NEW YORK – Myriad Genetics reported after the close of market on Tuesday that its fourth quarter revenues rose 11 percent while full-year revenues were down 2 percent.
The Salt Lake City-based company finished the three months ended Dec. 31 with $177.8 million in revenues compared to $160.8 million for the same quarter in 2021, beating analysts' average estimate of $169.5 million.
The firm attributed much of the increase to higher testing volumes, which rose 26 percent year over year. Hereditary cancer and pharmacogenomics volumes grew 16 percent and 23 percent, respectively, in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
In a conference call with investors, Myriad Chief Commercial Officer Mark Verratti singled out the company's GeneSight pharmacogenomic test and Prolaris prostate cancer assays as particular examples of test volume growth. GeneSight experienced 23 percent year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter, trailed slightly by Polaris at 17 percent year-over-year growth.
Growth was also facilitated, Verratti said, by operational measures such as improvements to the company's Salesforce digital platforms.
"We've rebuilt our sales infrastructure with new Salesforce tools and dashboards," he said. "Our commercial teams know exactly who we're targeting, how our message is being received, and whether or not we're meeting the needs of our providers and patients."
Verratti added that over the past year, Myriad increased website traffic by over 10 percent and the number of leads converted to tests ordered by over 30 percent.
In women's health, Verratti said that the company saw a quarterly volume increase of 35 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, despite facing headwinds from California's revised prenatal screening program, which had sought to limit screening to labs contracting with the state's Department of Public Health. A temporary injunction against that decision was put in place by the Superior Court of California late last year.
Myriad's Q4 R&D spending rose nearly 41 percent to $23.4 million from $16.6 million a year ago, while its SG&A expenses grew 15 percent to $146.5 million from $127.5 million.
"Going into the first quarter of 2023, we anticipate adjusted operating expenses to remain flat sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2022," CFO Bryan Riggsbee said on the call.
Chief Operating Officer Nicole Lambert commented that Myriad will likely soft-launch its FirstGene prenatal screening test in the fourth quarter of this year and launch the Precise Liquid tumor profiling assay, as well as the research-use-only version of the Precise MRD assay, in the second half of 2023. The company anticipates a commercial launch of Precise MRD in 2025.
The company had previously estimated a third quarter launch for FirstGene.
Fourth quarter net loss increased to $42.3 million, or $.52 per share, from $7.6 million, or $.10 per share, the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted Q4 loss per share was $.12, besting analysts' average estimate of a $.16 loss per share.
Myriad reported $678.4 million in total revenues for 2022, down nearly 2 percent from $690.6 million in 2021, although testing revenue rose approximately 2 percent to $678.4 million from $666.4 million. The company reported $24.2 million in other revenue in 2021 compared to none in 2022.
The company's full-year R&D spending rose 4 percent to $85.4 million from $81.9 million in 2021, while its SG&A expenses declined 4 percent to $514.7 million from $537.8 million a year earlier.
Riggsbee commented that relative to recent capital increases, Myriad expects to see a return to more "normalized" levels of capital throughout in 2023 and 2024, as the company takes possession of the new labs that it has been building.
"As we move out of more expensive space and into a more cost-effective, more efficient space, that's where automation and process improvement will come from," added CEO Paul Diaz.
Full-year net loss rose to $112 million, or $1.39 per share, from $27.2 million, or $.35 per share, in 2021. On an adjusted basis, Myriad reported a loss per share of $.30, beating analysts' average estimate of a LPS of $.35.
Myriad finished the year with $56.9 million in cash and cash equivalents and $58.0 million in marketable investment securities.
The company said that it anticipates full-year 2023 revenues in the range of $720 million to $750 million and adjusted loss per share of $.20 to $.40. On average, analysts are expecting full-year revenues of $725.0 million and adjusted LPS of $.30.
Myriad said it expects first quarter revenues of $170 million to $172 million, and adjusted LPS of $.18 to $.20. On average, analysts are expecting Q1 revenues of $174.9 million and LPS of $.10.
In early morning trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, Myriad was up approximately 13 percent to $21.35 per share.