NEW YORK – Talis Biomedical reported after the close of the market on Tuesday that its first quarter earnings spiked year over year due to the realization of milestone-based grant funding.
For the three months ended March 31, the Menlo Park, California-based company posted revenues of $7.0 million, a 1,654 percent increase compared to $399,000 in Q1 of 2020, primarily attributed to meeting milestones of a grant from the National Institutes of Health's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, or RADx program.
Talis went public in February, raising approximately $232.5 million in net proceeds, it said in a statement, and described its plans to submit a SARS-CoV-2 test to the US Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization in Q2.
Talis is on track to complete the clinical validation study for its Talis One COVID-19 assay which will support its EUA application. The Talis One is a diagnostic testing platform based in part on SlipChip technology. The platform enables the firm "to design and commercialize rapid, high quality multiplex assays to detect a wide range of pathogens, beginning with COVID-19," Talis CEO Brian Coe said in a statement.
He also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased demand for infectious diseases diagnostics. "We believe that this is part of a broader transformational shift of diagnostic testing toward the point of care," Coe said. "Leveraging the recent completion of our successful initial public offering, we are well-positioned financially and operationally to help drive this transformation in how care is delivered."
Talis also added Jeryl Hilleman to its board of directors in the quarter and signed leases in Redwood City, California, and Chicago.
The firm's R&D costs increased approximately tenfold year over year to $60.2 million from $5.7 million, while its SG&A costs more than tripled to $7.3 million from $2.1 million in the previous year. The increase in operating expenses was driven by investments in manufacturing scale-up and commercial readiness to support the Talis One launch, the firm said.
Talis posted a net loss in the recently completed quarter of $60.5 million, or $4.61 per share, compared to a net loss of $7.4 million, or $3.49 per share, in Q1 2020.
The company had $348 million in cash as of March 31, 2021.
In Wednesday morning trading on the Nasdaq, Talis Biomedical stock was down a fraction of a percent to $10.11.