NEW YORK – Aspira Womens Health (formerly Vermillion) reported after the close of the market on Thursday flat third quarter revenues year over year.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, the Austin, Texas-based cancer diagnostics firm said that total revenues fell to $1.2 million from $1.3 million in the year-ago quarter. Product revenues were $1.2 million, flat compared to Q3 2019. The company had no service revenues. It posted $44,000 in services revenues in Q3 2019 but shut down it services business that quarter.
Product revenues for the recently completed quarter were derived from 3,596 OVA1 ovarian cancer tests performed, down less than 1 percent from 3,602 OVA1 tests performed in Q3 2019. Revenue per test performed was down 2 percent to $338 compared to $345 in the year-ago period.
The results reflect a rebound from the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Revenue was up 68 percent from $726,000 in Q2 2020 and OVA1 volume was up 46 percent from 2,458 in Q2.
On a conference call following release of the earnings, Aspira President and CEO Valerie Palmieri said the company "was effectively weathering the storm of the pandemic" and it returned to pre-pandemic sales levels in September.
She said the company continued to focus its OVA1 sales approach on gaining adoption within large ob-gyn practices and integrated delivery networks, though she noted that the pandemic has slowed the finalization of these deals.
Palmieri also touched on the company's product pipeline. She said that Aspira has formed an agreement with AbbVie for access to the drugmaker's endometriosis clinical trial specimens, which Aspira plans to use in development of its EndoCheck test for diagnosis of the condition. She added that the company plans by the end of the year to seek breakthrough device designation for the test from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Palmieri also highlighted development of the company's OvaNext test for monitoring women with a benign mass who have not undergone surgery. The company published a paper in Current Medical Research and Opinion that found that OvaNext could be safely used to monitor these women. This summer, the company launched a prospective trial for the test and aims to bring the test to market at the end of 2021 or beginning of 2022.
Vermillion had a net loss attributable to its common stockholders for the quarter of $4.3 million, or $.04 per share, compared to a net loss of $3.8 million, or $.04 per share, in Q3 2019.
Its R&D expenses were up 75 percent to $595,000 from $340,000, while its SG&A spending rose 5 percent to $4.0 million from $3.8 million.
The company finished the quarter with $19 million in cash and cash equivalents.