IMRIS, a maker of interventional MRI units, posted growing sales and deepening losses for its second financial quarter Tuesday afternoon, as operating costs rise on investments in new technologies and a lower-than-expected number of orders.

The Winnipeg-based company said it lost $2.9 million, or 6 cents a share, in its second quarter, ending June 30, nearly double its $1.4 million in losses, or 4 cents a share, in the same period last year. For the past six months, the company has lost $7.5 million, a 114 percent increase on the $3.5 million in losses from the first half of 2010.

Sales reached $18.9million, up 14 percent from the $16.6 million in sales from the same time last year. Revenues crept up four percent for the first six months of the year, to $29.9 million, over the $28.7 million for the first half of 2010.
Bloomberg said sales beat investor estimates of $16.6 million, but losses exceeded estimates by 5 cents a share.

"We're seeing delays in deals we expected to have landed in the second quarter," David Graves, IMRIS CEO, said in a call to investors Tuesday evening, citing the longer evaluations hospital staff need to go through before investing in capital equipment.

However, in a statement, Graves said the financial performance for the first half of 2011 was "in line with our operating budgets." The company's backlog on orders, at $97.5 million, grew 7 percent over last year's.

The company said expenses rose as it's working on releasing two new systems: an MR-guided radiation therapy device and an MR-guided surgical robotics system.

Graves said they were accelerating development of the MR-guided surgical system, and hope to receive Food and Drug Administration clearance in the second quarter next year.

The MR-guided radiation therapy unit, also under development, will use the guidance technology combined with Varian Medical Systems' TrueBeam radiation therapy device.

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