NEW YORK – Laboratory Corporation of America said this week that it has finalized its $239 million acquisition of certain assets of genetic testing firm Invitae. Labcorp acquired the assets through an auction as part of Invitae’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. The deal was originally announced in April and is part of Labcorp’s effort to expand its specialty testing business including genetic testing for oncology and rare diseases.
Thermo Fisher Scientific said last week that it conducted a restructuring in the first six months of 2024 that included headcount reductions and facility consolidations to streamline operations. According to the company’s most recent quarterly filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the measures affected approximately 1 percent of its workforce.
Cytek Biosciences said this week that its second quarter revenues decreased 6 percent year over year to $46.6 million. The flow cytometry company said that the decrease was primarily due to a decline in US instrument sales, particularly among academic and government customers, tempered somewhat by strong double-digit revenue growth in the EMEA and APAC regions and in its service business. The firm recorded a Q2 net loss of $10.4 million, or $.08 per share, compared to a net loss of $4.4 million, or $.03 per share, a year ago. Cytek narrowed the range of its full-year revenue guidance to between $203 million and $210 million from a previous range of $203 million to $213 million. During the quarter Cytek repurchased $2.7 million of its stock in open market purchases under a new $50 million share repurchase program. The company finished the quarter with $177.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, $30,000 in restricted cash, and $99.3 million in marketable securities.
Interpace Biosciences last week reported a 9 percent year-over-year increase in revenue for the second quarter. Revenues totaled $12 million, up from $11 million in Q2 2023. CFO Chris McCarthy said in a statement that the cancer molecular diagnostics firm saw record test volumes, revenues, and cash collections during the quarter while reducing its operating expenses. Net income for the quarter was $2 million, or $.46 per share, compared to net income of $175,000, or $.04 per share, in the year-ago quarter. The Parsippany, New Jersey-based company ended Q2 with $2 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Greenville, South Carolina-based laboratory Luxor Scientific said this week that it has reached a deal to provide group purchasing organization Capstone Health Alliance access to Luxor's diagnostic testing. Luxor is a medical and research laboratory that offers epidermal nerve fiber density tests, toxicology tests, cannabis testing, molecular and microbiology testing for infectious disease, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, among others. Under the deal, health systems, independent hospitals, and physician offices that are part of Capstone's network will have access to Luxor's tests. Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Exagen this week reported that its second quarter revenues rose 7 percent to $15.1 million from $14.1 million a year ago, primarily due to improved average selling price for its Avise CTD test to aid physicians in the differential diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus. The Carlsbad, California-based company recorded a Q2 net loss of $3.0 million, or $.16 per share, compared to a net loss of $5.0 million, or $.28 per share, a year ago. Exagen finished the quarter with $24.5 million in cash and cash equivalents. The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to $57 million from previous revenue guidance of $55 million.
Personalis this week reported 35 percent year-over-year growth in second quarter revenues, driven by pharma testing and services. For the quarter ended June 30, the Fremont, California-based company booked $22.6 million in revenues, up from $16.7 million in the same period last year. Net loss was $12.8 million, or $.24 per share, down from a net loss of $24.0 million, or $.50 per share, a year ago. R&D costs for the quarter declined 17 percent to $13.0 million from $17.9 million, while SG&A expenses narrowed slightly, to $12.0 million from $12.1 million. Personalis ended the quarter with $47.7 million in cash and cash equivalents and $39.2 million in short-term investments.
Co-Diagnostics this week reported a 14-fold year-over-year increase in second quarter revenues, driven by milestones from various grant agreements. For the period ended June 30, the Salt Lake City-based firm had revenues of $2.7 million, up from $197,806 in Q2 2023. During the quarter, the firm submitted a 510(k) application to the US Food and Drug Administration for its Co-Dx PCR Pro platform, including an instrument and a COVID test for over-the-counter use. It also opened a new manufacturing facility in South Salt Lake, Utah. The company's Q2 net loss narrowed to $7.6 million, or $.25 per share, from $8.9 million, or $.31 per share, a year ago. Co-Diagnostics ended the quarter with $13.9 million in cash and cash equivalents and $31.0 million in marketable investment securities.
Accelerate Diagnostics this week reported that its Q2 2024 revenues rose 3 percent to $3.0 million from $2.9 million in the prior-year quarter. Revenues from consumable products increased 12 percent year over year, the company said in a statement. The firm saw a net loss of $11.6 million, or $.50 per share, compared to a loss of $32.6 million, or $2.97 per share, in Q2 2023. The firm ended the quarter with $9.7 million in cash and cash equivalents. Accelerate noted that it added five new contracted Pheno instruments in the US during the quarter, ending the period with 350 live revenue-generating instruments and an additional 74 contracted platforms.
Separately this week, Accelerate said that it has completed its Wave preclinical trial, which compared 1,570 results from Accelerate's Wave platform to broth microdilution. Overall essential agreement and categorical agreement for the platform compared to the reference method were both approximately 95 percent. The system delivers rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing directly from positive blood culture and bacterial isolated colonies in less than five hours.
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.