NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Enzo Biochem reported after the close of the market Wednesday that its second quarter revenues rose 6 percent compared to Q2 of 2015.
For the period ended Jan. 31, 2015, the company reported total revenues of $24.6 million, up from $23.1 million in Q2 of 2015. Clinical lab services revenues rose 19 percent to $17.5 million from $14.7 million a year ago. The company credited increased demand for molecular diagnostics testing at higher reimbursement rates for the increase.
"Our emphasis on high value molecular diagnostics created strong demand as well as attracted new customers," said Enzo President Barry Weiner in a statement. "Following recent New York State Health Department approval of our AmpiProbe HCV, our AmpiProbe technology is expected to be a highly efficient and important cost-saving diagnostic tool for labs. With its use, savings could amount to 30 percent to 50 percent on certain diagnostic tests, offsetting steadily declining reimbursements and rising product costs that are sharply cutting into profitability at clinical labs."
Revenues from the company's life sciences business fell 15 percent to $6.6 million from $7.7 million year over year. The company said royalties and fees from licensing continued to contract during Q2, and that weakness in product revenues reflected an industry-wide drop in demand from academia and research labs for certain of its products.
Enzo reported earnings of $6.8 million, or $.15 per share, for the quarter, compared to a loss of $4.1 million, or $.09 per share, in the year-ago period. The company recorded a loss per share of $.07 on an adjusted basis, which took into account $11.7 million in legal settlements and $1.5 million in costs related to a contested proxy during the quarter.
The firm's SG&A expenses rose 17 percent to $11.3 million during the quarter, and R&D expenses rose 3 percent to $900,000.
Enzo ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $37.0 million.
"The company expects over the coming year to introduce various analytes in its developing women's health panel, in addition to a fertility assay and a cardiac marker," Weiner said. He further added that Enzo has completed and submitted a validation package to the New York State Department of Health for its latest AmpiProbe assay for identification of Candida.
Further, he noted, of the 11 patent infringement cases originally brought by Enzo in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware against various companies, eight remain pending. And another patent infringement case is awaiting a trial date in the Southern District of NY Federal Court.
The company recently settled one such lawsuit with Agilent Technologies in January for $9 million.