>>FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CIPH - News) today announced record results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2002. For the quarter ended December 31, 2002, total revenue increased 86% to $13.6 million, up from $7.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2001. Gross profit increased 108% to $9.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2002 up from $4.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2001. The net loss for the fourth quarter of 2002 was $6.7 million or $0.25 per share as compared to a net loss of $7.1 million or $0.27 per share in the comparable quarter of 2001.
For the fiscal year 2002, total revenue increased 106% to $39.3 million, up from $19.0 million in 2001. Gross profit increased 113% to $26.5 million in 2002, up from $12.4 million in 2001; gross margin was 68% in 2002 as compared to 65% in 2001. The net loss for 2002 was $29.1 million or $1.08 per share as compared to a net loss of $25.8 million or $0.97 per share in 2001.
At December 31, 2002, the Company's cash and investments were $42.5 million. Total short and long term debt totaled $2.8 million.
"We are pleased to report another strong quarter of revenue growth for Ciphergen, accompanied by continued improvement of our gross margins," commented William E. Rich, President and CEO of Ciphergen. "These results have been driven by an expansion of our direct sales force, new product introductions, increased awareness of our technology and the application successes that we and our customers have been experiencing with ProteinChip® Systems and service collaborations with our Biomarker Discovery Centers®. We believe that we are the worldwide leader in providing protein biochip-based proteomic research tools and services; further, we're increasingly convinced that our ability to discover, validate and assay biomarkers will enable us to expand our business to develop novel, high-value clinical diagnostic products in the near future."
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Financial Outlook for 2003
The Company provides the following financial guidance for 2003:
-- Revenue. Ciphergen expects to see revenue growth of approximately
65-80% in 2003, for total forecasted 2003 revenue of $65-70 million.
Based on the seasonality we've experienced in the last 3 years, we
would expect approximately 18% of annual revenue to be in Q1, 22% in
Q2, 27% in Q3 and 33% in Q4.
-- Gross Margin. We expect our gross margin to be in the 68-70% range
during 2003.
-- Net Loss and Net Loss per Share. Ciphergen anticipates a net loss in
2003 of approximately $16-18 million, or approximately $0.58-0.66 per
share.
-- Break-even. Our corporate target is for Ciphergen to be at or near
breakeven in Q4 2003.
-- Cash. We expect our cash ending 2003 to be greater than $25 million.
Summary Highlights for 2002 and 2003 Year to Date:
-- Results-Driven Marketing. Ciphergen's increased sales in 2002 reflects
increasing awareness of the power of ProteinChip technology by the
scientific community, driven by our customers' scientific successes.
The use of ProteinChip technology was cited in 58 scientific papers in
2002, bringing our total publications list to over 140. Ciphergen
scientists teamed up with our customers to present 25 papers or posters
at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting (compared to 14
citations in 2001). In addition, over a dozen studies presented at the
American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) annual meeting utilized
ProteinChip Systems.
-- Science Publication in AIDS. Ciphergen's ProteinChip technology, local
field scientists and Biomarker Discovery Center scientists, working in
collaboration with the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC),
reported in Science the discovery and identification of the proteins
believed to be responsible for suppressing HIV-1 replication in
patients infected with the virus but who do not progress to AIDS. In
addition to validating the enabling power of Ciphergen's technology to
rapidly discover functionally important proteins through
disease-associated protein profiling studies, this discovery
potentially opens up new therapeutic and diagnostic strategies in the
fight against AIDS. As part of its agreement with ADARC, Ciphergen
retains therapeutic and diagnostic rights to discoveries made under the
collaboration, with royalties back to ADARC.
-- New Product Introductions. Ciphergen has invested heavily in research
and development over the past two years in two broad categories
-- improved products and Biomarker Discovery Center projects.
During 2002, Ciphergen launched the fully automated ProteinChip AutoBiomarker System, which enables protein biomarkers to be discovered and used to develop predictive clinical diagnostic assays by combining HT-expression profiling with pattern recognition analysis, a technique pioneered by Ciphergen and researchers at the National Cancer Institute.
In formal product development is a new generation of ProteinChip Array surfaces. These novel, patented SEND (Surface Enhanced Neat Desorption) surfaces do not require addition of "organic acid matrix" to function and provide significant improvements in the detection of small organic molecules (drug candidates) and peptides. We anticipate announcing further product introductions during the course of 2003 to enhance our offerings to researchers and clinicians.
-- Clinical Proteomics Progress. During 2002 Ciphergen continued its
pioneering efforts in the discovery and validation of biomarkers, both
with collaboration partners and for the Company's own account.
