iSpecimen Inc said its revenue jumped 28% year-over-year in the fourth quarter as it made quick improvements to supplier utilization rates to boost overall fulfillment efficiency.
For the period ended December 31, 2022, the Lexington, Massachusetts-based company reported revenue of $3.2 million, compared to $2.5 million in 4Q 2021.
iSpecimen offers an online marketplace for human biospecimens, connecting scientists with healthcare providers that have access to patients and specimens needed for medical discovery. The company reported it had 217 supplier organizations under agreement as of December 31, 2022.
On the other hand, the number of unique customer organizations who have purchased from iSpecimen totaled 513, up 24% from 415 at the end of December 2021. iSpecimen Marketplace had nearly 6,703 registered research and supplier users as of December last year, up 29% over the same period a year earlier.
The increase in revenue has much to do with iSpecimen CEO and CFO Tracy Curley, who stepped into the role of interim CEO at the start of the quarter. She worked with the company’s board to review and overhaul iSpecimen’s operations.
“Based on our initial findings, the team quickly implemented several improvements that we believe contributed to our record revenue of $3.2 million,” Curley said in a statement.
“Throughout the remainder of the quarter and into 2023, we continued with our strategic corporate review, in which we discovered a significant imbalance within our supplier network, specifically, high levels of utilization across a small subsection of suppliers,” she added.
Growing revenue opportunities
Curley noted that the company is gaining "a better understanding of its suppliers and their capabilities."
“Armed with this information, I am confident that during 2023 we will be able to materially increase our supplier utilization rates, which will allow us to increase fulfillment and ultimately result in increased revenue opportunities in 2023,” she added.
iSpecimen said that it plans to have "a record level of investment" in its technology.
“We are excited by the progress of several revenue enhancement projects, in areas that include sequencing, remnants and normal blood, as well as new initiatives with suppliers to facilitate improved coordination and utilization,” said Curley.
The firm reported $10.4 million in revenue for the full year 2022. Significantly, the cost of revenue was $4.8 million for the full year 2022, compared to $5.2 million for the full year 2021. The firm said the 31% decrease could be chalked up to the average cost per specimen working out to $173 for the year ended December 31, 2022, compared to $252 for the year ended December 31, 2021.
iSpecimen recently launched the new self-service Open Feasibilities Dashboard on iSpecimen Marketplace, allowing supplier partners to review potential future research projects and initiate their interest by submitting a proposal.
The company’s cloud-based technology enables scientists to intuitively search for specimens and patients across a federated partner network of hospitals, labs, biobanks, blood centers and other healthcare organizations.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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