Waters Corporation (WAT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hey, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for joining us on the floor of our health care conference. I'm Tejas Savant, and I cover the life science tools and diagnostics sector here at Morgan Stanley. Delighted to have Waters join us today. And representing the company, we have Udit Batra, President and CEO. So welcome, Udit. Before we get into Q&A, just wanted to rattle off my safe harbor here. For important disclosures, please see the Morgan Stanley research disclosure website at morganstanley.com/researchdisclosures. And if you have any questions, please do reach out to your Morgan Stanley sales rep.

So with that, Udit, I mean, like we were just talking about, it's been a little over a year since you took on the CEO role at Waters. Before we dive into the weeds, can you talk to us about what your key learnings have been along the way? What has impressed you on the upside? And what has impressed you or rather not impressed you on the downside? And what is it that you are most excited about as you look to 2022?

So good morning, Tejas, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for having us. It's been a year and, I would say, exactly 2 weeks since I joined Waters. I think overall, I would say it's been a highly successful and somehow impactful year for me personally and also for the company. We are -- if you just look at the numbers, I mean, we've done reasonably well over the last 3 quarters. I think the first half of the year, we've grown in the mid-20s in terms of revenue growth organically. If you look -- even if you look at the stacked growth rate, it's in the mid-single digit, it's probably closer to 7%. And then this puts -- this keeps us in good stead probably higher than many of the peers if you just looked at the stacked core growth rate. But that said, look, what's been so endearing is -- are 3 things about Waters. Number one, we have deep, deep technical expertise. That's not gone anywhere. And it's wonderful to see it come back and show impact. Second, our customer relationships are second to none. And they've helped us, especially in this turnaround. And thirdly, it's a highly collaborative environment. And all of this then sort of bodes well for what I feel has set us up for a sustainably good performance in the mid to long term. And this is around 3 factors, right? So that's what excites me the most about the future. First, there is sustainable commercial momentum. The ideas that we put forth in the early parts of the transformation now will bode well for the future. We've accessed new customer segments. We've put in new tools. We're using -- we've accessed e-commerce. So a whole bunch of things that were rather dormant have been started, and they will help us sustain the commercial momentum. Second, as an engineer, I'm a PhD in chemical engineering. I love science. And I'm sorry, today, I might go into the weeds if you ask too many questions on the science. I love it. And the most endearing part about the whole thing is that we've revitalized our innovation. This is across the board. And I get to -- I have a front-row seat. I mean, you get to do these kinds of things as CEO. So I like it. We have an innovation board where we get all our key R&D people, and we review our programs, and it's brilliant. Happy to talk more about it. That's the second thing that's terrific. And the third is we're now having sort of turned the corner, I would say, or at least set up the basis for the transformation. We are now looking at how to build our portfolio. And we are -- we have a very durable business as you know, right? We're in QA, QC. Once we get planted, we're there for a long time, and that's what the strength of Waters has been. But now we're trying to take that expertise into even faster-growing areas. And so that is the phase that we're in. And I would say what's not been so exciting is what we're doing now, which is 2-dimensional. I mean, I get energy by meeting our teams. And I'm so glad with the vaccination that we've been able to go to different places like go into Cambridge, Mass., where we have our Immerse collaboration center. Last week alone, we had 40 customers come in and look at some of our new products. I love to go to our sites. And this is something that I miss, and I'm hopeful that it will slowly and steadily return.

Got it. Makes sense. Quite a bit to unpack there. And maybe we'll start on the segment side and then move towards some of the new product launches. But starting with the LC portfolio that -- how has the traction been for Arc HPLC since the June launch last year in terms of penetration and also for the ACQUITY Premier that launched earlier this year?

