Shares in Tucson-based Accelerate Diagnostics Inc. soared this week after the company announced FDA approval of a system and kit for testing blood for bacterial infection.
Accelerateβs shares closed Wednesday at $26.05, up 55 cents or 2 percent, and near its 52-week high of $26.60. The shares have gained more than 25 percent since the start of the year.
Accelerate announced Friday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the marketing of the companyβs Pheno system and PhenoTest BC kit for identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing of pathogens directly from positive blood culture samples.
The blood culture kit is aimed at specific pathogenic bacteria commonly associated with bacteremia, the leading cause of potentially lethal systemic infections.
With the Accelerate PhenoTest BC kit, labs can reduce the turnaround time by testing directly from positive blood culture samples, producing results in as little as eight hours compared with 40 hours or more for conventional methods, the company says.
Meanwhile, the company posted a larger loss in 2016 as it ramped up its research efforts and sales force to begin marketing the Pheno system.
Accelerate posted a net loss of $66.4 million in its fiscal year ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $45.7 million in the prior year, according to an annual report filed Monday.
The company had $246,000 in revenues in 2016, up from $147,000 in 2015. Accelerate reported about $19 million in cash and equivalents at the end of 2016, down from more than $120 million in 2015.
The company boosted research and development expenses and more than doubled sales, general and administrative expenses to $36 million last year, as it prepared for its product rollout.
Accelerate reported total assets of about $83 million and liabilities of just over $5 million.
Accelerate employs about 120 workers and leases more than 45,000 square feet in Pima County's Abrams Public Health Center.
