On May 6, 2021 Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, reported financial results and business highlights for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 ended March 31, 2021 (Press release, Twist Bioscience, MAY 6, 2021, View Source [SID1234579408]).
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"The second quarter of our fiscal year delivered growth across all four areas of our business, with increasing revenue and very strong orders building momentum for the second half of the year," said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. "We signed new biopharma partnerships with multiple associated programs, and we continue to drive increasing density for our data storage vertical.
"For the second half of fiscal 2021 we expect continued growth of our NGS and synbio customer base as we build out the Factory of the Future in Oregon. We intend to advance all programs with our biopharma partners while simultaneously generating data to support out-licensing for our proprietary antibodies. In addition, for data storage, we will continue to pursue innovative engineering and collaborate across the DNA Data Storage Alliance to prepare the market for this novel storage medium."
FISCAL 2021 SECOND QUARTER FINANCIAL RESULTS
Orders: Total orders received for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 were $41.7 million, compared to $24.6 million for the same period of fiscal 2020.
Revenue: Total revenues were $31.2 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 compared to $19.3 million for the same period of fiscal 2020.
Cost of Revenues: Cost of revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 was $19.0 million compared to $13.6 million for the same period of fiscal 2020.
Research and Development Expenses: Research and development expenses for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 were $15.8 million compared to $10.6 million for the same period of fiscal 2020.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses: Selling, general and administrative expenses for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 were $34.4 million compared to $27.2 million for the same period of fiscal 2020.
Net Loss: Net loss for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 was $37.9 million, or $0.78 per share, compared to $31.8 million, or $0.85 per share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
Cash Position: As of March 31, 2021, the company had $555.7 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.
"We increased our margin to 39%, reflecting the impact of scaling our revenue, leveraging our fixed costs and the benefit of higher NGS product mix," commented Jim Thorburn, CFO of Twist. "Importantly, the solid results demonstrate excellent execution across all teams at Twist."
Fiscal Second Quarter 2021 and Recent Highlights
Shipped products to approximately 1,700 customers in the second quarter of fiscal 2021 versus approximately 1,400 in the same period of fiscal 2020.
Exercised our right of first refusal which gives a cost-effective option to double manufacturing capacity at the "Factory of the Future" just outside of Portland, Oregon
Launched the Twist NGS Methylation Detection System, a robust, end-to-end sample preparation and target enrichment solution for identifying methylated regions in the human genome. DNA methylation plays a key role in many biological processes including cancer.
Received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), together with Biotia, for the SARS-CoV-2 Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Assay.
Partnered with Watchmaker Genomics to enable innovative research across a wide range of high throughput sequencing applications including tumor profiling, inherited disease detection, liquid biopsy assays and minimal residual disease monitoring.
Added new synthetic RNA controls to develop, validate and verify tests for SARS-CoV-2. The new controls include the B.1.351 (first identified in South Africa) and P.1 (first identified in Brazil) variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Announced three new NGS customers in APAC: Berry Genomics, Victoria Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS) and AcornMed Biotechnology.
Announced three new Twist Biopharma collaborations with Kyowa Kirin, Stanford’s Innovate Medicines Accelerator and Pure Biologics, bringing the total number of partners to 21. Twist Biopharma is now advancing 25 active programs through its partners, 17 of which have milestones and royalties. Additionally, nine programs are now completed.
Published positive preclinical data demonstrating that GLP-1R antibodies identified from Twist Biopharma’s proprietary G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) libraries showed potent blood glucose control. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) is a class B GPCR that acts as the receptor for the incretin GLP-1, a peptide released to regulate insulin levels in response to food intake. The data were published online in mAbs.
Exercised our option to purchase all rights to a G-coupled protein receptor (GPCR) library and its proprietary Twist Antibody Optimization software, both developed in collaboration with Distributed Bio.
Named one of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2021.
Earned Great Place to Work certification.
Fiscal 2021 Financial Guidance
The following statements are based on Twist’s current expectations for fiscal 2021. The following statements are forward-looking, and actual results could differ materially depending on market conditions and the factors set forth under "Forward-Looking Statements" below. Twist does not plan to update, nor does it undertake any obligation to update, this outlook in the future.
For the full fiscal year 2021, Twist provided the following updated financial guidance:
Increasing revenue guidance in the range of $121 million to $129 million
Revenue from Ginkgo Bioworks expected to be in the range of $11 to $12 million
Synbio revenue excluding Ginkgo Bioworks is expected to be in the range of $43 to $46 million
NGS revenue is estimated to be in the range of $62 to $66 million
Biopharma revenue is estimated to be approximately $5 million
Gross margin is expected to be 36% to 38% for fiscal 2021
Operating expenses including R&D and SG&A are expected to be $192 million for the year
Net loss expected in the range of $144 million to $150 million to reflect our increased investments in our commercial organization and research and development activities
R&D is expected to be approximately $66 million
Stock-based compensation is expected to be approximately $33 million
Depreciation is expected to be $10 million
Capital expenditures are expected to be $40 million, including expansion into "Factory of the Future"
Conference Call Information
The company plans to hold a conference call and live audio webcast for analysts and investors today at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss its financial results and provide an update on the company’s business. The call can be accessed by dialing (866) 688-0947 (domestic) or (409) 217-8781 (international) and refer to the conference ID 4647559. A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available beginning approximately four hours after the call through May 20, 2021 and may be accessed by dialing (855) 859-2056 (domestic) or (404) 537-3406 (international). The replay conference ID is 4647559. The webcast replay will be available for two weeks.
Given the circumstances globally, it is recommended to dial-in at most 15 to 20 minutes prior to the call start to reduce waiting times. If a participant will be listen-only, they are encouraged to listen via the webcast on Twist’s investor page.