Seattle, WA 1/6/19; Austin, TX 1/7/19; Tucson, AZ 1/7/19—Three life science instrument and consumables providers have announced preliminary 2018 financial results. NanoString Technologies, which supplies life science tools for translational research and molecular diagnostics, previewed year-end revenues of $106–$107 million, exceeding the company’s guidance of $104–$106 million. Sales of the nCounter Analysis Systems totaled 135 last year, bringing the installed base to 730, up 20%. The company also announced pre-orders for 30 GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler systems. Year-end cash and cash equivalents were  more than $90 million.

Luminex, a provider of lab solutions for diverse markets, reported expected 2018 revenues of over $315 million, which would be near the top end of its guidance of $310–$316 million. Licensed Technologies Group revenue rose 5% to $149 million, while MDx revenue was up 13% excluding the loss of LabCorp non–cystic fibrosis revenue. The company forecasts 2019 revenues of $337–$343 million, with a 35% decline in LabCorp sales.

HTG Molecular Diagnostics, which provides HTG EdgeSeq technology for multiplexed molecular profiling,  expects 2018 sales growth of 46% to $21.5 million, including a 56% increase in collaboration revenue, a 38% rise in pharma services revenue and 25% growth in product revenue. As of year end, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $34.4 million.

Based on these estimates, NanoString’s revenues will have declined 7.7% in 2018, but product revenues will be up 16.0% to $83.5 million with 17.8% growth in consumables sales to $53 million. (For a summary of NanoString’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC) presentation, see IBO’s latest blog, JPMHC 2019: NanoString Excels in 2018.) Revenue growth was hurt by changes in collaboration revenues.

For Luminex, the company told JPMCH attendees that its xMap system boasts an installed base of approximately 16,000 as of the end of last year, 40% of which serve the protein research market. The company will soon launch its latest xMap platform, the SensiPlex, which will resemble its new Verigene II MDx platform.

As for HTG Molecular Diagnostics, the company’s primary revenue source is a companion diagnostics agreement involving QIAGEN, which represented 72% of revenues for the first nine months of 2018.