NEW YORK – Quidel announced Thursday that preliminary estimates for its third quarter revenues are expected to rise between 6 and 7 percent year over year on COVID-19 assay sales.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the firm expects revenues in the range of $505.0 million to $510.0 million, up from $476.1 million in Q3 of 2020. On average, analysts had expected third quarter revenues of $186.3 million.
Quidel shipped more than 45 million SARS-CoV-2 tests in the quarter, which was an increase of 135 percent over the year-ago period.
Overall, the San Diego-based firm is expecting approximately $406.0 million in COVID-19 revenues, compared with $375.7 million in the third quarter of 2020.
Douglas Bryant, Quidel's president and CEO, said in a statement that the firm saw a significant uptick in demand across multiple markets for its SARS category products as COVID-19 infections rose due to the spread of the Delta variant.
"Thanks to the strategic investments we made to continue building out our professional and retail channels in the first half of the year, Quidel was able to meet much of this demand at multiple points of care, including to consumers in stores and online, driving better-than-expected product sales," Bryant said.
Quidel also secured a 12-month contract near the end of the quarter worth an expected $284 million. The firm said the contract is to supply up to 51.2 million QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to the federal government.
Bryant noted as well that in the third quarter Quidel manufactured and shipped the largest volume of tests ever produced and shipped in any quarter in the firm's history, and Quidel is on track to reach its target run rate capacity of approximately 70 million rapid antigen tests per month — specifically, 50 million QuickVue assays and 20 million Sofia assays — by the end of the year.
"Even with this incredible performance in the third quarter, we must reiterate that the SARS testing environment remains highly fluid, and we've learned that demand can change very quickly," Bryant also said, adding, "We believe that Quidel remains well-positioned to execute on our near-term and longer-term objectives across our broader portfolio of diagnostic assays and instruments."
Quidel expects to issue full financial results for the fiscal third quarter of 2021 in November.