NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – BioMérieux today reported that its second quarter revenues rose 11 percent year over year driven in large part by growth in FilmArray products and microbiology lines.
For the three months ended June 30, BioMérieux reported revenues of €566.4 million ($659.4 million), up from €512.3 million in the prior-year period. Organic growth, at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation, was about 9 percent year over year.
Revenues for the clinical applications business, which includes microbiology, molecular biology, and immunoassays, rose 13 percent to €456.6 million from €405.3 million in Q2 2016.
Microbiology, the largest segment within clinical applications, rose 7 percent to €234.8 million from €219.9 million in Q2 2016. BioMérieux said that within microbiology, BacT/Alert blood culture sales slowed slightly over the quarter, due mainly to a high comparison basis for Chinese operations resulting from the country's strong performance in Q2 2016.
Molecular biology sales increased 44 percent to €99.4 million from €69.3 million in Q2 2016. FilmArray sales provided the major driver, growing around 57 percent to €82 million from €52 million in Q2 2016 FilmArray growth was especially strong for the Gastrointestinal and Meningitis/Encephalitis panels. An increasing proportion of laboratories are using several panels, underlining the importance of being able to offer customers a diverse and comprehensive menu on the FilmArray platform, the company noted.
Also within clinical applications, Immunoassays contributed €120.8 million in Q2, up 5 percent from €115.1 million.The firm said that its Vidas BRAHMS line was up by almost 5 perfect in Q2, with high medical value tests accounting for around half of the growth. Other clinical applications were up 33 percent to €1.5 million from €1.1 million.
Industrial applications revenues in Q2 rose 7 percent to €102 million from €95.5 million in Q2 2017. Biofire Defense revenues dropped 37 percent to €6.2 million from €9.8 in the prior-year period, with a constant exchange drop of 39 percent. Applied Maths logged €600,000, down 14 percent from €700,000 in Q1 2016, and R&D-related revenue dropped 20 percent to €800,000.
From a regional perspective, BioMérieux sales in the Americas were up 20 percent to €246.5 from €205.3 from year to year. Sales were boosted by high instrument sales for both clinical and industrial applications and by double-digit growth in sales of reagents.
In Asia Pacific, sales were up 8.7 percent to €103.2 million from €95 million. In China, BioMérieux's third biggest market, growth in sales was spurred by clinical microbiology and molecular biology lines and by industrial applications.
The firm noted several highlights for Q2. For example, on June 1, BioMérieux announced that its FilmArray RP2 panel, which includes the same pathogens as the RP2plus test except MERS-CoV, had received US Food and Drug Administration clearance.
In April, BioMérieux obtained FDA clearance to market and sell Rapidec Carba NP, a manual high medical value test used to confirm the detection of carbapenemase-producing bacteria in agar cultures.
In light of the organic growth reported in the first half of the year and based on information available to the company, BioMérieux believes that it will achieve the higher end of its target organic sales growth range between 8 and 9 percent.