NEW YORK – Novacyt on Thursday reported a 68 percent decline in revenues for the six months ended June 30, mostly due to a drop-off in demand for COVID-19 tests.
Group revenue for the Camberley, UK-based clinical diagnostics firm tumbled to £16.5 million ($19.7 million) from £52.2 million in the first half of 2021. Novacyt said that £47.6 million of its H1 2021 revenues derived from sales of COVID-19 tests versus £13 million in the first half of this year.
Revenues derived from the firm's non-COVID-19 portfolio also declined to £3.5 million from £4.6 million, driven by lower instrument sales, which had benefited from greater demand related to COVID-19.
Novacyt has continued to face revenue declines due to falling demand for its menu of PCR and antibody tests for SARS-CoV-2, which were also hit by a dispute with the UK Department of Health and Social Care. In light of these ongoing challenges, the firm said it has opted to discontinue its Lab21 Healthcare and Microgen Bioproducts businesses and said it will seek to reduce operating costs by £2.4 million this year to £20.6 million. Novacyt had a full-year operating cost of about £25.1 million last year.
The firm had cash on hand of £99.6 million as of June 30, down from £101.7 million at the end of last year.
Looking forward, Novacyt will spend roughly half of its operational expenditures on R&D and commercial resources over the next six months. It is developing two new PCR assays for near-patient infectious disease testing. Both are focused on gastrointestinal viruses and bacteria and will run on its q32 instruments.
Novacyt also recently launched a lateral flow test reader for use with its Pathflow product portfolio. In late June, Novacyt also launched a research-use-only PCR assay for monkeypox.