NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – BG Medicine today reported second quarter revenues of $799,000, down 20 percent from $1.0 million in the second quarter of 2013.
The revenues consisted solely of product revenues from sales of the company's BGM Galectin-3 test. Product revenues were down 18 percent from $972,000 in Q2 2013.
The company reported no service revenues. It reported $34,000 in service revenues in the year-ago period.
BG also lowered its full-year 2014 guidance, noting that it no longer expects 2014 revenues to exceed 2013 revenues.
On a conference call following the release of the results, Paul Sohmer, BG's president and CEO, attributed the company's struggle to drive adoption of its BGM Galectin-3 test to several factors, including the need for increased education of clinicians regarding use of the test and the lack of an automated version of the test in the US.
"In its current microtiter plate format, access to testing by and large is limited to larger specialty and reference laboratories, and this in turn impacts both turnaround time and availability of test results," he said. "Some laboratories are deferring decisions about adoption of the test until it is available in an automated format."
BG is awaiting the results of Abbott Diagnostics' submission for US Food and Drug Administration 510(k) approval of an automated galectin-3 assay. The company has also partnered with BioMérieux to develop an automated version of the test.
Sohmer also provided an update regarding the company's CardioScore test for risk of cardiovascular events.
In 2011 BG submitted CardioScore for FDA 510(k) clearance, but withdrew the submission in 2012 upon determining that it would not be able to respond in full to a request from FDA to confirm certain data from its BioImage validation study for the test.
Sohmer said that BG has completed a medical review of data generated in support of this previous 510(k) submission and that it was now "engaged in exploring opportunities to commercialize, to monetize, [and] to license" the test.
BG's net loss for the quarter was $2.2 million, or $.06 per share, down 55 percent from a net loss of $4.8 million, or $.18 per share, in the second quarter of last year.
The decrease was due to lower operating expenses, both administrative spending and in research and development, the company said.
For the quarter, the company's R&D spending was down 49 percent to $573,000 from $1.1 million in Q2 2012. Its SG&A expenses dropped to $1.9 million, down 53 percent from $4.0 million in the year-ago period. These spending cuts included $2.1 million in reductions in personnel, travel, and marketing expenses and professional fees.
BG Medicine ended the quarter with $9.5 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Shares of BG Medicine were down 22 percent at $.73 in Thursday morning trade on the Nasdaq.