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In Brief This Week: Myriad Genetics, Crescendo Bioscience; Illumina, BaseHealth; Atossa Genetics; Sygnis; IDna Genetics; Interleukin Genetics

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News)– Myriad Genetics disclosed last week that Crescendo Bioscience recorded $27.3 million in revenues and a net loss of $41.1 million in 2013. Myriad acquired the autoimmune diagnostics company for $245 million in March. Crescendo spent $12.1 million on R&D last year and $26.4 million on SG&A. It ended the year with $3.1 million in cash and cash equivalents.


Illumina will be BaseHealth's first Ecosystem Partner. A BaseHealth spokesperson said that the Ecosystem Partners are companies that "BaseHealth works with to provide the most comprehensive, personal, and contextual healthcare management platform on the market." Illumina's products will power the patient genotyping and whole-genome sequencing functions of BaseHealth's new integrated health management platform, called Genophen. The software-as-a-service-product combines genomic data with clinical and behavioral analysis.


Atossa Genetics' first quarter revenues plummeted to $24,124 from $182,670 in the year-ago quarter. All revenues in Q1 2014 derived from diagnostic testing services, which compared to $169,230 a year ago. The company had no product sales in the recently completed quarter compared to $13,440 a year ago. Atossa voluntarily recalled its ForeCYTE breast cancer test device and the Mammary Aspiration Specimen Cytology Test device in the fall after the US Food and Drug Administration raised concerns about them. In December, the Seattle-based firm filed a premarket 510(k) notification with FDA for the ForeCYTE test device.

Atossa's net loss for the first quarter was $2.4 million, or $.10 per share, compared to a net loss of $1.9 million, or $.14 per share, a year ago. The company went public in November 2013 and used 24.4 million shares to calculate its loss-per-share figure in Q1 2014, compared to 13.4 million shares for the Q1 2013 figure. Its R&D expenses shot up to $422,503 from $220,192 a year ago. Its SG&A costs increased to $2 million from $1.8 million. The company finished the quarter with $16.6 million in cash and cash equivalents. The company raised $14 million in gross proceeds in a public offering in January.


German-Spanish DNA amplification and sequencing firm Sygnis reported €100,000 ($137,000) in revenues for the first quarter, flat with the year-ago figure. It had an operating loss of €800,000 for the quarter, compared to an operating loss of €1.2 million in Q1 2013. Total expenses were down to €900,000 from €1.3 million a year ago. Sygnis exited the first quarter with €1.2 million in cash and cash equivalents. Earlier in the week, the company said it signed a patent transfer agreement covering its Double Switch technology with Systasy Bioscience.


Thomas Haizel has acquired IDna Genetics for an undisclosed sum. Based in Norwich, UK, IDna provides DNA services to seed companies, agricultural businesses, and genetics researchers. Haizel is the managing director of Anglia DNA, a UK DNA testing lab. He will now also be managing director of IDna, while IDna's former CEO, Pete Isaac, will be its scientific director. The company was created a decade ago as a joint venture between the John Innes Centre and technology management firm Plant Bioscience, which sold their shares in the firm to Haizel.


Interleukin Genetics reported first quarter revenues that were essentially flat year over year. For the three months ended March 31, total revenues were $487,566, compared to year-ago revenues of $487,393. The company had a net loss of $1.7 million, or $.01 per share, in the recently completed quarter, compared to a net loss of $1.2 million, or $.03 per share, a year ago. It used 122.5 million shares to calculate the most recent loss-per-share figure, compared to 36.8 million shares a year ago. Interleukin sold about 43.7 million shares of its common stock in May 2013, raising $12 million in gross proceeds. It ended Q1 2014 with $5.7 million in cash and cash equivalents.


In Brief This Week is a Friday column containing news items that our readers may have missed during the week.

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