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Bolt Biotherapeutics Prices Upsized Initial Public Offering

On February 4, 2021 Bolt Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BOLT), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, reported the pricing of its upsized initial public offering of 11,500,000 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $20.00 per share (Press release, Bolt Biotherapeutics, FEB 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234574677]). In addition, Bolt has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,725,000 shares of common stock solely to cover over-allotments, if any, at the initial public offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions. The shares are expected to begin trading on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "BOLT" on February 5, 2021.

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Morgan Stanley, SVB Leerink, Stifel and Guggenheim Securities are acting as joint bookrunners for the offering.

The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the final prospectus, when available, may be obtained from Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014, or by email at [email protected]; or SVB Leerink LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, or by telephone at (800) 808-7525, ext. 6105 or by email at [email protected].

Registration statements relating to these securities have been filed with, and declared effective by, the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Veracyte Announces Pricing of Upsized Public Offering of 7,432,433 Shares of Common Stock

On February 4, 2021 Veracyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCYT) (the "Company") reported the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 7,432,433 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $74.00 per share (Press release, Veracyte, FEB 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234574670]). The gross proceeds to the Company from this offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by Veracyte, are expected to be approximately $550 million. The public offering was upsized from the previously announced size of $400 million in shares of common stock. All of the shares are being offered by the Company. The offering is expected to close on or about February 9, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. In addition, the Company granted to the underwriters participating in the offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,114,864 shares of its common stock at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions.

Veracyte intends to use the net proceeds from the offering, together with its existing cash and cash equivalents, to finance its acquisition of Decipher Biosciences, Inc. Veracyte intends to use the remaining net proceeds of this offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions or investments in complementary businesses, technologies or other assets, although it has no present commitments or agreements to do so (other than with respect to Decipher Biosciences, Inc.).

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and SVB Leerink LLC are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the offering, William Blair & Company, L.L.C. is acting as a book-running manager and BTIG, LLC, Needham & Company, LLC, and Lake Street Capital Markets, LLC are acting as co-managers.

The shares will be issued pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 3, 2021. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering have been filed with the SEC and are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. A final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus will be filed with the SEC. A copy of the final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering, when available, may be obtained by contacting Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, by email at [email protected], or by telephone at (866) 471-2526; or SVB Leerink LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 01220, by email at [email protected], or by telephone at (800) 808-7525, ext. 6105.

This press release does not and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction. Any offer, if at all, will be made only by means of a prospectus, including a prospectus supplement, forming a part of the effective registration statement.

Veracyte, Afirma, Percepta, Envisia, Prosigna, LymphMark, and Know by Design, and the Veracyte, Afirma, Percepta, Envisia and Prosigna logos are trademarks of Veracyte, Inc.

Quest Diagnostics Reports Fourth Quarter And Full Year 2020 Financial Results; Establishes Outlook For First Half Of 2021

On February 4, 2021 Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services, reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2020 (Press release, Quest Diagnostics, FEB 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234574669]).

"In a year dominated by the pandemic, Quest brought critical COVID-19 testing to our country, and delivered record revenues, earnings and cash from operations for the fourth quarter and full year 2020," said Steve Rusckowski, Chairman, CEO and President. "Declines in our base business recovered rapidly throughout the summer and fall; however the recovery stalled at the end of November and into December due to the surge in COVID-19 infections across the country. Continued high demand for COVID-19 testing drove our performance through the second half of the year.

"In light of the company’s strong financial position, we have increased our dividend and our share repurchase authorization while maintaining flexibility to pursue our M&A strategy," Mr. Rusckowski continued. "Given the ongoing uncertainty regarding the trajectory of the virus and its impact on COVID-19 testing trends as well as further recovery of our base business, we are providing an outlook for the first six months of 2021. We expect to provide additional updates as the year progresses."

Mr. Rusckowski continued: "The pandemic has tested our nearly 50,000 employees and they have responded as heroes, by developing COVID-19 tests, building test capacity, innovating new testing models with our retail partners, transporting specimens, delivering results and of course, supporting our customers. I’m proud of what we have achieved and optimistic about what we can accomplish in 2021."

For further details impacting the year-over-year comparisons related to operating income, operating income as a percentage of net revenues, income from continuing operations attributable to Quest Diagnostics, and diluted EPS, see note 2 of the financial tables attached below.

The sum of reported and adjusted diluted EPS for the four quarters of 2020 did not equal the total for the year ended December 31, 2020 due to quarterly fluctuations in the company’s earnings and weighted average common shares outstanding throughout the year as a result of the impact of COVID-19 and the temporary suspension of repurchases under the company’s share repurchase program.

Note on Non-GAAP Financial Measures

As used in this press release the term "reported" refers to measures under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP"). The term "adjusted" refers to non-GAAP operating performance measures that exclude special items such as restructuring and integration charges, certain financial impacts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, amortization expense, excess tax benefits ("ETB") associated with stock-based compensation, a gain on remeasurement of an equity interest, costs associated with donations, contributions and other financial support through Quest for Health Equity, the company’s recently announced initiative with the Quest Diagnostics Foundation to reduce health disparities in underserved communities, the gain on the sale and leaseback of a property, and other items.

