Total revenues for the quarter ended March 31 increased 3 percent to $20.2 million from $19.6 million in the first quarter of 2005. Product sales in the clinical and industrial markets grew 89 percent year over year, but this was offset by a 19-percent drop in the biothreat market, driven by the completion of the company's contract with the United States Postal Service for installation of its GeneXpert biothreat-detection system.
Clinical product sales increased to $3.7 million from $1.6 million in the first quarter of 2005 and represented 19 percent of total product sales compared to 8 percent of total product sales for the first quarter of 2005.
Industrial product sales increased to $3.5 million from $2.2 million in the prior-year period and represented 18 percent of total product sales compared to 12 percent of total product sales last year.
Biothreat product sales decreased to $12.1 million from $15 million in the first quarter of 2005 and represented 63 percent of total product sales compared to 80 percent in the year-ago period.
Cepheid's first-quarter net loss widened to $6.7 million, or $.15 per share, from $3.5 million, or $.08 per share, for the prior-year period. The company said that the net loss for 2006 includes $1.7 million of stock compensation expense.
R&D spending increased to $5.8 million from $4.5 million in the first quarter of 2005.
As of March 31, the company had $59.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $108.8 million in unrestricted cash and marketable securities.