This story originally ran on May 19.
Pressure BioSciences announced this week that total revenue for the first quarter of 2010 fell 5 percent to $290,813 from $306,762 in the first quarter of 2009.
Revenue from sales of the company's Pressure Cycling Technology systems dropped 15 percent to $189,150 from $222,142 in the year-ago period. The balance of the company's revenues, derived from grants, increased to $101,663 from $84,620 in the first quarter of 2009.
Joseph Damasio, corporate controller, partially attributed the drop-off in revenue to harsh winter weather at the outset of 2010.
"Our first quarter results were also adversely affected by the two historic mid-Atlantic snow storms of February 2010," he said in a statement. "We believe that the loss of two full weeks by one-half of our outside sales team was the major factor resulting in the first decline in year-over-year quarterly revenue since the second quarter of 2008."
Damasio added that "greater than usual" patent-related expenses contributed to wider losses for the quarter. The company reported a net loss of $911,325 compared to $224,246 in the first quarter of 2009, while cash burn increased to $750,000 from $655,000.
Pressure BioSciences' first-quarter R&D spending dipped to $294,141 from $307,224. As of March 31, the company held $1.6 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Pressure BioSciences' PCT systems control bio-molecular interactions by applying cycles of hydrostatic pressure from ambient to ultra-high levels. Since launching in 2005, the company has largely focused its efforts on developing the technology for use in sample preparation for genomic, proteomic, and small molecule research.
In the first quarter of 2010, the company installed 10 PCT Sample Preparation Systems, the same number as in the first quarter of 2009.