PetVivo Holdings, Inc. (PETV) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss the results for the first quarter of our fiscal year ended June 30, 2026 -- sorry, it's for our fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2026. Hosting the call today is our Chief Executive Officer, John Lai; and our Chief Financial Officer, Garry Lowenthal; as well as myself, John Dolan, PetVivo's Chief Business Development Officer and General Counsel. Following our remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. Then before we conclude today's call, I will provide some important cautions regarding the forward-looking statements made during the call, such as regarding our company's plans, expectations, objectives and anticipated results. If you are connected to the call via your browser, please also review our safe harbor statements that are on the screen right now. I will give you a few seconds to take a look at these statements. I would also like to remind everyone that the call is being recorded in order to make it available for replay later today. The replay link will be available to the Investor Relations section on our website at petvivo.com. Now turning to our results for the quarter. Our first quarter of fiscal 2027 was another period of strong business development and commercial success on several fronts with key advancements that we believe have greatly enhanced shareholder value and laid the groundwork for strong growth ahead. This has included further development of our IP and technology platforms, further product commercialization, meaningful international expansion and strategic M&A as well as the strengthening of our national sales team who have been improving the sales results of the company. All of this has demonstrated our continued intense focus on the many fantastic opportunities we enjoy, several of which come into play only over the last several months. Their pursuit has required extraordinary attention and capital attraction to support their successful development and commercialization. Our primary objective has been and will continue to be the pursuit of high-margin reoccurring revenue streams, which we expect to support the highest valuation of our company for the benefit of our stakeholders. The strengthening clinical validation and market adoption of our flagship product, Spryng with OsteoCushion Technology continues to serve as our foundation. Upon it, we are working to launch several new products and services for both animal and humans, which have great potential. Many of the activities have included the formation and advancement of new strategic alliances and collaborations with key partners and potential customers. Naturally, the most recent exciting announcement is our entry of an agreement for the acquisition of PiezoBioMembrane or PBM, a leading developer of functional biomaterials and piezoelectric technologies, which were invented at the University of Connecticut. These biomaterials and technologies have been shown to have uniquely powerful regenerative, restructuring and/or restorative therapeutic applications for both humans and animals. While PBM has been our R&D partner for some time, their acquisition represents a transformative step in our long-term growth strategy. Our merger will more closely combine PBM's great strength in scientific innovation and patented IP portfolio with our own great strengths that include complementary technologies, product development capabilities, commercialization experience, regulatory expertise and public company infrastructure. We expect our combination to accelerate the advancement of unique high-value technologies that will serve as the foundation for numerous future products and strategic opportunities. In fact, it has already created new opportunities for securing government and private development grants, research collaborations and R&D tax credits with the pursuit of many of these opportunities already underway. Meanwhile, we are currently progressing through completing the customary closing conditions and related financing, and we expect to announce the official closing very soon. Meanwhile, we have been working closely with PBM in completing nearly all objectives that we set forth in Stage B of our joint 3-phase R&D program. This program was created to advance revolutionary functional biomaterials that are designed to promote regeneration, restoration and/or remodeling of damaged or injured tissue and bone in both animals and humans. Stage A determined that our respective products could be combined into a single offering that demonstrates piezoelectric activity with this providing potential therapeutic benefits. Stage B has now determined our combined offering could be produced at scale, and it has provided preliminary indication of safety for administration in animals with a final safety study for this stage to be completed in the near future. Stage C, now underway concurrently, will determine definitive safety and efficacy based on the protocols we've established. After completing Stage C, we plan to pursue FDA clearance of products for human applications that incorporate PBM's piezoelectric substances in biomaterials, including our flagship product, Spryng, which mimics the extracellular matrix in animals and humans. We recently filed for a federal government grant in collaboration with PBM and the University of Connecticut. The grant is intended to fund the advancement of at least 5 unique high-value technologies. A number of these technologies are expected to serve as a foundation for future products and strategic opportunities. We expect the government's decision on the grant to come before the end of the year. We also recently announced the successful conclusion of our commercial partnership with VetStem that included a license and supply agreement for its PrecisePRP product line. While veterinarians may continue to use PrecisePRP in conjunction with Spryng if they choose to do so, we are now focused 100% on advancing our own proprietary technologies, especially those we recently acquired with PBM as well as other innovative products we have in development as part of our broader strategic growth initiatives. Now before we get into other highlights for the quarter and recent developments, I'd like to turn the call over to our CFO, Garry Lowenthal, who will take us through the financial details for the quarter. Garry?

