First quarter: 1 January–31 March 2026

• Income from sales of consumables amounted to SEK 1.4 (0.9) million, an increase of approx. 60 percent.
• Net sales amounted to SEK 2.0 (3.7) million.
• Operating result (EBIT) of SEK -35.0 (-44.7) million.
• Profit after tax amounted to SEK -33.6 (-45.2) million.
• Earnings per share (EPS) before and after dilution amounted to SEK -1.77 (-20.09).
• Cash flow from operating activities totaled SEK -30.2 (-49.0) million.
• Cash flow for the period totaled SEK -34.3 (42.5) million.

Significant events during the quarter

• A large independent hospital in the southeastern United States is implementing ASTar.
• The first customer in the DACH region signs an ASTar contract for clinical use.
• Changes in commercial leadership in the United States.
• Two instruments are being shipped to Saudi Arabia for customer evaluations.
• The restructuring announced in autumn 2025 has now been implemented according to plan, delivering annual savings of approximately SEK 16 million.

Significant events after the quarter

• The FDA approves an expanded ASTar menu (version 2) for blood testing. The expanded panel includes 75% more bacteria–antibiotic combinations than the version 1 panel.
• Three new contracts signed in Italy.
• Q-linea publishes a study in Microbiology Spectrum (see page 4) and six articles at ESCMID, including three on using ASTar for non-blood tests (isolates).

CEO comment

Scaling with confidence
The first quarter of 2026 saw accelerated commercial execution in anticipation of FDA clearance of our expanded ASTar® panel which was received on April 15.

ASTar now offers by far the most comprehensive rapid phenotypic AST panel available in the market, providing approximately twice the number of drug–bug combinations compared with the next closest competitor in the U.S. Importantly, the panel includes a number of antibiotics and pathogens that are entirely unique to ASTar, reinforcing our leadership in addressing antimicrobial resistance challenges and supporting more confident, earlier clinical decision‑making.

Commercial momentum in the U.S. has been building up towards clearance. ASTar went live in Florida during Q1 2026 and in parallel, we have established approximately half a dozen additional U.S. evaluations in anticipation of v2 clearance. We are now actively engaged in contracting discussions with customers who had been awaiting the expanded menu before moving forward. This pent‑up demand provides strong visibility into placements later in the year as contracting processes conclude.

Outside the U.S., progress across Europe and the Middle East remains robust. Three contracts in Italy were completed during April, converting a backlog from Q1, and we expect an additional Italian contract in the coming weeks. We signed our first contract in Austria, with installation and go‑live planned for May. Activity across Greece, Turkey, and the broader Balkans region has increased materially.

In the Gulf region, we shipped two additional instruments to Saudi Arabia. While certain customer project timelines have been affected by the broader regional situation, we are working closely with our partner AMICO to support hospitals across the GCC. The project in Kuwait has been most impacted from a logistics standpoint; however, we received a successful evaluation and report from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health and will proceed once conditions allow.

We are now supporting multi‑hospital projects in both Ukraine and Vietnam, with expected purchasing decisions during 2026. In parallel, the Asian sub‑continent remains highly active, with discussions underway in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka—regions with a particularly high burden of antimicrobial resistance. In the UK, two new projects were initiated during the quarter as AMR remains a priority for the NHS despite a challenging fiscal environment for the hospitals.

Following successful conversions of previous Accelerate Pheno users to ASTar, we are now seeing our first requests to switch from other on-market systems. In addition to the breadth of the ASTar panel, customers consistently highlight the simplicity of the workflow, requiring less than two minutes of technician time, with flexibility to load samples either in batches or continuously around the clock. For resource-constrained labs, this is a major factor in platform selection.

Consumables usage continued to build as our installed base grows. March was a record month for global shipments. Italy and the GCC were the main contributors, with U.S. usage expected to increase further through the second quarter as additional instruments come online.

Our operations team completed the transition to fully internal production of consumables at the start of the year, resulting in a significant reduction in cost of goods sold. Additional COGS initiatives are underway, reflecting our increasing confidence in forecasted volumes for both instruments and consumables through 2026 and 2027. We also successfully completed our organisational restructuring, delivering annual run‑rate savings in excess of SEK 16 million. These savings are already visible, with average monthly operating expenses of approximately SEK 11 million during the quarter, expected to trend lower through Q2. Consolidation of our Uppsala offices will be completed during the second quarter, yielding further cost savings and benefits from closer cross‑functional collaboration.

Looking ahead, our primary focus is now on converting the U.S. customer pipeline that has accumulated ahead of the expanded panel clearance. Visibility for placements in the second half of the year is strong, with timing largely dependent on customer‑specific contracting processes. During Q3 2026, we plan to launch a dedicated Isolate Kit to enable efficient rapid AST testing from isolates for RUO applications. At ESCMID in Munich during April, six posters were presented by Q‑linea and our customers, with three highlighting the advantages of ASTar in supporting rapid AST from isolates.

Finally, our close collaboration with leading pharmaceutical companies continues to yield strong results, particularly for next‑generation antibiotics. The unique ASTar disc design—with 336 wells compared to the industry‑standard 96‑well plates—provides unmatched flexibility to expand the panel without compromise.
We enter the remainder of 2026 with growing commercial traction, a strengthened cost base, and a clear focus on execution.

Uppsala, 29 April 2026, Stuart Gander, CEO

This report has not been reviewed by the auditor of the Company. The report has been prepared in a Swedish original and an English translation. In the event of any discrepancies between the two, the Swedish version is to apply.

Presentation
Q-linea invites investors, analysts and the media to an audiocast and teleconference (in English) today, 30^th of April 2026, at 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. (CEST). CEO Stuart Gander and CFO Christer Samuelsson will present Q-linea, comment on the interim report for the January to March 2026 period and respond to questions.
To participate via webcast, please visit the following link: https://q-linea.events.inderes.com/q1-report-2026 

There will be an opportunity to ask questions in writing at the webcast.
If you would like to ask questions verbally via conference call, please register at the following link:
https://events.inderes.com/q-linea/q1-report-2026/dial-in

You will receive a telephone number and a meeting ID to log into the conference call after registering. There will be an opportunity to ask questions verbally during the conference call.