Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR): Business Model Canvas [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're digging into this oncology firm's strategy, trying to see past the noise to where the real money is being made in preclinical research. Honestly, their model is clearly pivoting: while core research services brought in $52.3 million in FY2025, the real story is the high-margin data licensing stream hitting $4.7 million-a new high for them-all built on their proprietary bank of over 1400 Patient-Derived Xenograft models. This canvas breaks down exactly how they connect their unique resources to pharma clients seeking faster drug development, so stick around to see the full nine blocks of their operation.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) - Canvas Business Model: Key Partnerships

You're looking at the partnerships that fuel Champions Oncology, Inc.'s engine as of late 2025. These aren't just names on a slide; they are the conduits for data and models that drive revenue.

Collaborations with pharma and biotech for co-development.

The push into radiopharmaceutical services was enabled by screening over 30 Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX) models in direct collaboration with pharmaceutical and biotech partners. This work directly supports the launch of new service workflows. Furthermore, the monetization of the proprietary data set, which is a direct output of these research services, began in earnest. The first data licensing deal closed, contributing significantly to the overall financial picture.

Here's how the revenue streams tied to these collaborations performed in the last full fiscal year:

Strategic alliances with hospitals for TumorBank expansion.

Champions Oncology, Inc. actively grows its TumorBank through relationships with hospitals and academic institutions, securing the necessary tumor tissue and implanted models. This expansion is a key strategic effort to increase the breadth of PDX Models, especially those addressing resistance or unique cancer sub-types. You can see the investment behind this expansion in the Research and Development spend.

• R&D expense for platform development and TumorBank expansion in FY2025: $6.8 million.
• R&D expense for platform development and TumorBank expansion in FY2024: $9.5 million.

The company ended the fiscal year ended April 30, 2025, with a cash balance of $9.8 million.

Academic institutions providing patient-derived tissue access.

The access to patient-derived tissue from academic and hospital partners is foundational to the proprietary PDX bank. This resource is what underpins the Translational Oncology Solutions business line serving pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The focus remains on increasing the depth of characterization for these models.

Outsourced lab services for specialized work like radiolabeling.

Operational efficiencies have been key to margin improvement, which included optimizing costs related to outsourced lab services. The Cost of Oncology Revenue for the twelve months ended April 30, 2025, was $28.4 million. For the third quarter of fiscal 2025, the research service margin improved to 48%, up from 35% for the same period last year, partly due to reductions in outsourced lab services.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) - Canvas Business Model: Key Activities

You're looking at the core engine of Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) as of late 2025, focusing on what they actually do to generate revenue and advance their pipeline. It's all about the research services built on their proprietary models.

The primary activity is conducting preclinical oncology research services (TOS). For the fiscal year ended April 30, 2025, the research services business generated $52.3 million in revenue, representing a 4% increase year-over-year. This core business has served approximately 500 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies over the last ten years.

This service delivery is underpinned by developing and characterizing Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX) models. Champions Oncology maintains a proprietary bank of approximately 1,500 highly characterized PDX models in its TumorBank.

A key growth activity is monetizing multiomic data through licensing deals. This emerging revenue stream contributed $4.7 million to the total fiscal year 2025 revenue of $56.9 million. Management noted generating data sales for 3 consecutive quarters as of the first quarter of fiscal year 2026.

The company also focuses on advancing drug discovery via Corellia subsidiary. To reflect a focus on core services and efficiencies, Research and Development expense for the fiscal year 2025 declined by 28% to $6.8 million compared to the prior year, which included reduced investment in Corellia.

A significant recent expansion involves expanding radiopharmaceutical services platform capabilities. Champions Oncology announced the full commercial launch of this platform in July 2025. This was supported by screening more than 30 PDX models with partners. The updated radioactive materials license now supports ten key isotopes, including Lu-177 and Ac-225.

Here's a quick look at the financial results that frame these activities for the full fiscal year 2025:

The platform's integrated workflows support studies across these modalities:

• - In vitro studies.
• - Ex-vivo biodistribution studies.
• - Therapeutic efficacy studies.

