NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Biocept reported after the close of the market Wednesday that its third quarter revenues increased more than six-fold year over year on increased test volume.
The San Diego-based maker of cancer biomarker assays reported total revenues of about $1 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, up from $164,856 for the third quarter of 2015. It said that it accessioned 1,179 billable samples during the quarter, a 122 percent increase over the 531 samples for the third quarter of 2015.
"In the third quarter, we continued to increase our test volume growth while improving collections on our billing activities, resulting in record quarterly revenues of more than $1 million," Michael Nall, president and CEO of Biocept, said in a statement. "The completion of a $10 million equity financing in October, primarily with healthcare-focused institutional investors, is a vote of confidence in our proprietary Target-Selector platform and our business prospects. The proceeds from this financing will be used to support our continued commercial progress in the liquid biopsy market, and will also enable us to pursue additional value-creating initiatives."
During a call following the release of the earnings Nall noted that, in general, "Liquid biopsy is starting to hit its stride," and that oncologists are increasingly finding ways to fit the firm's testing into routine practice. "In fact we have several physicians who have now sent us greater than 30 samples on a quarterly basis, so we're not only gaining more physicians but some that we have are starting to use us on a weekly, if not daily, basis," Nall added, attributing the growth to menu expansion and increased monitoring needs.
Biocept posted a net loss of $4.7 million, or $.57 per share, for Q3 2016 compared to a loss of $4.5 million, or $.72 per share for Q3 2015. It used 8.4 million shares to calculate its loss in the most recent quarter versus 6.2 million for the comparable period in 2015.
Its R&D expenses dropped 11 percent to $600,613 from $677,729 year over year, while its SG&A spending rose 19 percent to $3.2 million from $2.7 million.
Biocept finished the quarter with $678,855 million in cash and cash equivalents.