Thank you, John, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss the results of our first quarter of the fiscal 2027 that ended June 30, 2026. Revenues for the period increased 13% to $338,000 compared to the same year ago period and grew -- also grew 33% revenue compared to the previous quarter. The growth reflected the success of our efforts to strengthen our sales and marketing teams and focus our efforts 100% on selling our proprietary flagship Spryng product and no longer including our previously licensed PrecisePRP VetStem product, which we now no longer sell. Revenues for the period were derived from sales through our distributor network totaling $276,000 with direct sales to veterinary clinics totaling $62,000. This compares to the year ago quarter where sales consisted entirely of Spryng and our distributor sales were $198,000 and our direct veterinary clinics was $56,000. We see the significant improvement in sales also reflecting our renewed effort to better educate our customers on the benefits for flagship Spryng product with the expansion of our sales force over recent months. And especially with new sales force members who have greater experience and abilities, we expect this improvement in sales to continue over future quarters. Gross profit for the quarter totaled $223,000 or 66% of revenues, improving from $187,000 or 63% of revenues in the same year ago quarter. We anticipate greater revenue margins going forward as we will be selling more of our flagship Spryng product with significantly higher gross margins than the discontinued PrecisePRP product line. Total operating expenses for the quarter decreased 10% to $1.8 million, with the decrease largely due to a 31% decrease in R&D expense and 9% decrease in general and administrative expense with this offset by a 2% increase in sales and marketing expense. Given the decrease in these expenses, our operating loss decreased 13% to $1.6 million for the quarter. This resulted in the net loss for the quarter totaling $1.7 million or $0.05 per share, and this improved about 30% from a net loss of $2.3 million or $0.10 per share in the same year ago quarter. Also contributing to our improved bottom line was a large decrease in interest expense totaling only $5,000 for the quarter, which was down from $122,000 in the year ago quarter as well as recording no unrealized loss on the change in derivative liabilities as we no longer have derivative liabilities compared to the $320,000 a year ago quarter. I would also like to point out our net cash used in operating activities during the quarter decreased substantially, totaling only about $966,000. This was down about 40% or a reduction of $668,000 compared to the same period a year ago as we better utilize our cash. This decrease in cash used in operating activities was primarily due to a decrease of $203,000 accounts payable and accrued expenses compared to a decrease of $80,000 a year ago. Now let's turn to the balance sheet. Cash at the end of the quarter was $123,000, which compares to $201,000 at the end of the previous year. We expect our cash position to increase as an investor who subscribed to an equity offering completes the remaining subscription commitment that totaled [ $1.35 million ] at the end of last quarter. Now this completes our financial review for the quarter. John?

