Bio-Techne's quarterly profit misses estimates as biotech funding woes persist

Oct 31 (Reuters) - Bio-Techne missed Wall Street expectations for first-quarter profit on Tuesday, as a persisting funding crunch among its biotech clients weighed on demand for its diagnostic products and compounds used in developing drugs.

Since the start of the year, higher interest rates have squeezed funding for drug development and research programs among smaller biotechs, especially in China.

Bio-Techne had said in August it was still unclear when the Chinese government's funding of new programs in life sciences would resume.

Peer Revvity on Monday signaled weakness in demand for its contract research and diagnostics services to persist at least into the first half of next year.

Larger rival Thermo Fisher Scientific also offered a dour annual earnings forecast and cut revenue expectations last week, weighed by a slump in demand for its biopharma services.

Bio-Techne posted adjusted profit of 41 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down nearly 9% from a year earlier.

Analysts were expecting quarterly adjusted profit of 44 cents per share, according to LSEG data.

Its first-quarter revenue rose 3% to $276.9 million, also missing analysts' estimate of $287.4 million.

Sales at the company's largest unit, protein sciences, were $204.7 million, up 2% from a year earlier.

The protein sciences unit develops and manufactures biological compounds used in life science research, diagnostics and cell and gene therapy.

Sales at the diagnostics and genomics unit, which makes clinical instruments, reagents and other critical care products used to diagnose diseases, rose 4% to $72.8 million. (Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)