NEW YORK – Guardant Health reported after the close of the market on Thursday that its third quarter 2021 revenues rose 27 percent year over year.
The liquid biopsy firm reported total revenues of $94.8 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared to $74.6 million in the same period of 2020, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $92.6 million.
Guardant's Q3 precision oncology revenues grew 31 percent year over year to $79.3 million from $60.4 million, driven by 27 percent increase in clinical testing revenue. Development services and other revenues grew 9 percent to $15.5 million from $14.2 million in the same quarter last year.
The company reported 22,806 tests to clinical customers in Q3 2021, a 35 percent increase from 16,950 tests reported in the same period last year. The firm also reported 4,839 tests to biopharmaceutical customers during the quarter, 50 percent more than the 3,071 tests it reported in Q3 2020.
Among recent milestones, Guardant highlighted the initiation of its ORACLE study, designed to evaluate performance of the Guardant Reveal assay in predicting recurrence across 11 early-stage cancers.
"We have continued our strong cadence of data supporting our Guardant360 products and are making solid progress towards our multi-cancer goal for MRD," Guardant co-CEO Helmy Eltoukhy said in a statement.
In a call discussing the firm's financial results, Eltoukhy added that Guardant has developed a "full commercial channel" dedicated to Reveal, adding over 50 employees to the team during the third quarter. "If successful, ORACLE will pave the path for reimbursement across multiple cancer types … unlocking a $15 billion total addressable market for MRD across all tumor types," he said.
He added that the first trial participant was recruited this October.
Eltoukhy also stressed that Guardant is dedicated to expanding its presence outside the US, most notably, with a new partnership with London's Royal Marsden Hospital. During the firm's earnings call, he described the deal as similar to a previously announced agreement with the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology in Spain, which established an in-house liquid biopsy testing service for that institution. Royal Marsden's analogous service is expected to become operational in 2022 for private and self-paying patients, "with a plan for a future expansion for National Health Service patients," Eltoukhy said.
Also on the international front, Eltoukhy said Guardant has decided, based on progress seeking approval for Guardant360 in Japan, that it will exercise its call right to purchase the remaining 50 percent of its joint venture, Guardant AMEA, from SouthBank.
Co-CEO AmirAli Talasaz added that Guardant has now also officially expanded its cancer early detection efforts beyond colorectal cancer with the launch of a new study called SHIELD, which is designed to validate the performance of its blood-based assay in lung cancer screening. The SHIELD study will begin enrolling participants next month.
During Q3, Guardant's net loss attributable to its shareholders grew to $107.5 million, or $1.06 per share, from $77.7 million, or $0.78 per share in the year-ago quarter. Analysts, on average, had predicted a lower loss per share of $0.96.
The company's R&D expenses rose 121 percent year over year to $80 million from $36.2 million from in Q3 2020. Its SG&A expenses were $100.3 million, up about 10 percent from $91.4 million.
As of Sept. 30, Guardant had $832.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and $653.6 million in short-term marketable securities.