Sure. So Arc HPLC is our offering to enter or at least make an additional entry into the workforce -- into the workhorse segment, the standard QA/QC sort of daily use product. And the Arc is differentiated in that segment, easier to use, more rugged, less sort of carryover, all the technical aspects that I promise I wouldn't go much deeper into other than the fact that the customers have appreciated it. It was a product that was designed for China. And it has done super well, not just in China but also in Europe and the United States. And in no small part has contributed to our replacement initiative, which I'm sure you know, it has helped us quite a bit to have the conversation with the customers and often bring the Arc HPLC as the replacement for the very old alliances that were there. And on the ACQUITY Premier, I mean, this has 2 pieces to it. One, it's the UPLC segment, right? So this is mostly relevant for development for some parts of QA/QC, but mostly for development and also for large molecules. And the word Premier tagged on has had a ton of benefit. And it couldn't have come at a better time, right? The Premier technology basically allows you to process and separate molecules that are -- that otherwise have high affinity to metals. And this is what proteins do. This is what mRNA does. This is what oligo fragments do. All the novel modalities get stuck to metal services. And if you go into development, what you find is you have very, very small samples. People don't want to lose samples. And anything that gets stuck to these metal surfaces is sample lost, right, or it desorbs but over a period of time and so have slower experiments. And on both those fronts, the Premier technology first launched into columns and then into the ACQUITY Premier, the Arc Premier, these are our HPLCs and UPLCs, have done super well. And we have just as of today announced that we will tag on the ACQUITY Premier to our BioAccord instruments, so relevant for large molecules. And when I say it couldn't have come at a better time, just think about mRNA for a minute. I mean, we've done super well in getting vaccines to the market so fast. And that, of course, has made a difference in the pandemic. However, from a scientific perspective, we are far from being able to purify plasmids better. We are far from being able to separate mRNA molecules. And we're far from characterizing lipid nanoparticles with the mRNAs well enough, right? So on all 3 fronts, and I was with one of the top producers of mRNA in Cambridge a few weeks ago, and they said, "Look, Udit, we're still so far away from solving these problems. How can we work together to develop separation techniques, to develop better purification techniques so that we can analyze these molecules and disaggregate them?" Disaggregation is one of the problems. So it couldn't have come at a better time. And both of those products have, in no small part, contributing to our growth in LC.

All right. And then same question on the MS side. I mean, you recently introduced the SELECT SERIES MRT. How have the conversations been since?

Look, the SELECT SERIES MRT is our next generation of Tof instruments, basically Multi Reflecting Tof. You have a 50-fold increase in path length, which allows you to get better resolution for large and molecular weight molecules and at a faster speed. The early conversations have been tremendous. In fact, I gave you again an example. I met -- and given that I go to Cambridge a lot, there are a lot of customers in Cambridge, Mass. A customer came, walked over. And they have one of the largest repositories of microbiome samples in the world. And they said, "Look, Udit, I want to image these microbes without losing a lot of sample, but I want to do it fast. And I read about the MRT, and you launched it with the DESI technology, which is basically a scanning technology. When can we have access to it?" So we talked. I mean, towards the end of the year, the shipments will become -- will begin in Q4. We already have a ton of preorders. I mean, there's a lot of excitement. I don't want to overplay it. I mean, this sort of segment is -- these are big-ticket items. This segment is one where you want to step-by-step create the momentum, but I personally have had many conversations. And that's just one example where they want to use the library of their old microbiome samples. Instead of doing sort of image analysis, they want to use the MRT to do imaging and do it rapidly. So they have hundreds and thousands of samples. And if you have -- if you're able to image those samples, then you are able to relate the changes in the microbiome to the patient health. And so I mean, it's -- there are sorts -- there is a ton of excitement. We've just confirmed our very first order and shipped it. So I'm pretty excited about that.

Got it. On the last earnings call, Udit, you talked about sort of very robust growth in -- on the chemistry side as well. How much of that was a rebound in customer activity essentially coming back to prepandemic levels? And more recently, have you noticed any signs of weakness in light of the resurgence?

Sure. Good question, Tejas. Look, I mean, in terms of the historic growth rates of consumables portfolio, that's mid-single digits, 5% to 6% if you look at Waters' 8- to 10-year history. And I was just looking at the data. The beauty of not having done a lot of M&A in the company is that you have longitudinal data that you can compare. So we did, and it's 5% to 6%, right? And we're seeing on a stacked basis, on a 2-year basis, double-digit growth in our consumables, right? So it's way higher than what we've seen in the past. And in my view, it's due to 3 reasons. Number one, there is an inherent focus in the organization that is driving commercial execution. I mean, we talked about that several times. Second, it's new products. I mean, Premier and real focus on getting those embedded. And Premier, as I said, it couldn't have come at a better time. I mean, novel modalities are exploding, and this technology is specifically designed for these molecules. And number three, the increased focus on e-commerce. I mean, as you know, consumables are more easily bought through an e-commerce channel. And over the last year or so, we've gone from roughly 20% of our consumables portfolio going through e-commerce to now well in excess of 25%, 26%. And we have quite a bit of runway to go there. The basis is there, but there's quite a bit of runway. So I think it's a bit of not just an increased demand and focus, also new products and the e-commerce channel.

