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Guardant Health Q1 Revenues up 17 Percent

NEW YORK – Guardant Health reported after the close of the market on Thursday that its first quarter 2021 revenues rose 17 percent year over year.

The liquid biopsy firm reported total revenues of $78.7 million compared to $67.5 million in Q1 2020, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $73.8 million.

Guardant's precision oncology testing revenues grew about 6 percent to $63.7 million from $60.2 million in the prior year's quarter, driven primarily by a 31 percent increase in clinical testing revenues year over year. Development services and other revenues doubled, meanwhile, to $14.9 million from $7.3 million in Q1 2020. This was related to the timing of project-related milestones for companion diagnostic development programs, the firm said.

During the quarter, the company reported 18,390 tests to clinical customers and 3,522 tests to biopharmaceutical customers, an increase of 21 percent and a decrease of 33 percent, respectively, over the same period last year.

During a call discussing the firm's Q1 results, Guardant CEO Helmy Eltoukhy said that despite anticipating residual impact from COVID, Guardant expects about 40 percent more clinical testing volume this year than it saw in 2020.

He also cited the firm's reimbursement progress with the recognition by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this March that the Guardant360 CDx test meets the criteria for an Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory Test. With ADLT status, the assay will be reimbursed at a rate of $5,000 for all Medicare patients.

Regarding the company's newly launched minimal residual disease test, Guardant Reveal, Eltoukhy said that there has been "tremendous enthusiasm" from oncologists. "It is still early but we are seeing strong uptake from both new users as well as customers that have been using other products on the market."

Guardant's net loss attributable to its shareholders for the quarter was $109.7 million, or $1.09 per share, compared to $27.7 million, or $.29 per share, in Q1 2020. On average, analysts had estimated a loss of $.89 per share.

The company’s SG&A expenses more than doubled to $102.2 million from $44.9 million in the prior-year period. Its R&D expenses rose 50 percent year over year to $55.5 million from $37 million in the first quarter of 2020.

As of March 31, Guardant had $869.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and $1.1 billion in short-term marketable securities.

The company said it expects full-year 2021 revenue to be in the range of $360 million to $370 million and clinical test volumes to total more than 90,000 tests.