NEW YORK – Talis Biomedical reported after the close of the market on Tuesday that its first quarter revenues decreased 54 percent year over year due to a drop in grant funding.
For the three months ended March 31, the company posted revenues of $3.2 million compared to $7.0 million in Q1 of 2021.
In Q1, the company booked $2.3 million in product revenues, driven by antigen testing sales. It also reported $874,000 in grant revenue, down more than eightfold from $7.0 million in the prior-year quarter when it booked revenues associated with meeting National Institutes of Health's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, or RADx, program milestones.
In March, the point-of-care testing firm announced it was delaying the beta-phase rollout of its Talis One molecular diagnostic system, which had been planned for the first quarter, prompting investment bank BTIG to downgrade the firm's shares from a Neutral to a Sell rating.
However, in a statement on Tuesday, Talis Biomedical CEO Rob Kelley said "I am encouraged by the progress our team has made over the last 60 days toward validation of manufacturing scale-up for our Talis One COVID-19 Test System. With our continued focus on execution and cash preservation, we believe we are on the right path to deliver on our 2022 business objectives."
The Menlo Park, California-based firm also noted that in Q1 it completed the first release of its Sia Dx cloud-based software on the Talis One System.
Its R&D costs dropped 66 percent year over year to $20.7 million from $60.2 million, while its SG&A costs rose 63 percent year over year to $11.9 million from $7.3 million.
At the end of Q1, the firm had cash and cash equivalents of $187.6 million.