NEW YORK – Personalis this week reported 35 percent year-over-year growth in second quarter revenues, driven by pharma testing and services. For the quarter ended June 30, the Fremont, California-based company booked $22.6 million in revenues, up from $16.7 million in the same period last year. Net loss was $12.8 million, or $.24 per share, down from a net loss of $24.0 million, or $.50 per share, a year ago. R&D costs for the quarter declined 17 percent to $13.0 million from $17.9 million, while SG&A expenses narrowed slightly, to $12.0 million from $12.1 million. Personalis ended the quarter with $47.7 million in cash and cash equivalents and $39.2 million in short-term investments.
Cytek Biosciences said this week that its second quarter revenues decreased 6 percent year over year to $46.6 million. The flow cytometry company said that the decrease was primarily due to a decline in US instrument sales, particularly among academic and government customers, tempered somewhat by strong double-digit revenue growth in the EMEA and APAC regions and in its service business. The firm recorded a Q2 net loss of $10.4 million, or $.08 per share, compared to a net loss of $4.4 million, or $.03 per share, a year ago. Cytek narrowed the range of its full-year revenue guidance to between $203 million and $210 million from a previous range of $203 million to $213 million. During the quarter, Cytek repurchased $2.7 million of its stock in open market purchases under a new $50 million share repurchase program. The company finished the quarter with $177.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, $30,000 in restricted cash, and $99.3 million in marketable securities.
Interpace Biosciences last week reported a 9 percent year-over-year increase in revenue for the second quarter. Revenues totaled $12 million, up from $11 million in Q2 2023. CFO Chris McCarthy said in a statement that the cancer molecular diagnostics firm saw record test volumes, revenues, and cash collections during the quarter while reducing its operating expenses. Net income for the quarter was $2 million, or $.46 per share, compared to net income of $175,000, or $.04 per share, in the year-ago quarter. The Parsippany, New Jersey-based company ended Q2 with $2 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Co-Diagnostics this week reported a 14-fold year-over-year increase in second quarter revenues, driven by milestones from various grant agreements. For the period ended June 30, the Salt Lake City-based firm had revenues of $2.7 million, up from $197,806 in Q2 2023. During the quarter, the firm submitted a 510(k) application to the US Food and Drug Administration for its Co-Dx PCR Pro platform, including an instrument and a COVID test for over-the-counter use. It also opened a new manufacturing facility in South Salt Lake, Utah. The company's Q2 net loss narrowed to $7.6 million, or $.25 per share, from $8.9 million, or $.31 per share, a year ago. Co-Diagnostics ended the quarter with $13.9 million in cash and cash equivalents and $31.0 million in marketable investment securities.
Thermo Fisher Scientific said last week that it conducted a restructuring in the first six months of 2024 that included headcount reductions and facility consolidations to streamline operations. According to the company’s most recent quarterly filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the measures affected approximately 1 percent of its workforce.
Bruker said this week that it has made a strategic minority investment of undisclosed size in NovaliX, a preclinical contract research organization for drug discovery based in Strasbourg, France. The companies plan to develop and use advanced biophysical methods for drug discovery, making use of Bruker's technologies including NMR, biosensors, mass spectrometry, and single-cell and spatial biology tools. In addition, the investment will speed up NovaliX's growth and expansion, particularly in Europe and the US. The firms also want to conduct "joint innovation activities" through the Biophysics Institute for Biomedical Research (IBRB) in Strasbourg, which is slated to open in 2026.
German Cancer Aid said this week that it has awarded a total of €1.5 million ($1.6 million) in funding over four years to Hannah Uckelmann and Marit Vermunt for setting up their independent research teams and investigating the role of the epigenome in cancer. Both are leukemia researchers in the department of pediatrics at University Hospital Frankfurt and will start their new labs as part of the Max Eder Junior Research Group Program. Uckelmann recently completed a postdoc at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and will focus her research on epigenetic factors involved in cancer cell survival, aiming to develop treatment options for acute myeloid leukemia. Vermunt was a postdoc at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and plans to study the role of epigenomic modifiers in cancer, with the aim of identifying cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
Laboratory Corporation of America said this week that it has finalized its $239 million acquisition of certain assets of genetic testing firm Invitae. Labcorp acquired the assets through an auction as part of Invitae’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. The deal was originally announced in April and is part of Labcorp’s effort to expand its specialty testing business including genetic testing for oncology and rare diseases.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on GenomeWeb.