NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Enzo Biochem today announced Affymetrix will pay it $10 million to settle a patent infringement lawsuit centered on technology for nucleic acid analysis.
Enzo also said that its fiscal fourth quarter revenues increased 3 percent year over year.
Enzo sued Affy as well as Agilent Technologies and Illumina in 2012, alleging those firms' microarray and sequencing products infringed US Patent No. 7,064,197, which was awarded to Enzo in 2006. Titled "System, array, and non-porous solid support comprising fixed or immobilized nucleic acids," the patent describes a technology for nucleic acid analysis that can be used for detection, mutational analysis, and quantification, according to the patent's abstract.
In all, Enzo filed 11 cases against other parties alleging infringement of the '197 patent, as well as US Patent Nos. 6,992,180 and 8,097,405. Enzo said that nine of the cases remain pending.
In June, Luminex settled with Enzo for $7.1 million.
Separately, the company reported a 3 percent year-over-year increase in revenues for its fiscal fourth quarter. For the three months ended July 31, Enzo recorded revenues of $25.7 million, up from $24.9 million in Q4 2014.
Clinical laboratory service revenues grew to $17.2 million from $15.4 million a year ago, a 12 percent increase. Product revenues ticked down 4 percent to $8.1 million from $8.4 million, and royalty and license fee income were down 57 percent to $428,000 from $1 million.
Enzo had a profit of $8.4 million, or $.18 per share, for the quarter compared to a net loss of $3.2 million, or $.07 per share, a year ago.
The company had a non-GAAP loss of $.06 per share in Q4 2015, unchanged from a year ago.
For Fiscal Year 2015, Enzo posted $97.6 million in revenues, up 2 percent from $95.9 million in FY 2014. Clinical laboratory service revenues grew 8 percent year over year to $63.4 million from $58.7 million a year ago, while product revenues were down 4 percent to $31.7 million from $32.9 million, and royalty and license fee income decreased 43 percent to $2.5 million from $4.4 million.
Enzo had a net loss of $2.3 million, or $.05 per share, for the year compared to a net loss of $10 million, or $.23 per share, in FY 2014. On a non-GAAP basis, it had a loss of $.30 per share, up from a loss of $.26 per share a year ago.
The company finished the fiscal year with $18.1 million in cash and cash equivalents.
"The quarter and year's achievements reflect the strategic approach we undertook to integrate the capabilities of the Clinical Lab and Life Sciences and also focus their activities on higher margin products, tests, and services," Enzo President Barry Weiner said in a statement. "Ongoing implementation of tighter controls to enhance efficiency and reduce costs is also contributing to results. Development and wider utilization of our advanced technological capabilities will further contribute to our growth goals."
He added that the firm continues to aggressively pursue legal redress for patent infringement.