NEW YORK — DermTech on Wednesday reported a nearly 300 percent year-over-year increase in revenues for the second quarter amid strong demand for its noninvasive skin cancer assays.
For the three-month period ended June 30, DermTech's revenues climbed to $3.1 million from $844,000 in the year-ago quarter, beating analysts' consensus revenue estimate of $2.85 million.
Driving the increase was a surge in assay revenues to $2.9 million from $648,000, which the company attributed to higher billable sample volume and improved average selling price resulting from better cash collections. DermTech said that billable sample volume for the quarter increased 267 percent to roughly 11,750 from 3,200 a year earlier.
Contract revenues, meantime, edged up 7 percent to $209,000 from $196,000.
"DermTech continued to execute on its core business drivers during Q2 by delivering healthy sample volume and revenue growth as we began to emerge from the peak of the pandemic," DermTech CEO John Dobak said in a statement. "Our recent efforts to complete the sales force expansion planning, the start of our in-market beta testing of our telemedicine solution, … and the initiation of a couple of integrated primary network pilots enables additional adoption of the DermTech Melanoma Test and lays the commercial foundation for future products and channel expansion."
DermTech's Q2 net loss was $17.1 million, or $.59 per share, compared with a net loss of $9.6 million, or $.59 per share, last year. Net loss in Q2 was calculated based on 28,979 weighted average shares, versus 16,150 shares in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had, on average, anticipated a loss per share of $.53.
R&D costs in the second quarter were up more than fourfold to $3.6 million from $864,000, reflecting compensation costs associated with an expanded R&D team, clinical trial costs, and increased lab supply spending. SG&A expenses were $14.2 million, a 78 percent increase over last year's $8.0 million, on higher compensation costs as DermTech added employees across its business.
At the end of June, DermTech had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term marketable securities totaling $268.3 million.
Looking ahead, the La Jolla, California-based company said it anticipates full-year 2021 assay revenue between $11.5 million and $13.5 million, representing 171 percent to 218 percent growth over 2020.
In morning trading on the Nasdaq, DermTech's shares were down $.25 at $32.32.