The core service revenue breakdown for fiscal year 2025 shows the relative contribution of the different research offerings:

• - Pharmacology services revenue: $48.6 million.
• - Other TOS revenue (flow cytometry and SaaS): $3.7 million.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) - Canvas Business Model: Key Resources

You're looking at the core assets that make Champions Oncology, Inc. tick, the things they own or control that are absolutely essential to delivering their value proposition. Honestly, for a company like this, the resources aren't just buildings; they're the proprietary biological and digital libraries they've spent years building up. If you're assessing their moat, this is where you look.

• - Proprietary PDX bank with over 1400 highly characterized models. The actual size reported is approximately 1,500 Patient Derived Xenograft (PDX) models in their TumorBank.
• - Extensive multiomic data and advanced computational analytics.
• - Specialized lab infrastructure and radiochemistry equipment.
• - Scientific expertise and experienced project leadership.

The sheer volume and quality of their biological models are a massive differentiator. It's not just having models; it's how well they're characterized. This asset underpins their core service revenue.

Here's a quick look at the scale of their data and infrastructure assets as of their Fiscal Year 2025 reporting:

The computational side is rapidly becoming as important as the biological bank. They are actively scaling this data platform, which is key to future growth. The EVP and General Manager of the Data Platform noted that the future of AI-driven drug discovery hinges on access to rich, clinically grounded datasets like theirs. They even brought in Tammer Farid, formerly of Illumina, in November 2025 to lead this data business unit, which tells you how seriously they're taking it.

The specialized lab infrastructure has seen recent, concrete investment, defintely. They announced the full commercial launch of their radiopharmaceutical services platform in July 2025, which required expanding their radioactive materials license and completing the necessary radiochemistry infrastructure. This isn't abstract; it means they can now run integrated workflows, including in vitro, ex-vivo biodistribution, and efficacy studies across those ten supported isotopes. That's tangible, high-value equipment and licensing they control.

Finally, the human capital is being reorganized for the next phase. Rob Brainin stepped in as the new Chief Executive Officer in September 2025 to lead this growth. Their scientific team is distributed globally to support studies faster. If onboarding new data scientists takes longer than expected, the data platform scaling could slow down, which is a near-term risk to watch. Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) - Canvas Business Model: Value Propositions

You're looking at the core value Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) delivers to its partners in the pharma and biotech space as of late 2025. It's all about de-risking and accelerating their drug pipelines using their proprietary models and data.

Accelerating oncology drug development with clinically relevant models.

Champions Oncology's primary value is providing confidence early on. They claim to have the largest and most annotated bank of clinically relevant patient-derived xenograft (PDX) and primary hematological malignancy models. This is the foundation for their Translational Oncology Solutions (TOS) offering. To show this work is current, they presented five studies at SITC 2025, focusing on advancing ADCs, immunotherapy, CAR-T, and transcriptomic screening.

Providing end-to-end preclinical and clinical research solutions.

They position themselves as a provider of end-to-end oncology R&D solutions. Looking at the most recent quarter, Q1 Fiscal Year 2026 (ending July 31, 2025), the core research services business was the clear driver, contributing $13.7 million out of the total $14.0 million revenue for the period. This shows the services backbone remains critical.

Offering high-margin, scalable data licensing for AI/ML drug discovery.

This is where the future margin expansion is supposed to come from. The company launched what they call a high-margin data business. For the full fiscal year 2025 (ending April 30, 2025), data license revenue hit $4.7 million. The previous quarter, Q3 FY2025, included $4.5 million from their first major, one-time data licensing deal, which was valued up to $8.0 million. As of Q1 FY2026, management noted they have generated data sales for 3 consecutive quarters. They are investing in this, increasing Research and Development expense by 43.2% to $2.1 million in Q1 FY2026, specifically to develop this data licensing platform.

Delivering integrated radiopharma workflows and testing.

Champions Oncology is now offering fully integrated workflows for radiopharmaceuticals, covering everything from biodistribution to efficacy testing using their clinically relevant tumor models. They support this with over 30 screened PDX models and a new radioactive materials license. However, this service area is currently impacting margins; the gross margin in Q1 FY2026 was 43%, which management attributed partly to increased outsourcing for radiolabeling work, compared to 50% in the year-ago quarter (Q1 FY2025).

