By The Life Science Report

Source: Streetwise Reports   08/07/2019

Guardant Health Inc. reported strong growth for Q2/19 versus the same period last year and raised its full-year 2019 revenue guidance to $180–190 million.

Precision oncology company Guardant Health Inc. (GH:NASDAQ), which focuses on helping conquer cancer globally through use of its proprietary blood tests, vast data sets and advanced analytics, announced second quarter earnings yesterday afternoon for the period ending June 30, 2019.

In the report the firm highlighted that for Q2/19 it had achieved total revenue of $54.0 million, a 178% increase over the $19.4 million in Q2/18. Precision oncology revenue in the quarter increased 136%, driven by higher testing volume and increased revenue per test. The company reported 11,875 tests to clinical customers and 5,285 tests to biopharmaceutical customers in Q2/19, representing increases of 77% and 112%, respectively, over Q2/18. The firm also indicated that development services revenue increased 664% primarily from new 2019 projects related to companion diagnostic development and regulatory approval services for biopharmaceutical customers.

Gross profit was $37.1 million for Q2/19, an increase of $27.7 million from $9.4 million in Q2/18, with the gross margin improving to 69% in the quarter versus 49% in Q2/18.

Total operating expenses were $52.4 million for Q/19, as compared to $32.1 million in Q2/18, an increase of 63%, though the company recorded a smaller net loss of $11.6 million (-$0.13/share) in Q2/19 compared to a net loss of $21.6 million (-$1.75/share) in Q2/18. The company ended the second quarter with $822.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.

The company listed some achievements in the quarter, “Results presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting demonstrated LUNAR RUO assay’s ability to identify early-stage colorectal cancer patients with post-operative molecular residual disease who may benefit from adjuvant therapy and that Guardant remains on track to release a CLIA-validated version of the LUNAR assay for prospective clinical trials by the end of 2019…Announced plans to enroll first patient by Q2/19 in ECLIPSE, a prospective colorectal screening study…and the company completed an underwritten public offering raising $349.7 million in net proceeds.”

The company’s CEO Helmy Eltoukhy, PhD, stated, “During the quarter, the Guardant team made significant progress across multiple areas of our business in support of our mission to expand unprecedented access to cancer’s molecular information throughout all stages of the disease…We are especially encouraged by the strong adoption of Guardant360 and GuardantOMNI which we are seeing, even in the early phases of shifting the market to a blood-first paradigm for genomic testing.”

In the release the company raised its full-year 2019 guidance for total revenue to be in the range of $180–190 million, representing 99–110% growth over full-year 2018, compared to the firm’s previous full-year 2019 total revenue guidance of $145–150 million.

Guardant Health describes itself as a leading precision oncology company focused on helping conquer cancer globally through use of its proprietary blood tests, vast data sets and advanced analytics. The Guardant Health Oncology Platform leverages capabilities to drive commercial adoption, improve patient clinical outcomes and lower healthcare costs across all stages of the cancer care continuum. The firm has launched liquid biopsy-based Guardant360 and GuardantOMNI tests for advanced stage cancer patients, and in 2018, the company also launched the LUNAR assay for research use only, which is being used for applications related to guiding neoadjuvant or adjuvant decision-making and recurrence monitoring, and is also actively exploring the performance of the LUNAR assay in initial studies related to screening and early detection in asymptomatic individuals.

GH shares opened higher today on the news at $105.01 (+14.51, +$16.03%) over the prior day’s closing price of $90.50. Shares have traded between $98.51 to $111.69 today, reaching a 52-week intraday high. At present, shares are trading at $110.11 (+$19.61, +21.67%).

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