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Interpace Diagnostics Posts 32 Percent Increase in Q4 Revenues

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Interpace Diagnostics reported after the close of the market on Tuesday that its fourth quarter revenues rose nearly 32 percent year over year.

For the three-month period ended Dec. 31, 2018 Interpace's revenues rose to $5.8 million from $4.4 million in the same period the year before, matching the analysts' average estimate.

Interpace reported a Q4 net loss of $4.0 million, or $.14 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $5 million, or $.19 per share. The firm fell short of the analysts' average estimate of a loss of $0.08 loss per share. 

Its R&D spending in the quarter soared 130 percent to $596,000 from $259,000 a year earlier, while SG&A costs were flat year over year at $4.8 million.

For the full-year 2018, Interpace's revenues rose 38 percent to $21.9 million from $15.9 million the year before. It was even with the consensus Wall Street estimate.

The firm's net loss for the year was $12.2 million, or $.43 per share, compared to a net loss of $12.2 million, or $.77 per share in 2017. It missed the consensus Wall Street estimate of a loss of $.38 per share.

Interpace's R&D spending in 2018 jumped 40 percent year over year to $2.1 million from $1.5 million, while its SG&A expenses increased 8 percent to $16.9 million from $15.7 million in 2017.

In January, Interpace raised $6.1 million in net proceeds through a public offering of its common shares, and in 2018, it acquired parts of Rosetta Genomics, which filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

"With our recent completed public offering, the absorption of most of Rosetta Genomics' business late in the year, and our reduced cash spend, we are confident in our positioning and trajectory for 2019 and beyond," Interpace President and CEO Jack Stover said in a statement.

He noted on a conference call that the firm is currently talking to companies in South Korea about potentially licensing its products, eventually using it as a stepping stone into the Asian market.

"We'd likely begin by running the assays ourselves — such as in the case with Canada and Israel – but down the road as volume grows, we'd certainly expect that the labs will be able to run the tests themselves," Stover said.  

Regarding its BarreGen test for Barrett's esophagus, the firm expects to "have a clinical evaluation of progressors that we're expecting to see, and also a clinical validation [study] looking for predictive recurrence," Stoker said. "Our expectation is that it will likely happen in the second half of 2019, and likely one of them in early 2020."

The test is for use by physicians to assess a Barrett's Esophagus patient's risk of progressing to esophageal cancer.

At the end of 2018, Interpace had cash and cash equivalents totaling $6.1 million.

Interpace's shares were down about 7 percent at $9.70 in early Wednesday trading on the Nasdaq.