NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Molecular diagnostics firm Rosetta Genomics yesterday reported a 23 percent rise in second quarter revenues on strong growth in its urologic cancer testing services business.
For the three-month period ended June 30, Rosetta's revenues climbed to $2.4 million from $2 million. Contributing to the increase was a 43 percent bump in urologic cancer testing service revenues to $1.4 million from $971,000 in the same period the year before, which helped offset a 15 percent decline in solid tumor testing service revenues to $855,000.
Rosetta attributed the decline in solid tumor testing services to a refocusing of its sales force onto its recently launched Reveal test for the classification of indeterminate thyroid nodules.
“We are gaining traction with our strategy to use Reveal to access new accounts to promote our exceptional thyroid offering as well as our urologic cancer and solid tumor product lines," Rosetta President and CEO Kenneth Berlin said in a statement. "In the near term, this primary focus on Reveal may temporarily slow the growth of the solid tumor and urology business lines as our salespeople will be mainly calling on pathologists and endocrinologists, rather than oncologists and urologists. Over the long term, we believe that by winning new accounts with our Reveal offering we will be able to expand use of our solid tumor and urologic oncology offerings by many of these new accounts, thus further accelerating revenue growth."
Rosetta's net loss in the second quarter rose to $3.4 million, or $.16 per share, from a year-ago loss of $2.8 million, or $.20 per share. It's non-GAAP net loss was $.15 per share.
The firm’s R&D spending in the quarter increased slightly to $618,000 from $613,000, while SG&A costs dropped to $3.2 million from $4.7 million last year, primarily due to costs related to Rosetta's early 2015 acquisition of PersonalizeDx.
At the end of the second quarter, Rosetta had cash and cash equivalents totaling $8.1 million, and restricted cash and short-term bank deposits of $600,000.