T2 Biosystems 1Q 2020
May 5, 2020
As we announced, the T2 Biosystems team generated total revenue of $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 43% compared to the prior year period. We continue to supply our T2Dx® Instruments and our T2Bacteria®, T2Candida® and T2Resistance™Panels to hospitals around the globe to aid clinicians in the rapid detection of sepsis-causing pathogens. We are fully-committed to our 2020 priorities, which now include the development of aCOVID-19 molecular diagnostic test branded as theT2SARS-CoV-2TM Panel. We have taken important steps to strengthen our balance sheet during the first quarter, which we believe provides more than one year of cash, and to significantly reduce our operating expenses going forward. Given the disruption and uncertainty related to the ongoing pandemic, on March 24th, we suspended financial and operational guidance for 2020.
As hospitals have undergone extreme changes to focus their resources on the identification, treatment, and management of patients withCOVID-19, they currently have limited bandwidth to advance evaluations of new technologies. Our hospital-based customers include critical care and infectious disease doctors and pharmacists, and laboratory directors, who are on the frontline caring for patients. Hospitals have also restricted access fornon-essential personnel, including our sales and medical affairs teams, and limited access for our service team. While these conditions have created commercial headwinds, we are using technology to remain engaged with customers as much as possible.
At the same time, the value of our platform has proven to be essential for our customers. We are pleased to note that most of our customers are continuing to place orders, and in some cases larger or more frequent orders, given the patient population in their intensive care units. Data has demonstrated thatCOVID-19 patients are susceptible toco-infections and secondary infections that can cause sepsis. Our customers understand this connection and have been using our tests to help manage patients more effectively. We are seeing increased rates of testing at accounts in geographies that are being heavily impacted byCOVID-19 cases, like New York City, Italy, Spain and Greece.
The severity and costs of sepsis are staggering. A recent study found that sepsis contributes to one in five hospital deaths globally, and that approximately 11 million people worldwide die from sepsis each year — that’s more deaths than all forms of cancer combined. In the United States, sepsis represents nearly $41 billion in healthcare costs and is the most common cause ofin-hospital deaths, killing nearly 270,000 people in the U.S. each year. For those who are new to T2 Biosystems, our technology includes the onlyFDA-cleared products to identify sepsis-causing pathogens directly from whole blood, in3-5 hours, without the need to wait days for a positive
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