Boosted by several recent acquisitions, Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. rode a 15 percent jump in revenues to nearly break even during the second quarter.
Revenues for the Waltham, Mass.-based diagnostics maker rose to $460.4 million during the three months ended June 30, up 14.8 percent compared with $401.1 million during the year-ago period. Acquisitions — including 10 deals during 2008 worth $1.1 billion in cash and stock — lifted quarterly sales by $48.7 million, company officials said.
Top-line growth was also supported by popular concern over the Swine Flu pandemic, resulting in a $13.9 million jump during the quarter in sales of the company’s influenza test kit. Nearly all of that increase occurred in North America, with sales of flu test kits reaching $14.9 million, up from only $700,000 last year.
Inverness sharply trimmed its net loss, closing to within $1.2 million of showing a profit after $5.7 million in dividend payments on preferred stock were deducted from the second-quarter bottom line. That compares with a $33.4 million net loss attributable to common shareholders in the June 2008 quarter.
Inverness CEO Ron Zwanwiger told analysts on a conference call that the company is seeing significant results from its recent joint venture with Procter & Gamble. The new company is already the market leader in several European countries in sales of rapid at-home diagnostic products, such as home-pregnancy tests and fertility monitoring products, Zwanwiger said.
“We expect this joint venture will continue to drive strong sales and profit growth growth for years to come,” he said, but cautioned that regulatory hurdles will likely delay a U.S. launch for some time.
Zwanwiger also voiced high hopes for the Pima analyzer, a portable monitor designed to quickly determine the number of CD4 cells (also known as T-cells) in the bloodstream of HIV patients. He said European officials appear ready to grant Pima CE Mark certification by late September, setting the stage for a phased launch in October.
Similar introductions are eventually planned into U.S. clinics and, ultimately, as a home consumer product.
“We believe this device will be a major success story for us in 2010,” Zwanwiger said.
