Let's do that with better formatting (hint: insert "pre" before and "/pre" after the tables, in both cases enclosed by "<>"):
>>FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CIPH - news) today announced record results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2001. For the quarter ended December 31, 2001, total revenue increased 147% to $7.3 million, up from $3.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2000. Gross profit increased 131% to $4.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2001, up from $2.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2000. The net loss for the fourth quarter of 2001 was $7.1 million or $0.27 per share as compared to a net loss of $4.9 million or $0.19 per share in the comparable quarter of 2000.
For the fiscal year 2001, total revenue increased 113% to $19.0 million, up from $8.9 million in 2000. Gross profit increased 128% to $12.4 million in 2001, up from $5.5 million in 2000; gross margin was 65% in 2001 as compared to 61% in 2000. The net loss for 2001 was $25.8 million or $0.97 per share as compared to a net loss of $20.3 million or $1.75 per share in 2000.
At December 31, 2001, the Company's cash and investments were $77.2 million. Total short and long term debt totaled $2.7 million.
``We are pleased to report another strong quarter for Ciphergen, as our revenue growth accelerated in line with our expectations,'' said William Rich, President and CEO. ``Given the very broad and large potential market in proteomics, we are placing increased efforts on tailoring our products and services for specific sub-segments of the proteomics market, including clinical proteomics, research proteomics and our pioneering efforts in process proteomics.''
Financial Outlook for 2002
The Company provided the following financial guidance for 2002:
-- Revenue. Ciphergen expects to see revenue growth of approximately
100-110% in 2002, resulting in revenue of $38-40 million.
-- Gross Margin. We expect our gross margin to be in the 66-68% range
during 2002.
-- Net Loss and Net Loss per Share. Ciphergen anticipates a net loss in
2002 of approximately $27-28 million, or approximately $1.00-1.04 per
share
-- Cash. We expect our cash ending 2002 to be greater than $50 million.
Summary Highlights for 2001 and 2002 Year to Date:
-- Clinical Proteomics. Introduced the ProteinChip(R) Biomarker System,
our flagship product for clinical proteomics customers, which utilizes
advanced robotics for high throughput sample preparation and built-in
Biomarker Patterns(TM) Software to correlate protein expression
patterns of clinical samples with a patient's disease phenotype for
predictive diagnosis of disease and drug response.
Announced a Biomarker Center(TM) project in toxicology with Pfizer
designed to discover proteins in animal serum and to evaluate the
relative importance and utility of such proteins as biomarkers
associated with drug safety potentially leading to proteomics-based
"predictive toxicology."
Scientists from the NCI-FDA Clinical Proteomics initiative published
their results in The Lancet in February 2002 describing use of
Ciphergen's ProteinChip technology combined with pattern recognition
software to validate the potential application of this platform for the
early detection of ovarian cancer.
-- Process Proteomics. Acquired the BioSepra process chromatography
business, thereby entering the market for the purification and analysis
of proteins being produced from research-scale up to large-scale
biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Introduced the concept of "Process
Proteomics" which enables high-speed protein purification through the
use of our ProteinChip Systems and Arrays for "on-chip, predictive
protein purification and analysis" combined with BioSepra's
purification sorbents to scale-up the process from lab to production
scale. Process Proteomics has been well received by the market with a
large number of pharmaceutical companies expressing interest in both
the ProteinChip technology and BioSepra's full-line of
biochromatography products for protein purification, analysis and
production.
Introduced a Process Proteomics Services business and completed our
first paid project on behalf of a major biologics contract manufacturer
in which we demonstrated the ability to rapidly optimize and validate a
monoclonal antibody production scale-up strategy using the ProteinChip
platform.
-- Research Proteomics and Drug Discovery Initiatives. Introduced a new
ProteinChip Interface (PCI-1000) for the Applied Biosystems' and
Waters-Micromass' Tandem-MS systems to enable high performance protein
sequencing directly from ProteinChip Arrays. Market interest in this
product by core proteomics facilities has been strong.
Presented preliminary results at a scientific meeting using a new
generation prototype of ProteinChip Arrays, which offer advantages over
conventional LC-MS and MALDI-TOF-MS systems, and which we believe mark
an important step toward creating a novel chemoproteomics-based drug
discovery platform which could be used for on-chip, small
molecule-protein interaction screening.
Announced collaborations in February 2002 with two of the world's
leading AIDS research organizations, the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research
Center (ADARC) to discover proteins in certain AIDS patients which may
be responsible for retarding the progression of the disease. Dr. David
Ho of ADARC said, "We are undertaking this collaborative research
effort in the hopes of identifying serum proteins with these
characteristics that could become antiviral agents themselves, or prove
to be unique targets for future drug development."
