NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – BioMérieux reported today that its third quarter revenues rose 6 percent from Q3 2016, including a 23 percent increase in molecular biology sales, and boosted by a period of fast-paced growth for the BioFire FilmArray product line both in the United States and in the rest of the world.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company reported total revenues of €540.0 million ($635.8 million), up from €510.8 million a year ago. Total revenues for the quarter at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation rose 10 percent.
Revenues from clinical applications — which includes microbiology, molecular biology, and immunoassays — were up 7 percent in the third quarter to €434.1 million. This was largely due to a 23 percent increase in revenues from the molecular biology subcategory, which grew to €90.5 million in the quarter from €73.5 million in Q3 of 2016.
The firm noted that development of its molecular biology lines remained robust, driven by demand for BioFire FilmArray panels, particularly the gastrointestinal and meningitis/encephalitis panels. Deployment of FilmArray outside of the United States continued apace, the company said, with sales in the rest of the world accounting for 13 percent of total sales for the line, and close to one-third of new systems installations carried out outside of the United States over the quarter.
In immunoassays, sales of the Vidas line were stable in the third quarter. While performance remained robust in the Asia-Pacific region, notably in China, the business was affected by a decline in sales in other regions, and by a decrease in instrument sales and a slowdown in growth for reagent sales in North America, the company said.
The firm's microbiology segment sales increased 6 percent to €236.2 million from €222.6 million, driven by reagent and instrument sales for the Vitek line of automated identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing and with contribution from the BACT/ALERT blood culture line and the WASP and WASPLab microbiology laboratory automation systems.
The firm's industrial applications sales were up 7 percent year over year to €100.1 million. This was due in part to growth in pharmaceutical industry sales, particularly in culture media, the Chemunex cytometry line, and the BACT/ALERT blood culture line. An increase in sales to the food industry was also sustained year-over-year, reflecting the rapid development of Vidas and Vitek microbiology platforms, the firm said.
Globally, the firm's largest sales increase was in Asia-Pacific, up 12 percent to €102 million from €90.9 million in the year-ago period. Sales in Latin America and North America increased by 4 percent and 7 percent, respectively, while sales in Europe, including the Middle East and Africa, rose 3 percent.
During the quarter, BioMérieux officially resolved a 2012 FDA warning letter related to its Durham, NC facility; initiated a partnership with Lumed for the distribution of the software firm's Antimicrobial Prescription Surveillance System and software suite in the US, Canada, and Europe; and launched two new tests to assess antibiotic susceptibility on its Etest line.