Adaptive Biotechnologies’ revenue fell 5% to $21 million in the second quarter, and its net loss more than doubled to $33.5 million, due in part to reduced usage of its immune sequencing technologies by research labs that have closed temporarily or cut back their operations due to COVID-19.
But even as it feels the impact of the pandemic, the Seattle-based company is using its immune sequencing platform to battle COVID-19 on a variety of fronts. Last week, the company announced a new monitoring tool that measures how T-cells, key components of the immune system, respond over time to COVID-19 vaccines.
“COVID-19 brought the role of the immune system to the forefront of society and has created the opportunity for Adaptive to be positioned as the go-to company to rapidly and reproducibly assess the T-cell response to any pathogen, including future pandemics,” said Adaptive CEO Chad Robins on a conference call with investors. “The breadth of advances we have made recently in each of our business areas is remarkable, particularly given the impact of COVID on all of us.”
The company, which went public a year ago on the Nasdaq, makes technology to sequence the human system immune system, with the promise of diagnosing multiple diseases from a single blood test.
Microsoft and Adaptive have been working in recent months to develop a new diagnostic test for COVID-19 as part of a broader partnership. Adaptive is also partnering with Amgen to develop a new drug to treat and prevent COVID-19, using Adaptive’s immune sequencing technology.
Despite the lower revenue and wider loss in the second quarter, Adaptive beat expectations for the quarter ended June 30 with a loss of 26 cents per share. Analysts expected revenue of $18.8 million and a loss of 28 cents per share.
Adaptive ended the quarter with $628 million in cash and short-term investments, which did not include an additional $272 million raised by the company in July in a follow-on stock offering, according to a regulatory filing.
The company reported a 33% decline in sequencing revenue, which fell to less than $8 million from more than $11.8 million in the same quarter a year ago. Adaptive said research sequencing volume declined 54% in the quarter, “primarily attributable to trial enrollment delays and project deferrals from our biopharmaceutical and academic customers.”
Revenue from clinical sequencing increased by $900,000, as volume from clinical customers rose 31%, the company said.
Development revenue for the quarter increased $13 million, or 27%, due in part to a $4.2 million increase in revenue from Adaptive’s deal with Genentech to develop personalized cancer therapies.
Shares stayed stable in after-hours trading. Adaptive’s stock has more than doubled since March.
Adaptive, a spinout of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, was founded in 2009 by Chad Robins and his brother, Harlan Robins, the company’s chief scientific officer. The company employs more than 500 people and is building a new headquarters and R&D facility in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.
