Illumina Reports Financial Results for Second Quarter 2002
BusinessWire, Thursday, July 18, 2002 at 18:03
SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--July 18, 2002--Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) announced today its financial results for the second quarter and six-month period ended June 30, 2002.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2002, the Company reported a net loss of $16.4 million, or $0.54 per share, compared to a net loss of $5.9 million, or $0.20 per share, in the second quarter of 2001. Net loss for the six-month period ended June 30, 2002 was $25.1 million, or $0.82 per share, compared to a net loss of $10.8 million, or $0.37 per share, for the same six-month period in 2001. Total expenses for the quarter include a previously announced, one-time accrual of $7.7 million related to a termination-of-employment lawsuit. Without this charge, the net loss for the second quarter would have been $8.7 million or $0.28 per share, and for the six-month period $17.4 million or $0.57 per share. Revenues for the second quarter and six-month period were $1.9 million and $3.2 million, respectively, compared to $0.5 million and $1.0 million for the same periods in 2001. Cash and investments at June 30, 2002 totaled $80.1 million.
During the quarter, Illumina introduced an integrated and highly automated system for very high-throughput SNP genotyping. The LIMS-controlled system is based on the system now deployed in the Company's services facility, with components that include Sentrix(TM) array matrices, array scanners, robots, LIMS software and licenses, integration support, and assay protocols. When installed in production-scale customer environments, the integrated BeadArray(TM) system is projected to perform at multiplex levels up to 100 times higher than alternative technology platforms and deliver the lowest-known running costs per genotype.
In other key events during the quarter, Illumina signed seven SNP genotyping service agreements, bringing to 12 the total number of such agreements signed in 2002 and exceeding a commercial milestone of ten service contracts set for the entire 2002 fiscal year. All of these agreements are with new service business customers, and include pharmaceutical and agricultural firms as well as academic institutions. The Company also doubled its Oligator(TM) oligonucleotide synthesis capacity and significantly reduced its manufacturing cost. Total oligo sales in the second quarter were more than double the amount recorded in the first quarter of 2002 while gross margins remain comfortably above 50%.
According to Jay Flatley, Illumina President and CEO, "We're very pleased with our commercial progress in the second quarter. There's a rapidly expanding awareness of BeadArray(TM) platform technology and the benefits it delivers to life science researchers. The launch of our own genotyping system will significantly strengthen the Company's strategic market position, as it allows us to integrate and deploy our genotyping, gene expression and proteomics applications across a single platform. Equally important, we'll have the ability to seamlessly move our assays between our services business and a growing installed base to provide even greater value to platform customers."
Commenting further on the new, integrated offering, Flatley said, "We believe that our system is ideally suited for the cost-effective implementation of emerging and large-scale genomics initiatives such as haplotype mapping. Since this internally developed system is not part of the delayed collaboration product with Applied Biosystems, Illumina will retain all operating profit generated from the sale of systems and consumables. We plan to make the system available for shipment in the fourth quarter."
Other Quarterly News and Highlights
-- The seven commercial contracts signed during the quarter
include a previously unannounced genotyping service agreement with the Ernest Gallo Clinic & Research Center (EGCRC) to help map loci for neurobiological traits associated potentially with alcoholism.
-- Illumina launched a comprehensive genetic linkage mapping
panel -- the industry's first offering based on the loci
identified by the efforts of the SNP Consortium.
-- John Stuelpnagel, D.V.M. was promoted to Senior Vice
President, Operations. In his new position, Dr. Stuelpnagel is broadly responsible for manufacturing, scientific operations, engineering, and research & development in addition to business development and intellectual property activities.
-- An article on the high-throughput genotyping system installed in Illumina's services facility was published in the June 2002 Biotechniques SNP supplement. The article provides an overview of system hardware, information architecture, LIMS control, the BeadArray technology deployed on the system, and the high multiplex levels achieved through the integrated operation.
-- Mark Chee, Ph.D., assumed a new role as Research Fellow, with David Barker, Ph.D., assuming Dr. Chee's prior management responsibilities. In his new role, Dr. Chee will be spending increasing time working with large genomics initiatives, such as the public haplotyping effort, and exploring new ways to deploy Illumina's technology.
-- The U.S. Patent and Trade Office awarded two new patents to Illumina, bringing our total to 23 issued or allowed and 58 pending.
Illumina is developing next-generation tools for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function. The information provided by these analyses will enable the development of personalized medicine, a key goal of genomics and proteomics. The Company's proprietary BeadArray technology will provide the throughput, cost effectiveness and flexibility necessary to enable researchers in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries to perform the billions of tests necessary to extract medically valuable information from advances in genomics. This information will correlate genetic variation and gene function with particular disease states, enhancing drug discovery, allowing diseases to be detected earlier and more specifically, and permitting better choices of drugs for individual patients. Illumina's technology will have applicability across a wide variety of industries beyond life sciences and pharmaceuticals, including agriculture, food, chemicals and petrochemicals. |
