NEW YORK – Oxford Immunotec on Friday said its preliminary revenues for the first quarter of 2020 are expected to be near the high end of its first quarter guidance range of between $10.7 million and $14.1 million, due in part to shipments of its T-SPOT.TB kits to China.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Oxford, UK-based company also said that it is withdrawing its previously announced full year revenue guidance due to the impact on its business of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The firm said that the first quarter and full-year guidance it provided during its earnings release and conference call in March assumed a decrease in demand for its testing kits in China due to COVID-19, but did not consider any effects outside of China.
Since then, Oxford Immunotec has "seen a significant decline in testing demand in additional countries as COVID-19 protocols and resources have restricted patient access to hospitals, physicians’ offices, and other testing sites and caused a re-prioritization of public health activities," the firm said. "Given the uncertainties around the scope and duration of the pandemic, and its continued impact on our business, we are withdrawing our previously stated 2020 full-year revenue guidance."
The firm said that "as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread and impact global populations and economies, [it] continues to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on both the diagnostics market more broadly and on the company’s operations more particularly."
In March, Peter Wrighton-Smith, the firm's CEO, said that for the full-year 2020 prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the firm had expected revenues of between $83 million and $86 million dollars.
Oxford Immunotec said it may experience a delay in cash collections from customers, including hospitals, public health departments, commercial testing laboratories, distributors, and universities, as well as from government programs, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it has approximately $165 million of cash and cash equivalents available to support its operations, the firm added.
Oxford Immunotec said that it expects to release Q1 2020 financial results in early May and provide an update on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic then.
In morning trading on the Nasdaq, Oxford Immunotec shares were up more than 2 percent at $9.89.