NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – GenMark Diagnostics today reported a 34 percent increase year over year in its third quarter revenues, but the firm has moved back the European launch of its ePlex sample-to-answer system.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, GenMark's total revenues increased to $8.5 million from $ 6.3 million in the prior-year period. The firm beat the average Wall Street estimate of $8.2 million.
On conference call following the release of results, GenMark CEO Hany Massarany said that the firm expects to launch the ePlex in Europe in the first quarter of 2016. In August, following the release of its second quarter financial results, the firm said it was on track to launch it in the fourth quarter of 2015. Massarany noted that the firm experienced some issues with injection molding of two parts necessary to maintain reliable microfluidics.
On the positive side, the firm said that its US installed base for the XT-8 analyzer increased by 25 instruments in the quarter to 616 total placements. Massarany said that the instruments went mainly to new customers for hepatitis C genotyping and respiratory virus panels.
"We are pleased with the continued strong performance of our XT-8 business and the progress we are making towards the European launch of our ePlex sample-to-answer system in the first quarter of 2016," Massarany said. "We recently commenced external ePlex Alpha studies at the first customer site. We also tested numerous clinical samples on the ePlex system at GenMark and will be presenting results from these studies at the Association for Molecular Pathology Conference in Texas next week," he said.
The firm's net loss for the quarter increased to $11.4 million, or $.27 per share, compared to a loss of $9.7 million, or $.23 per share, in Q3 2014. Analysts, on average, had expected a loss per share of $.31.
Its R&D spending rose 21 percent year over year to $9.6 million from $7.9 million, while SG&A costs increased 10 percent to $6.6 million from $6.1 million.
GenMark ended the year with $54.2 million in cash and cash equivalents.