SAN DIEGO - Biosite Incorporated (Nasdaq:BSTE), a leading provider of novel, rapid medical diagnostics, today reported that it expects product sales for the first quarter of 2004 to range from $56 million to $57 million, which would be higher than the Company's previously provided estimate of $48 million to $51 million. The Company expects diluted earnings per share for the first quarter to range from $.48 to $.56, compared with its previous estimated range of $.33 to $.41. Biosite originally provided guidance for the first quarter of 2004 in January of this year.
The newly forecasted range for product sales represents a 43 to 46 percent increase over product sales in the first quarter of 2003. The revised range of estimates for diluted earnings per share reflects year-over-year growth of 30 to 51 percent.
"We largely attribute growth in the quarter to strong domestic sales of the Triage® BNP Test combined with cost savings and delayed expenses," said Kim Blickenstaff, Biosite president and chief executive officer. "We believe growth of our existing customer base and higher test utilization, driven in part by the cold and flu season as well as by increasing awareness of the diagnostic utilities of BNP, spurred first quarter sales.
"We remain optimistic regarding our ability to be effective during the balance of 2004, but we continue to expect aggressive competitive activity in the coming quarters. We also assume that favorable seasonal trends experienced during the past two quarters will moderate for the next few months.
"Nevertheless, we believe our initiatives to increase utilization of the Triage BNP Test in the hospital market, to expand testing into physician office practices and to build international sales can contribute to sustained growth."
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