Thank you, Garry. Now in addition to our recent activities with PBM, another key relationship we've been advancing is our partnership with Digital Landia, a pioneer in agentic AI solutions with whom we've secured an exclusive white label licensing agreement for the breakthrough AgenticPet technology. This unique and innovative technology features specialized diagnostic AI agents that are protected by proprietary IP and 5 patents pending. Among this technology's multiple capabilities, it addresses many of the critical challenges facing today's veterinarian practices. This includes skyrocketing client acquisition costs and the challenges in capturing the fast-growing demographic of Gen Z pet parents. Veterinarians today are also challenged by what comes after a new client is acquired. That is being able to proactively diagnose their pets' afflictions or diseases and provide best treatment options and to do so cost effectively and efficiently for both the client and the practice. To address these challenges straight on, earlier this year, we beta launched our new PetVivo.ai veterinary practice platform. This AI-powered software-as-a-service platform is powered exclusively by Digital Landia's powerful AgenticPet technology. We believe it is the first of its kind on the market and its unique benefits and capabilities will provide us a clear first-mover advantage. During the first quarter, we advanced its commercial rollout with the engagement of an additional select group of prominent veterinarian clinics under our ongoing beta launch development programs. Their inputs of expert knowledge have been further training the platform's AI agents in their main functions of pet owner customer acquisition and pet health care. Furthermore, the beta launch has also stimulated a number of incredibly beneficial improvements that are currently being tested and evaluated by the veterinary clinics. PetVivo.ai employs automated AI-powered customer engagement that intelligently converts the leads it generates into paying veterinary customers at a tremendous cost savings. The beta program has demonstrated that PetVivo.ai can provide a 50% to 90% reduction in veterinary customer acquisition costs, lowering it from the typical $80 to $400 spent per customer target to less than $43. The platform expertly trained AI agents can also analyze a range of inputs, including pet behavior, medical records, diagnostic lab results and medical imagery, such as X-rays, MRIs, ultrasounds and CT scans as well as other patient medical information. It then uses this analysis to assist veterinarians in proactively diagnosing afflictions and diseases such as osteoarthritis and lameness. It also suggests treatment options, among which could include Spryng or future products we currently have under development. PetVivo.ai's AI-powered diagnosis has demonstrated an amazing 97% accuracy with this alone representing a paradigm shift in the medical treatment of companion animals. Recently, our PetVivo.ai development team achieved several important technology milestones that we believe strengthens its foundation for future market adoption. We now deployed a highly resilient AI infrastructure with persistent patient memory and introduced smartphone-based diagnostic capabilities that have the potential to significantly expand access to veterinary care. We also launched a data monetization framework for PetVivo.ai, creating the opportunity for veterinary professionals to participate in the value generated from anonymized health data while integrating it seamlessly into their existing practice management systems. As the regulatory landscape for digital health data continues to evolve, we see PetVivo.ai becoming an important data infrastructure platform that serves the entire industry from veterinarians and pharmaceutical companies to research and government organizations. And we are now focused on scaling the platform and expanding its adoption with our beta users. This AI-powered solution greatly complements our existing medical device offerings that we market to our existing network of thousands of veterinary clinics across North America and Europe. PetVivo.ai also creates a new recurring revenue stream, one with high 80% to 90% gross margins, along with low CapEx global scalability. In all, it provides us with our veterinarian clients multiple ways to win. The final training of the PetVivo.ai engine is currently underway using real-world scenarios. A select group of veterinarian practices that we have engaged under our beta program have been providing us valuable feedback and impressive results. We expect to announce its official commercial launch within the next few months. Veterinarians new to the solution can request a free demo of our PetVivo.ai website and experience firsthand how the power of this technology can transform their practice. In support of our launch of PetVivo.ai, earlier this year, Digital Landia published a technical white paper documenting the Agentic Pet AI framework that underpins this technology. The paper validates its technical foundation and provides veterinary professionals, investors and industry stakeholders with detailed insights into the multi-agent artificial intelligence architecture that enables its transformative clinical and economic benefits. Based on this report, we expect our PetVivo.ai solution to rival the adoption of other mainstream AI applications. We see it creating greater visibility for our existing brands, particularly Spryng with OsteoCushion Technology and the several new solutions in our product pipeline. Earlier this year, we launched on our PetVivo.ai website an online video explainer, which walks you through the 2-part ecosystem of PetVivo.ai. If you haven't seen it yet, we very much encourage you to do so as it will explain why we and others are so excited about this offering. In addition to the work we've been doing with PBM and Digital Landia, we have continued to advance our new partnership with Austin, Texas-based Veterinary Growth Partners. VGP is a management services organization that helps veterinary practices improve their efficiency and profitability by providing management, business development and marketing tools and making introductions to new vendor relationships such as us. VGP has committed to actively promote our Spryng with OsteoCushion Technology to their member network of more than 7,300 veterinary clinic members across the U.S. We've been focused on product training of the veterinarians in their network, and we're planning to introduce our new PetVivo.ai practice management platform to their clinic membership upon its official commercial launch. During the first quarter, our Spryng lead product also continued to receive favorable reports from veterinarians, especially regarding its ease of use and effectiveness in the management of osteoarthritis in horses and companion animals. Earlier this year, we announced that Health Canada, the federal agency responsible for regulating health products and protecting public health, officially recognized our Spryng with OsteoCushion Technology as a veterinary medical device authorized for commercialization in Canada. This official acknowledgment will help