Pressure BioSciences (OTCQB:PBIO) has expanded the reach of its products with a three-year exclusive distribution agreement with China's Powertech Technology, the company said Monday.
Powertech distributes analytical instruments and other equipment to the biotech, pharma, agricultural, environmental, food safety and commercial testing laboratory markets via its network of 18 distribution offices and multiple sub-dealers.
Its business partners include the likes of DuPont, GE Healthcare, Zeiss and Agilent, among others.
The company's pressure cycling technology (PCT), on which its products are based, is used for genomic, proteomic and small molecule sample preparation, among multiple applications in the estimated $6 billion life sciences sample preparation market.
The system can potentially generate new insights into protein structure and function for biomarker discovery and drug design, as well as accelerate rape kit testing in the forensics field and help to better understand diseases and disorders related to the gastrointestinal tract.
In June, the company launched the benchtop Barozyme HT48, which uses disposable and automated microwell strips that are used by labs worldwide, a huge change from its previous instruments which required individual test tubes and handling samples manually.
The benefit of the automated strips is that they can be left unattended, which has been seen by analysts as the biggest drawback from switching to PCT-based instruments until now. The new system is also capable of processing up to 48 samples simultaneously.
PCT has been proven to increase proficiencies in biological sample preparation, and works by cycling pressure between ambient and ultra-high levels at controlled temperatures to control the interactions of bio-molecules.
The company said Monday that it believes China is the largest single country market for its PCT products outside the US, with Powertech's customer base large and widespread throughout the region.
"Importantly, their customer base also includes agricultural, food safety, and environmental laboratories - the types of facilities we believe will make up the majority of the next wave of potential customers for our PCT-based products," added the company's VP of marketing and sales, Dr. Nathan Lawrence.
Pressure BioSciences' chief executive officer, Richard T. Schumacher, noted that the company's product revenue has increased markedly over the past two years, with an increase of over 70 percent in the first half of 2014 alone.
"It should be noted that these increases included very little revenue from China sales, from sales of the two new instrument systems released earlier this year (Barozyme HT48 and HUB880), and from the recently released and patent-pending micro-Pestle consumable," he said, suggesting big potential upside for the company.
Pressure BioSciences believes its product revenue growth will continue for the second half of this year and into 2015. Its agreement with Powertech includes aggressive, but attainable, minimum sales quotas, it said.
Sales of the company's new devices, including the Barozyme HT48, are expected to pick up in the first quarter of next year.