NEW YORK – Adaptive Biotechnologies reported after the close of the market on Wednesday that its second quarter revenues grew 83 percent year over year.
For the three months ended June 30, the Seattle-based immune repertoire sequencing firm tallied total revenues of $38.5 million compared to $21.0 million a year ago, besting analysts' consensus estimate of $31.3 million.
Adaptive's sequencing revenue more than doubled to $18.6 million from $8.0 million a year ago, while its development revenue increased 54 percent to $20.0 million from $13.0 million.
The company said that test volume for ClonoSeq, its assay for minimal residual disease monitoring in blood cancers, grew 75 percent year over year and 15 percent sequentially.
During the quarter, Adaptive signed a license agreement with Vaccibody to use Adaptive's T-cell data to inform the development of a T-cell-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, the company said. In addition, Adaptive recently inked an agreement with Moderna to use its ImmunoSeq T-Map COVID technology to measure the T-cell response to Moderna's second-generation COVID vaccine and Zika vaccine.
The Vaccibody pact "is the first time that our T-cell data will be used to inform the design and development of a T-cell-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine," Chad Robins, Adaptive cofounder and CEO, noted in a conference call recapping Q2 financial results. "Importantly, Adaptive technology may inform the design of an entirely new class of vaccines that elicit a T-cell response for many disease states."
Robins added that the firm is in discussions with a number of federal agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about studies designed to use T-cell response data "to answer critical questions related to vaccine durability, breakthrough infections, and efficacy in immune-compromised patients."
Regarding the Moderna agreement, Adaptive CSO Harlan Robins said that it is the next step in a longstanding relationship between the companies. The new agreement will see Moderna use Adaptive's T-MAP research-only product that provides "considerably more information" than diagnostic products about whether and how broadly Moderna's vaccines are generating a T-cell response.
Meanwhile, Adaptive's T-Detect platform for early detection and measurement of T-cell response for a number of diseases also continues to advance. The company already received FDA Emergency Use Authorization earlier this year for its T-Detect COVID assay for measuring T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2, indicating recent or prior infection. Robins said during Wednesday's earnings call that the company's ImmuneSense study for T-Detect in Lyme disease will complete enrollment in the fall, and that "we continue to progress towards T-Detect IBD as a differential diagnostic, with more than half of the 5,000 samples from Crohn's [disease] and ulcerative colitis patients already analyzed. We expect to show that data towards the end of this year."
Finally, Robins noted that the firm has made "significant progress" with T-Detect in other autoimmune disorders and is encouraged by an early signal that it has discovered in multiple sclerosis.
Adaptive's Q2 net loss swelled to $49.3 million, or $.35 per share, from a net loss of $33.5 million, or $.26 per share a year ago. On average, analysts anticipated a loss per share of $.42.
The firm's Q2 R&D spending jumped 45 percent to $37.8 million from $26.0 million, while its SG&A expenses grew 48 percent to $39.3 million from $26.5 million a year ago.
Adaptive finished the quarter with $184.2 million in cash and cash equivalents and $414.2 million in short-term marketable securities.
For full-year 2021, the firm expects revenues of $148 million to $155 million, representing 54 percent growth at the midpoint of the range over full-year 2020 revenue. The firm had previously guided for full-year revenues of $145 million to $155 million.