NEW YORK – Antibiotic resistance testing firm Accelerate Diagnostics said on Tuesday that its preliminary Q4 2020 revenue dropped 11 percent year over year.
Revenue for Q4 is expected to be approximately $3.1 million, compared to $3.5 million in the year-ago quarter, which would fall short of analysts' estimates of $4.4 million. Full-year revenue for 2020, however, is estimated to increase 20 percent to $11.2 million from $9.3 million in 2019, which would also fall short of analysts' estimates of $12.4 million. Net cash use is anticipated to be $41 million for the full year, with an expected cash balance of $100 million.
Accelerate added 45 instruments in the fourth quarter, leading to 268 "revenue-generating" instruments in the US, a 63 percent increase for the year, CEO Jack Phillips said in a statement. The firm contracted 21 instruments with new customers in the quarter and had a year-end backlog of 133 Pheno instruments in the US.
"While improving, the environment for new instrument placements continued to be challenged during the quarter due to pandemic-related factors such as limited sales force access to potential customer sites and hospital decision-makers' focus on COVID-19 testing," Phillips added.