Stratagene Expects Fourth Quarter Revenue of Approximately $24.7 Million
Stratagene Corporation (Nasdaq:STGN), a developer, manufacturer and marketer of specialized life science research and diagnostic products, today announced preliminary revenue results for the fourth quarter of 2006 ended December 31, 2006. Revenue is expected to be approximately $24.7 million, an increase of 7.2% compared with pro forma revenue of $23.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2005. Full year revenue is expected to be approximately $95.6 million.
“The growing demand for our QPCR products and allergy diagnostic products has begun to offset the expected declines in our legacy business, and as a result we were able to achieve quarterly revenue growth on a year-over-year basis,” said Joseph Sorge, MD, Chairman and CEO of Stratagene. “We continue to believe the expanding market for our molecular and clinical diagnostics businesses provide sizeable, long-term profitable revenue growth opportunities for Stratagene.”
Sales of QPCR instruments and reagents grew 7.5% compared with the fourth quarter of 2005 and sales of allergy diagnostic products grew 23% over the same period. These increases were offset by the continued and expected decline in sales of legacy products associated with gene discovery and cloning systems.
Proforma revenue in the fourth quarter of 2005 excludes the benefit of a $34.1 million cash payment from Cambridge Antibody Technology in satisfaction of certain patent owners' interests in a collaboration for the development of Abbott Laboratories' Humira product. Including this one-time revenue item, fourth quarter 2005 revenue was $57.1 million.
The Company expects to release final fourth quarter and full year results in early March 2007. An investor conference call will take place at that time and the Company will provide full details of its fourth quarter and full year 2006 financial results as well as guidance for the full year 2007.
About Stratagene Corporation
Stratagene is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of specialized life science research and diagnostic products. The Company's life science research unit supports advances in science by inventing, manufacturing and distributing products that simplify, accelerate and improve research. These products are used throughout the academic, industrial and government research sectors in fields spanning molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, drug discovery and toxicology. The Company's diagnostic unit develops and manufactures products for urinalysis as well as high quality automated instrument and reagent systems that use blood samples to test for more than 1,000 different allergies and autoimmune disorders. In addition, by combining its expertise in diagnostics and molecular biology, as well as its experience with FDA regulatory procedures, the Company is pursuing opportunities to expand its product portfolio to include molecular diagnostic kits and instrumentation. More information is available at www.stratagene.com.