Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (VIVO) stock prices plummeted by 22.53% some time after market trading commenced on July 13th, 2012, bringing the price per share down to USD$17.43 early on in the trading day.
Suffering Financials
July 13th, 2021 saw the provider of diagnostic testing solutions and life science raw materials announce preliminary revenue results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2021. Preliminary unaudited revenue for the quarter is expected to be less than previously expected, coming in at roughly USD$63.5 million. This is largely driven by supply chain issues with the company’s LeadCare reagents that resulted in increased backorders, negatively impacting the performance of the Diagnostics segment.
EUA Resubmission
The company announced on June 28th, 2021 that it had resubmitted its application to the U.S Food and Drug Administration for the Emergency Use Authorization of its proprietary Covid-19 molecular diagnostic test on the Revogene platform. February 22nd 2021 had seen the company voluntarily withdraw its initial EUA application, allowing VIVO to conduct additional studies based on feedback from the FDA. The completion of the additional studies resulted in the resubmission of the EUA application on June 25th 2021.
RT-LAMP
Specifically designed to accelerate the development of ambient temperature stable reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assays, the company announced the launch of the Lyo-Ready RT-LAMP Mix on June 16th 2021. The technology is designed for rapid, robust, and sensitive detection of RNA viruses.
Scope of RT-LAMP
RT-LAMP technology is ideal for point-of-care or portable testing, seeing as assays are performed at a single temperature, which reduces the cost and complexity of the device without the need for a thermocycler. The technology has been successfully used in the diagnosing of various infectious disease caused by RNA viruses, including, but not limited to, influenza, hepatitis C, West Nile fever, Dengue virus, and Ebola virus. The accuracy and accessibility of the simple equipment requirement makes it the perfect technology for use as a practical solution for point-of-care detection of viruses. This is particularly helpful in non-standard institutions, such as airports, rural hospitals, or from home.
Future Outlook for VIVO
Despite being armed with the development of RT-LAMP and the pending approval of its EUA, VIVO reported a significant dip in equity value following financial reports that did not meet previous expectations. Current and potential investors are hopeful that management will continue to leverage the resources at their disposal to facilitate significant and sustained increases in shareholder value.
