NEW YORK — British liquid biopsy developer Angle reported on Thursday a 39 percent year-over-year drop in revenues for the first half of 2020 as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic impacted use of its flagship Parsortix cell-sorting system.
For the six-month period ended June 30, Angle's revenues fell to £235,000 ($303,962) from £384,000, which the company attributed to the pandemic-related shutdown of research projects of many of its Parsortix customers.
Angle said that the pandemic also disrupted its effort to develop Parsortix for use in harvesting circulating tumor cells for clinical analysis. The company said it made various protocol and business changes to address SARS-CoV-2-related issues and last month filed a full de novo submission to the US Food and Drug Administration for the use of Parsortix in metastatic breast cancer.
Angle added that the collection of blood samples for its other programs, including one related to the combination of Parsortix and its Hybrid Capture Enrich Amplification and Detection Ziplex molecular analysis technology for ovarian cancer diagnosis, have also resumed.
Angle's net loss in H1 2020 was £4.8 million, or £2.76 per share, compared with £4.8 million, or £3.38 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Operating costs for the first six months of 2020 fell about six percent to £6.0 million from £6.4 million the year before.
Angle had approximately £13.8 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of June. Earlier this week, the company closed a £19.6 million round of financing.
Following the fundraise, "Angle now has momentum and is making strong progress towards commercializing its unique liquid biopsy platform to support personalized cancer care," Angle Nonexecutive Chairman Garth Selvey said in a statement.
He added that the company is also "pursuing the opportunity for multiple revenue streams with the establishment of clinically accredited laboratories for running patient samples, development of a pharma services business with a particular focus on immunotherapy, and the design of clinical utility studies to drive adoption of the Parsortix system in clinical practice."