Got it. On the instrument side, I mean, the replacement cycle that you alluded to, I mean, you've got, I think, in terms of the Alliance installed base, you've got about 8,000 units. You've quantified that in the past, slightly smaller opportunity among the older quattro users in mass spec as well. Can you help us think about how many of those instruments come up for replacement each year? And what the win-loss ratios look like for you now that you've opened it up to competitor instruments as well?

Yes. So I think 3 parts to your question. The first is the 8,000 and how far along are we in contacting these customers. I would say 80% to 90% customers have already been contacted that are Waters' customers. Doesn't mean that all of it are replaced. I mean, we are in the very early stages of replacements. The replacements, it's gone very well versus our internal forecast, but we have a lot of runway there, right, to get up to the 1,200 or so that we said we would replace. Number is probably a little bit north of that, that we think will get replaced. But it will be over the next year to 2 years that we still have a room to grow that and catch up on that replacement. Second, on mass spec, it's similar. I mean, there were about 1,000 or so instruments which we targeted. And again, we've contacted there very quickly all the customers there. The ramp has been a bit faster than it has been even on the LC side. And then also on the UPLC side, we had about 4,000 or so instruments that we thought would be replaced. And that, again, is all the customers have been contacted. All Waters customers have been contacted and the conversations been had. And we're seeing some success there, too. To your question on win-loss ratios, as I've mentioned publicly in the past, we've seen some of the highest win-loss ratios that we've ever seen in the history of Waters, and that track is continuing. It goes up and down every quarter, but the weighted average is significantly higher. And I'd say it's due to, again, the 2 reasons that I mentioned earlier. Number one, there is a dramatic commercial focus. I mean, I had started it when I joined. But now with Jon Pratt and Jianqing coming in, I mean, they take it to a completely different level in how they're -- how targeted they are, how specific they are, how the KPIs are managed and how we're using the CRM tools to sustainably have a new way of working, right? And this is really augmenting our deep technical capability and our deep customer relationships with the systems and the processes is really, really awesome. I never want to lose the technical capability and the customer relationships. But now using tools and KPIs is really helping us as a company get to a different level. And the second is new products, right? And that's also helping quite significantly on the win-loss ratio. And the last piece that you mentioned was our competitors' instruments that are plugged into Empower. Our database of that, we have started that approach to contacting customers who have expiring or older instruments from our competitors. As you can imagine, that conversation was a little bit more difficult. The advantage that we have as incumbents is now a disadvantage when you go to somebody else who's an incumbent. I mean, there, the win-loss ratio is a bit lower. I won't quantify it. There is not enough data for us to talk about it today. But our teams especially in the LC space, I mean, in Waters, if you mentioned the word HPLC, people get excited without saying anything more. So be it, and especially if it's a competitive instrument where, for so many years, we have not been as sort of combative. I think people like to get up in the morning and target those instruments, too. So I'll leave it at that for now. And then when we have data, we can look retrospectively and say, okay, how was your success and failure there. But if I were to leave you with one message, there is a lot more on the replacement cycle, both on the catch-up as well as how we are -- how we've changed the way we work for the future. So it's a sustainable sort of track. It's not just a one-time huge bump that we have to then compensate for in the future. It's basically a steady state that's now going up, and we're in the early stages of the replacement. So I feel very good about what we're doing there.

Got it. Switching to end markets a bit. How sustainable do you think is the momentum on the industrial side of the portfolio? Some of the PMIs have been a little bit shaky more recently. And just any additional color you can share there on food testing, environmental, et cetera?