You can see the direct link between investment and the data proposition in the R&D spend.

• Research and development expense increased 43.2% year-over-year in Q1 FY2026 to $2.1 million.
• Sales and marketing expense increased 10.5% in Q1 FY2026 to $1.9 million, tied to supporting the data license business growth.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Relationships

You're looking at how Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) manages its relationships with its clients, which is clearly shifting toward high-value, data-centric partnerships. This isn't just transactional; it's deeply scientific, reflecting the complexity of their preclinical oncology services.

Direct scientific engagement and expert consultation.

The foundation of the relationship is built on scientific access. Champions Oncology supports studies globally using its large bank of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. As of late 2025, they maintain 1400 Highly Characterized PDX Models, which directly feeds into these consultative engagements. The company has completed over 2500 Client Studies, showing a deep history of direct project interaction. This engagement style is supported by commercial investments; for fiscal year 2025, Sales and Marketing expense rose 7% to $7.5 million, partly driven by the business development team supporting the emerging data platform and increased conference attendance, which facilitates these direct scientific discussions.

The shift to data monetization also requires a new level of consultation. The launch of their radiopharmaceutical services platform, which includes biodistribution studies, requires expert consultation on isotope testing, directly engaging clients on complex new therapeutic modalities.

Dedicated project leadership for core research agreements.

For core research agreements, Champions Oncology assigns dedicated project leadership. This structure is designed to accelerate study results by having principal investigators interface directly with expert scientific business development and project leadership to design and execute programs. This focus on execution is critical when considering the financial scale; their research services revenue for fiscal year 2025 was $52.3 million, a 4% increase year-over-year, showing that the core service delivery mechanism is stable and growing, even as the data stream emerges. The research service margins themselves improved to 48% in Q3 fiscal year 2025, up from 35% the prior year, suggesting that efficient project leadership is translating into better profitability.

High-touch, consultative sales for complex service programs.

The sales approach for complex programs is consultative, which makes sense given the high-value nature of the work. The company returned to profitability in fiscal year 2025, posting an Adjusted EBITDA of $7.1 million compared to a loss of $3.9 million in fiscal 2024. This financial turnaround, alongside a 14% increase in total revenue to a record $57 million for fiscal year 2025, suggests that the consultative sales process is effectively closing deals that contribute significantly to the bottom line. The gross margin expanded to 50% for the full year 2025, up from 42% the prior year, indicating that the complex services being sold are high-quality and priced appropriately.

The company also tests 125 Standard Care / Approved Therapeutics, which requires a high-touch sales process to integrate their PDX models with established testing protocols.

Long-term corporate alliances for sustained R&D support.

Champions Oncology is strategically focusing on strengthening relationships with big pharma, viewing these customers as more resilient and likely to engage in larger, multi-study programs. This is the definition of a long-term corporate alliance. The emerging data platform is a key driver here; the company secured initial data licensing deals, contributing $4.7 million to revenue in fiscal year 2025. While these initial data licensing agreements are purely licensing agreements without milestones or royalties yet, management sees these relationships evolving into deeper partnerships over time. The Q1 fiscal 2026 revenue of $14 million shows continued reliance on these established relationships, with research services contributing $13.7 million of that total.

Here's a quick look at the revenue mix supporting these relationships as of the end of fiscal 2025:

If onboarding takes 14+ days, churn risk rises, which is why dedicated project leadership is so vital to maintaining these high-value relationships.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) - Canvas Business Model: Channels

You're looking at how Champions Oncology, Inc. gets its services and data products into the hands of biopharma R&D departments, which is key to their recent financial turnaround. The channel strategy clearly leans into direct engagement and scaling the data platform.

Direct sales team targeting biopharma R&D departments.

