense compared to the prior year period. These were offset by increased inventory levels to support operational expansion.

Regarding our full year 2025 outlook, detailed information on key financial metrics can be found in our earnings press release and presentation. Building on the strong momentum year-to-date, we recently revised our revenue growth guidance from 22% to 27%, to 25% to 30% year-over-year. We remain confident in our updated full year guidance, supported by our strong e-commerce business and existing and new partnerships in the rapidly expanding in Ag market.

We're also revising our outlook for research and development expenses to decline as a percentage of net sales while still increasing in absolute dollars compared to our previous expectation of remaining stable as a percentage of net sales and increasing in absolute dollars. This adjustment reflects changes in timing of studies and projects.

Finally, we are revising our outlook for general and administrative expenses. We now expect expenses to be up $8 million to $9 million in absolute dollars year-over-year compared to the previous expectation of a $7 million to $8 million increase. This change in G&A expectations is primarily driven by increased share-based compensation expense.

One year into my tenure as CFO of Niagen Bioscience, I want to express how proud I am to be part of an organization that not only leads and defines the NAD category, but does so with integrity and professionalism. Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, I'm confident in our ability to deliver significant returns to our shareholders.

Operator, we're now ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is from the line of Jeff Cohen with Ladenburg Thalmann & Company.

This is Destiny on for Jeff. I'm curious with the new partnership for IV, I'm curious to know what the uptake is looking like, any feedback you've received from those clinics? And if you're getting any sense which potentially now, but if you're getting any sense of what the -- the number of patients they're treating per week or month, whatever clarity you have there is great.

It's a little early destiny for that. They just made the purchase towards the end of the quarter. And so they've only just begun the process. of reselling the material to their physician network and presenting it. So we don't have any direct feedback from them yet.

Okay. Got it. And then I'm curious with AboutNAD, where does this fit in your marketing funnel? Is this something that a potential consumer would see early on? Or is this something that would maybe fall a little later further down the funnel prior to purchase? Just curious.

With regard to NAD?

You're -- AboutNAD site.

AboutNAD, sorry. The AboutNAD website is something that we maintain, but it's an objective website. There are no -- it's not -- it's actually not in any way connected to or part of the purchasing funnel. It's just an information resource for journalists, investors, researchers, people who are generally interested in the true up-to-date science of NAD, what are the actual published studies, clinical and preclinical.

As you know, as a dietary supplement company, the rules are clear, and we stick to the rules that one cannot imply a claim for a disease state, even if your product cures disease. So if one conducts a study on a disease and it's actually therapeutic or prophylactic, they are very limited in what they can do with the information.

So AboutNAD is a great resource where we can publish all the studies, not just the Niagen studies, but all NAD-related studies. So people can go, go to the search bar type in any disease indication that they are concerned about or want to know about and we'll see the studies that have been published to date without any noise of commerce or any attempt to try to push a product.

Your next question is from the line of Susan Anderson with Canaccord Genuity.

I guess maybe just a follow-up on the at-home injection. So it sounds like they're at position offices. Are they at all of the offices, I guess, where you can also go to get the injection in office. And then also, how should we think about that rollout? Will they -- will you go into other distribution?

And then I think you mentioned you're going to put them on your own telehealth platform. So maybe if you could talk about that a little bit. How should we think about that getting up and running? And will this be in conjunction with your own DTC platform as well?

Yes, that's an important series of questions. Thank you, Susan. We do believe that the at-home kits are important for our future. But we are doing it like most things that we do carefully and slowly. And although there is an at-home kit available in the market, one needs to go to a clinic to purchase it at this point in time and we're still working on the user experience to make sure that it's optimized.

So it will be several months at least before it is available on our website. We are developing our own telehealth capability where one could go to truniagen.com or niagenplus.com and get a prescription from a physician online, much like classic telehealth companies, and it would be delivered to their home via a pharmacy. But that -- we don't expect that functionality to be available for maybe 2 quarters probably middle of next year.