Yes. I mean, it's a great question. Clearly, I mean, Waters' history is in pharma, right? And over time, we've developed our strength in food and environmental, but also on materials testing, right? Just to look at the facts for a minute on the TA business, on materials in general. We've seen -- or industrial in general, I mean, the stacked growth rate there was around 6%, right? And that's way higher than what we've seen in many, many, many years, right? Some of it has to do with the fact that the PMIs were better, and we are not seeing any slowdown from an end customer perspective. That said, it is a volatile segment, right? It's very much capital dependent. So I'm cautiously optimistic. We have not seen any slowdown. The orders are looking quite reasonable. In fact, for the first half of the year, TA -- the TA business grew faster than the Waters business, right? So I think in the past, we've always looked at the industrial business as a stepchild. I think that's not necessarily true. And there are 2 or 3 segments where we're seeing pretty interesting growth. I mean, of course, our strength is in polymers in the material side. We're seeing good growth in the food side, especially in China, where we launched our contract testing organization initiatives. And we've contacted all the smaller contract testing organizations that we're doing food testing. And that has sort of added to the growth rates there. So I feel, again, cautiously optimistic. It's a more volatile segment, given what happens in materials. And I start seeing the food and the environmental side, especially in the food side, a lot more focus, similar to pharma, a little bit of a better trajectory and run rate.

Got it. Going back to our earlier question, I just got this on e-mail here that someone was just asking how much of the market share losses since 2016 do you expect to regain? And can you size this bucket in dollars?

Everything. I want to gain back everything. But of course, that's not practically possible, right? I mean, there are certain places where you lose the opportunity because these instruments once they're placed, especially to stick with instruments, they have a longer lifetime. So you have to wait until the next time they get replaced. So you have a bit of competition that you have to overcome. But that said, I mean, to your question on quantification, I won't give you the answer. I think some of the math you have to do yourself. But if you just draw straight line of the Waters' growth rate, and you can eyeball it or you can just draw a straight line to a regression, and you project it all the way to 2022 or 2021, you'll see there's a gap. That gap is the target that was given to the team to say, find me this. And they said, Udit, well, some of it is forever lost. I said, fine, but still find me this. And that was basically the breakdown of the initiatives and to not be totally unfair, right? Some of it is lost forever, but we had not implemented an e-commerce platform well enough, right? So that should give you some additional revenue growth. We had not contacted many of the contract testing organizations and the contract research and contract manufacturing organizations. Now we did, and that's growing gangbusters. I mean, that thing -- that particular segment of the business on a 2-year basis grows 25%. On a 2-year basis, remember, I told you the stacked growth rate for the overall business was 7%. So there is an untapped opportunity there. So I think the teams have figured out a way to bridge that gap. And so I think that's how I would start to think about quantifying it. There is a lot of opportunity. But again, I'll come back to what I said earlier. I am more excited about the sustainable improvements we've seen, not just a catch-up, right? It's rather, I would say, shortsighted to think about it as just a catch-up. The sustainable growth is coming now from the implementation of tools from e-commerce, from the new customers that we were never seeing before, from the innovation, and we've talked about it. And it's across the board. I mean, there is revitalized innovation across the board. And with the innovation board, we get to look at the operational aspects, but also bring in new products. And that's what Waters has been known for it -- for in its history. And we're back to that sort of approach.

Got it. I want to switch gears to geographies and specifically, China and India. Obviously, China, heard some mixed data points coming out of China more recently, including some pretty stringent COVID-related restrictions and emphasis on local sourcing. How are you thinking about sort of your Chinese business? Half of it is pharma. You also have new leadership on the ground there. Walk us through the momentum you see on the ground.

