NEW YORK – Interpace Biosciences reported after the close of the market on Wednesday that its 2019 fourth quarter revenues fell 29 percent year over year.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, 2019, the Parsippany, New Jersey-based firm's revenues fell to $4.1 million from $5.8 million in the same period the year before and missed the analysts' average estimate of $10.8 million.
Interpace Bio reported a Q4 net loss of $11.1 million, or $2.89 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $4.0 million, or $1.41 per share. The firm fell short of the analysts' average estimate of a loss of $.74 per share.
Interpace's R&D spending in the quarter rose 30 percent to $778,000 from $596,000 a year earlier, while its SG&A costs rose about 61 percent to $7.7 million from $4.8 million a year ago.
In December, the firm rebranded itself as Interpace Biosciences from Interpace Diagnostics as part of its plans to expand its focus beyond diagnostics to include drug discovery and development services in cancer and potentially other diseases.
In January, Interpace Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Interpace Bio, partnered with the University of North Carolina to explore the use of the firm's BarreGen test in Barrett's esophagus patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation.
For the full-year 2019, Interpace's revenues rose 10 percent to $24.1 million from $21.9 million in 2018. However, the firm missed the consensus Wall Street estimate of $30.8 million.
The firm's net loss for the year was $27.2 million, or $7.25 per share, compared to a loss of $12.2 million, or $4.33 per share, in 2018. It missed the consensus Wall Street estimate of a loss of $4.42 per share.
Interpace's R&D spending in 2019 rose 33 percent year over year to $2.8 million from $2.1 million, while its SG&A expenses jumped nearly 52 percent to $25.7 million from $16.9 million in 2018.
"We believe the combination of our clinical services and acquired pharma services uniquely positions us for growth and expansion in the fast-growing biopharma sector, where we can provide our unique diagnostic capabilities to a broad customer base," Interpace CEO Jack Stover said in a statement.
Because of the uncertainty and potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Interpace Bio is withdrawing its previously announced annual revenue guidance of $50 million for 2020.
"The leadership team acted quickly to minimize business disruption and reduced spending in areas not critical to patient care," Stover said in a statement. "Actions include elimination of non-essential discretionary spending, temporary furlough of employees where activities were reduced, a hiring freeze, deferral of incentive bonuses anticipated to be paid in 2020 and a 10 to 15 percent reduction in base pay of all salaried employees including all members of our leadership team."
Stover also noted that due to customer interest, Interpace Bio has acquired and installed processing equipment to perform serology ELISA-based antibody testing for COVID-19 at the firm's CLIA lab in Pittsburgh. He highlighted that the firm is currently "in the process of validating processes while acquiring kits and reference samples and expects to offer the testing to customers in the following weeks."
At the end of 2019, Interpace had cash and cash equivalents totaling $2.3 million. Interpace also said that preliminary Q1 2020 revenues are expected to be in the range of $8.8 million to $9.3 million.
The company also announced that Bob Gorman is the new chairman of Interpace's board. He has held leadership roles at Quest Diagnostics and Eurofins Scientific Group.
In early morning trading on the Nasdaq, shares of Interpace were down about 1 percent at $6.02.