ImmuCell (NASDAQ:ICCC) reported a record first quarter of 2026, with management saying the company’s narrowed focus on its First Defense calf scours prevention portfolio helped drive its first-ever quarter above $10 million in product sales.
President and Chief Executive Officer Olivier te Boekhorst said the company is beginning to see results from strategic changes made in 2025, including a sharper focus on the calf scours market, leadership investments and manufacturing yield improvements.
“We achieved our first-ever $10 million revenue quarter, which is an exciting milestone for our commercial team and our manufacturing team,” te Boekhorst said. He added that ImmuCell also achieved 45% gross margins despite costs tied to legacy Re-Tain assets that shifted from product development expense to cost of goods sold.
First-quarter sales and earnings rise
Chief Financial Officer Timothy Fiori said product sales for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, were approximately $10.4 million, up 28.4% from what had been a record first quarter in 2025. Domestic sales increased 35.7% year over year to $9.7 million, while international sales declined 30.2% to about $600,000.
Fiori said Tri-Shield, ImmuCell’s flagship First Defense product, posted particularly strong growth, with sales increasing 38.5% compared with the first quarter of 2025.
Gross margin improved to 45% of product sales from 41.6% in the prior-year quarter. Fiori attributed the year-over-year expansion to pricing and manufacturing performance, partially offset by a 2.4 percentage point headwind from former Re-Tain-related costs now included in cost of goods sold.
Operating expenses increased to $2.7 million from $2.2 million a year earlier. Fiori said the increase was driven by higher general and administrative costs, largely related to leadership investments, and higher sales expenses associated with expanded commercial activity after a backorder management period in early 2025. Those increases were partially offset by lower product development expenses due to the shift in Re-Tain-related costs.
Net income rose 34% to $1.9 million, or $0.21 per share, compared with $1.4 million, or $0.16 per share, in the first quarter of 2025. EBITDA increased to $2.6 million from $2.3 million.
ImmuCell ended the quarter with $6.8 million in cash and $8.7 million in inventory. Working capital increased to $15 million from $13 million at the end of 2025.
Company emphasizes First Defense strategy
Te Boekhorst said ImmuCell’s strategic focus on First Defense is supported by market conditions, including a sharp increase in calf values. He said calf values have increased almost sevenfold over the past three years, while scours affects up to 15% of pre-weaning calves and is the leading cause of death in those animals.
According to te Boekhorst, scours creates up to $1 billion of economic burden in the U.S. through treatment costs, performance losses and mortality. He said U.S. farmers spent an estimated $93 million on scours prevention products in 2025, representing about 14% year-over-year growth. In the first quarter of 2026, the overall scours biologics category grew an estimated 11% year over year.
Te Boekhorst said ImmuCell estimates that First Defense accounted for nearly 80% of total category dollar expansion during the quarter, based on end-customer revenue reported by distribution partners and market research firms.
The company said its share of U.S. category spend increased from 29.1% to 35.2%, while its share of animals treated increased from 15% to 18.1% between 2021 and the first quarter of 2026.
“We believe this performance is driven by an increase in sales activity that started last quarter and the market’s increasing confidence in our product availability,” te Boekhorst said. He also cited premium pricing and positioning as factors, noting that First Defense provides immediate protection for newborn calves against three common pathogens that cause scours and includes other bioactives derived from colostrum.
Manufacturing output improves
Management said manufacturing capacity and product availability have historically been bigger challenges for ImmuCell than demand. Te Boekhorst said the company reached a record output level of more than 450,000 manufacturing units per month in the first quarter, compared with 380,000 per month in 2025, 344,000 in 2024 and 252,000 in 2023.
He said the improvement came from better planning, closer alignment of sales and production forecasts, more balanced workflows, reduced waste and scrap events, targeted overtime and incremental equipment investments to increase throughput.
“Yield improvement is challenging and comes from doing a lot of different things really well every single day,” te Boekhorst said. “There’s no magic bullet or single big lever.”
During the question-and-answer session, te Boekhorst said recent improvements included adding overtime at critical manufacturing steps, reducing waste and making minor capital investments such as larger tanks and additional membranes to relieve bottlenecks. He said the company does not have a specific maximum capacity number in mind and is pursuing continuous yield improvement.
ImmuCell also said it reached a $2 million settlement with a former contract manufacturer. Te Boekhorst said the company plans to deploy the cash toward expanding capacity to meet long-term demand, including more advanced process flows, state-of-the-art drying equipment and assets previously purchased for Re-Tain, the subclinical mastitis product the company had been developing before shifting its focus to First Defense in December 2025.
Sales expansion targets domestic and international opportunities
Te Boekhorst said ImmuCell hired an international business development executive with decades of dairy industry experience to help move the company from a reactive to a more strategic approach to international opportunities. He said international expansion will require disciplined market prioritization, regulatory planning and capacity alignment.
In the U.S., ImmuCell has expanded sales territories by three, rather than the two previously announced, because of domestic market momentum. In response to an investor question, te Boekhorst said the company is targeting regions with calves across both dairy and beef markets.
Although the company has traditionally been more focused on dairy, te Boekhorst said ImmuCell is seeing significant increases in beef as calf values rise. He said the company believes more customer contact helps educate producers on how First Defense differs from competing vaccines and supports revenue growth.
Management also discussed First Defense bulk, described by te Boekhorst as a non-USDA-approved functional feed product that uses the same colostrum and First Defense technology but a different manufacturing process. He said it is offered at a lower price point and is designed for operations that prefer adding the product to water, colostrum or milk for group feeding rather than treating calves individually. The product was launched in new formulations in the second half of 2025 and remains in a launch phase, he said.
Looking ahead, te Boekhorst said the company’s top priority remains execution across sales, farm management, vaccine manufacturing, colostrum processing and support functions. Joe Diaz of Lytham Partners said ImmuCell expects to discuss results for the quarter ending June 30, 2026, during the week of Aug. 10, 2026.
About ImmuCell (NASDAQ:ICCC)
ImmuCell Corporation (NASDAQ: ICCC) is a biotechnology company that develops, manufactures, and markets immunological products and diagnostic assays designed to enhance animal health in dairy and beef cattle. Headquartered in Portland, Maine, the company focuses on supporting herd health management through its portfolio of passive immunology solutions and veterinary diagnostics.
The company's flagship offering, CalfGuard natural colostrum supplement, is formulated to promote the passive transfer of antibodies in newborn calves and reduce the incidence of neonatal diseases.
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