NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Interpace Diagnostics announced after the close of the market on Tuesday that its third quarter revenues grew 38 percent year over year, surpassing the consensus Wall Street estimate.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, the Parsippany, New Jersey-based firm posted $5.8 million in revenues compared to $4.2 million in the year-ago period. It beat the analysts' average estimate of $5.6 million.
In a statement, Interpace President and CEO Jack Stover said that along with revenue growth, Q3 2018 was the seventh straight quarter that the firm saw gains in both volume and reimbursement.
"Our thyroid and pancreatic franchises more than met our expectations," he said. "The expansion of our thyroid franchise with the launch of our new and expanded mutational panel, ThyGeNext, the addition of thyroid coverage by 30 new Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, including the BCBS Federal Employee Health Benefit Program with 5.3 million covered lives, as well as concurrent growth in evaluating thyroid slide biopsies, supported by the recent transition of former Rosetta Genomics customers, has provided us with the experience and confidence to expand our guidance for 2018 revenues to range between $21 and $22 million."
The company said in August that 2018 revenues were expected to be "over $20 million."
During Q3, Interpace received approval to launch its ThyGeNext thyroid cancer assay in New York and Pennsylvania, and insurer Cigna said it would cover the company's ThyraMir molecular thyroid test. Interpace also acquired a majority of the equipment from the Philadelphia lab of Rosetta Genomics through a bankruptcy auction.
Interpace recorded R&D costs of $510,000 in Q3 2018, up 6 percent from $483,000 a year ago. Its SG&A costs rose 5 percent during the recently completed quarter to $4.1 million from $3.9 million in Q3 2017.
The company had a net loss of $3.0 million, or $.11 per share, in Q3 2018 compared to a net loss of $3.3 million, or .15 per share, a year ago.
Interpace finished the quarter with $8.0 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Moving forward, the company said that its BarreGen test for Barrett's esophagus is its major pipeline product focus. It is working on a second clinical validity study to support the ability of the test to identify patients at risk of progression to esophageal cancer years before visible signs of cancer appear.
Interpace added that it and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are in discussions about coverage for BarreGen, and the company is clinically assessing the test for its use with devices that are commonly used in Barrett's esophagus procedures.
In late morning trading on Wednesday on the Nasdaq, Interpace's shares were down 23 percent to $1.11 per share.