NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – HTG Molecular Diagnostics reported on Thursday a 200 percent surge in first quarter revenues driven by its collaborative development services activities with pharma partners.
For the three-month period ended March 31, HTG's revenues climbed to $4.2 million from $1.4 million in the same period the year before.
Revenues from products and product-related services — which include the sale of instruments and consumables, as well as use of HTG's EdgeSeq gene expression profiling technology — rose 21 percent to $1.7 million from $1.4 million. Revenues from collaborative development programs — such as the firm's ongoing clinical assay development alliance with Qiagen  — were $2.4 million versus zero in the year-ago quarter.
HTG's Q1 net loss fell to $5.4 million, or $.22 per share, from a year-ago loss of $5.8 million, or $.73 per share.
Its R&D spending in the quarter doubled to $2.6 million from $1.3 million, primarily due to the services provided under the Qiagen alliance, while SG&A costs were up 36 percent to $5.7 million from $4.2 million on higher compensation expenses.
At the end of the first quarter, HTG had cash and cash equivalents totaling $20.5 million, and short-term investments of $25.1 million.
In late March, the company secured a senior debt facility worth up to $30 million.
"We are off to a solid start in 2018 and executing well, but continue to expect uneven quarterly revenue," HTG CEO TJ Johnson said in a statement. "Our BioPharma programs are progressing as expected, we are launching an exciting new [EdgeSeq] immuno-oncology panel early in the third quarter of 2018, and believe we have additional, potential catalysts in front of us."
Looking ahead, HTG said that it has increased the lower end of its previously disclosed revenue guidance for 2018 and now expects full-year revenues in the range of $21 million to $25 million.