make Spryng available in Canada as a veterinarian administered intra-articular injectable veterinary medical device that is designed to support joint health and aid in the management of lameness and other joint-related affliction in animals. As the first such recognition by an international regulatory author body, this action represents a major milestone in our global commercialization strategy. We are now in the process of developing a new distributor network for Canada, like we have in the U.S., which we believe will speed our time to market with minimal investment. We anticipate the first of such distributor relationships to be secured within the next month or 2. We see a great opportunity in Canada, where the animal health care market is expected to exceed $4.4 billion by 2031. Moreover, we believe we have first-mover advantage in this major market. To our knowledge, we believe our Spryng product is one of the first hydrogel-based intra-articular injectable veterinary medical devices to receive regulatory recognition from Health Canada, which permits commercialization in the country. We also continue to hear from veterinarians and distributors in Canada that there is substantial pent-up demand for such a product recognized by Health Canada. For this international launch, we believe we have a competitive advantage with our clinical studies, particularly our canine studies. Our clinical data has long demonstrated the advantages of our Spryng technology over competitive products, including a better long-term safety profile. We have continued to expand the awareness of the benefits of Spryng among other key decision-makers, including exhibiting at a number of major conferences so far this year. In April, we exhibited our lead products at the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management Forum held in Dallas, Texas. More recently, we exhibited at the Texas Equine Veterinary Association 2026 Summer CE Symposium that was held in Horseshoe Bay, Texas at the end of July. The symposium brought together some of the nation's most respected equine veterinarians in the country. We were able to demonstrate the research-backed benefits of Spryng to leading surgeons, sports medicine and rehabilitation experts in the veterinary industry. Such introductions are typically significant drivers of product adoption and new sales. We are planning to exhibit at several more conferences later this year, which we plan to announce on our website. Such conferences also present the opportunity to share the results of recent studies like our new canine elbow study as well as other completed and published studies. Such published studies include a publication in the Veterinary Record, the official journal of the British Veterinary Association, which provided a peer-reviewed clinical study that evaluated our Spryng with OsteoCushion Technology. This publication was the third such peer-reviewed study published so far this year, with this representing another important milestone in the continued expansion of the scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of Spryng. Over the last several weeks, we have also been advancing the development and publication of new canine and equine studies that address the tolerance and efficacy of Spryng. This includes the analysis of clinical data generated from our earlier announced canine elbow pilot study conducted by Orthobiologic Innovations, a leader in R&D for regenerative and sports medicine. The study was led by prominent veterinarians Sherman and Debra Cannap, who are currently working with our technical service veterinarians to incorporate the results into a white paper in preparation for submission to industry journals. We also have additional canine and equine studies for tolerance and efficacy of Spryng in the initial stages of development. We also continue to advance our pipeline of new products with this greatly expanded and strengthened with the entry into a definitive agreement related to the acquisition of PBM last month. These new products include new functional biomaterials as well as tissue and bone mimicking biomaterials that may be used to enhance the delivery of pharmacologically active agents and/or promote the regeneration, restoration and/or remodeling of damaged or injured tissue and bone in both animals and humans. Our Collagen-Elastin Hydrogel Particles or what we call CEHM, when combined with PBM technology can effectively create the structure or scaffolding that can assist in facilitating functional activity in the body to restore, restructure and/or remodel its natural tissue. PBM technology enhanced, CEHM, integrates with the host tissue and assists in the remodeling, restructuring and restoring of that tissue to a more normal and healthier state. Also, animal and human applications could include using our functional biomaterial particle technology for physical and drug therapy treatments via the respiratory system using a nebulizer. We are also investigating potential topical treatments for eye afflictions such as ocular ulcers as well as wound treatment where our functional biomaterial technology can help remodel and restore tissue to a healthy state. This could include assisting the healing process by delivering existing FDA-approved antibiotic, antiviral and anesthetic substances. Altogether, our technology, both commercially deployed and under development have created an exciting future for PetVivo, one which we believe will be transformative and not only for veterinarians and their precious patients they serve, but potentially for humans as well. Looking ahead, we expect to see continued sales momentum and market penetration for the duration of fiscal 2027 and beyond. In fact, we have never been in a better position to accelerate our growth and expand our high-growth U.S. and international markets. Industry analysts say that the U.S. animal health care alone will double by $11.3 billion by 2030. Such massive growth is unusual for such an already large market, so we see it providing us exceptionally strong tailwinds. As part of our strategy to seize the great market opportunity, we have continued to strengthen our business development and sales teams with key appointments. This includes the recent appointment of Jennifer Douglas as our new field business development manager for the Texas market. This followed by the appointment in May of a new inside sales representative for the Northwest U.S. region, we are also planning to appoint 2 additional regional business development managers for the Midwest and Southwest regions, which is currently in progress. They will complement our expanding inside and field sales teams and are focused on distributor and direct sales. As we continue to grow and expand over the coming quarters, we will remain committed to advancing the best in pet health solutions and ensuring that our products reach more veterinary professionals and pet owners with our success in these efforts driving greater value for our stakeholders. I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO, John Lai, to provide some additional insights into the recent developments and then open the call to address any of your comments or questions. John?

