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In Brief This Week: Bio-Techne, Trinity Biotech, LabCorp, and More

NEW YORK (360Dx) – Bio-Techne this week reported total revenues for its fiscal third quarter of $164 million, up 14 percent year over year from $144.0 million, and matching Wall Street analysts' average estimate for the quarter.  

For the three months ended March 31, the company said that its diagnostics revenues grew 10 percent year over year to $28.5 million from $26.0 million in Q3 2017. 

Bio-Techne reported a net income of $19.7 million, or $.52 per share, compared to $22.2 million, or $.59 per share in Q3, 2017. Its adjusted earnings per share was $1.21, which beat the analysts' average estimate of $1.14 per share.

The firm's R&D expenses decreased 1 percent year over year to $14.0 million from $13.8 million, and its SG&A expenses rose 8 percent to $53 million from $49.4 million.

The firm said that it grew 7 percent organically over the prior-year quarter. Currency translation had a positive impact of 4 percent, and acquisitions contributed 3 percent to revenue growth.

In Q3, the firm acquired Atlanta Biologicals, which supplies cell culture sera, media, and reagents for the life science research market.

At the end of Q3, Bio-Techne had cash and cash equivalents of $86.6 million and short-term investments of $89.8 million.

Separately, the firm said this week that its board of directors will pay a dividend of $.32 per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2018. The quarterly dividend will be payable on May 25 to all common shareholders of record on May 14, 2018.


Trinity Biotech said this week that its total revenues for the first quarter of 2018 were $23.8 million, up 1 percent from $23.5 million in Q1, 2017.

For the quarter ended March 31, the firm's point-of-care revenues were $3.8 million, down 6 percent from $4.0 million in Q1, 2017 due to the impact of lower public health spending on US HIV sales and “normal fluctuation” in African HIV orders. It's clinical laboratory revenues were $20.0 million, up 3 percent from $19.5 million in Q1, 2017, due to higher diabetes and autoimmunity sales.

R&D expenses were flat year over year at $1.3 million, and SG&A expenses fell slightly to $6.9 million from $7.0 million in the prior-year quarter.

The firm’s profit after tax and non-cash items was $378,000, or $.03 cents per share, compared to $1.2 million, or $.01 cents per share, in Q1, 2017.

EPS for the quarter was $.07 compared to $.05 cents in the equivalent quarter in 2017.

During the quarter, the company bought back 27,000 shares at an average price of $5.15 per share. The total amount purchased since the beginning of its buy back program reached more than 2.5 million shares with a total value of $17.5 million.

At the end of the quarter, Trinity Biotech held cash and cash equivalents of $53.9 million.


Laboratory Corporation of America said this week it has reached a deal to sell the Covance Food Solutions business to Eurofins Scientific for $670 million in cash.

Covance Food Solutions is a global provider of product design and product integrity services and has facilities in the US, UK, and Singapore. During 2017, the business posted pro forma revenue of about $150 million, LabCorp said. Covance Food Solutions is part of the Covance business that LabCorp acquired in 2015.

LabCorp Chairman and CEO David King said in a statement that the transaction will allow the firm to focus on its core mission of improving health and lives. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

Separately, LabCorp and The Recovery Platform announced a collaboration aimed at expanding access to medication-assisted opioid treatment nationally. The Recovery Platform is a monitoring tool to help primary care physicians address and manage patient recovery for opioid use disorder. The Recovery Platform provides a set of tools that can be integrated with existing electronic health records, and LabCorp is the exclusive national laboratory integrated within The Recovery Platform. As a result, LabCorp’s medication-assisted treatment services, such as new testing options to support doctors offering Suboxone (buprenorphine) treatment, can be accessed seamlessly, the partners said.


Immunovia said this week that the Clínica Universidad de Navarra has agreed to participate in the PanFAM-1 prospective study looking at early diagnosis in high-risk individuals with familial pancreatic cancer (FPC).

The study, which is designed to validate Immunovia's IMMray PanCan-d blood test, will analyze more than 1,000 individuals over three years across sites in the US and Europe already offering FPC screening programs. 

The other PanFAM-1 partners to date are Mount Sinai, Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Sciences University, The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, The Massachusetts General Hospital, NYU School of Medicine, The University of Liverpool, Ramon y Cajal Institute for Health Research, University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, and Sahlgrenska University Hospital.


In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on the 360Dx site.