NEW YORK – Guardant Health reported after the close of the market on Thursday that its first quarter 2022 revenues rose 22 percent year over year.
The liquid biopsy firm reported total revenues of $96.1 million compared to $78.7 million in Q1 2021, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $95.7 million.
Guardant's precision oncology testing revenues grew 32 percent to $84.1 million from $63.7 million in the prior year's quarter, driven by increases in both clinical and biopharma testing. Development services and other revenues rose 20 percent to $12.0 million from $14.9 million in Q1 2021, primarily due to the progression of collaboration projects with biopharmaceutical customers for companion diagnostic development and regulatory approval services.
During the quarter, the company reported 27,100 tests to clinical customers and 5,100 to biopharmaceutical customers, an increase of 47 percent and 45 percent respectively, over the same period last year.
"We now have more than 11,000 ordering oncologists and are seeing our core base of customers ordering more tests and using more Guardant products each quarter," co-CEO Helmy Eltoukhy said in a statement.
During a call with investors, Eltoukhy cited the company’s receipt in March of Medicare coverage for the tissue-sequencing version of its Guardant360 test under an existing MolDx local coverage determination.
"We are already seeing reimbursement of our tissue product accelerating the positive trends we have been seeing of increased depth of ordering per account,” he said, adding that “more and more oncologists are ordering multiple products from Guardant … amplifying our overall brand awareness in the market."
"We are also moving to quickly establish our footprint in the European market ... with programs in the United Kingdom and Spain," Etoukhy said. “This month our partnership with Vall d'Hebron in Spain will be officially operational. We look forward to being able to provide local access to Guardant360 in the region."
The firm also saw a major milestone this week with the launch of its blood-based colorectal cancer screening test, Shield.
Guardant’s assay is the first of what is expected to be a flock of tests from other companies in the market, including Exact Sciences and Freenome.
Although it is still waiting for full results of its prospective interventional trial, ECLIPSE, Guardant co-CEO AmirAli Talasaz said during the call that the firm has already started its submission to the US Food and Drug Administration.
"We believe we will be the first to have a blood-based cancer screening test with Medicare coverage and FDA approval," Talasaz said, adding that post-approval Guardant is confident that it will be able to secure pricing under PAMA of over $500.
Net loss attributable to Guardant's shareholders for the quarter was $123.2 million, or $1.21 per share, compared to $109.7 million, or $1.09 per share, in Q1 2021, meeting analysts’ consensus expectations.
The company’s SG&A expenses rose 3 percent to $105.7 million from $102.2 million in the prior-year period. Its R&D expenses jumped about 47 percent year over year to $81.8 million from $55.5 million.
As of March 31, Guardant had $573.6 million in cash and cash equivalents and $388.7 million in short-term marketable securities.
The company reiterated its full-year 2022 guidance of revenue between $460 million and $470 million, representing 23 percent to 26 percent growth compared to 2021.