So, so far, so good. I mean, Q1 was -- we doubled the business. And I think you'll remember that in China, the pandemic hit in the first part of the year and the first quarter of the year, so the base was lower. But we doubled versus last year, so over 100% growth. Q2 was more like 40%, a bit slower. But year-to-date, 70% or so growth or at least first half of the year, 70% of the growth. And the story is not much different than what you're seeing in the rest of the globe, right? The instrument replacement. So if I just talk about the commercial aspects, the instrument replacement initiative. The Arc HPLC was designed for China, and it's done very well there. No surprise. The consumables business for the first half of the year did extremely well as labs opened up. Now that said, in China, we're seeing a lot more momentum in pharma and a lot less so in the academic and government pieces where it's a bit more sporadic. Then on the contract manufacturing and contract testing organizations on both fronts, on the food side, we contacted all these customers that we had never contacted. And that constituted 50% of the incremental sales growth that we saw in the first half of the year in the food segment. And then finally, on the contract manufacturing side, some of the largest biologics contract manufacturers are in China. And we are, by far, the largest supplier to them. So as they win, we win. In addition, we've seen some nice traction for our new products, right? So I know their top executives very well from my previous times, especially in the bioprocessing area. And they are the first ones who came to us and said, we want to try BioAccord in process development and not just in QA/QC. That gave us the idea of taking LC-MS right into the bioprocessing suite. And they've been partnering with us, trying to think through how we use LC-MS as an at-line online tool, and I'm super excited about it. And it's only a start. We've just started to scratch the surface on e-commerce. There's a lot more to do on the e-commerce front in China. There's a lot more to do in terms of maintaining the commercial excellence. I mean, we turned over the leader, but the leader has replaced a few of the next level of the next level. So we see a fairly significant runway going forward in China. And I'll remind you, it's 20% of our business. I feel very good. In China, it's a mix of small and large molecules, and that is showing us the benefit. Switching to India. India has by far been the fastest-growing market for us, even faster than China. In Q2, it was 60% growth or so. And there, the story is a little bit different. India is still the generic supplier for the globe. I think the vaccines, for good reason, get a lot of attention. But small molecules and the antivirals and not just antivirals, analgesics, all of which is produced in India has exploded, right? And we are, by far, the largest supplier for small molecule LC in QA/QC in India. And that's benefited our business. I would be remiss if I didn't say -- if I didn't mention how well our sales teams have collaborated with our customers and how well our service teams have collaborated with our customers, unbelievable. I mean, I was on the call with the India team last week and 2 weeks ago with the China team. And the access to customers for sales teams has been sort of sporadic, but the service teams have gone in and they said, "Look, I mean, there is more work than we ever had because people are buying these new instruments." In fact, one contract manufacturer in India bought, I think, is it 70 LCs, which from an India perspective is a large, large purchase. So we feel rather good about those 2 markets. Still a lot more to do, especially in China.

Got it. I want to talk a little bit about sort of the commercial transformation that you outlined earlier, Udit, and specifically, hone in on 2 aspects of it. One was you're sort of focused on the CRO and CMO segment. And there, my question was around, are you seeing any evidence of share gains there from some of the recent sort of consolidation in the space as instrument providers look to get into the services business, et cetera? And then separately, on some of these new initiatives that you've put in place, you mentioned the innovation board. But even beyond that, you've sort of brought the markets and products groups together and integrated sort of commercial with R&D. Can you just walk us through those 2 aspects of the transformation?

Sure. Thanks, Tejas. Look, on the contract manufacturing side, indeed, some customers have come to us, both on the CRO and the CDMO side and said, "Look, we want to work more closely with you because some of your competitors have gone into that space," and they're a bit anxious about it, right? I won't overplay it because there's also the flip side because they acquired a CRO or a CDMO, and they start to move in that direction. However, in those cases, too, we have long-standing agreements, which places Waters as instruments. And as I mentioned, it's a durable segment. Once you start using a column, you don't change it no matter how many acquisitions occur of these different companies. So again, being -- the durability of the segment helps us, but there is no doubt for newer contracts, these customers find it easier to work with us. And it's a small benefit. I would not overplay it. Then on your question on innovation, I think 2 things I would point out. One, bringing together the products and the market group and putting them under one leader really benefits and allows Waters to go back to our original history, where we had 2 sources of innovation coming into our development team. One was de novo research, right? So what is it -- what are the big problems to solve in the industry, right? Can we use ambient ionization to examine proteins and molecules? Can we separate the -- separate process from the product in bioprocessing? I mean, so really fundamental problems, they come from the research side. And the second was from -- and this was going just fine going -- because R&D was together. Where we sort of lost a little bit of focus was bringing ideas from the commercial side and bringing them right into development. So for instance, the Arc HPLC, right? This is a need that the China team identified and said if we were to make the instrument just a little bit more robust here and here, the customers will benefit. And that came into development to the late comer, and very quickly, we developed a solution, and it's gone off really well. So I think that has benefited us quite a bit. Now how is that operationalized? That's operationalized, one, through the innovation board, which I chair. So we bring R&D folks from TA, from Waters, from all over the globe together once a month, and we review 3 things. We say what is the unmet need? Second, what is the technology proof of concept? And third, what is the business case? And if you can answer these 3 questions in a compelling way, we then allow you to take the program into development. And these are some of the best discussions I've had. And very often, we bring external challenges into these discussions for targeted discussions to say, "Well, are we drinking our own Kool-Aid from a technical standpoint?" Are the publications refereed? And then from a business case standpoint, this is where we benefited a lot, bringing in some of our commercial people into the R&D space as well and debating and discussing. It's early days. I mean, conceptually, it looks fine. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the organization. As I mentioned earlier, it's a highly collaborative team. So nobody feels like, oh, will you change the organization? There's not a big fire around this. I mean, very often, when you go to organizations and you make organizational changes, there's a big change management program. Of course, there is a bit of change management here. But what is amazing about Waters is you don't have to do a lot of massaging. And people quickly understand, and we're already working in the new way of doing things. And as I said, I mean, here, the pandemic has been an advantage and a disadvantage. Global teams are able to collaborate better. Local teams are not seeing each other as much as they should.

