MaxCyte Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Second-quarter revenue fell 15% year over year to $7.3 million, though results exceeded management’s expectations and improved sequentially. Lower license revenue, instrument-placement timing and prior-year processing assembly purchases weighed on core revenue, while operating expenses declined 25% to $15.8 million.
• MaxCyte’s new enterprise-level partnership with Genentech expands its commercial model beyond single-program licenses, potentially generating recurring platform, license, milestone, instrument and consumables revenue across multiple cell-therapy programs.
• The company maintained its 2026 revenue outlook of $30 million to $32 million and expects low-single-digit growth in the second half, driven by instrument placements, stable license and processing assembly demand, and rising CASGEVY-related royalties.

MaxCyte NASDAQ: MXCT reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $7.3 million, down 15% from $8.5 million a year earlier, as lower license revenue, timing of instrument placements and prior-year processing assembly purchases affected results. Management said the quarter came in ahead of its expectations and represented progress toward stabilizing the business before returning to growth in the second half of the year.

Core revenue, which includes instruments, licenses and processing assemblies, declined 21% year over year to $6.5 million. SPL program-related revenue, consisting primarily of royalties, rose to $0.8 million from $0.3 million in the prior-year period.

President and Chief Executive Officer Maher Masoud said MaxCyte entered 2026 facing inventory drawdowns by its largest customer and the effects of discontinued partner clinical programs. He said those headwinds have largely subsided and that the company achieved sequential revenue growth from the first quarter, led by instrument placements across its product portfolio.

Revenue mix and profitability

Instrument revenue was $1.8 million in the second quarter, compared with $2.1 million a year earlier. License revenue declined to $1.8 million from $2.6 million, while processing assembly revenue fell to $2.3 million from $3.1 million.

Chief Financial Officer Parmeet Ahuja said core revenue was affected by lower license revenue tied to discontinued partner programs, instrument-placement timing and a difficult comparison with the second quarter of 2025. The prior-year processing assembly result included purchases accelerated by tariff-related dynamics, he said. Excluding those purchases, processing assembly revenue was relatively flat year over year.

SeQure generated $0.5 million in revenue, including license and service revenue, and continued to show year-over-year momentum, according to Ahuja. Masoud said the company expects year-over-year growth in SeQure assay services and licenses for 2026.

Second-quarter gross margin was 77%, compared with 82% a year earlier. Ahuja attributed the decline primarily to product mix, as instruments carry lower margins than licenses. The company expects gross margins in the mid-70% range during the second half.

Operating expenses declined 25% to $15.8 million from $21.2 million in the prior-year quarter, reflecting the full run-rate benefits of restructuring and cost-efficiency measures implemented in 2025. Ahuja said the company does not expect operating expenses to rise meaningfully from current levels, despite continued product-development investments.

MaxCyte ended the quarter with $141.9 million in cash equivalents and investments and no debt. The company has repurchased about $5.5 million of stock under its $10 million repurchase authorization and said it intends to execute most of the program before year-end.

Genentech partnership expands commercial model

During the quarter, MaxCyte announced a multi-platform technology license partnership with Genentech. Under the agreement, Genentech has access to MaxCyte’s ExPERT GTx platform, electroporation technology and analytical assessment capabilities for research, clinical development and manufacturing workflows.

Masoud described the agreement as an enterprise-level relationship supporting multiple cell therapy programs rather than a traditional single-program licensing arrangement. He said the structure is intended to shift more revenue capture to earlier stages of the customer life cycle, while providing recurring license and platform-access revenue, milestone opportunities, and demand for instruments, processing assemblies and analytical technologies.

The company said the enterprise model complements rather than replaces its strategic platform license, or SPL, model, which remains focused on biotech customers developing individual therapeutic programs. MaxCyte has 30 total licensed partnerships, including 29 SPL partners and Genentech.

Management said it expects to pursue similar enterprise agreements with other large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, although Masoud noted such discussions can take considerable time. He said the Genentech arrangement currently supports two clinical allogeneic programs as well as preclinical research programs.

CASGEVY royalties and pipeline outlook

SPL program-related revenue totaled $0.8 million in the quarter and consisted almost entirely of royalty revenue. Ahuja said the year-over-year increase reflected continued adoption and commercial sales growth for Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ CASGEVY.

Masoud cited Vertex’s reported second-quarter CASGEVY revenue of approximately $76 million, up about 75% sequentially and 150% year over year. Vertex also reported that more patients received CASGEVY infusions in the first half of 2026 than in all of 2025, according to Masoud.

MaxCyte said five partner programs could begin commercial launches over the next several years, including as early as 2027. Management cautioned that individual programs carry clinical and commercial risk but said the portfolio’s breadth could support future core revenue, regulatory milestones and royalties.

Guidance maintained

MaxCyte reiterated its full-year 2026 outlook for total revenue of $30 million to $32 million, including $25 million to $27 million of core revenue and $5 million from SPL milestones and royalties. The company expects low-single-digit year-over-year revenue growth in the second half, with fourth-quarter revenue slightly higher than the third quarter because of typical year-end budget activity.

The company’s SPL outlook includes $3 million of milestone revenue and $2 million of royalties. MaxCyte had already received $3 million of milestone revenue in the first quarter. It expects to finish 2026 with at least $130.5 million in cash equivalents and investments, excluding any additional share repurchases.

Management said second-half growth is expected to be driven primarily by instrument placements, including continued adoption of the ExPERT DTx platform, stable license revenue and processing assembly demand. Masoud said the inventory reduction at the company’s largest customer has run its course and is not expected to affect the second half.

About MaxCyte (NASDAQ:MXCT)

MaxCyte, Inc NASDAQ: MXCT is a clinical‐stage cell therapy platform company that develops and commercializes proprietary flow electroporation technology for the delivery of macromolecules into living cells. The company's instruments and consumables are designed to support research, preclinical development and clinical‐scale manufacturing of cell therapies across a variety of modalities, including engineered T cells, natural killer (NK) cells and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) therapies.

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