-- Increasing Collaborations with Major Pharmaceutical Companies.
Ciphergen now has master agreements in place with Pfizer and
Novartis covering a variety of biomarker discovery projects. The
Company has expanded the scope of work at multiple pharmaceutical
companies from initial studies primarily focused on finding
surrogate toxicology markers into clinical trial stratification
studies (separating responders from non-responders or those likely
to experience adverse drug side-effects). Ciphergen believes that
these clinical trial stratification studies have demonstrated
important proof-of-principle of the Company's technology to enable
protein-based theranostics and the added value of our Biomarker
Discovery Centers.
-- Improved Prediction through Multiple Protein Biomarker Analysis. A
landmark paper was published in The Lancet in 2002 in which protein
profiles generated on our ProteinChip System, combined with pattern
recognition software, was used for the early detection of ovarian
cancer in a 116 patient sample study.
-- Expanding Biomarker Discovery Studies. Ciphergen's Biomarker
Discovery Centers, in collaboration with notable institutions such
as Johns Hopkins, Virginia Prostate Center and MD Anderson, continue
to discover disease-associated protein biomarkers and develop
multi-protein assays designed to address a variety of clinical
questions in cancer, cardiovascular, neurological and infectious
diseases. As a result of these studies, we are aggressively filing
patents around the biomarkers, patterns of biomarkers and associated
assays which we feel may have diagnostic utility.
-- Japan Biomarker Discovery Center. Ciphergen opened a Biomarker
Discovery Center in Yokohama, Japan in Q4 of 2002. This is in
addition to Centers now operating in Fremont, CA, Malvern, PA, Johns
Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, MD and Copenhagen, Denmark.
-- Diagnostic Collaboration. Ciphergen recently announced a
collaboration with Biosite, a leading diagnostic company, seeking to
discover and develop diagnostics, initially in the cardiovascular
field.
-- Quality Improvements. During 2002, Ciphergen received ISO 9001
certification for the Fremont ProteinChip products manufacturing
business; adding to our existing ISO 9001 and cGMP certification for
our chromatography products business in Cergy, France. During 2003, we
will be embarking on a major automation project for our ProteinChip
Array manufacturing, designed to meet expected increases in Array
demand while bringing down manufacturing costs and further improving
product quality.
-- Growth in the Organization. During 2002, we grew from 229 to 323
employees and expanded our sales coverage on a worldwide basis. We
ended 2002 with a highly technical salesforce of 75 professionals,
mostly with PhD's and/or MDs, increased our stake in our joint venture
in Japan from 30% to 70%, entered China with a direct operation, and
also have three distributors covering other territories in the Asia
Pacific region. Ciphergen now employs 104 PhDs and/or MDs. In 2003,
we expect only modest incremental growth in our salesforce and total
headcount (excluding direct labor).
-- Patents. We filed an additional 21 patent applications during 2002,
the most new filings of any year in our history. Of these 21
applications, 12 related to our products and technologies, and 9
related to biomarker discoveries. Our patent portfolio now consists of
49 issued U.S. patents and 86 pending U.S. patent applications.<<
snipped "about" and "safe harbor" stuff
Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc.
Summary Financial Information
(unaudited)
(in thousands, except per share data)
Three Months Ended Year Ended
December 31, December 31,
2001 2002 2001 2002
Revenue $7,299 $13,592 $19,049 $39,300
Cost of revenue 2,637 3,876 6,614 12,758
Gross profit 4,662 9,716 12,435 26,542
Operating expenses:
Research and
development 3,996 6,062 12,895 20,754
Sales and marketing 4,461 5,679 14,301 20,321
General and
administrative 3,298 4,731 13,020 15,008
Amortization of
intangible assets 284 208 650 829
Write-off of
acquired
in-process
technology -- -- 1,000 --
Total operating
expenses 12,039 16,680 41,866 56,912
Loss from operations (7,377) (6,964) (29,431) (30,370)
Interest and other
income, net 422 201 3,762 1,391
Loss (income)
attributable to
minority interest -- 58 -- (32)
Loss before income
taxes (6,955) (6,705) (25,669) (29,011)
Income tax provision 143 -- 143 61
Net loss $(7,098) $(6,705) $(25,812) $(29,072)
Net loss per share,
basic and diluted $(0.27) $(0.25) $(0.97) $(1.08)
Shares used in
computing net
loss per share 26,700 27,143 26,512 26,965
Dec. 31, Dec. 31,
2001 2002
Cash, cash equivalents
and investments
in securities $77,124 $42,541
Total assets 106,816 87,615
Stockholders' equity 93,229 68,354<<
Cheers, Tuck |
