Ciphergen Forecasts Disappointing Q2 Revenues, Plans Cuts in Biosystems Business
Ciphergen Biosystems announced late Wednesday night that it expects a significant drop in revenues for the second quarter and that it plans to cut costs in its Biosystems division. The company’s stock plunged to a low of $3.95 per share on the heels of the news, a 40 percent drop in value from its Wednesday close of $7.32.
Ciphergen estimates revenues of $10 to $11 million for the quarter ending June 30, down from $14.3 million during the same period last year.
Bill Rich, the company's president and CEO, said in a statement that “we will take steps to reduce operating expenses in our Biosystems Division more in line with a reduced revenue run rate.” He also told ProteoMonitor’s sister publication, GenomeWeb News, that it is unclear whether the cost cutting will involve layoffs. More details will be announced during a conference call later this month, Rich said.
As it has in previous quarters, the company blamed general market difficulties and delays in ProteinChip system orders for the disappointing results. “Alternative proteomic technoogies, methods and services for biomarker discovery have resulted in market confusion and delays or loss of system orders,” Rich said in the statement.
The statement also said that the company will release a “next generation” ProteinChip platform later this quarter.
Some investors in a conference call Thursday morning displayed skepticism for Rich’s explanation. “It’s sort of disappointing that [this] message would come across every quarter ... I would just remind you that you should at least cut your costs a little bit, focus on what you’re doing,” one investor said during the call.
NIDCD To Commit $1.5M in FY 2005 to Protein Interactions Projects
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders issued a Request for Applications last week calling for applications to fund projects studying protein interactions involved in auditory and vestibular development.
According to the NIDCD, the goal of the RFA is for groups to “initiate comprehensive approaches using multiple molecular techniques to study regulatory and signaling proteins important in auditory and vestibular developmental biology. Information gained from these approaches will provide insight to specific protein regulatory networks important to auditory and vestibular function.”
NIDCD noted that applications for studies using high-throughput proteomics approaches are not being considered for this particular RFA. Studies eligible for funding include, but are not limited to, ones focused on the use of auditory and vestibular proteins in bacterial or yeast two-hybrid systems to detect putative protein interactions and candidates; mutational analysis of proteins in auditory and vestibular biology; and the use of purified reconstitution systems to assess protein function involved in auditory and vestibular biology, according to the NIDCD.
NIDCD said that it expects to commit roughly $1.5 million in fiscal 2005 to fund three or four projects. The full RFA can be found here.
PRS and CRPS Sign on with Nonlinear for Progenesis software
Nonlinear Dynamics announced this week that Proteomic Research Services and Charles River Proteomics Services have both licensed Nonlinear Dynamics’ Progenesis 2D gel analysis software.
Proteomic Research Services, a contract proteomics services company based in Ann Arbor, Mich., will use Progenesis as part of its 2D gel services. Charles River, based in Worcester, Mass., will do the same.
Nonlinear sells both 1D and 2D gel analysis software for proteomics applications.