NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Response Genetics' first quarter revenues dropped 30 percent year over year despite an increase in its ResponseDX revenues, the company said today.
For the three months ended March 31, total revenues fell to $3.9 million from $5.6 million a year ago. ResponseDX revenues were up about 4 percent year over year to $3.3 million, but revenues from its pharmaceutical clients shrank by $1.9 million, Response said, due to the timing of services performed for the firm's largest pharma client.
Meanwhile, the increase in ResponseDX revenue was driven by its technical component/professional component testing service, launched in the third quarter of 2013. As part of the service, Response processes a patient's sample and the sending pathologist interprets the results.
The company also noted the launch of the ResponseDX Tissue of Origin test in February as a revenue driver during the quarter.
Response's net loss in the first quarter increased to $3.5 million, or $.09 per share, compared to a net loss of $824,304, or $.03 per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Its R&D expenses were up 57 percent year over year to $467,567 from $297,200, while its SG&A costs rose 25 percent to $4.5 million from $3.6 million.
Response ended the quarter with $5.0 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Subsequent to the end of the first quarter, the Los Angeles-based molecular diagnostics firm signed deals with several Blue Cross Blue Shield plans for coverage of its tests. It also announced an agreement with the Knight Diagnostics Laboratories at Oregon Health & Science University to launch a next-generation sequencing-based lung cancer panel.
"We believe that the growth in both DX revenue and testing volume in the first quarter of 2014 over last quarter suggests the beginning of the DX growth curve that we have been striving for over the last two years," Response Chairman and CEO Thomas Bologna said in a statement. "Additionally, we expect our pharma revenues to benefit from the anticipated receipt of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar testing services award with testing expected to begin in the third quarter or possibly as early as later in this quarter."