Q2 2008 GENOPTIX INC Earnings Conference Call - Final.

Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

OPERATOR: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the second-quarter 2008 Genoptix Incorporated earnings conference call. My name is Stacy, and I will be your moderator for today.

At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question-and-answer session towards the end of the conference. (Operator Instructions)

I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today.

MARCY GRAHAM, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF IR, GENOPTIX: Thank you and welcome to the Genoptix quarterly conference call to discuss operating results for the second quarter of 2008. Joining me on today's call is Dr. Tina Nova Bennett, Genoptix President and CEO; Doug Schuling, SVP and CFO; and Sam Riccitelli, EVP and COO.

This call is also big broadcast live over the Web and will be available for replay through Monday, August 7, 2008 on the Investor Relations section of our Web site at www.Genoptix.com.

Before we begin, please note that statements made today, including statements about guidance, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance, are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement.

Any non-GAAP financial measures presented during today's call should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, the information prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. For reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures discussed today, please access the overview page of the Investor Relations section of our Web site.

For information about the risks and uncertainties that Genoptix faces, please refer to the risk factors section of the Genoptix Form 10-Q for the three and six months ended June 30, 2008 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier today, July 31, 2008, as well as other subsequent filings with the SEC. Genoptix assumes no obligation and expressly disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after today's call or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Dr. Tina Nova Bennett, President and CEO of Genoptix. Tina?

DR. TINA NOVA BENNETT, PRESIDENT, CEO, GENOPTIX: Thank you, Marcy. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss the financial and operational results for the second quarter and our expected performance for the balance of 2008.

We are pleased to report revenues of $27.8 million for the second quarter and $50.1 million in revenues for the first half of 2008, a 104% increase over the same period one year ago. For 16 consecutive quarters, we have grown in both revenues and case volumes, managing more than 9,300 cases in the second quarter, an increase of 77% from the second quarter of 2007, bringing the total number of cases processed to more than 17,000 in the first half of 2008.

We ended the second quarter of 2008 with more than 850 ordering physician customers per month, up approximately 800 reported at the end of the first quarter. We have also observed, during the past quarter, that doctors are slightly increasing the percentage of cases that they are sending to us as compared to our historical experience with physician ordering patterns.

As part of our strategy to provide a complete array of services and to deepen our relationships with our new hematologist/oncologist customers, we've recently introduced a targeted campaign focusing on case reviews related to specific disease states. This new communications platform enables us to go beyond providing personalized laboratory services, acting as an educational medium to bring academic-level resources to the community physician.

Our case review of myeloid proliferative disorders, launched in the second quarter of this year, with the first of our bimonthly outreach programs diagnosing and sub0classifying this disease state, is a complex process, so we developed a case study discussing the diagnostic algorithms and mutation analysis applied to solving these challenges, providing a Web-accessible slide show narrated for our physician customers.

Our most recent case review focuses on testing used in the detection and diagnosis of T-cell malignancies, a challenging category of diseases due to their ability to mimic other, less-serious, hematologic conditions. Because the most widely used diagnostic tools, like immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry are limited in their ability to characterize T-cell lymphomas, there's a strong need for specific molecular tests to aid physicians in the precise diagnosis and management of these T-cell malignancies. To this end, Genoptix is among the first commercial labs to offer the beta chain version of the T-cell gene rearrangement test, which offers a substantial improvement in sensitivity and specificity over conventional or first-generation molecular tests. Beta chain testing is also useful in monitoring patient therapy in addition to aiding in the diagnosis of these lymphomas.

We are also working to maintain the high quality diagnostic services to which our customer physicians have become accustomed, primarily by continuing to increase capacity each quarter by hiring additional staff members. We ended the second quarter with 19 hematopathologists on the Cartesian medical team and expanded our sales force to 44 members, up from 42 at the end of the first quarter 2008.

For further details on our latest initiatives and financial performance for the second quarter, I will now …