NEW YORK – HTG Molecular Diagnostics reported after the close of the market on Tuesday that its third quarter revenues dropped 67 percent year over year, primarily to due the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, the Tucson, Arizona-based firm reported revenues of $1.8 million compared to $5.4 million in the same period the year before, missing the Wall Street estimate of $2.2 million.
Revenues from products and product-related services, including the sales of instruments and consumables, dropped 60 percent to $1.7 million from $4.3 million. Meanwhile, revenues from collaborative development programs plummeted to $76,030 from $1.1 million in the year-ago quarter.
In a conference call with investors following the release of earnings, HTG Molecular CEO John Lubniewski said that the firm finished the quarter with 55 active pharmaceutical development programs. He noted that some projects have started to time out because many of the firm's biopharma customers are on the West and East Coasts, where "the effects of COVID-19 were more pronounced."
"As the impact of COVID-19 placed continued pressure on our core oncology business, including planned studies and laboratory operations of our customers in the third quarter of 2020, we continued to make strategic shifts in our business into areas less impacted by the pandemic," Lubniewski explained. "We are also targeting the large immune-response market, which is often a new call point with our current customer base."
Lubniewski added that the firm has produced its first white paper on the technical feasibility of its approximately 20,000-gene whole transcriptome (WTTx) HTG EdgeSeq panel.
HTG's Q3 net loss rose to $5.2 million, or $.07 per share, from $4.7 million, or $.15 per share a year ago. However, the firm beat analysts' consensus loss per share of $.08.
The firm's R&D spending in the quarter dropped 50 percent to $1.3 million from $2.6 million, while its sales, general, and administrative costs rose 7 percent to $4.8 million from $4.5 million.
HTG ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $18.9 million and short-term investments of $11.6 million.
HTG is currently involved in a patent dispute with Carlsbad, California-based BioSpyder, which filed a civil action against HTG in August.
In Wednesday morning trading on the Nasdaq, HTG's stock was down about 11 percent at $.29.
For a more in-depth look at HTG's plans for its WTTx platform, click here.