NEW YORK – Quanterix reported after the close of the market on Tuesday that its first quarter revenues were up 27 percent year over year.
The company posted Q1 revenues of $15.7 million, up from $12.3 million in Q1 2019 and above the consensus Wall Street estimate of $13.3 million.
Its Q1 product revenues rose 3 percent to $9.8 million from $9.5 million in Q1 2019. Consumables sales were flat year over year and instrument sales were up 10 percent. Service revenues more than doubled to $5.8 million as the company saw increased use of its service offerings by customers whose lab operations were disrupted by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and by customers who are transitioning from the company's HD1 instrument to its HD-X machine.
On a conference call following release of its financial results, Quanterix President, Chairman, and CEO Kevin Hrusovsky said that while the company continues its traditional focus on neurology applications it is also pivoting to address the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with a focus on studying the immune response to COVID-19 infection as well as the development of a serology test that it plans to launch for research use in Q2.
Hrusovsky noted that this repositioning comes as many of the company's customers have been forced by the pandemic to close their labs or shift to working on SARS-CoV-2.
He suggested that the pandemic could accelerate Quanterix's move into the diagnostic space, noting that the company is looking into whether its technology could add value to serology testing for the virus.
"With the current serology landscape being what it is, we are going to explore if there might be possibilities for us to enter into that [in vitro diagnostic] landscape, as well," he said, noting that the company would consider moving the RUO serology test it plans to launch this quarter into the clinical market.
"We continue to see high potential IVD partnerships and we are going to explore those," he said.
On the call, Quanterix CFO Amol Chaubal noted that instrument revenues were depressed during the quarter by the inability to access customer sites to complete installations while consumables revenue "was adversely impacted by customers transitioning from HD1 to HDX and later from interruptions in their operations due to COVID-19."
Chaubal said the company is not providing guidance on Q2 or full-year revenue but said it expects the COVID-19-related challenges it experienced in Q1 to continue until its customers are able to resume normal operations.
The firm's Q1 net loss widened to $11.6 million from $9.4 million a year ago. It didn't provide a loss-per-share figure.
Quanterix's R&D spending during the quarter was up 11 percent to $4.3 million from $3.9 million in Q1 2019. Its SG&A expenses rose 24 percent to $14.3 million from $11.5 million the year before.
The company ended the quarter with $96 million in cash and cash equivalents.