NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Wafergen Biosystems said after the close of the market on Monday that its fourth quarter revenues grew more than threefold year over year.
The Fremont, Calif.-based firm recorded $1.6 million in total revenues for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2014, compared to $490,465 in Q4 2013. The increase was driven by a $600,000 increase in SmartChip revenues in the recently completed quarter, compared to the year-ago quarter, as well as $500,000 in Apollo revenues in Q4 2014, compared to zero in Q4 2013, Wafergen said.
Its product revenues grew more than fourfold year over year to $1.5 million from $365,465 a year ago, while license and royalty revenues were flat at $125,000.
Wafergen had a net loss for the quarter of $3.3 million, or $.58 per share, compared to a profit of $1.5 million, or $2.46 per share, a year ago. Wafergen said that the year-ago profit resulted primarily from a recorded income of $4.4 million due to the liquidation of its Malaysian subsidiary.
Its R&D costs rose 67 percent to $2 million from $1.2 million, while its SG&A costs grew 92 percent to $2.3 million from $1.2 million.
For the full-year 2014, Wafergen said that total revenues were up to $6 million from $1.3 million in 2013. Product revenues were up sharply to $5.5 million from $846,414, while license and royalty revenues ticked up 9 percent to $500,000 from $458,333.
The company narrowed its net loss in 2014 to $10.7 million, or $4.17 per share, from a net loss of $16.3 million, or $58.16 per share, in 2013. Wafergen used about 2.6 million shares to calculate its per-share loss figure in 2014 compared to 304,527 shares in 2013.
In August 2014, the firm completed a $20 million offering of its stock after it effected a one-for-10 reverse stock split two months earlier.
Wafergen increased its R&D spending 24 percent last year to $6.7 million from $5.4 million in 2013, and upped its SG&A costs 74 percent to $9.2 million from $5.3 million.
The firm exited 2014 with $14.7 million in cash and cash equivalents.
According to Wafergen President and CEO Ivan Trifunovich, the company's business is starting to gain momentum. "We have an expanding and diverse customer base, and our focus on the rapidly growing segment of next-gen sequencing continues to enhance our market penetration," he said in a statement. He added that its SmartChip platform "has the potential to play a critical role in the important area of single-cell analysis," and said that Wafergen plans to launch an early access program for its single-cell analysis technology in the second quarter of this year and a full commercial launch by the end of the year.