We do expect that some of the existing telehealth companies that are out there right now will be making it available to their customers. There are studies being done presently on Niagen injection as a potential complement to GLP-1. As we -- as you know, one of the leading side effects for these GLP-1s are muscle loss. And we believe that there is a benefit to [indiscernible] NAD with Tru Niagen or with Niagen Plus to a muscle density.

So we hope that the results indicate that. And if that's the case, we expect to see some of the existing telehealth companies to offer it either in addition or as a complement to their GLP-1 products. or the separate stand-alone anti-aging at-home injection product. We expect that also to be somewhere in the middle of next year.

Okay. Great. That was actually going to be my next question. So I assume you're already in conversations with them. And I guess, are there multiple other telehealth platforms that you're talking to?

Yes.

Okay. Great. I guess just looking at Tru Niagen. I'm curious since the FDA's announcement on NMN, have you any change in purchasing behavior by consumers, I guess, in your own products, whether that's high or lower or just changed behavior at all since the announcement? Or do you think it was really kind of a nonevent?

Yes. It's only been 5 or 6 weeks, and we haven't noticed anything yet. We've seen basically the name sellers that never stop selling it, continuing to sell it, maybe 1 or 2 new brands that we never heard of. None of the existing established reputable play by the rules brands have entered the space, probably mostly because they know that there's a very good chance that the FDA will reverse this reversal again and because there are patents. And most of the well-managed reputable companies in dietary supplements don't blatantly go against existing patents.

The ones that play in this space, the main beneficiaries of that rule of these Chinese manufacturing companies, it's all coming out of China. And the smaller, earlier-stage dietary supplement companies that generally don't really care much about the rules anyway. And as you know, we've tested many of the existing NMN products on the market and very few of them actually met label claims. Some of them had actually no NMN at all.

We think NMN has in its purest form, an ability to elevate NAD, not as well as Niagen, obviously, but it still does it. It's still an effective way to elevate NAD. But at this point in time, we're not seeing any meaningful impact from the change in that rule.

Your next question is from the line of Raj Selvaraju with H.C. Wainwright.

Just wanted to ask about 2 aspects here. Firstly, I wanted to see if you would be in a position at this juncture to elaborate on the possibility of establishing a stand-alone entity to pursue pharmaceutical Rx applications of nicotinamide [indiscernible] side, particularly in the context of Parkinson's disease, but not limited to Parkinson's disease.

And if you could maybe talk through some of the key decision-making factors that are likely to influence the timing and the nature of the manner in which you might go about establishing a stand-alone entity your venture to pursue those initiatives.

Thank you. It is likely that we will set up a stand-alone entity to manage the pharmaceutical pursuits. As you know, the 2 primary indications at this point are Parkinson's disease and ataxia AT, telangiectasia. There are other disease indications for which we've been doing studies. Some have been early [indiscernible] have been published. Others are ongoing.

But at this point, we're waiting for some of these studies to be completed so that we can see the results and we've had conversations with a number of pharma companies. And I think that the results of those studies and the results of those discussions we'll dictate when we exactly set up that separate entity and put all those rights into that entity. We might begin segment reporting in the next quarter or 2.

That's very helpful. Also I wanted to ask about, more broadly speaking, how you are thinking about, in particular, the Niagen, the Niagen applicability in the context of, for example, broader access for GLP-1 medications, the continued prevalence of compounded versions of those drugs. And in particular, if you could perhaps quantify for us.

Now you've indicated through your press release that this manifestation of the product is available in over 1,000 clinics. Maybe you could give us a sense of how large that segment actually is in terms of the total number of clinics in which the product could be positioned and how long it might take for you to reach sort of steady-state maximal penetration in this segment, please?

The way we view that segment is in 2 groups and then there are subgroups of those 2 groups. There's the injection market and then there's the IV market and they're distinct markets. The IV product itself will deliver a much higher dose. The injection does still go straight into the bloodstream, but it's injected at much smaller doses and generally takes place over a period of time.

