NEW YORK – Bionano Genomics reported after the close of the market on Tuesday a 58 percent year-over-year increase in fourth quarter 2021 revenues.
"As a provider of optical genome mapping systems, software, and testing and laboratory services, we believe that Bionano has transformed from an instrument company into a global genomics company focused on elevating the health and wellness of all people with a wide array of compelling solutions for genome analysis," Bionano President and CEO Erik Holmlin said in a statement.
The firm's revenues in Q4 were $6.3 million compared to $4 million a year ago, beating analysts' average estimate of $5.6 million and slightly edging out its own preliminary projections announced in January. Bionano said the increases were largely driven by demand for its Saphyr optical genome mapping platform and the acquisition of informatics firm BioDiscovery.
In a conference call discussing the financial results, Holmlin told investors that 2021 was "simply a spectacular year for Bionano commercially" while highlighting the firm's achievement of a number of milestones. Specifically, the company's October 2021 acquisition of BioDiscovery provides Bionano with "software products for visualization, interpretation, and reporting of sequencing and microarray data, as well as their team of world-class software engineers," Holmlin said.
Revenues consisted of $3.9 million in product revenue, up 44 percent from $2.7 million in Q4 2020, and $2.5 million in service and other revenue, up 92 percent from $1.3 million the prior-year period.
Bionano said it expanded the installed base of Saphyr systems to 164 by the end of Q4, representing 69 percent growth over the year before. According to Holmlin, the company's optical genome mapping platform have now entered cytogenetics laboratories and academic medical centers worldwide, including in the US, Europe, Australia, China, Taiwan, and Japan.
Bionano also sold 3,204 nanochannel array flow cells during the quarter, representing 29 percent growth over the same quarter of 2020. Increased sales of flow cells "indicate more utilization in the field, which in turn leads to more data, more publications, more presentations, and, we believe, more demand for optical genome mapping," Holmlin said.
The company's R&D expenses totaled $9.2 million in Q4, up more than threefold from $2.9 million in Q4 of 2020. Its SG&A costs more than doubled to $19.8 million from $9.4 million in the year-ago quarter.
The firm's net loss for the quarter was $22.9 million, compared to $11.7 million a year ago. It did not report a per-share loss.
For full-year 2021, Bionano's revenues more than doubled to $18 million from $8.5 million in 2020, beating the average analyst estimate of $17.3 million. Product revenue rose 89 percent to $11.7 million from $6.2 million in 2020, while service and other revenue nearly tripled to $6.3 million from $2.3 million.
Bionano said it sold 12,518 flow cells sold during 2021.
The company's R&D expenses for 2021 were $22.5 million, more than double the $10.3 million spent in 2020, and its SG&A expenses rose 88 percent to $58.5 million from $31.1 million.
Bionano's full-year net loss was $72.4 million compared to $41.1 million in 2020, and the firm did not report a loss per share.
As of Dec. 31, 2021, Bionano had $24.6 million in cash and cash equivalents and $226 million in available-for-sale securities.
The company said it expects full-year 2022 revenue to be in the range of $24 million to $27 million, which would represent 33 percent to 50 percent growth over 2021.
Outlining the company's 2022 blueprint, Holmlin said that Bionano will focus on "making progress in our clinical studies" in the first half of the year, while the second half will be dedicated to "adding additional laboratory-developed tests to Bionano laboratories."
"We have challenges to address, and the impact of COVID on production quality and supply chain remain a concern," Holmlin said. "We are cautious about the macroenvironment beyond COVID given the current global events," he added. "Nevertheless, we believe we can make significant progress … in 2022."
In Wednesday morning trading on the Nasdaq, Bionano shares were down more than 5 percent to $2.03.