Yes. On the financials, Udit, I mean, one of the questions that's come up is just sort of the first half momentum continuing into the second half as the comps get tougher and you face a bit of a headwind in terms of fewer selling days, et cetera. How confident are you about sort of the growth acceleration sort of being sustainable here over the medium term?

I think you answered some of the question yourself. Look, I mean the first half of the year, we've grown roughly 27% organically, right? And I think if you look at our full year guidance, it's about 13% to 15% organic growth. That calls for the second half on a stacked basis. So first year -- first half of the year on the stack basis, and if you just ignore last year, it is about 7%. The second half is about 6% on a much higher base. And you'll remember that Q4 was the first quarter of our sort of commercial turnaround, and we came out of the gates very strong. So the base is very high, plus 6 fewer days. So it's not an easy comp. And if you just do the math, it's roughly 6-ish percent. And I think if you recall, we talked about this at a different -- in a different setting. This is a mid-single-digit end market, right? So QA/QC in the pharma space is roughly 4% to 6%. We're operating at the higher end of that no matter how you look at it. And so that, I think, is a reasonable and probably an ambitious target. And over the mid to long term, we should expect something similar, right? Market grows 4%, we'll be higher than that. If it's 5%, we'll be higher. If it's 6%, it's higher. And based on innovation and commercial execution and what we have in our minds on portfolio development, I feel reasonably okay that we'll be able to meet that.

Got it. Quickly on any supply chain disruptions or inflationary pressures that you've seen spike here in the last couple of months?

So I think inflation-wise, really 2 pieces, right? One is freight. The second is labor costs, right, overshot of the labor cost. And in -- on the freight side, we've been able to offset it through efficiency improvement as well as passing it on to the customers, and there's not much sort of noise on that front. On the labor cost, I mean, it creates a higher base. And I think it's a competitive market and something we're dealing with through efficiency improvements. And as long as the top line goes, there's enough leverage to take care of that as well in the system. And in terms of supply chain issues, I mean, it's no mystery that there are certain -- there are shortages in certain electronic components and certain other components. We have so far been able to manage it. It is a lot of effort. I mean, our teams are meeting virtually every day, looking at our supply chain, looking at specific components all through the supply chain and the weakest link usually emerges. So there are teams looking at this. I mean, so far, I would say, knock on wood, the teams have worked it out. And I've been on calls with the CEOs of suppliers in -- all across the globe just to make sure that we had an understanding of what business we're in as well. I think that helps. So when we have the conversation, we talk about, of course, what product is short and what we need to do together. And then we talk a bit about what our role is in public health, right? And I think at this point in time, people understand. So we are so far, I would say, able to manage it, but something that we're keeping a close eye on.

Got it. Capital deployment. I mean, in your mind, I mean, just in terms of some of the high-growth adjacencies that you're looking at, can you just outline sort of your top 3 sort of priority areas there? And what does the deal pipeline and valuations look like today?