Investment in the team driving direct sales saw an increase in fiscal year 2025. Sales and marketing expense for fiscal year 2025 reached $7.5 million, which was an increase of $481,000, or 7%, compared to fiscal year 2024's $7.1 million. This compensation increase was primarily driven by the data business development team. More recently, for the three months ended July 31, 2025 (Q1 FY2026), sales and marketing expense was $1.9 million, up 10.5% (or $176,000) from the prior year period, specifically related to compensation expense supporting the data license business growth. Over the last ten years, the company has performed studies for approximately 500 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, showing a base of potential direct clients.

Scientific conferences and industry events for lead generation.

Increased conference attendance was explicitly cited as an additional marketing initiative contributing to the $7.5 million sales and marketing expense in fiscal year 2025. The company showcased its work, including a SITC 2025 poster collection, demonstrating engagement at key industry events.

Lumin bioinformatics platform for data access (SaaS).

The Lumin platform is a significant channel for data access, contributing directly to revenue streams. For the full fiscal year 2025, data license revenue totaled $4.7 million. The Lumin platform itself, which includes SaaS components, is part of the Other TOS revenue, which was $3.7 million in fiscal year 2025. Looking at the most recent quarter, the three months ended July 31, 2025, TOS Data License Revenue was $311,000 (in thousands), compared to $0 for the same period in 2024. The platform is built upon a database integrating over 12,000 patients' data and curates approximately 2 Billion Molecular, Biological and Clinical Datapoints.

Here's a look at the revenue composition for fiscal year ended April 30, 2025:

The growth in the data business is clear; the SaaS revenues for the three months ended July 31, 2025, saw a slight increase of $1,000 compared with the prior year period.

Corporate Alliances for large, multi-year contracts.

The success in data licensing points to the effectiveness of securing larger agreements, which often fall under corporate alliances. The fiscal year 2025 revenue growth of 14% to a record $57 million was largely driven by these initial data licensing deals. The company successfully closed its first major data licensing deal in FY2025.

The company ended the fiscal year 2025 with a cash balance of $9.8 million and no debt.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Segments

You're looking at the core clientele that drives the business for Champions Oncology, Inc. as of late 2025. This group is segmented by size and need, directly correlating to the services they purchase from the Translational Oncology Solutions (TOS) platform.

The primary base of operations involves entities actively engaged in drug development. Over the last ten years, Champions Oncology, Inc. has performed studies for approximately 500 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. That history suggests a strong foundation in repeat business within this core group.

Here's a look at how the revenue streams, which directly reflect the services consumed by these segments, broke down for the full fiscal year 2025 (ended April 30, 2025):

The segments map to these revenue types. The largest segment, global pharmaceutical and large biotechnology companies, drives the bulk of the $48.6 million in pharmacology services revenue. These large players require extensive preclinical and clinical research services.

Small to mid-sized biotech firms with oncology pipelines represent a significant portion of the remaining service revenue and are increasingly key adopters of the newer data offerings. For instance, in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 (ended July 31, 2025), the data license revenue component grew by $300,000 sequentially, indicating traction with partners looking for data access.

Academic and government research institutions utilize the platforms for non-GCLP (Good Clinical Regulatory Practice) studies. While specific contract numbers aren't public, the overall research services business showed growth. For the three months ended July 31, 2025, total revenue was $14.0 million, with service revenue at approximately $13.6 million (total revenue of $14.0 million minus $0.4 million in data license revenue growth over Q3 FY2025's $4.5M data revenue, or simply using Q1 FY2026 service revenue implied by the $400,000 service revenue decline from $14.1M in Q1 FY2025).

The segment involving physicians seeking personalized oncology treatment options is smaller, likely serviced through the data/SaaS components or direct patient-based testing, though direct physician revenue figures aren't itemized separately from the main service lines. The company reported a record total revenue of $17 million for the third quarter of fiscal year 2025 (ended January 31, 2025), with $4.5 million coming from data revenue alone in that quarter.

Consider the recent quarterly snapshot for Q1 FY2026:

• Total Revenue: $14.0 million.
• Data License Revenue Contribution: Increased by $300,000 sequentially.
• Service Revenue: Declined by $400,000 sequentially.
• Cash on Hand (End of Q1 FY2026): Approximately $10.3 million.

