NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Pressure Biosciences reported today that its first quarter revenues rose 16 percent year over year, thanks in large part to a 41 percent increase in sales of instruments.
The lab instruments developer said Q1 revenues rose to $510,478 from $440,134 in Q1 2015. Product and services sales rose 26 percent to $454,350 from $359,364 — this includes the 41 percent increase in instrument sales and an 11 percent increase in the sale of consumables during the quarter. This was slightly offset by a 31 percent decrease in grant revenues to $56,128 from $80,770 in Q1 2015.
Pressure also said it has finished building the initial working model of its Barocycler 2320Extreme mass spectrometry protein sample prep instrument, and has arranged to purchase sufficient parts to build 30 units. The firm added it plans to complete manufacturing the instrument and being selling it during the second quarter.
"We believe the market for our pressure-based products (instruments and consumables) is large, diverse, and growing," said President and CEO Richard Schumacher in a statement. "In order to successfully increase and expand our penetration into this market, it is essential that we continue to increase market exposure and acceptance of our novel PCT-based product line. We believe the major operational accomplishments of the 2016 first quarter — especially the co-marketing agreement with Sciex and the development of the new Barocycler 2320Extreme — will play key roles in increasing our visibility, acceptance, and success in penetrating this market, which will subsequently help PBI achieve rapid and dramatic growth in the near future."
The company reported its Q1 net loss widened to $6.0 million, or $.26 per share, from $2.1 million, or $.11 per share, the year before.
Pressure's R&D costs for the quarter rose 45 percent to $335,270 from $231,923 in Q1 2015, while SG&A expenses rose 12 percent to $999,454 from $892,247.
The firm ended the quarter with $93,387 in cash and cash equivalents.
Pressure's shares were down 22 percent to $.35 in afternoon trading on the OTC markets. The company said it plans to up-list itself to the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange by the end of 2016.