Olink reported before the opening of the market Thursday that its Q1 revenues rose 67 percent.
For the three months ended March 31, the Uppsala, Sweden-based firm posted revenues of $22.7 million, up from $13.6 million in the year-ago period and above the consensus Wall Street estimate of $20.3 million.
Service revenue was $16.6 million, up 73 percent from $9.6 million in Q1 2021. Kits revenue was $4.0 million, up 43 percent from $2.8 million in the year-ago period. Other revenue was $2.1 million, up 75 percent from $1.2 million in Q1 2021 and mainly driven by Signature Q100 platform placements.
On a conference call following the release of the results, Olink CEO Jon Heimer said the company delivered nine of its Signature Q100 instruments to customers during the quarter and hit a total of 27 installations of its Explore proteomics platform, which allows users to measure roughly 3,000 proteins using the company’s proximity extension assay with a next-generation-sequencing readout.
Heimer said that Olink’s ongoing effort to shift its revenues from services to kits is progressing as planned, with kits revenue representing 18 percent of Q1 revenues. He added that the company remains on track to expand its Explore platform content to 4,500 proteins by the end of the year.
Additionally, Olink is collaborating with “multiple partners” to allow users to do the Explore platform readout on “several of the new sequencing instruments entering the market,” Heimer said. To date, Explore readout has been done on Illumina’s NovaSeq platform.
“This effort will translate into increased flexibility as customers will be able to choose from a menu of detection platform alternatives,” he said.
Heimer said the company added 49 employees during the quarter, bringing its total headcount to 465.
Olink’s net loss in the first quarter was $12.2 million, or $.10 per share, compared to $14.3 million, or $.48 per share, in Q1 2021, and under the consensus Wall Street estimate of $.15 per share.
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The company’s R&D expenses were $6.0 million, up 43 percent from $4.2 million in the year-ago period. Its SG&A costs were $23.9 million, up 32 percent from from $18.1 million in Q1 2021.
Olink maintained its 2022 revenue guidance of between $138 million and $145 million. During the call, Olink CFO Oskar Hjelm said the company expects this revenue to be weighted toward the second half of the year and Q4 in particular. He said the guidance assumed similar impact from COVID-19 as seen so far this year.
The company ended the quarter with $120.2 million in cash and cash equivalents.
In Thursday morning trading on the Nasdaq, Olink’s shares were down a fraction of a percent to $10.45.
