maybe your stock will skyrocket with Life Tech buys you.

i think we have different meanings for the word skyrocket...

Spend the rest of the publics dough on circus parties, while marketing and executives spec out a technically-impossible-to-build benchtop $100k machine to compete with PGM and MiSeq. No mind that taking a few static JPGs is computationally a *wee bit* different than real time spectral pixel calling at sub-micron resolution from a VIDEO.

It's a shame, because readlength and accuracy really do continue to skyrocket...

So, what is the follow on strategy to the RS? Something smaller, cheaper?

$6 a share....I called it!

Why did you post this? Moron.

Launch of PacBio RS Platform Drives Pacific Biosciences' Q2 Revenues to $10.6M
August 05, 2011

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Pacific Biosciences posted revenues of $10.6 million in the second quarter, including its first product revenues from the sale of its PacBio RS third-generation sequencing platform, the company reported after the close of the market on Thursday.

Revenues for the three months ended June 30 compared to $629,000 from a year ago, and include $10.1 million in product revenues, reflecting the commercial delivery of 16 PacBio RS systems, as well as initial commercial shipments of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm's SMRT cell and reagent consumables, PacBio said.

Susan Barnes, PacBio's CFO, said on a conference call after the earnings release that of the 16 systems, 11 were beta systems that were fully upgraded to commercial specifications. Ben Gong, the company vice president of finance, added that PacBio ended the second quarter with a backlog of 35 systems, translating to revenues of $22 million, which it plans to realize by the end of the year.

On the consumables front, PacBio will make available its consumables upgrade, code-named C2, in the fourth quarter, CEO Hugh Martin said, adding that the company has had "multiple demonstrations of the utility of the new C2 consumables as a big application driver."

The firm's service and other revenue totaled $192,000, compared to none a year ago, and grant revenues were $290,000, down 54 percent from $629,000 a year ago.

The $10.6 million in revenues easily beat analyst forecasts for $4.1 million.

The company also beat Wall Street loss-per-share estimates of $.62. Net loss for the quarter was $22.5 million, or $.42 per share, a 31 percent improvement from a loss of $32.7 million, or $51.20 per share a year ago. The firm was privately held during the second quarter of 2010.

PacBio went public in October, and in the year-ago period used 639,007 shares in computing its loss per share, compared to more than 53 million shares used in the Q2 2011 period.

The firm's R&D costs slid 28 percent year over year to $19.5 million from $27.1 million, though SG&A costs rose 77 percent to about $11 million from $6.2 million a year ago.

Barnes said that the SG&A spike was due to increasing compensation and other costs associated with "the required build-up in the areas of service, sales, and shared services to support commercialization" of the PacBio RS system, as well as the costs of operating as a public company.

PacBio ended the quarter with $216.6 million in cash and investments.

On the call, Gong reiterated full-year 2011 revenue guidance of $35 million. Net loss for the year is expected to be around $121 million, translating to a net loss per share of $2.25. The company had earlier given guidance of a net loss per share of $2.50.

Does anybody know why the share price drops so quick and large for PacBio? sequencing data not good?

PacBio was downgraded by JPMorgan.

Motley Fool

It goes down to how many PacBios are placed and what you can actually do with them. A few big labs will get them for the cool factor, then that is it. For almost $800K it needs to do much more in the application space to be viable.

Does anybody know why the share price drops so quick and large for PacBio? sequencing data not good?

Actually I really wouldn't mind being JF... I feel for the peeps at pbio. 6/share is really looking like a possibility now. Hey HM! The smoke n mirror days of the dot com 90's is over! Wake up and smell the coffee!

"Mohahahahahahaha. This pos will ne at $6/share soon"

Agreed. However, how would you like to be JF from Illumina right now? Watching your company lose ~$3Bil in net value over the last week has to have him running for the Pepto Bismal.

Mohahahahahahaha. This pos will ne at $6/share soon

"lay me off - PLEEEEEEASE!!! Save me from this torture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is so tortuous about PacBio?I interviewed there three years ago, declined the offer, mainly because I was skeptical of the technology. I don't think I know any more today(in real terms) than I did then. So, someone please, does it work, yes or no?

Why are you so sure Life tech will buy them?

Not until Life Technologies buys them.

lay me off - PLEEEEEEASE!!! Save me from this torture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly. How viable can this platform be if it always needs hybrid assembly.

15% error rate makes the SMRT sequencer useless for resequencing. It can only be used for de novo sequencing in combination with another technology to fill in the gaps.

Not me, waiting for the single molecule IT PGM. I'd rather have a Helicos than a PB.

So who are the first suckers that are getting commercial units? PB has gotta be burning through money fast....

Directly from one of the "early access" customers, "The PacBio instrument doesn't perform as promised. Not even close!" He said he also believed his experience is similar to the other "early access" sites. Bottom line message, don't worry Illumina, you have nothing to fear. Sorry PACB shareholders, you've been sold a pile of smelly hype.

is that you TO? Ready to come back to the fold?

