NEW YORK – BioMérieux reported on Tuesday that its third quarter revenues grew 21 percent year over year.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, the Marcy l'Étoile, France-based in vitro diagnostics firm recorded revenues of €789.4 million ($934.2 million) compared to €653.1 million in the year-ago period. Organic growth, at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation, was approximately 27 percent year over year.
Revenues for the clinical applications business, which includes microbiology, molecular biology, and immunoassays increased 27 percent on a reported basis to €679.9 million from €536.6 million a year ago.
Within clinical applications, microbiology declined 9 percent to €236.2 million from €259.0 million in Q3 2019 which the firm attributed to a decline in hospital visits during the pandemic.
Molecular biology sales on the other hand more than doubled, rising to €318.8 million from €151.3 million in Q3 2019, with 120 percent growth in the BioFire FilmArray product line driven by strong demand for the BioFire Respiratory Panel 2.1 plus, which can detect SARS-CoV-2. The firm said in a statement that it deployed more than 1,900 FilmArray systems in the quarter, bringing the total installed base to approximately 15,900 units. The Argene extraction solutions also contributed to growth in the quarter.
Revenues from immunoassay clinical applications fell 5 percent to €111.4 million from €117.6 million a year ago.
Meanwhile, revenues for the industrial applications business fell 6 percent to €109.5 million from €116.5 million in Q3 2019.
BioMérieux said that sales within clinical applications accounted for approximately 85 percent of total revenues in Q3, representing a year-over-year increase of almost 32 percent.
In the quarter, the firm received Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for a CLIA-waived version of its BioFire RP EZ 2.1 enabling the test to be used outside of traditional settings. It also obtained CE marking for the RP 2.1 panel plus, which tests for 19 viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, as well as four bacterial pathogens that cause respiratory tract infections. The firm also launched the BioFire Mycoplasma test in the quarter and partnered with Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) to facilitate supply of COVID-19 diagnostics to Africa.
Alexandre Mérieux, the firm's chairman and CEO, said in a statement that BioMérieux had performed "exceptionally well" in the quarter. "However, recent pandemic-related developments and the associated lockdown measures require us to be cautious in our performance outlook," Mérieux said. He confirmed that it will deliver "remarkable growth" in 2020 but said, "Even so, this performance is not projectable as such beyond 2020."