So I think the first one on the adjacencies or the areas, right? It always starts with the core. And we're a strong QA/QC player, strong in parts of development. And we want to do everything to strengthen our LC, our mass spec, our consumables, our informatics portfolio. We're leaders in that area and in the materials testing area. And we continue to look in that area because it's a robust area. It is sustainable, durable sort of revenues and margins. And we want to continue to make sure that there is strength there. And there are several ideas on that front. For instance, on the column side, what are the technologies to increase the ability to separate larger molecules, right? And we are the best in the world in developing columns and column chemistry. So shouldn't we be looking at what is the column chemistry that is relevant to separate mRNAs even better, right? And I think that's an area of activity. Not a lot of high-quality targets, but still an area of activity, right? So that's where it starts. And then when you talk about adjacencies, we've really thought about it in 2 ways. One, of course, what are the faster-growing areas financially? And you can just look at the math there. But secondly, what are the problems to solve where Waters can make a difference? And I think that's a more fundamentally sound way of looking at it. So what are the big problems to solve in the industry where we can bring our capabilities? And I would say there are 3 areas. First, in general, in the biologics arena, on the reagent side and on bioprocessing. This is one sort of area. On the reagent side, we believe there are significant problems to solve in separating these and purifying these new -- newer modalities. And having a deeper understanding of reagents as well as the chemistry will allow us to solve those problems. So that's one problem to solve and that makes reagents an interesting area for us, especially biologics reagents, NGS reagents, an interesting area for us to explore. Second is bioprocessing. I don't need to tell you more about that. But how does Waters play in it? It's not by buying a filtration company. None is available. That's I think a moot point. But it's not by buying a filtration company. It's by actually thinking, really thinking through where we can take our analytical capabilities and decouple the process from the product, right? The largest challenge as an engineer, the largest challenge I felt in bioprocessing versus small molecule processing was once you defined the process, you got stuck with it for 20 years, no matter what the development in technology was. Each time you made a small tweak, you had to refile it with the FDA. And none of your senior managers would allow you to modify a process for a multibillion-dollar drug, right? But if you were able to separate the process from the product, if you could say, you know what, why do you care how I manufacture something as long as I can assure you it is the same thing? And that is hostage to analytical techniques, right? And so we are coming at it from that direction and saying, what analytical techniques, LC-MS, other -- and there are several other techniques that one can use to separate the process from the product. That's the problem. And there's not -- I think there, partnerships have a larger role than M&A. We think there are bioprocessing experts, and we are analytical instrument experts. And if we put the 2 together and have a discussion on what problem we're trying to solve, we'll make a much better team. The third area is -- or second bulk area is molecular diagnostics. Again, big problems to solve, unbiased detection on biomarkers is a key benefit to medicine and where we believe mass spec has a huge role to play. We already showed it in the pandemic, working with the U.K. government. And we have a research use-only kit that looks at the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. I mean, the fact that it was a pandemic, it just took us -- and the fact that we were not active with regulatory and commercial and market access capabilities in the past in that area took us a little bit longer than it might have otherwise. Then -- and then we would have seen -- had that been the case, had we been able to surmount the challenge, we would have seen LC-MS as a tool during the pandemic to do testing. I think that, that experience has benefited us. And we think getting into the diagnostic space with LC-MS will help us. And there, we're really targeting a strategic entry into that space, right? So we have the capability with the instrument but somebody who has assay capabilities, some of whom has regulatory and commercial capabilities and maybe even automation capabilities to make it more accessible would be a reasonable target both for collaboration and for purchase, perhaps. And then finally, the last area is informatics, right? And informatics, we have a strong base with Empower. We want to make sure that we take Empower and make it much more easily accessible to many, many more customers. And there are several ideas on that front. So those are the 3 areas for bio, both in reagents and in processing, molecular diagnostics and informatics, 3 areas in the health care space that we have prioritized. And in terms of deal pipeline, it's a challenge, right? The valuations are through the roof for, I would say, smaller targets. And you won't see us super active in that area. But there are mid-sized companies where -- who we can collaborate with and perhaps even think about working more closely together. So that you will only hear about after the fact. But there is a ton of activity there. And again, Waters has not been active in that area in the past. But I think with the new sort of management team, and if you look at just our roster now, virtually everyone has had M&A experience, integration experience. And we feel reasonably confident that we can identify targets and bring them into our fold.

Got it. That was a fantastic overview of it. So thanks so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it. And I hope you enjoy the rest of the conference.

Thank you, Tejas, and thanks for having us.

Of course.

Take care. Bye-bye.

Bye.