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Curetis Posts 24 Percent Revenue Drop in First Nine Months of 2017

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Curetis reported today that its revenues for the first nine months of 2017 dropped about 24 percent amid delays in some placements of its Unyvero molecular diagnostic system.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Curetis' revenues fell to €830,933 ($978,481) from €1.1 million in the same period the year before. According to the company, the revenue decline was primarily due to certain Q3 Unyvero placements being postponed to the fourth quarter due to some prolonged customer discussions and contracting in Germany, France, and the UK.

Curetis noted that its installed based of Unyvero analyzers grew 36 percent year over year to 165 as of Sept. 30 from 121 at the end of Q3 2016, and that it placed nine instruments during the third quarter. Five other instruments were brought back by users following a demo/evaluation phase during Q3, the firm added.

Curetis also said that it continues to expect that it will launch the Unyvero system in the US next year, and that it is working with the US Food and Drug Administration on the review of its 510(k) submission for the platform and a related lower respiratory tract (LRT) infection panel. US clinical testing of a Unyvero panel for invasive joint infections is ongoing.

"We are ... very confident that the market launch in the US will be a major value inflection point and key milestone for the company," Curetis CEO Oliver Schacht said in a statement. "Looking ahead, we believe that both the continued commercial expansion and the integration of last year's GEAR [bacterial genomic database] and Gyronimo [qPCR platform] acquisitions will have an increasing impact on Curetis' long-term growth prospects."

Curetis' net loss for the first nine months of 2017 widened to €14.6 million, or €.93 per share, from €10.7 million, or €.69 per share, in the year-ago period.

R&D spending for the period fell 4 percent to €5.0 million from €5.2 million, while administrative expenses rose 29 percent to €2.7 million from €2.1 million.

At the end of September, Curetis had cash and cash equivalents totaling €21.6 million.

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