NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Fluidigm reported after the close of the market on Thursday that its second quarter revenues grew 11 percent year over year, driven in part by strong sales of its mass cytometry instruments.
For the three months ended June 30, the South San Francisco, California-based life science research tools firm reported total revenues of $26.4 million compared to $23.9 million in the same quarter a year ago, in line with analysts' consensus estimate of $26.3 million.
Product revenues increased 12 percent to $21.8 million from $19.5 million year over year, while service revenues rose 9 percent to $4.7 million from $4.3 million.
By product category, instrument revenues grew 5 percent to $10.4 million from $9.9 million year over year as higher revenues from mass cytometry instruments were partially offset by declining genomics instrument sales. Consumables revenues increased 19 percent to $11.4 million from $9.6 million with growth in both mass cytometry and high-throughput genomics consumables, partially offset by decreased sales of single-cell genomics products.
By end market, mass cytometry revenues (instruments, consumables, and service) jumped 32 percent to $13.7 million from $10.4 million a year ago. Genomics revenues, however, fell 5 percent year over year to $12.8 million from $13.5 million.
In a conference call following the release of Fluidigm's earnings, CEO Chris Linthwaite noted that in Q2 "robust instrument placements across pharma, translational research, and cancer centers were highlighted by our conversion of mass cytometry opportunities into orders at leading institutions around the world. Furthermore, mass cytometry consumables growth was strong, partially driven by remarkable adoption of our MaxPar Human Immune Monitoring Panel that was launched early in the second quarter."
Linthwaite also noted that Fluidigm is primed to take advantage of the "explosive investment in the clinical, pharma, and research communities to answer questions about immune function. Most of these questions require an intersection of genomic and proteomic analysis, leading to an environment that is increasingly multi-omic. Fluidigm is a leading provider of tools to meet this need as researchers require a broad array of solutions and workflows across tissues, cells, and circulating biomarkers.":
As an example, he noted that during the quarter an unnamed Japanese medical hospital adopted Fluidigm's mass cytometry technology for a cancer biomarker project that is being funded by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development.
In addition, Linthwaite noted, Fluidigm had a "very exciting mass cytometry placement with a leader in the CAR-T cell therapy space" during the quarter. "As biotech and pharma companies investigate methods to use a patient's own T cells to fight cancer, mass cytometry is an important tool to uncover new insights in cellular phenotypes, function, and signaling status that can further the development of cancer treatments," he added.
Fluidigm's Q2 net loss narrowed slightly to $16.2 million, or $.42 per share, from $16.9 million, or $.58 per share in the year-ago quarter. On an adjusted basis, loss per share was $.17, ahead of the Wall Street estimate of a loss per share of $.40.
The firm's Q2 R&D expenses fell 1 percent year over year to $7.4 million from $7.5 million, while its SG&A spending dropped 10 percent to $19.0 million from $21.0 million.
Fluidigm finished the quarter with $39.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and $996,000 in short-term investments.
For the third quarter, the company said that it expects revenues of $26 million to $29 million. Analysts are expecting Q3 revenues of $27.9 million.
Separately on Thursday, Fluidigm disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it has entered into a loan and security agreement with Silicon Valley Bank that provides the company with a secured revolving credit facility of up to $15 million. The company said it would use the loan for working capital and to fund general business requirements.