Within the injection -- both injections and IVs are available in the clinics. And we think there are 2,000 to 3,000 of these IV clinics or wellness clinics in the U.S. But there are also several thousand physicians that administer NAD IVs or injections in office. So part of the reason we did this deal with this third-party company is to begin accessing actual physicians' offices to administer some of these IVs and injections. So we think between the 2 markets, then there is even a potential third market, these Botox clinics it could be as much as 10,000 individual offices in terms of the clinic market.

Again, the clinic market is both IVs and injection. When we endeavor to pursue this business, which is quite different than the dietary supplement business, although it's a similar molecule, but it's a molecule pharmaceutical grade, very, very different supply chain and manufacturing process and approval process.

And Ron, as you know, we also -- everything we do, we also apply for support patents, which we've done in the Niagen business in addition to all of our ingredient and supplement businesses as well. but it's a very, very different vertical with different operations, although the molecule is quite similar. But when we endeavor to get into this business, we didn't contemplate the at-home injection market GLP-1. It took us several years, 5 years or so to get to where we are now in that business.

Now we realize that there are tens of millions of people who are willing to self-inject in order to stay in or get them. And we're hopeful that there will be many people that are interested in self-injecting in order to stay young or to complement the GLP-1 products that they're injecting with. So the injection market as we look at it today appears to be significantly larger as an addressable market than the clinic market or the straight IV market.

The other thing we didn't know about at the time when we first entered this was the telehealth market in general. We started this process prior to COVID. So now we see the telehealth market is expanding quite rapidly and it provides a fascinating service to the average consumer, integrating physicians' prescriptions as well as very convenient and well-priced medications delivered straight to the home.

So we see that as a very significant opportunity for Niagen. And from what we see in that telehealth market and in the clinic market, the players in that space seem to so far agree with as well.

One headwind that we've noticed so far is we have one very good partner in the compound pharmacy space who compounds Niagen and productizes it, they sell at a fairly high price and then they sell it to the clinics who then sell at an extremely high price. So the price to consumers of getting these IVs at this point is quite high. They've positioned it very much like a Rolls-Royce in this space. We think that until those prices come down to a more manageable level, the volume is not going to reach its potential.

So right now, it's not a huge business for us, this pharmaceutical ingredient business that's catering to Niagen Plus. And we don't think it's going to really take off in a significant way until those 2 things happen. Those 2 things being: number one, the injection market, particularly the telehealth market embraces it. And number two, the overall pricing at the clinics and physicians' offices comes down fairly dramatically.

Your next question is from the line of Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital Partners.

A couple of questions. Maybe first, circling back on the impact of the FDA decision. You've talked a little bit about it not apparently having much impact. But has there been any discussion with customers about pricing in any way? Is it having any impact on your price ability to hold price where it is.

So do you mean the FDA decision on NMN.

Yes. Yes.

You mean with our ingredient partners. Yes. most of them understand that the -- those companies are not really that interested in anything other than Niagen. They're always asking us to cut our prices, though regardless if there's FDA or not. So...

Why waste a good crisis, right?

Exactly.

Okay. Got it. And then maybe for Ozan. The gross margin overall was higher than I thought, and it was especially higher in consumer where I thought we would see kind of things drift down a little bit. Can you drill down a little bit more on how, I guess, unnormal the margin in the consumer segment might have been in the quarter when you said that you expect it to normalize? How far above normal do you think those factors that you cited have to put that margin? So what should we expect in terms of normalization?

Yes. So the gross margin in the quarter was driven -- a lot of it was driven by still some of the leftover inventory to lower cost than worry we had and also improved product mix. But once we are through that lower cost inventory, it will it will normalize, but we have also increased our outlook to be previously with slight improvement. We are now seeing an improvement. We're not able to put a percentage on it. But it will be better than last year, that's what we could say.

At this time, there are no further questions. I will now hand the call back over to our presenters for closing remarks.

Thank you, Tamika. A replay of this call will be available beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. The replay number is 1 (800) 770-2030 and the replay ID is (858)-4242. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today and for your continued support of Niagen Bioscience.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.