NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Biocept reported after the close of the market on Tuesday that its first quarter revenues fell 53 percent year over year.
For the three months ended March 31, the San Diego-based liquid biopsy firm logged $806,943 in revenues compared to $1.7 million a year ago. Q1 revenues included about $762,000 in commercial test revenues and $45,000 in development services test revenues.
Revenues from Q1 2017 included one-time revenues of $874,000 associated with the conversion from cash-based to accrual-based revenue recognition, the company noted. Excluding the impact of this one-time item, year-over-year Q1 revenues were essentially flat.
Biocept accessioned 1,170 total samples in Q1 2018 compared with 1,246 total samples in the year-ago quarter. The company noted that it accessioned 1,084 billable samples in the Q1 2018 with one less sales day compared with 1,107 billable samples in Q1 2017.
During the quarter Biocept entered into a partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific to validate that firm's next-generation sequencing panel in Biocept's CLIA laboratory. Upon completion of the validation, Biocept expects to become a Thermo Fisher Liquid Biopsy Center of Excellence with the potential to jointly market services to the pharmaceutical industry.
The company's Q1 net loss swelled to $6.4 million, or $.11 per share, from $4.4 million, or $.21 per share in Q1 2017. Biocept used approximately 57 million shares to calculate per-share loss in the recently completed quarter compared to about 21 million shares a year ago.
Biocept's R&D expenses in Q1 rose 38 percent to $1.1 million from $757,258 due to new hires for the development of new biomarker assays and a higher proportion of allocated laboratory costs to support R&D activities. Meanwhile its SG&A expenses jumped 9 percent to $3.5 million from $3.2 million due to higher salesforce expenses.
The company finished the quarter with $9.3 million in cash compared to $2.1 million as of Dec. 31, 2017. In January 2018, Biocept completed a public stock offering, raising $13.3 million in net proceeds.
Biocept said it has commenced a cost-reduction program that is estimated to save it $1.0 million to $1.5 million annually. In addition, the firm expects to make the final payment on its long-term debt obligation in July, which is anticipated to reduce its annual cash need by more than $2.0 million, bringing total expected annual cost savings to between $3.0 million and $3.5 million.