NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Biocartis today reported a nearly 500 percent year-over-year increase in its revenues for the first half of 2015.
For the first half of the year, the Belgian molecular diagnostics firm said that revenues reached €6.6 million ($7.4 million), up from €1.1 million in H1 2014. The uptick was driven by a €4.6 million increase in collaboration revenues resulting from a license and development deal with Janssen Pharmaceutica, and a €900,000 increase in product sales, the company said.
Biocartis said that it sold 32 Idylla instruments in the first half of the year and remains on track to sell 75 instruments for full-year 2015, as the firm previously guided. The total Idylla installed base was 114 at the end of H1 2015 and is expected to reach 150 by the end of the year.
The firm also said that it inked nine new distribution contracts in H1 2015 covering 12 countries. The contracts include minimum purchase obligations for more than 100 Idylla instruments during the next three years, it said.
For H1 2015, the company reported a net loss of €16.9 million compared to a net loss of €19.7 million in H1 2014.
Biocartis spent €16.1 million on R&D during the first six months of 2015, up from €12.8 million a year ago. Its SG&A costs rose to €6.8 million, up from €4.3 million in H1 2014.
Biocartis said that it had €128.5 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of H1 2015. The company went public in April on Euronext Brussels, raising €115 million in proceeds.
The company also provided an update on its test menu development, saying that it anticipates launching its NRAS/BRAF/EGFR492 test for research use only at the end of 2015. It also expects CE-IVD marking for its two other NRAS tests in the first half of 2016.
Biocartis said that it expects to launch a BRAF liquid biopsy test for RUO by the end of this year, while CE-IVD marking for its IFV-RSV test for influenza and respiratory viruses is expected by the end of the fourth quarter of this year. Biocartis added that Janssen Diagnostics has agreed to appoint the firm as a worldwide co-exclusive distributor of the test.
In addition, the company said that it anticipates completing the emergency use authorization process with the US Food and Drug Administration for the Idylla platform and Rapid Ebola Virus Triage test in the beginning of Q4 2015. Lastly, Biocartis said that it expects to complete the outsourcing of the Idylla platform and console production to a contract manufacturing organization by the end of the year, which would lead to "significant" cost efficiencies and the required scaling of production capacity.
The company has also promoted Hilde Windels to deputy CEO. He had been Biocartis' CFO. Rudi Pauwels will remain the firm's CEO. Additionally, Ewoud Welten is joining Biocartis as CFO. He previously was at investment bank Kempen & Co.