NEW YORK – PerkinElmer said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week that its shareholders agreed to change the company name to "Revvity." Officials with the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company said earlier this year that, following the $2.45 billion sale of its applied, food, and enterprise businesses to New Mountain Capital, the remaining life sciences and diagnostics company would adopt a new name and brand whereas the divested businesses were expected to retain the PerkinElmer identity.
On Aug. 1, PerkinElmer announced the sale to New Mountain Capital, and PerkinElmer CEO Prahlad Singh said at the time that the deal would make the remaining company faster and more flexible in responding to customer needs and working with customers on drug discovery, translational medicine, and disease detection. The company said at the time that the remaining life sciences and diagnostics businesses would retain about 11,000 employees and $3.3 billion in revenue.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched this week its OneLab Timely Education and Support of Testers (TEST) network to provide free online education, training courses, resources, and job aids for those who perform or coordinate diagnostic testing at non-laboratory sites. Examples of those sites include pharmacies, physician offices, and health departments.
Opko Health this week said that its first quarter revenues dropped 28 percent year over year on a 54 percent drop in its service revenues. For the three months ended March 31, the Miami-based firm posted total revenues of $237.6 million, down from $329.2 million a year ago. Services revenues declined to $132.4 million from $286.6 million, product revenues rose to $40.4 million, and revenues from the transfer of intellectual property grew more than tenfold to $64.8 million from $6.0 million. In a statement, Opko attributed the steep drop-off in revenues for its service segment, which houses the BioReference Health business, to a decline in COVID-19 testing volume to 68,000 processed tests in Q1 2023 from 2 million in Q1 2022. It added that the sale of GeneDx to Sema4 in April 2022 reduced revenues by $36.1 million. Opko's net loss for the recently completed quarter was $18.3 million, or $.02 per share, compared to a net loss of $55.4 million, or $.08 per share, a year ago. The firm finished Q1 2023 with $110.8 million in cash and cash equivalents.
DermTech said this week that revenues for the first quarter were down 5 percent at $3.5 million compared to $3.7 million a year ago. It matched the consensus Wall Street estimate. Test revenues were $3.4 million compared to $3.5 million in Q1 2022 while contract revenues slipped to $52,000 from $200,000. Billable sample volume was up 24 percent year over year to 17,800, it said. The San Diego-based developer of dermatological cancer tests had a net loss of $31.3 million, or $1.02 per share, in Q1 2023 compared to a net loss of $30.1 million, or $1.01 per share, a year ago. It fell short of the consensus Wall Street estimate of a loss of $.91 per share. The company ended the recently completed quarter with $48.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and $56.3 million in short-term marketable securities.
OpGen said this week it has closed its public offering of an aggregate of 4,495,825 shares of its common stock, or pre-funded warrants in lieu of, and common stock purchase warrants to purchase up to 4,495,825 shares of common stock at a combined price of $.7785 per share, or pre-funded warrant in lieu of, and accompanying warrant. The Rockville, Maryland-based molecular diagnostics firm raised $3.5 million in the offering.
BCAL Diagnostics of Australia said this week that it has opened a development and clinical service laboratory in Sydney. The firm is commercializing a breast cancer blood screening test intended to be used alongside current breast cancer screening methods. The new lab will use liquid chromatography mass spectrometry to continue the company's clinical research and that of its US partner, Precion, to establish and validate workflows, test protocols, and algorithms for the blood screening test. It will also serve as the testing site for ongoing and planned clinical validation studies.
French health tech firm Metafora Biosystems said this week that the Haute Autorité de Santé (French Health Technology Agency) has recommended insurance coverage for the firm's Metaglut1 blood-based test for the early diagnosis of De Vivo disease, or GLUT1 deficiency syndrome. After evaluating the clinical performance and utility of the test, HAS determined Metaglut1 "is a valuable addition to the diagnostic arsenal" for De Vivo disease, a rare neurometabolic disorder, the company said, adding that about 30,000 people in Europe and the US have the disease, though less than 2,000 are currently diagnosed. Based in Paris, Metafora is developing a single-cell analysis platform to measure changes in single-cell metabolism.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on 360Dx.