NEW YORK – While reporting an 11 percent year-over-year jump in its fourth quarter revenues, Quanterix on Monday also said cuts in academic research funding could weigh heavily on the firm’s revenues going forward.
Quanterix reported Monday after the close of markets that for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2024, its fourth quarter revenues rose 11 percent to $35.2 million from $31.5 million in Q4 2023.
The company noted, however, that freezes and delays in funding for US academic research are cutting into its revenues. On a conference call following release of its Q4 financial results, CFO Vandana Sriram said Quanterix expects its first quarter revenue to be down 10 percent to 15 percent year over year due in part to a decline in US academic sales. She said that roughly 20 percent to 25 percent of the company's annual revenues "are tied to US academic customers" and that it has assumed that revenues "related to US academic customers" will be down 10 percent in 2025.
"Clearly, we're in an NIH-pressured environment," Quanterix President and CEO Masoud Toloue said on the call. He added that "there is a lot of confusion and some paralysis in the academic market."
The challenges around academic funding and the impact of those challenges on companies selling into that market have also raised questions about whether Quanterix may be paying too high a price for Akoya Biosciences, which it announced plans to acquire in January. Under the terms of the proposed deal, Akoya shareholders will receive 0.318 shares of Quanterix common stock for each share of Akoya common stock owned.
Addressing that concern, Toloue said the company makes "long-term value decisions, not on short-term swings in market demand."
"We believe in the short, mid-, and long term, the market for Akoya's products, and particularly the interface with our Simoa products, are going to deliver compounded returns," he added.
Toloue said Quanterix believes the acquisition of Akoya will open up cross-selling opportunities for both businesses and will "position the company to speed up market development of new tissue and liquid biopsies." He added that the firm expects to realize $40 million in cost synergies.
Toloue also highlighted Akoya's installed base of roughly 1,300 instruments and the opportunity this provides for generating recurring revenues through consumable sales.
"In a capital-constrained environment, or in an environment where there continues to be instrument pressure, you want to focus on those recurring revenues," he said.
Quanterix's Q4 product revenues were $20.5 million, down 1 percent from $20.8 million in Q4 2023. Service and other revenues rose 17 percent to $11.9 million from $10.2 million in the prior-year quarter. Collaboration and license revenues were $1.7 million, up more than 10-fold from $146,000 in Q4 2023, while grant revenues were $1.1 million, roughly triple the $352,000 the company reported year before.
In a statement following the release of its financial results, Toloue said the firm plans to expand its "approach to immunology and oncology, which will materially grow our addressable market, [and] increase leverage and scale."
The company's Q4 2024 net loss was $11.6 million, or $.30 per share, versus a net loss of $8.8 million, or $.23 per share, the year before.
Quanterix's R&D spending during the quarter was $8.1 million, up 13 percent from $7.2 million in the year-ago period. Its SG&A expenses rose 22 percent to $28.6 million from $23.4 million the year before.
For full-year 2024, Quanterix reported revenues of $137.4 million, up 12 percent from $122.4 million in 2023.
The firm's 2024 product revenues were flat at $79.7 million. Service and other revenues rose 28 percent to $51.2 million from $40.1 million in the prior year. Collaboration and license revenues were $4.5 million, up more than threefold from $1.4 million in 2023, while grant revenues were $2.0 million, up 67 percent from $1.2 million in 2023.
Quanterix's net loss for full-year 2024 was $38.5 million, or $1.00 per share, versus a net loss of $28.4 million, or $.75 per share, in 2023.
The firm's full-year R&D spending was up 19 percent to $31.1 million from $26.1 million in 2023. Its SG&A spending was up 14 percent to $101.6 million from $89.1 million the year before.
The company ended 2024 with $56.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, $232.4 million in marketable securities, and $2.6 million in restricted cash.
Quanterix projected full-year 2025 revenues of $140.0 million to $146.0 million. This estimate does not include effects from the planned Akoya acquisition.
In Tuesday morning trading on the Nasdaq, Quanterix shares were down 9 percent to $6.60.