NEW YORK – Aspira Women's Health reported on Thursday a 25 percent year-over-year rise in its first quarter revenues.
For the three months ended March 31, the Austin, Texas-based cancer diagnostics firm said that total revenues rose to $1.5 million from $1.2 million in the year-ago quarter, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $1.4 million.
The company performed 3,775 OVA1 tests during the quarter, up 3 percent from 3,654 OVA1 tests performed in Q1 2020. Revenue per test was $375, up 16 percent from $324 in Q1 2020, a rise driven mainly by an increase in payments by contracted payers.
Aspira also announced Thursday that it has launched a decentralized OVA1 testing strategy with an unnamed women's health network under which the testing will be performed in the health network's laboratory with Aspira providing data interpretation.
Additionally, the company said it has launched with Northwell Health a prospective study of its OVASight test for serial monitoring of high-risk women predisposed to hereditary ovarian cancer.
On a conference call following release of its earnings report, Aspira President and CEO Valerie Palmieri attributed the sluggish OVA1 volumes to continued COVID-19 restrictions and weather disruptions during the quarter, and noted that the company had gained "traction in March, April, and May."
Kaile Zagger, Aspira's COO, said on the call that the company had set a record for monthly OVA1 sales in April and added that it received New York State Medicaid coverage for the test as of April 1, 2021.
She also noted that Aspira added during the quarter a new healthcare system sales team to its direct sales channel that will aim to integrate the company's offerings into health systems' clinical pathways.
Zagger said this strategy was tailored to the increasing dominance of large health systems, noting that by 2023 more than 80 percent of physician practices are anticipated to be owned by or affiliated with a health system.
Palmieri also detailed the progression of the company's product pipeline, noting that it planned to launch its OVASight test for the monitoring of women with likely benign pelvic masses in Q4 of 2021. She added that Aspira is in discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration in hopes of securing breakthrough designation for its Endocheck test for endometriosis.
For Q1 2021 Aspira reported in its 8K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission a net loss of $5.9 million, or $.05 per share, compared to a net loss of $3.7 million, or $.04 per share, in Q1 2020. That beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of a $.17 per share loss.
Its R&D expenses rose 120 percent year over year to $872,000 from $395,000, while its SG&A spending was up 47 percent to $5.6 million from $3.8 million. CFO Robert Beechey said that Aspira netted $47.7 million from its February offering of common stock.
The company finished the quarter with $59.4 million in cash.
In Thursday morning trading on Nasdaq, Aspira shares were up 10 percent to $5.28.