NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – EKF Diagnostics this week said it completed its acquisitions of Selah Genomics and DiaSpect Medical. When the deals were announced last month, EKF said the Selah acquisition comprises an initial consideration of $35.6 million through the issue of new EKF shares and an additional deferred consideration of up to $35 million. EKF valued the acquisition of DiaSpect at about £20.75 million ($34.9 million), comprising an initial consideration of £10.25 million in cash and £5.75 million in new ordinary shares of the company, as well as an additional deferred consideration of up to £4.75 million.
NeoGenomics said that its revenues in the first quarter rose 16 percent year over year to $18.2 million from $15.7 million. It had a profit of $102,000, or breakeven on a per share basis, compared to a profit of $3,000, or breakeven EPS, a year ago. The company lowered its R&D costs 25 percent year over year to $628,000 from $835,000, but upped its SG&A costs 26 percent to $7.7 million from $6.1 million. It ended the quarter with $5.4 million in cash and cash equivalents. For the second quarter, NeoGenomics said that it anticipates between $18.8 million and $19.3 million in revenues. EPS is expected to be between breakeven and $.01.
It also issued new guidance for full-year 2014. Revenue is expected to be in the range of $73 million to $77 million with EPS of $.03 to $.05. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' National Correct Coding Initiative is currently resolving a billing issue for FISH testing for Medicare patients. NeoGenomics said that a positive resolution would increase its revenues by $3 million and its EPS by $.04.
Chinese clinical diagnostics firm BioChain Institute has completed its clinical validation study of Epigenomics' Epi proColon colorectal cancer test. BioChain has also submitted an application to China's Food and Drug Administration for approval of the test, which it and Epigenomics said they anticipate commercializing in China next year. The study was designed to evaluate the clinical performance of Epi proColon and is part of the required data package for regulatory approval in China. A US Food and Drug Administration panel recently voted in favor of the test but with concerns.
Bioinformatics analysis company BioDatomics announced it received a grant from the National Institutes of Health and a capital investment from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development's (MDBED) Maryland Venture Fund. The company declined to disclose the amounts of either the grant or the investment. It said that it will use the NIH funding to further expand its open-source toolset. The NIH and MDBED funding will enable BioDatomics to further expand the capabilities of its next-generation sequencing data analysis platform, BioDT. For more on BioDatomics, see this article in today's issue of BioInform.
PerkinElmer declared a regular quarterly dividend of $.07 per share of common stock, payable on Aug. 8 to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 18.
Quest Diagnostics completed its acquisition of Summit Health, a provider of on-site prevention and wellness services. Financial and other terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The deal was announced last month. The combined business will be called Quest Diagnostics Health and Wellness Services.
Dutch software firm Genalice said that it reached an agreement on a multimillion dollar capital investment from Redbrae, a consortium of US and UK private equity investors. It did not disclose the amount of the investment.
In Brief This Week is a Friday column containing news items that our readers may have missed during the week.