NEW YORK — German diagnostics firm Epigenomics reported on Tuesday a 69 percent drop in its third quarter revenues amid lower product sales and licensing revenues.
For the three-month period ended Sept. 30, Epigenomics' revenues fell to €168,000 ($184,752) from €544,000 in the same quarter last year, primarily due to a 44 percent decline in product sales to €158,000 from €283,000. Epigenomics attributed the lower product sales to the inability of US customers to sell off existing inventories of the company's Epi proColon colorectal cancer screening assay, which has yet to receive a final reimbursement ruling from the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, leading to a reluctance to purchase additional tests.
Also pushing down the company's total revenues was a 95 percent year-over-year fall in licensing revenue to €10,000 from €213,000, resulting from Epigenomics' termination of an agreement for the Chinese rights to its Septin9 biomarker and Epi proColon with BioChain.
Epigenomics posted a Q3 net loss of €2.6 million, or €.07 per share, versus a year-ago loss of €3.0 million, or €.12 per share.
Its R&D spending in the quarter climbed 29 percent to €1.8 million from €1.4 million, reflecting the costs associated with a cross-sectional, prospective study of its liver cancer test and a post-approval study of Epi proColon. The firm's SG&A expenses, meantime, were down 9 percent to €2.0 million from €2.2 million.
At the end of September, Epigenomics had cash and cash equivalents totaling €5.5 million. Earlier this month, the firm grossed approximately €8.3 million through a private placement.