NEW YORK – Myriad Genetics is seeing momentum in its pharmacogenomics business, as its GeneSight test for assessing patients' likely response to commonly prescribed psychiatric medicines posted record growth in the second quarter with volumes up 39 percent year over year.
During a conference call following release of the Q2 results on Thursday, Myriad COO Nicole Lambert said the strong uptake of the test "demonstrates the effectiveness of our new commercial capabilities, digital marketing strategies, and patient-centric engagement initiatives implemented over the last year."
GeneSight sales accounted for 18 percent of the company's Q2 revenues. Sales volume for the test beat its previous quarterly record by more than 10 percent.
Myriad released a new indication for the test guiding use of ADHD medications during the quarter. During the quarter, researchers in the PRIME Care Randomized Clinical Trial, which is investigating the effectiveness of pharmacogenomic testing in guiding antidepressant therapy, published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that found that in a cohort of 1,944 patients with major depressive disorder, use of the GeneSight test "reduced prescription of medications with predicted drug-gene interactions compared with usual care."
The study, which was run and funded by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, also found that patients for whom GeneSight was used had a higher rate of remission of depressive symptoms at 12 weeks than did patients receiving the standard of care, though this difference in remission rates did not persist at 24 weeks.
"We think the PRIME study was a very positive development," Myriad President and CEO Paul Diaz said during the call. "We think that this really enables us to sustain the trajectory of the growth as we look to expand coverage and get more adopters both on the healthcare practitioner and psychiatric side."
He added that "while it is early innings [for GeneSight], most of the feedback we have gotten is pretty positive."
During the call, Nephron Research Analyst Jack Meehan raised questions, though, about the PRIME study, noting that some key opinion leaders had suggested that due to the study's lack of blinding, the observed remission benefit "may have been driven entirely by the placebo effect."
Diaz said that he disagreed with Meehan's characterization of the KOL response, adding, "that is not how the folks that we have been talking to have responded to that." He said the company would get into more detail on this question at its investor day next week.
Overall, Myriad reported that its Q2 2022 revenues were down 5 percent year over year.
Total revenues for the period were $179.3 million, down from $189.4 million in the prior year Q2 and beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $171.0 million.
Excluding the divestitures of Myriad RBM, Autoimmune and myPath Melanoma, Myriad's Q2 revenues were up 7 percent year over year. Foreign currency rates negatively impacted total revenues by roughly $2 million.
Total molecular diagnostics revenues were $179.3 million, up less than 1 percent from $178.7 million a year ago. Myriad posted no pharmaceutical and clinical services revenues after reporting $10.7 million in Q2 2021.
Myriad's hereditary cancer testing revenues were $79.4 million during the quarter, down 8 percent from $86.0 million in the prior year. Prenatal testing brought in $33.3 million, up 13 percent year over year from $29.4 million. Pharmacogenomics revenues were $33.1 million, a 46 percent increase compared to $22.6 million in Q2 2021. Myriad's tumor profiling segment contributed $33.5 million during the quarter, up 11 percent from $30.3 million in the year-ago period.
The firm said that total test volumes for the quarter were up 9 percent year over year.
Myriad posted a net loss of $14.1 million, or $.18 per share, for the quarter compared to a loss of $4.7 million, or $.06 per share, a year ago. On an adjusted basis, Myriad posted earnings per share of $.04, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $.01.
The company's R&D costs grew 4 percent to $20.3 million from $19.5 million, while its SG&A costs were down 6 percent to $127.1 million from $135.2 million.
Myriad ended the quarter with $105.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $99.9 million in marketable investment securities.