NEW YORK – VolitionRx this week announced financial results for the second quarter of 2024, reporting that its overall revenues rose 83 percent to $396,000 from $216,000 in Q2 2023. The Henderson, Nevada-based company sold more than 60,000 of its Nu.Q Vet Cancer tests in the first half of 2024, up from 58,000 in full-year 2023. The firm saw a net loss of $7.1 million, or $.08 per share, compared to a loss of $9.6 million, or $.14 per share, in the year-ago quarter. VolitionRx ended the quarter with $6.0 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center said this week that the US National Institutes of Health have awarded a four-year, $3.4 million research grant to Wei-Qi Wei, an associate professor of biomedical informatics. The goal is to develop polygenic risk scores and automated risk stratification within the electronic health record (EHR) system to identify patients at higher risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease even when taking preventive treatments to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Wei and colleagues will also investigate whether there are existing drugs that could be repurposed to lower risk in this population.
Bruker said this week that its board of directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $.05 per share of common stock. The dividend will be paid on Sept. 16 to stockholders of record as of Sept. 2.
Illumina said in its form 10-Q filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it acquired Fluent BioSciences last month for $85 million in upfront cash and "contingent consideration that could become payable upon the achievement of certain defined milestones."
Pacific Biosciences said in its form 10-Q filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it incurred $10.1 million in employee separation costs and $8.0 million in other costs associated with the closing of its San Diego location.
Ginkgo Bioworks said in its form 10-Q filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that in the second quarter it incurred a goodwill impairment charge of $47.9 million and restructuring-related impairment charges of $4.8 million.
Singular Genomics Systems said in its form 10-Q filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that during the six months ended June 30, expenses for its recent layoffs were $1.6 million, with $400,000 being included in research and development expenses and $1.2 million in selling, general, and administrative expenses.
Platomics said this week that it has signed a strategic agreement with Illumina under which Illumina will register selected products on Platomics' regulatory platform, called PlatoX. Platomics signed a similar agreement with lab automation firm Hamilton last month, which has added several of its liquid handling platforms to PlatoX. Adding these platforms to PlatoX enables clinical laboratories to access technical documentation for them in the PlatoX product database, allowing them to integrate it into their digital documentation for in-house tests.
DNANudge said this week that it has partnered with Holland & Barrett, a health and wellness retailer in the UK. Under the exclusive agreement, DNANudge will offer its Express DNA test on a trial basis at selected Holland & Barrett stores, providing customers results within 20 minutes via email or mobile app. The test, which uses DNANudge's lab-in-cartridge and NudgeBox technology, sells for £30 ($39) and looks for genetic traits related to oxidative stress on the skin and caffeine metabolism. It is an adaptation of DNANudge's full Nutrition Nudge and Skincare Nudge tests. Based on the results, Holland & Barrett will recommend specific products to customers, such as skincare products.
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.