NEW YORK (360Dx) – Opko Health said after the close of market on Tuesday that its second quarter revenues dropped 10 percent year over year.
For the three months ended June 30, revenues were $263.7 million, down from $292.6 million for the same quarter last year, but above the Wall Street estimate of $261.7 million.
During the quarter, the company appointed Geoff Monk as general manager of the company's BioReference Laboratories, which had faced a decrease in testing volume in recent quarters. The clinical lab unit has also faced reimbursement pressures as a result of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act. On a conference call following the release of the company's financial results, Opko Chairman and CEO Phillip Frost noted that Monk has made operational changes "to improve efficiency and overall results" including hiring Cindy Jacke as the new senior vice president of sales.
During Q2 2018, BioReference Laboratories experienced a 1 percent decrease in revenue compared to the same quarter last year, but on a sequential basis revenues rose by $5 million compared to the first quarter of 2018, due to increased volumes, according to Adam Logal, Opko senior vice president and chief financial officer.
At BioReference's GeneDx subsidiary, exome-based testing volumes grew 38 percent year-over-year during the quarter, according to Steven Rubin, Opko's executive vice president administration. GeneDx's overall year-over-year testing volume growth was 13 percent, he said.
In June, GeneDx announced that it had performed clinical exome sequencing on more than 100,000 individuals, representing one of the largest cohorts of sequenced exomes by an independent clinical lab, Rubin noted. The effort greatly expands the database of known clinically relevant genetic variants as tools to help diagnose rare disease, he said.
During the quarter GeneDx overhauled its clinically-driven testing menu, launching 20 new tests and revising and updating 51 tests. GeneDx plans to launch an additional 36 tests and revise and update an additional 57 tests by year end, according to Rubin.
Opko said its 4Kscore saw utilization increase 10 percent year-over-year in the quarter with nearly 20,500 4Kscore tests performed in Q2 2018 compared to 18,600 tests performed in the same quarter last year,according to Rubin.
During the recently completed quarter, Medicare administrator Novitas Solutions issued a draft local coverage determination of non-coverage of the 4Kscore. Opko has submitted comments, including presenting published studies supporting the effectiveness of the test. Eight urologists also spoke to Novitas on the usefulness of the 4Kscore, Rubin said. The company is awaiting a final local coverage determination decision, but it is not known when that decision will be made, he said.
The company's net loss for the quarter decreased to $6.2 million, or $.01 per share, compared to a net loss of $16.9 million, or $.04 per share, in the second quarter of 2017, beating analysts' consensus estimate of a loss of $.07 per share.
The company's R&D costs dropped 12 percent to $29.2 million from $33.1 million in the same quarter last year. Its SG&A expenses dropped 17 percent year over year to $87.7 million from $105.5 million.
The company's cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter were $80.4 million.
In morning trading on the Nasdaq, Opko's shares were down a little more than 1 percent at $5.55.