I wish they would lay me off. GIVE ME A PACKAGE - - - PLEEEEEEASE!!! Save me from this torture.

This hype machine is running out of steam. Jump off while you can.

i heard significant layoffs in r&d..i mean, how many people do they have for just one instrument that doesn't even work? i always wondered about that...PB = smoke and mirrors.

The RS has delivered none of the metrics mentioned so far. And the software can't even recognize control sequences. This platform is getting pushed out the door with nothing working. Don't even try to sequence with this thing. The only application I can see is enzymolgy. The methylation claims are all not real. It may be able to do this in the future, but it also might not.

Hmmmmm... Right after lockup expires. What is your source? Any particular depts. hit or spared?

yup!

layoffs at pac bio?????????
oh my

What do you need in a sequencer?

Easy to use, accurate, reliable, enough data for the question you are trying to answer, gives you that answer quickly, for a price tag (box and consumables) that you can afford, and in a format that is useful.

Pacbio gives you some of these but is falling down seriously on box price, accuracy, and quantity of data. Till they get these fixed they have to hope that the hype machine can distract enough people from the shortcomings of the platform.

what about the amazing duplicate data sets - with exactly the same number of active polymerases - and none of the have crapped out! - well either the laws of physics have changed or....? ;)

How many? Where from in r&d? Any programs gone?

Major layoffs today from R&D...sad to kiss the culture of openness goodbye and be lied to by HM.

Here is a pretty insightful analysis of their cholera reads:

http://oelemento.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/a-closer-look-at-the-first-pac...

Apparently they about to get a major lawsuit against their original patent filling - take a look at the original case file for a heads up! Naughty naughty nanofluidics, oh sorry i mean PacBio. Merry Christmas!

All of their valuation is built on hype about sequencing.

Tech might be cool, but when they fail in sequencing, their value will crash with it.

err. how about the reality of at best 15000 reads. even at the commercial spec of 75000, there is the small matter of pooisson statistics that mean you will only fill 25000 of them.

This will cover neither methylome or transcriptome unless you run the instrument for about a year.

Each run needs about 1 ug DNA to load your 15,000 wells, so to look at your transcriptome will take you about 1 mg DNA. Hmmm what could I do with 1 mg DNA?

Enyzymology does look interesting, but you are underestimating how how long it will take to prepare quality samples for these studies. This is not a high-throghput use at all, and will have little/no consumables use.

I can see it appealing to the biophysics community, but as a core facility, once or twice a year use per group. like an NMR machine.

Please enlighten us...

How about 75,000 instant view of molecular level transriptome and methylome. This baby can look at pretty much any protein, enzyme level interaction, there is a shit load of applications. You can keep your head in your speed, cost and HTS center if you want. This is 2010, go re-sequence my wart for all I care.

Now Pacbio could spend some IPO money and probably land HCLS for less than the cost of the lawyers fee for putting the deal together. Even though they don't really need to protect themselves against the current infringement lawsuit because HLCS can't afford to go forward even if the lawyers were all on contingency, Pacbio might be able to use the patents they'd acquire to control others. Not sure Pacbio could pull off the HLCS technology any better than HLCS did because they suffer from some of the same execution issues, but there could be a decent risk benefit here.

Please enlighten us...

a lot of folks here have no understanding about the power if this technology. Pac Bio is just waiting in the back, laughing their head off...

Compared with less than 1% for all other platforms (apart from helicos)

Saw a presentation from Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and they claim they get only 5% error from their PacBio sequencer.

"It's simply debateable how competitive it is."

you really think that there's much debate about a 700K machine that only generates 15000 reads of 500 bp at 80-85% accuracy?

Come on...

At current market rates (and using about the same amount of real estate) I could buy enough 3730s to generate the same number of reads, with longer read lengths and better accuracy with the same turnaround time for about 1/10 that price.

Now I come to think of it, perhaps that's actually what's inside that huge box....

"they are replacing their entire r&d staff and starting from scratch using money from the ipo"

Really? That makes a whole lotta sense.
Give me a break, how could that possibly benefit them vs. working forward from their current level of experience. It's not as if it is being reported that their technology just flat doesn't work. It's simply debateable how competitive it is.

pre-release machines image 45000 wells- probably 1/3 filled with 500-550 base reads, 80-85% raw read accuracy

published acceptance specs were pretty sad- read lengths of 500-550 bp, and no mention of numbers of reads. Anyone know how many reads the acceptance criteria specify?

This is no better than 454...

they are replacing their entire r&d staff and starting from scratch using money from the ipo

Interesting:

http://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/pacific-biosciences-posts-higher-los...

Higher losses, no surprise there. But they have a backlog of 32 units. If they are running at 750K a unit, and not free, that could be $24M of revenue. Not great, but better than expected.