NEW YORK – Yourgene Health today reported nearly doubled revenues for the first half of its fiscal year 2019 and provided a business update.
For the six months ended Sept. 30, the Manchester, UK-based molecular diagnostics firm booked £7.8 million ($10.1 million) in revenues, up 97 percent from £3.9 million in H1 of FY2018, and in line with preliminary revenues announced last month.
Of those, £4.8 million came from the company's noninvasive prenatal testing products, £1.6 million from reproductive health products, and £1.4 million from oncology and research products.
By geographic area, £1.1 million of revenues came from the UK, £1.6 million from Europe, and £5.1 million from other international markets.
"The reorientation of the business to focus on our key four strategic growth drivers is starting to bear fruit, and I remain convinced we have a very significant opportunity ahead of us," said CEO Lyn Rees in a statement. "We are confident in our outlook for the year end and very excited about the prospects for further growth over the following years."
Rees reiterated that in April, Yourgene acquired Delta Diagnostics, which traded under the name Elucigene Diagnostics, for £8.9 million in cash and stocks and completed an associated equity funding round, in which it raised £11.8 million in gross proceeds.
Last week, Yourgene said it has opened new UK corporate headquarters and facilities in Manchester. It currently has 125 employees worldwide, 89 of them based in Manchester.
The development of a version of its Iona NIPT that runs on Illumina sequencing equipment is "progressing well and on schedule," according to the company. Yourgene has also transferred its European quality accreditation to BSI Netherlands "to offset Brexit risks," and is preparing to roll out its Illumina-based NIPT next year, primarily in Europe but also in new markets in Asia Pacific and North America.
Existing customers in the UK and Europe are "eagerly awaiting" the launch of the Illumina-based NIPT, according to Rees, and Yourgene expects stronger revenue growth after the launch. During H1, the company also signed up several new distributors for the test.
The firm now has more than 20 laboratory customers for its NIPT in India and has signed several additional contracts for NIPT in Saudi Arabia. It has also seen "strong growth" across Asia, particularly in Southeast Asia and Japan, Rees said.
In China, the company is looking for "long-term opportunities across our whole product range" and is evaluating potential partners, he said.
In September, the company also launched its first oncology product, a chemotoxicity diagnostic genotyping assay called the Elucigene DPYD assay that can identify cancer patients with DPD deficiency, which can cause severe and sometimes lethal side effects to the chemotherapeutic agent 5-FU. Rees said feedback from potential customers has been positive and it has secured its first UK contract with an NHS Trust.
In addition, Yourgene recently collected its first revenues in the US and opened a US location.
The company incurred £382,000 in R&D costs, excluding salaries, for the period.
Yourgene's H1 loss totaled £1.4 million, or £0 per share, compared to a loss of £3.4 million, or £.01 per share, in H1 of FY2018.
As of Sept. 30, the company had £4.1 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Yourgene said it continues to consider additional acquisition opportunities to enhance its earnings and to acquire complementary technologies.
For full fiscal year 2019, which ends March 31, 2020, Yourgene expects nearly £17 million in revenues.