Original from: Genomeweb

Image Credit: BioM¨¦rieu|Christian Ganet

BioM¨¦rieux reported on Thursday that its third quarter revenues grew 11 percent year over year, driven by growth across its application areas.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, the Marcy l'¨¦toile, France-based in vitro diagnostics firm recorded revenues of €877.4 million ($1.02 billion) compared to €789.4 million in the year-ago period. Organic growth, at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation, was approximately 12 percent year over year and higher than expected due to strong demand for respiratory panels in the US and "solid momentum" in all other application areas, the firm said.

Revenues for the clinical applications business, which includes microbiology, molecular biology, immunoassays, and other lines, increased 11 percent to €756.6 million from €679.9 million a year ago.

Within clinical applications, microbiology revenues increased 14 percent to €269.8 million from €236.2 million in Q3 2020, which the firm attributed to reagent sales within its ID/AST and hemoculture ranges as well as instrument sales.

Molecular biology sales increased 6 percent to €338 million from €317.8 million in Q3 2020. The growth was led by BioFire reagent sales, which grew 19 percent year over year and were driven by demand in the US for respiratory panels during a period of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant spread as well as "sooner-than-expected appearance of several other respiratory pathogens."

The BioFire FilmArray installed base also grew, to almost 21,400 systems in Q3 '21 compared to 20,100 at the end of Q2 and approximately 15,900 in the year-ago quarter.

Revenues from immunoassay clinical applications, meanwhile, increased 8 percent to €120.3 million from €111.4 million a year ago.

The firm also reported 96 percent growth in its "other lines" business within clinical applications, which includes its Applied Maths and BioFire Defense businesses, with revenues of €28.4 million versus €14.5 million a year ago.

BioM¨¦rieux said that sales within clinical applications accounted for approximately 85 percent of total revenues in Q3, representing a year-over-year increase of almost 12 percent.

Meanwhile, revenues for the industrial applications business increased 10 percent to €120.8 million from €109.5 million in Q3 2020, led by reagent and instrument sales within the food and pharmaceutical segments.

"During the third quarter of 2021, we saw an uptake of multiplexing respiratory demand in the US, while all other business lines, namely microbiology, immunoassays and industrial applications, kept on maintaining solid growth," said Alexandre M¨¦rieux, the firm's chairman and CEO.

In light of the good performance, the firm is raising its guidance for 2021, M¨¦rieux said, but noted that operating expenses have been low during the pandemic, so the "extraordinary" 2021 operating income cannot be projected beyond 2021.

Full year sales are now expected to grow between 4 percent and 7 percent, up from a previous neutral to a mid-single-digit percent rate. The firm anticipates contributive operating income before nonrecurring items to be above €700 million at current exchange rates, increased from a previous projection of income in line with 2020.

Source: BioM¨¦rieux Q3 Revenues Increase 11 Percent, Firm Raises 2021 Guidance