NEW YORK – Meridian Bioscience announced on Thursday that its preliminary fiscal Q2 revenues are expected to grow about 14 percent year over year.
For the quarter, the company anticipates revenues of about $57 million, up from $50.2 million in the year-ago quarter.
Meridian said it expects revenues from the life science division to reach between $22 million and $23 million, up 32 to 37 percent from $16.7 million in the year-ago quarter. The company expects diagnostics segment revenues to be between $34 million and $35 million, up slightly from $33.5 million in the second quarter of 2019.
High demand for the company's molecular products, namely its SARS-CoV-2 detection reagents, drove revenue growth in the life science segment, Meridian said in a statement. The company added that it expects increased revenue in the third quarter of 2020 as well, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meridian also noted that because many of the company's clinical trial partners have suspended operations during the pandemic, there will likely be delays for its pipeline products, including new tests for the Revogene platform and the launch of the PediaStat system.
Strong sales of respiratory products increased revenues for the diagnostics division, although those sales were offset by lower demand for non-critical care products, the company said. This would be the first quarter of growth for the diagnostics division after five consecutive quarters of decline.
Last month, Meridian's Curian analyzer and Curian HpSA test for Helicobacter pylori received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration, which the company said it expects to begin shipping in the third quarter of this year.
Meridian said it is not updating 2020 financial guidance right now, and any changes to the guidance will come during the second quarter earnings call in May.
The company added that Exalenz Bioscience shareholders approved the planned $49 million merger with Meridian on March 31, and that the deal is expected to close before June 30.