Non-GAAP adjusted measures are presented because management believes those measures are useful adjuncts to GAAP results. Non-GAAP adjusted measures should not be considered as an alternative to the corresponding measures determined under GAAP. Management may use these non-GAAP measures to evaluate our performance period over period and relative to competitors, to analyze the underlying trends in our business, to establish operational budgets and forecasts and for incentive compensation purposes. We believe that these non-GAAP measures are useful to investors and analysts to evaluate our performance period over period and relative to competitors, as well as to analyze the underlying trends in our business and to assess our performance. The additional tables attached below include reconciliations of non-GAAP adjusted measures to GAAP measures.

Conference Call Information

Quest Diagnostics will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss financial results beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time today. The conference call can be accessed by dialing 888-455-0391 within the U.S. and Canada, or 773-756-0467 internationally, passcode: 7895081; or via live webcast on the company’s website at www.QuestDiagnostics.com/investor. The company suggests participants dial in approximately 10 minutes before the call.

A replay of the call may be accessed online at www.QuestDiagnostics.com/investor or by phone at 866-461-2735 for domestic callers or 203-369-1352 for international callers. No passcode is required. Telephone replays will be available from approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on February 4, 2021 until midnight Eastern Time on February 18, 2021. Anyone listening to the call is encouraged to read the company’s periodic reports, on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the discussion of risk factors and historical results of operations and financial condition in those reports.

Emergent BioSolutions to Release Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Financial Results and Conduct a Conference Call on February 18, 2021

On February 4, 2021 Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS) reported that it will host a conference call on Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 5:00 pm eastern time to discuss the financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2020, recent business developments, financial outlook for full year 2021, and revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2021 (Press release, Emergent BioSolutions, FEB 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234574668]).

This conference call can be accessed live by telephone or by webcast:

Webcast Information:
Visit View Source for the live webcast.
A replay of the call can be accessed from the Emergent website.

PierianDx partners with the Belgian Society of Medical Oncology (BSMO) to evaluate potential of comprehensive genomic profiling in late-stage cancer real-world setting across Belgium

On February 4, 2021 PierianDx, the global leader in clinical genomics knowledge, reported a partnership with the Belgian Society of Medical Oncology (BSMO) to study the impact of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) on clinical outcomes of late-stage cancer patients (Press release, PierianDx, FEB 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234574667]). As part of the study, nine sites across Belgium will use the PierianDx interpretation and reporting solution, Clinical Genomics Workspace (CGW), to help determine the best therapeutic options for treatment.

Current approaches to precision medicine testing often mean that tests are outsourced to large international organizations or that they are run by independent regional labs, neither of which result in standardized clinical care systems or improved collective knowledge. In response to these challenges, the BSMO has established the BALLETT (Belgian Approach for Local Laboratory Extensive Tumor Testing) study to evaluate the impact of CGP.

CGP uses next-generation sequencing (NGS) to analyze hundreds of genes and biomarkers in tissue samples from biopsies or blood and detect those that are clinically relevant in driving cancer growth. Illumina will provide its CGP panel for tissue samples, TruSight Oncology 500 (TSO500), and NovaSeq 6000 and NextSeq sequencing platforms for the study. Clinical interpretation of the sequencing data will be carried out using the PierianDx Clinical Genomics Workspace (CGW) solution.

CGW provides a streamlined, standardized analysis platform in which EU drug approvals and guidelines are matched to complex genetic variants detected in patient tumor DNA and RNA, all within a GDPR-compliant environment. Using the platform, the nine participating Belgian laboratories can collaboratively review variant pathogenicity and clinical impact for their local samples while also benefiting from the knowledge of other clinical laboratory CGW users from around the world. At the same time, the nine Belgian laboratories will provide this standardized testing and analysis close to the patient’s home, where they receive cancer care, accelerating treatment initiation. As this study will also monitor the patient outcomes during and following treatment, a true indication of those longer-term clinical benefits will be derived.

Dr. Brigitte Maes of the Jessa Hospital in Belgium, Coordinator of BALLETT study said, "As part of Belgium’s broad approach to advancing precision medicine the study will generate valuable insights into the value of CGP versus currently reimbursed sequencing approaches. For example, in addition to genetic mutations that drive cancer formation, CGP will also identify cancers driven by the TMB biomarker which can guide patients towards immunotherapy treatments. This means that the study will give access to additional treatments which may not have been considered through more traditional diagnostic testing."

"Dr. Rakesh Nagarajan, Founder of PierianDx states, "We are ecstatic to be part of this groundbreaking study. The CGW platform is in use by over 25 countries to share knowledge and facilitate better treatments and patient outcomes, and now the clinicians involved in this study will benefit from this collective knowledge while incorporating European-specific data sources, which are curated and maintained by PierianDx." He adds, "Not only will this study measure the impacts of CGP but it will provide a justification, framework, and a blueprint for other clinical laboratories around the world that wish to implement similar initiatives."