-- Growth in the Organization. During 2001, we grew from 114 to 229
employees and expanded our sales coverage on a worldwide basis. We
ended 2001 with a highly technical salesforce of 69 professionals,
mostly with PhD's and/or MDs, our joint venture in Japan and two
distributors covering other territories in the Asia Pacific region.
Ciphergen now employs 95 PhDs and/or MDs.
-- Increased Public Awareness for Ciphergen's Technology. We significantly
increased our exposure and profile in the scientific community
throughout the course of the year. The use of ProteinChip technology
was cited in 41 scientific papers in 2001, compared to 19 publications
in 2000. Ciphergen scientists teamed up with our customers to present
14 papers or posters at the American Association for Cancer Research
meeting (compared to seven citations in 2000).
-- Patents. A key patent covering Retentate Chromatography was issued;
this patent enables protein Difference Expression Mapping(TM) and
discovery of multiple protein biomarkers useful in clinical medicine,
including disease diagnosis, toxicology assessment, clinical trial
stratification, and drug target identification and validation. It also
describes the enablement of "predictive protein chromatography" for
high-speed purification of proteins. During the year, we filed an
additional 16 patent applications. Our patent portfolio now consists
of 9 issued patents and 33 pending patent applications.
About Ciphergen
Ciphergen develops, manufactures and markets a family of ProteinChip® Systems for clinical, research and process proteomics applications, as well as a broad range of bioseparations media for protein purification through its BioSepra process chromatography division. ProteinChip Systems enable protein discovery, profiling, characterization and assay development to provide researchers with predictive analysis capabilities and a better understanding of biological functions at the protein level. ProteinChip Systems are enabling tools in the emerging field of protein-based biology research, known as proteomics. Proteomics provides a direct approach to understanding the role of proteins in the biology of disease, monitoring disease progression and evaluating the therapeutic effects and side effects of drugs. Ciphergen believes proteomics will be a major focus of biological research by enhancing the understanding of gene function and the molecular basis of disease.
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company's financial outlook for 2002, the discovery of protein biomarkers that can be used for drug safety assessment or for the early detection of cancer or that could be antiviral agents or targets for drug development, the anticipated results of collaborations and future growth in the field of proteomics. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements due to various factors, including the Company's ability to generate revenue growth of 100-110% in 2002 resulting in revenue of $38-40 million, the ability to maintain pricing and hold manufacturing costs to levels that support gross margins of 66-68%, the ability to manage the growth in operating expenses and other expenses such that the net loss will be in the range of $27-28 million and such that the cash balance at year-end will be greater than $50 million, ProteinChip technology's ability to discover protein biomarkers that have diagnostic, drug safety assessment and/or drug development utility, and the continued emergence of proteomics as a major focus of biological research and drug discovery. Investors should consult Ciphergen's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2001, for further information regarding these and the other risks of the Company's business.
NOTE: Ciphergen and ProteinChip are trademarks of Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc.
Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc.
Summary Financial Information
(Unaudited)
(in thousands, except per share data)
Three Months Ended Year Ended
December 31, December 31,
2000 2001 2000 2001
Revenue $2,957 $7,299 $8,935 $19,049
Cost of revenue 937 2,637 3,480 6,614
Gross profit 2,020 4,662 5,455 12,435
Operating expenses:
Research and development 2,607 3,996 7,475 13,895
Sales and marketing 2,797 4,461 9,001 14,301
General and administrative 3,229 3,298 11,322 13,020
Amortization of intangible
assets 75 284 318 650
Total operating expenses 8,708 12,039 28,116 41,866
Loss from operations (6,688) (7,377) (22,661) (29,431)
Interest and other income, net 1,765 422 2,357 3,762
Net loss before income taxes (4,923) (6,955) (20,304) (25,669)
Income tax provision -- 143 -- 143
Net loss (4,923) (7,098) (20,304) (25,812)
Dividend related to beneficial
conversion
feature of preferred stock -- -- (27,228) --
Net loss attributable to common
stockholders $(4,923) $(7,098) $(47,532) $(25,812)
Net loss per share attributable
to common stockholders:
Basic and diluted (A) $(0.19) $(0.27) $(4.09) $(0.97)
Shares used in computing net loss
per share attributable to common
stockholders (A) 26,218 26,700 11,635 26,512
December 31, December 31,
2000 2001
Cash, cash equivalents and investments
in securities $107,633 $77,191
Total assets 118,948 106,883
Stockholders' equity 113,152 93,229
(A) In 2000, there was a $27,228 dividend related to the conversion of
preferred stock into common stock as a result of Ciphergen's initial
public offering on September 28, 2000. At December 31, 2001,
Ciphergen had 27,056,872 shares of common stock outstanding.<<
Cheers, Tuck |
