The highlight of the second quarter was the FDA clearance of the T2Bacteria Panel announced on May 29th, setting the stage for what we believe to be the most important product launch to date at T2 Biosystems. While we have been working toward this goal for years, in many ways achieving this clearance is like a new start here at the Company, and everyone is energized to support the launch. T2Bacteria is the first and onlyFDA-cleared test to identify sepsis-causing bacteria directly from whole blood. Combined with the T2Candida Panel, our T2Direct Diagnostics offering is now uniquely positioned as what we believe will become a “must-have” technology to significantly enhance existing sepsis protocols to deliver better patient outcomes and reduce healthcare spending on this often-preventable condition.
Our vision, and that of many users is that our products will eventually allow for a new protocol and revised standards for addressing patients at risk of sepsis, and while other technologies will play some role in the fight against infections, no technology available today, can come close to the speed and accuracy of our platform for detecting the most critical information that can enable targeted and effective therapy. In short, we believe the time will come in thenot-so-distant future when it will be simply irresponsible to rely solely on blood culture-based protocols and probability based,trial-and-error medicine for one of the most deadly conditions in the hospital.
We were also pleased in June to raise 52.6 million dollars in gross proceeds from an equity offering, providing additional capital to support the launch and execute on our other strategic initiatives.
With that said, I am pleased to report that the T2Bacteria launch is progressing as planned and the early feedback has been highly encouraging. I will provide some more color on the launch in a moment, but first I will provide a high-level summary of key financial results and commercial metrics from the quarter. After my remarks, I will pass the call to our CFO, John Sprague, who will provide a detailed financial review, including a recap of our full year guidance.
Inthe second quarter, we reported total revenues of 3.9 million dollars and product revenue of over 1.2 million dollars. Both revenue levels met or exceeded our guidance, and more importantly, reflect solid trends in commercial activity – predominantly based on activity before the T2Bacteria clearance and launch.
Overall, product revenue grew 71 percent from the second quarter of 2017, driven by growing sales of the T2Candida Panel and the T2Dx Instrument. This included increased T2Candida usage on a “same store” basis over last quarter – a positive sign that utilization is growing over time.
We also delivered encouraging results across the key commercial metrics that we measure to evaluate the health and outlook for our business. During the second quarter, we continued to build momentum with new instrument contracts, securing 10 contracts for the placement of 9 T2Dx instruments, ahead of our guidance for 6 new contracts and 8 new instrument placements during the quarter. This will provide an estimated over 45,000 high-risk patients with access to a T2Dx, ahead of our target of growing by 35,000 patients in the quarter.
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