Thank you, John. So we do -- we did implement a proprietary AI system for Investor Relations and just gathering of information from people visiting our site and then allowing them to opt in to receive weekly updates. And I think we are up to 38,000 people that have shown interest in getting weekly updates from PetVivo. So I'm pretty proud of that system and how it has been working for us. We also this week started having commercials, 30-second commercials on Fox Business, Bloomberg TV as well as CNBC. And the CNBC ads are actually in the New York regional market, and it runs during market hours. I think there's one right before the open of the market and then the other 4 is placed along the way -- along the various times during the market. And hopefully, that will draw more attention to our stock and also have people look into the future of PetVivo as we evolve from the animal side and development of human therapeutics. I would like now to open up to questions. Operator, could you please instruct our calling as well as our web attendees on how to ask questions.

[Operator Instructions] Okay. John Lai. We have one person that raised their hand. The phone number ending with 619. You are allowed to talk now. [Operator Instructions]

Just a couple of quick questions. You spoke about your filing with the government for grants, right, with PBM?

Yes. It's part of the technology effort. We were able to file for grants that I think we said in the call here, 5 different categories of products for grant availability, and we would get acknowledgment of how much grants we get. And we also, with the acquisition of PBM are available for what is called R&D tax credits from the State of Connecticut and so on.

Just a quick question. Given the fact that the deal hasn't officially closed, what entity filed those grants under what name those grants are?

So it was both of us.

And what happens if the transaction is not completed?

Well, it's unlikely that it's not going to be completed. But I actually never thought of that aspect because as far as everybody was concerned, it's pretty much completed. Everybody is moving towards that. So you would have to ask the attorneys. I can't answer that.

John, I can answer it too if it make sense. Yes, the grant formally is filed under UConn, the University of Connecticut with PBM and with PetVivo as being sponsors of it. However, there will likely be an amendment to that in the near future to include PetVivo as one of the applicants. So that will take place. The -- to answer your question with regards to what happens if the -- if the merger didn't take place, I'm going to agree with John. We're just tightening up the formalities of it right now. The agreement signed, we're just working with the team to get some of the closing conditions completed, which is more administrative. So I -- we shouldn't have an issue with that. If it, for some reason, didn't happen, the grant would still go forward. The grant would still go forward, and we would still be the beneficiaries of that grant.

Well, thank you, John for asking -- for answering the legal question.

Sorry, guys. So just to be clear, University of Connecticut is the filer of the grant. Upon completion of PetVivo's merger or acquisition of PBM, PetVivo would be added to the grant. And if that didn't transpire, I'm still not clear. What happens to the PetVivo venture?

No.

No. Actually, it does -- the closing of the transaction has no impact on whether PetVivo will be an applicant of the grant. That's just a formal amendment that we've already agreed to do. That's -- the grant is a separate issue. We're still under an agreement with PBM to do joint development of these products. And so that will -- that's continuing. That's continuing onward. Like I said, the grant is a separate issue. We've already done the application filing and all parties, University of Connecticut, PetVivo as well as PBM will benefit from that grant if it is accepted.

Understood. All right. And also just on this last -- on this topic on the PBM transaction. It's my understanding that as part of the closing conditions, there needs to be a capital raise of $5 million in order to finalize the transaction. What are your plans, if you can discuss in terms of raising the capital?

Well, we can't go into detail, but everyone is pretty confident it's secured and it's close, but it's not done until it's done, but it's close.

Understood. Okay. So you're working on it, you're working towards that end.

Yes. Everybody would have signed such a strong agreement and did a news release and an 8-K filing if everybody wasn't pretty confident. But as you know, nothing is done until it's done.

Of course. Of course. Only taxes. Only taxes. Pivoting to a little bit of a different question. You -- first of all, congratulations on all of the undertakings you've gone through over the last year or so. What percent of your SG&A is dedicated to research and development? Because it sounds like a very robust undertaking. So I'm just curious, in terms of your SG&A, what percent is dedicated to research and development?

So that's going to change quite a bit because a lot of it is going to be grant money driven. So you got to keep in mind the PiezoBio side in the last 2 years, I think, maybe 2.5 years has received $5 million in grants. And us in the past have received about $8 million, and we haven't filed for any grants in quite a while. But the combination of the products and the multiple product pipeline, I feel we will get some pretty good grant amount, but once again until the government says you have it, do you have no idea?