Biome Australia lifts FY24 revenue guidance to $12.5m

Specialist live biotherapeutics health company Biome Australia (ASX: BIO) has significantly increased its full year revenue guidance to $12.5 million, boosted by better-than-expected sales in recent months.

The new target comes just months after Biome revealed it was forecast to achieve a significantly improved full year 2024 revenue of $11.5m.

The new target represents 74% growth on the FY23 return of $7.2m.

Earlier this month, Biome announced unaudited half year sales revenue of approximately $6m and second quarter (Q2) unaudited sales revenue of around $3.3m.

Those results represented growth of 77.7% for the half year and 83.3% growth for Q2.

The company also achieved 20.4% quarter-on-quarter growth in Q2, which managing director and founder Blair Vega Norfolk said is traditionally a seasonally-weaker reporting period due to the short month in December and the focus in pharmacy shifting to Christmas gifting.

Mr Norfolk also noted that the Q2 results were the company’s best to date.

Rapid revenue growth

For Biome, the recent first-half success is a continuation of the rapid revenue growth the company has achieved in recent years, with revenue increasing from $866,000 in FY20 to $2.3m in FY21, $4.1m in FY22 and $7.2m in FY23.

In announcing the full-year guidance upgrade, Mr Norfolk said that, based on analysis of past sales data and upcoming initiatives, the company expects further strong sales growth led by Biome’s Activated Probiotics in the Australian pharmacy and practitioner markets.

“I am delighted to share with you a forecast upgrade for Biome Australia’s full financial year revenue; we now expect to exceed our target for FY24 by $1m, or 8.7%,” he said.

“Biome and our Activated Probiotics’ continued momentum in both the consumer and practitioner market is evidenced by record quarter-on-quarter growth for the year.”

Partnerships key to further growth

In partnership with global microbiome research and development leaders, Biome produces several unique live biotherapeutic (probiotic) products and innovative delivery technologies.

In early December, Biome reached an agreement with one of its key research and development partners to develop multiple novel probiotic strains that Biome expects to result in new intellectual property ownership.

Mr Norfolk said these proprietary strains will support the development of new products with mainstream gut and immune health targets as well as future therapeutic development for condition-specific live biotherapeutics owned by Biome Australia.

New product launch

In late December, Biome signed an agreement to add a condition-specific live biotherapeutic product to its Biome Activated Probiotics product range.

The Biome Cholesterol Probiotic, which is targeted towards lowering cholesterol levels, consists of three specific Lactobacillus plantarum strains.

As demonstrated in four supporting human clinical trials, it has been shown to significantly improve cholesterol levels, considered a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).

CVDs are the leading cause of death globally and are responsible for 1 in 4 fatalities in Australia, with more than four million Australians reporting living with CVD.

The new product is scheduled for release in Q4 FY24.