BTIG downgraded Talis Biomedical (NASDAQ:TLIS) to “sell” from “neutral” with a price target of $1, citing a delay in the beta-phase rollout of the Talis One COVID-19 diagnostic, which was planned for the first quarter of 2022. The stock closed at $1.42 on March 17.
Talis is a point-of-care diagnostics company aimed at decentralizing accurate diagnostic testing to improve patient care across a variety of indications, beginning with COVID-19, respiratory flu testing, women’s health, and sexually transmitted disease testing.
“Talis is experiencing manufacturing issues and invalid rates in excess of 10%, but the company didn’t quantify how high they are [in an earlier announcement],” writes analyst Mark Massaro. “Management declined to provide any timelines around a resolution of the manufacturing issues or on Talis product launches,” he added.
Talis is carrying out an approximate 25% workforce reduction, mainly in sales and marketing, in order to reduce operational expenditures by about $36-million this year. The company has $233-million of cash, or about three years of cash, through to the end of 2024.
“Should Talis be able to remedy its manufacturing issues and launch Talis One with tests initially ranging from COVID, flu/COVID, to sexual health tests, we think there is certainly still a need for rapid, highly accurate point-of-care molecular diagnostics testing,” Mr. Massaro said.
