bioMérieux – Third-Quarter 2023 Business Review

Original from: bioMérieux

-    +8.0% sales organic growth over the first nine months of the year:

    ·    €2,668 million in sales

    ·    +4.2% as reported

-    Q3 sales organic growth at +7.1% (+10.3% excluding BIOFIRE® respiratory panels), on par with expectations

-    BIOFIRE® non-respiratory panels grew by +24% in Q3 thanks to successful cross- selling by leveraging the large BIOFIRE® installed base and the broadest menu in the market

-    Remarkable resilience of the BIOFIRE® respiratory panels sales (-2% over the 9 months period, -5% in Q3) in a 2023 post COVID environment, demonstrating the value of the syndromic solution

-    Strong momentum in clinical microbiology (+11% in Q3) thanks to the continued uptake of the VITEK® MS PRIME and the relevance of the product portfolio to support the fight against Antimicrobial Resistance

-    Promising launch of BIOFIRE® SPOTFIRE® with close to 400 installed instruments at the end of September 2023 and high customers interest. On-going geographical expansion out of the US with the start in Japan, and broadening of the menu through the FDA filing of the BIOFIRE® SPOTFIRE® Respiratory Sore Throat panel in October

-    Confirmation of the 2023 guidance:

    ·    Organic sales growth between +4 and +6%

    ·    Contributive operating income before non-recurring items should be in a range of €600 million to €630 million

bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, today releases its business review for the nine months ended September 30, 2023.

Pierre Boulud, Chief Executive Officer, said: “bioMérieux delivered a solid performance during the third quarter of 2023. The BIOFIRE® non-respiratory panels kept on growing at a very strong pace while respiratory panels sales were resilient. In addition, the microbiology franchise performed very well, driven by both volumes and prices increases. We expect BIOFIRE® respiratory panels sales to be lower in Q4 2023 than in Q4 2022, inflated by the triple-demic, but we are confident to achieve our full year targets.”

SALES

NB: Unless otherwise stated, sales growth is expressed at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation (like-for-like).

Consolidated sales amounted to €2,668 million for the first nine months of 2023 versus €2,560 million for the prior-year period, representing a growth of +4.2% as reported. Organic growth (at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation) reached +8.0% for the first nine months of the year. Changes in exchange rates had a negative €92 million impact over 9 months, due to the appreciation of the euro against most of the other currencies and mainly the US dollar, the Chinese yuan and the Argentinian peso.

-    Clinical Applications sales (84% of total sales), increased by 7% year-on-year over the quarter compared to 2022:

    ·    In molecular biology, the non-respiratory BIOFIRE® panels sales grew at a very dynamic pace, up 24% versus prior year. Respiratory panels sales, as expected, decreased by 5% versus 2022 Q3 which was exceptionally high because of the COVID pandemic. The BIOFIRE® installed base has continued to expand to 24,800 units at September 30, 2023, versus 24,300 at June 30, 2023. The BIOFIRE® SPOTFIRE® installed base reached 375 instruments at the end of September 2023, illustrating the strong market interest for this solution.

    ·    In microbiology, the strong momentum has continued, with a double-digit growth in both reagents and instruments sales supported by prices and volumes increases. Reagents sales growth has been led by both the VITEK® automated ID/AST and blood culture BACT/ALERT® ranges. Instruments sales were mainly driven by the continued uptake of VITEK® MS Prime.

    ·    In immunoassays, sales recorded a slight positive performance, lifted by an overall growth in VIDAS reagents, the continued decrease of the sales of the procalcitonin determination tests (PCT) being compensated by a double-digit growth of other parameters sales.

-    Industrial Applications sales (16% of total sales), moved up by more than 6%, reaching nearly €138 million for third-quarter 2023. The sales growth has been fueled by a 9% growth in reagents sales thanks to both prices and volumes increases, partly offset by lower equipment demand.

-    Sales in the Americas (50% of the consolidated total) reached €440 million in third-quarter 2023, an increase of nearly 6% on third-quarter 2022.

    ·    In North America (43% of the consolidated total), activity has been buoyed by a strong performance of the BIOFIRE® non-respiratory panels, the microbiology applications, especially VITEK® automated ID/AST, as well as the promising start of SPOTFIRE®, partially compensated by the lower sales in BIOFIRE® respiratory panels (versus a high basis of comparison in Q3 2022) and procalcitonin determination assays (PCT).

    ·    Latin America recorded robust organic growth, thanks to a double-digit growth in reagents sales in all the clinical applications franchises as well as in industrial applications.

-    Sales in the Europe – Middle East – Africa region (32% of the consolidated total) came to €293 million for the 2023 third-quarter, up nearly 10% year-on-year driven by a double-digit growth in microbiology key ranges, BIOFIRE® panels (both respiratory and non-respiratory) and Industrial Applications.

-    Sales in the Asia Pacific region (18% of the consolidated total) amounted to €165 million for the third quarter of 2023, up more than 6% from the prior-year period. In Clinical Applications, remarkable performance of all the countries with the exception of Japan impacted by the stepdown, compare to previous year, of the COVID-related demand for the BIOFIRE® respiratory panels. In Industrial Applications, the performance has been very dynamic across the region, with the exception of China.

EVENTS OF THIRD-QUARTER 2023 AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS

-    bioMérieux submits Dual 510(k) & CLIA-waiver application to FDA for the BIOFIRE® SPOTFIRE® Respiratory/Sore Throat (R/ST) Panel

-    bioMérieux announces CE-marking of VIDAS® TBI (GFAP, UCH-L1), a test for improved assessment of patients with mild traumatic brain injury, including concussion

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-    bioMérieux makes strategic investment in Oxford Nanopore

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc (LSE: ONT) (“Oxford Nanopore”), the company delivering a new generation of nanopore-based molecular sensing technology, and bioMérieux SA, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics (“IVD”) announced on October 19th, 2023 that bioMérieux made an immediate £70M investment in Oxford Nanopore through the subscription of ordinary shares (which equates to 3.5% of Oxford Nanopore’s voting rights as at 13 October 2023). In addition, on October 19th, 2023, bioMérieux completed the acquisition of a further 3.4% of Oxford Nanopore’s shares on the secondary market.

Through this investment and the partnership announced in April 2023, the two companies intend to leverage Oxford Nanopore’s ground-breaking nanopore-based IVD solution and bioMérieux’s IVD expertise in R&D, Regulatory, Medical and Market Access. As part of the transaction, the two companies will establish an IVD Advisory Board to advance nanopore technology into routine clinical use.

Source: bioMérieux – Third-Quarter 2023 Business Review