Pressure BioSciences Q2 revenue rises 70%, trend expected to continue

Pressure BioSciences (OTCQB: PBIO) said Tuesday second quarter revenue rose 70 per cent, attributed to growth in all three of its segments, with the trend expected to continue.
The life sciences company is focused on the development and sale of proprietary laboratory tools and associated consumables based on its pressure cycling technology (PCT) platform.
PCT has multiple applications in the life sciences sample preparation market. The technology uses rapid and repeating cycles of hydrostatic pressure at controlled temperatures to extract cell components in the preparation of a biological sample, such as DNA and proteins from humans, animals and plants, for further study.
The company's PCT products can be used for mass spectrometry, biomarker discovery, bio-therapeutics, vaccine development, forensics, and counter-bioterror applications, among others.
Total revenue for the three months that ended June 30 was $324,908 compared to $190,686 for the comparable period in 2011.
Revenue from the sale of PCT products and services was $224,384 for the second quarter, up 18 per cent from a year ago.
Grant revenue was $100,524, versus nil grant revenue a year earlier.
The company installed eight PCT sample preparation systems during the second quarter, compared to seven during the same period in 2011.
Sales of PCT-based consumables generated revenue of roughly $22,000, up from $20,000 in the second quarter of 2011.
Operating loss narrowed by 19 per cent to $682,790, due to higher revenue and tight controls on spending, the company said.
After the exclusion of non-cash charges, operating cash burn for the second quarter was approximately $596,000, compared to $794,000 for the second quarter of 2011.
Loss per common share – basic and diluted – was 11 cents, down from 41 cents a year ago.
"During the second quarter, purchases were made by distributors engaged earlier in the year, sales of existing PCT products continued to grow, and interest in our recently released Shredder and HUB440 instrument systems turned into purchase orders," said president and CEO Richard T. Schumacher.
"We continued the expansion of our marketing and sales reach with the addition of new distributors and strategic partners worldwide.
"We announced the expansion of an existing license agreement that anticipates the use of our PCT System in a future cancer testing service. And we announced a strategic partnership with three companies that we believe will lead to increased sales before the end of 2012.”
Last month, the company announced it had entered into distribution agreements with three companies with combined coverage in six new countries.
The company noted that the latest distribution deal brings the total number of countries carrying its PCT preparation instrument and consumable products to 11.
Since Pressure began commercial operations in the middle of 2007, it has come a long way, releasing a number of PCT-based products geared towards the $6 billion sample preparation market, including three pressure-generating instruments named Barocyclers, a patent-pending sample homogenization device (The Shredder SG3), five types of single-use processing containers and six different, application-specific reagent kits.
In early May, the company announced it signed a strategic co-development, co-marketing, and co-selling agreement with LEAP Technologies. Under the agreement, the companies intend to develop a next generation sample preparation system by combining Pressure’s PCT platform with LEAP’s proprietary robotics and lab automation equipment.
“We believe the strong financial and operating achievements of the second quarter and year-to-date are proof that our 2012 commercialization plan has begun to bear fruit," Schumacher continued.
"We  further believe that this trend will continue into the second half of the year, and that we will not just surpass our reported revenue of 2011, but that we have the potential to exceed our record annual revenue of 2010 as well."
VP of financed and admin, Jospeh L. Damasio, added: “In addition to these strong financial results, we closed on financings of $500,000 in April and $600,473 in early July...we remain optimistic that we will continue to be successful in securing the funds necessary for our planned growth and development."