NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – BG Medicine today reported first quarter revenues of $739,000, down 17 percent from $888,000 in the first quarter of 2013.
Sales of the company's BGM-Galectin-3 heart failure test accounted for all of its revenues. It posted no service revenues in the quarter, compared to $68,000 in service revenues in Q1 2013.
On a conference call following release of the results, BG President and CEO Paul Sohmer said that the drop in revenues stemmed on the product side from a decline in orders due to inclement winter weather, while the drop in service revenues resulted from the completion of the High Risk Plaque initiative and the company's decision in 2013 to close its research facilities.
These latter events also led to significant reductions in company expenses, Sohmer said, noting that operating expenses fell to $2.7 million, down 53 percent from $5.7 million in Q1 2013.
The firm's R&D spending was down 60 percent to $560,000 from $1.4 million in Q1 2013. Its SG&A expenses dropped 53 percent to $1.9 million from $4.0 million in the year-ago period.
BG's net loss fell to $2.2 million, or $.08 per share, from $5.4 million, or $.21 per share, in Q1 2013.
Looking forward, Sohmer said that with the funds acquired through the company's April public offering, BG believes it is "in a strong position to transform our company and grow our business while aggressively managing our operating costs."
He added that the company is "restructuring and expanding [its] sales organization in order to accelerate the development of market demand for [the] BGM Galectin-3 test."
BG aims to expand its sales force to 10 by the end of the second quarter, which would roughly double the number of sales people the company had in the field at the end of Q2 2013, Sohmer said.
The company ended the quarter with $4.3 million in cash and cash equivalents.
In morning trading on the Nasdaq, shares of BG were down 18 percent at $1.04.