NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) - WaferGen Bio-systems reported after the close of the market on Tuesday that its second quarter revenues rose 56 percent, driven by an increase in product revenues.
For the three months ended June 30, the company reported revenues of $2.5 million, up from $1.6 million in the prior-year period. Product revenues accounted for all recorded revenues, rising 70 percent, primarily attributable to increases in sales of its SmartChip NGS target enrichment system. The firm did not record any license and royalty revenue in the quarter.
"The second quarter set another new record for WaferGen," President and CEO Rollie Carlson said in a statement, adding that Q2 revenues bested the previous record of $2.4 in Q4 2015. During the quarter, the firm announced a proposed merger with Takara Bio USA Holdings for an undisclosed multiple of WaferGen's 2016 full-year revenues.
WaferGen placed four ICell8 Single-Cell Systems in the quarter. While Carlson said that demand was strong, "the sales cycle is longer than we originally envisaged," he said.
Sales of the Apollo 324 NGS Library Prep systems and products were up 10 percent in the quarter.
WaferGen's net loss for the quarter widened to $4.9 million, or $.26 per share, from $3.8 million, or $.67 per share, a year ago. The number of shares used to compute net loss was 18.8 million for the quarter, compared to 5.7 million a year ago.
The firm's R&D expenses for the quarter increased 5 percent to $2.4 million from $2.3 million in Q2 2015. Its SG&A costs rose 40 percent to $3.5 million from $2.5 million, due to "substantial" legal and professional costs related to the pending Takara merger.
WaferGen ended the quarter with $7.4 million in cash and cash equivalents, which should fund operations into 2017, Carlson said.
For full-year 2016, the firm lowered its revenue guidance to between $10 million and $12 million from between $12 million and $13 million.