NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) - Veracyte today announced after the close of the market that revenues for its first quarter rose 50 percent on sales of its Afirma gene expression classifier (GEC) tests.
For the three months ended March 31, 2015, the South San Francisco, California-based molecular diagnostics company said that revenues increased to $11.2 million from $7.5 million a year ago, beating the average Wall Street expectation of $10.8 million.
Sales of the Afirma tests in the quarter grew 30 percent year over year compared to Q1 2014 to 4,020 tests, the firm said in a statement, attributing the increase to an expanded sales team. Veracyte also launched a new product in April, the Percepta bronchial GEC test.
Last month, Veracyte closed a $40 million private placement of stock with existing and new investors, generating net proceeds of approximately $37.3 million, the firm said.
Veracyte's net loss in the quarter was $7.6 million, or $.34 per share, compared to a net loss of $6.7 million, or $.32 per share, a year ago, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of a net loss per share of $.37.
Veracyte's R&D spending rose to $2.8 million, up 31 percent from $2.1 million during the first quarter of 2014, due to direct increases related to research staff, while its SG&A costs rose 37 percent to $11.4 million from $8.3 million.
Veracyte ended the quarter with $25.8 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Veracyte reiterated its FY 2015 revenue guidance of $48 million to $53 million and its forecast of Afirma GEC volume in the range of 19,000 to 21,000 tests.