OpGen Inc. reported a net income loss of $4.8 million in its fourth quarter following a 35 percent drop in revenue from product sales, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
OpGen’s fourth-quarter loss was in line with its performance in the same period a year ago but still greater than analysts expected. It lost 21 cents per share rather than the predicted loss of 20 cents per share.
Overall revenue for the quarter was $1.0 million, down 24.3 percent from $1.3 million in 2015. Revenue from product sales took the largest hit in the quarter, falling to $818,000 from $1.3 million.
“In 2016 our investments in genomics and informatics for infectious disease management issues caused by multi-drug resistant organisms began to pay off,” said OpGen’s Chief Executive Officer Evan Jones.
Jones said the company expects its Acuitas brand of rapid-diagnostic products to move past the development phase within the coming months, aiming to make the products available for external research use in the second half of 2017.
Research and development costs were the firm’s largest expense in the quarter. They totaled $2.3 million, up from $2.1 million a year ago.
OpGen went public in 2015 at $6 per share and raised $17 million. According to the Thursday filing, OpGen raised an additional $4.7 million in the fourth quarter. Its assets as of Dec. 31 totaled $9.0 million.
Shares of OpGen stock is currently priced at $1.07 – down 8.5 percent since the filing’s release on Thursday.
Gaithersburg-based OpGen announced in November that it had entered into a research collaboration with a subsidiary of New Jersey-based pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. Inc. to develop rapid diagnostics and information technology products that aim to combat the threat of antimicrobial resistance.
Analysts are expecting OpGen to start moving closer to profitability in the first quarter; current estimates predict a loss of 15 cents per share for the period. The company, however, did not provide 2017 guidance.
The filing can be found here.
