SQI Diagnostics Reports First Quarter 2016 Results

Revenue momentum continues in 2016

TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - SQI Diagnostics Inc. (“SQI” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: SQD; OTCQX: SQIDF), today reported its financial and operational results for the three months ended December 31, 2015.

SQI is a Toronto-based life sciences and diagnostics company that develops and commercializes proprietary technologies and products for advanced multiplexed diagnostics.

“SQI continues to build on our commercial relationships,” said Andrew Morris, SQI’s President and CEO. “We believe we have successfully laid the ground work that will lead to growing both platform and consumable sales in fiscal 2016.”

SQI’s proprietary technology is used to create custom tests for clients in the drug development market that can now deliver as many as 30 unique results -- with the potential for more -- from a single SQI test. In doing this, it removes the work needed to develop, run, and purchase materials for 30 separate single tests. Our customers benefit from a significantly reduced cost per result with superior quality data.

Financial and Business Highlights for the Quarter

• We entered into a three year, multiproduct agreement with an existing Global Pharma customer. This agreement is an important step in selling more services and consumables for additional clinical programs with this customer and sends a positive signal for adoption of our products by other Global Pharma companies.

• We continue to convert early-stage customer relationships into ongoing development revenues. Overall revenues were $197,000 for the first quarter of FY16 as compared to $15,000 for the first quarter of FY15.

• In our drug development sector we advanced existing projects to the automation stage with two global pharmaceutical customers. This will enable tests we previously developed for them to be run on our automated sqidlite platforms. This step is the transition to recurring sales of consumables and additional testing platforms to ‘market-ready’ customers.

• We are also advancing development work with our DNA customer to automate and scale-up the manufacturing for their infectious disease test panels. The first test for this customer is a 60-plex DNA-based test to detect infections in human blood. Project timelines have been established to enable delivery of this platform to our customer for evaluation in the second quarter of fiscal 2016.

• In our Animal Health sector we are finalizing the contract for development of a proof of concept 10-plex allergen panel with a global veterinary products company. We expect to begin this project in the second quarter of fiscal 2016. Our previous work to convert three existing veterinary infectious disease tests to the SQI platform is still under evaluation with the customer.

• We began developing xPlex, a new product offering for customers in our drug development sector. It includes kits and software that will allow our pharmaceutical customers to develop multiplexed tests using their in-development drugs and our kits to automate these tests on our platforms. The xPlex development tool is expected to be delivered to facilitate a 60 day platform evaluation at one of our global pharmaceutical customers. We expect to offer xPlex to all customers and target customers in our drug development market.

Q1 2016 Financial Results Overview

Revenue for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 was $197,000 versus $15,000 for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. Revenue growth represents recurring development services revenue from many customers across multiple applications of our technology.

The net loss for the first quarter of FY16 was $1,358,000 ($0.02 loss per share) as compared to $1,365,000, ($0.02 loss per share) for the first quarter of FY15. The net loss for the three months ended December 31, 2015 is consistent with the loss for the three months ended December 31, 2014. The increase in interest and accretion costs was offset by increases in revenues over the relevant period.

R&D expenditures, excluding amortization and stock-based compensation, for the three months ended December 31, 2015 were $713,000 compared to $684,000 for the same period in 2014. The costs are higher for the current quarter compared to the same period in 2014 due to additional resources added to the scientific team and general salary increases.

Corporate and general expenses, excluding stock-based compensation, totaled $395,000 for the first quarter of FY15 compared to $359,000 for the same period in FY14. The increase in corporate and general expenses quarter over quarter is attributable to staffing changes and primarily relate to salary for the Chief Financial Officer hired in the second quarter, 2015.

Sales and marketing expenses, excluding stock based compensation, totaled $153,000 for the three months ended December 31, 2015 compared to $160,000 for the three months ended December 31, 2014. Sales and marketing expenses were lower quarter over quarter due to staffing changes as the Company lost one sales contractor and is currently in the process of filling that position. The decrease in contractor fees is offset by increased costs as a result of the lower Canadian dollar.

Current assets at December 31, 2015 were $4,331,000, compared to $2,555,000 on September 30, 2015. Working capital at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2016 was $3,555,000 compared to $1,787,000 on September 30, 2015.

Conference Call Details

President and CEO, Andrew Morris, along with Company management, will host a conference call to review financial results and discuss business developments for the period. Details are as below:

An archived copy of the conference call will be available for 90 days on the Company website at www.sqidiagnostics.com/about/investors and also at http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1129792&s=1&k=37B10476142EDABE4EAAAB19B5FD8A9D .

Detailed financial statements and the management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) will also be made available on the Company website at www.sqidiagnostics.com and at www.sedar.com.

About SQI Diagnostics
SQI Diagnostics is a life sciences and diagnostics company that develops clinical grade multiplexed microarray and molecular assays run on its automated instrumentation for the pharmaceutical research, animal health, and clinical diagnostics markets. SQI develops custom research and diagnostic assays that are multiplexed; meaning the simplification, consolidation and automation of many individual tests into one. This increases sample throughput, reduces time, cost and chance for human error, and provides excellent data quality. For more information, please visit sqidiagnostics.com.

Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains certain statements including, without limitation, the words “may”, “plan”, “will”, “estimate”, “continue”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “expect”, “believe”, “in the process”, “benefits”, “leading to”, “position” “possible”, “is subject to” and other similar expressions which may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to:our ability to market and sell our products including our novel multiplexing technologies and detection platforms; our ability to maintain any technical or product advantages; the success of our Diagnostic Tools and Services business and our intent to build near-term revenue streams from this business; the successful regulatory filing and receipt of regulatory approvals for our later stage quantitative diagnostic consumable kits; adverse changes in general economic conditions; international risk and currency exchange fluctuations; competitor activity; technology changes; regulatory approvals and the impact of healthcare reform legislation; and, SQI’s ability to raise additional funds in the future.

Such statements, risks and uncertainties are detailed in the Company’s ongoing filings with the securities regulatory authorities, and are available to the public at www.sedar.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE SQI Diagnostics Inc.