NEW YORK – Quanterix reported after the close of the market on Wednesday that its first quarter revenues were up 73 percent year over year.
The company posted Q1 2021 revenues of $27.2 million, up from $15.7 million in Q1 2020 and above the consensus Wall Street estimate of $21.4 million. The Q1 revenue figure includes $2.3 million in grant revenues.
Quanterix's Q1 product revenues rose 86 percent to $18.2 million from $9.8 million in Q1 2020. Consumables sales were up 86 percent to $11.3 million, and instrument sales were up 86 percent to $7.0 million.
Service revenues were up 11 percent to $6.4 million from $5.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Collaboration and license revenues were up 98 percent to $261,000 from $132,000 in Q1 2020, and development revenues were $2.3 million in Q1 2021 compared to none a year ago.
On a conference call following release of the Q1 results, Kevin Hrusovsky, chairman and CEO of Quanterix, said that the bulk of the growth, perhaps 80 percent, was due to the recovery from the pandemic in the various markets the company serves, with around 20 percent due to catch-up from the COVID-19 crisis.
He noted that the $7.0 million in instrument sales during the quarter was a record for the company. He added that consumables utilization was above pre-COVID-19 levels during the quarter.
Hrusovsky highlighted the launch during the quarter of a new neurology multiplex assay that he said "has gained a lot of traction in adoption."
Quanterix CFO Amol Chaubal, who announced in April he is leaving to company to take the CFO position at Waters, said that the Q1 growth in consumables revenues was driven by demand for the neurology multiplex product as well as for pTau181 and COVID RUO assays.
Neurology, Hrusovsky said, remains the core of Quanterix's business and likely will for the next several years even as the company moves increasingly into oncology and diagnostics.
Regarding diagnostics, Hrusovsky noted that the pandemic had accelerated the company's move into this area.
"We do see that there was great progress in bridging to diagnostics based on the [National Institutes of Health] and [US Food and Drug Administration] relationships, as well as relationships with some payer groups, that further build out the opportunity for diagnostics in the long term," he said.
Quanterix received FDA Emergency Use Authorization for its Simoa SARS-CoV-2 N Protein Antigen Test during the quarter.
On instrument sales, Hrusovsky said Quanterix aimed to place 240 systems over the course of the year with the goal of having 60 percent of them its HD-X platform, "which is the most profitable and highest pull-through instrument that we sell."
The firm's Q1 net loss narrowed to $10.1 million from $11.6 million a year ago. It didn't provide a loss-per-share figure.
Quanterix's R&D spending during the recently completed quarter was up 57 percent to $6.7 million from $4.3 million in Q1 2020. Its SG&A expenses rose 36 percent to $19.5 million from $14.3 million the year before.
The Billerica, Massachusetts-based company ended the quarter with $442.7 million in cash and cash equivalents.
In Thursday morning trading on Nasdaq, Quanterix's shares were up less than 1 percent to $53.18.