The mix of service versus data revenue shows a shift in customer engagement. The data business development team expansion is reflected in the increased sales and marketing expense of $1.9 million for the quarter ended July 31, 2025, up 10.5% year-over-year.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) - Canvas Business Model: Cost Structure

You're looking at the core expenses Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) faces to keep its translational oncology research running and growing its data business. The cost structure is heavily weighted toward the direct costs of running the lab services and the personnel who execute that science.

For the full fiscal year 2025, which ended April 30, 2025, the Cost of oncology revenue stood at $28.4 million. This figure actually decreased by 3.4 percent from the prior year, which management attributed to operational improvements leading to lower compensation and lab supply costs, along with a reduction in outsourced lab services. Still, this is the largest variable cost tied directly to delivering the core research services.

The company's total operating expenses for fiscal year 2025 were $52.4 million, a 9 percent decrease from the prior year, showing a focus on disciplined execution. This total expense base includes the costs of innovation and commercial outreach.

The investment in future capabilities, Research and development expense, was $6.8 million in FY2025. This represented a significant decline of 28 percent from the prior year, primarily due to reduced investment in non-essential services, like the subsidiary Corellia. To be fair, even with that reduction, the company still has high fixed costs associated with maintaining its scientific infrastructure.

The costs supporting the commercial push, Sales and marketing expense, totaled $7.5 million in FY2025, an increase of 7 percent year-over-year. This rise was driven by compensation for the new data business development team and increased conference attendance as they pushed the new data licensing stream.

The structure definitely relies on specialized human capital. As of July 15, 2025, Champions Oncology, Inc. had 213 full-time employees. A significant portion, 159 employees, were engaged directly in research and development and laboratory operations, underscoring the high personnel cost component for scientific and technical staff. Furthermore, the company carries high fixed costs for lab facilities and specialized equipment; for instance, depreciation and amortization for the full year was reported at $1.6 million.

Here's a quick look at the main operating expense buckets for the full fiscal year 2025 (amounts in millions USD):

You can see the strategic shift in spending, with R&D costs coming down while Sales & Marketing ticked up to support the new revenue stream. The cost structure is definitely moving toward operational efficiency, which helped boost adjusted EBITDA income to $7.1 million for the year.

The fixed nature of the lab infrastructure means that revenue volume is key to absorbing those costs. The company noted that for the fourth quarter, a margin contraction happened because of lower revenue against a generally unchanged total quarterly cost base. The goal, as management stated, is to continue driving revenue growth to improve margins on that fixed asset base.

Key components contributing to the fixed and semi-fixed costs include:

• Significant compensation for 159 R&D and lab operations staff.
• Depreciation and amortization expense for the year totaled $1.6 million.
• Costs related to maintaining the proprietary PDX model TumorBank.
• Financing lease liabilities for laboratory equipment.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) - Canvas Business Model: Revenue Streams

You're looking at the money Champions Oncology, Inc. (CSBR) brought in for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2025. The total oncology revenue for that year hit a record $57 million, which was a 14% increase over the prior year. That's a solid turnaround.

The revenue streams are clearly segmented, showing the core service business is still the biggest piece, but the new data component is making a real contribution. Here's the quick math on the main sources for fiscal year 2025:

The core research services revenue, which is the backbone, grew by 4% year-over-year. The data revenue stream, which management sees as high-margin, is definitely scaling up. For instance, in the third quarter of fiscal 2025 alone, data license revenue contributed $4.5 million to the $17.0 million total quarterly revenue.

The revenue from the core services is built on specific offerings. You can expect the income to be tied to these activities:

• Core research services revenue (TOS) was $52.3 million in FY2025.
• Data license revenue was $4.7 million in FY2025, a new high-margin stream.
• Fees from Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX) model studies.
• Revenue from radiopharmaceutical testing and related services.

To be fair, the service revenue growth was 4%, while the data revenue stream added $4.7 million to the top line, which helped lift the overall gross margin to 50% for the year, up from 42% the year before. That's the impact of that new, higher-margin business. The first quarter of fiscal 2026, ended July 31, 2025, saw total revenue of $14.0 million.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.