Hologic's diagnostic sales rocket 375% as COVID-19 demand continues to rise

After seeing its overall revenues slip last quarter, Hologic’s COVID-19 testing sales have continued to skyrocket—powering the company’s most recent quarterly income to over $1.3 billion.

The performance of Hologic's coronavirus tests, including kits for its high-throughput Panther and Panther Fusion systems, offset declines seen in its other businesses as the pandemic once again began to surge to new levels. The company saw sales drops in its diagnostic offerings for blood, cytology and newborn testing, as well as among its gynecological surgery, mammography and osteoporosis screening divisions.

Even so, it managed to post year-over-year sales growth of 55.6% in the final quarter of its 2020 fiscal year. Hologic's molecular diagnostics division alone brought in $818.9 million for the period, marking a 375.8% gain and nearly eclipsing the $865.8 million in total revenues the company generated in the final quarter of fiscal 2019.

RELATED: Hologic nets $119M U.S. government contract to boost coronavirus test manufacturing into 2022

“We capped off an unprecedented fiscal year with remarkable financial results in our fourth quarter,” CEO Steve MacMillan said in a statement. “These results were driven by the tireless efforts of our Diagnostics, European and supply chain teams to provide COVID-19 tests, and by steady improvement in our other businesses compared to the June quarter.”

And the company isn't stopping there. The U.S. government earlier this week issued Hologic a $119 million contract to help the company increase its domestic test manufacturing capacity, saying that demand for COVID-19 diagnostics has outpaced the company’s ability to supply its Panther tests. The money will be used to expand production lines in Wisconsin, Maine and California, with the goal of providing 13 million tests per month by January 2022.

The contract followed an FDA move from late September to expand its emergency authorizations for the laboratory testing systems, allowing them to be used for pooled testing and the screening of people who have shown no symptoms of COVID-19.

RELATED: FDA authorizes Hologic's high-throughput COVID-19 test for wider screening of people showing no symptoms

The fourth-quarter performance marks a turnaround for Hologic after a 3.5% revenue drop to $822.9 million in Q3, a dip the company attributed in part to the 2019 sale of its Cynosure aesthetics business. At the time, Hologic's molecular diagnostics revenue was up 169.3% compared to the previous year, but the company saw large declines across the board elsewhere as patients postponed medical procedures and trips to the clinic.