Life sciences business anticipates revenue growth in transitional year
Listed life sciences business OptiBiotix Health has recorded “strong revenue growth” after completing a high number of commercial deals in 2018 and its CEO anticipates further revenue growth in 2019.
For the 12 months ending 30 November, the York-based firm announced that an increasing number of commercial agreements started to generate revenues with unaudited income for the year of £541,000, of which £461,000 (85%) was recognised in the second half of the year.
These figures represent a 5.8x increase in income from H1 to H2 and a 2.8x increase on 2017’s income of £191,000.
Stephen O’Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix, said: “This year has seen strong revenue growth in the second half of 2018 as a number of agreements started to generate early revenues. We anticipate further revenue growth in 2019 as these deals contribute to full year revenues and partners continue to grow sales.
“Existing deals will start to generate further revenues, and new agreements are regularly being signed. We also anticipate growing contributions from our online sales divisions, sales of SlimBiome Medical, and our SweetBiotix, OptiBiotic, and microbiome modulating platforms. The last 12 months has seen OptiBiotix transition from a research and development company to a commercial business with significant deal flow and rapidly growing revenues.
“This is all part of a strategy designed to develop multiple opportunities accessing healthcare markets around the world, which if successful, has the potential to generate substantive revenues and profitability. As these revenues grow and we continue to build trading histories with an increasing number of partners, we will be in a position to provide reliable forecasts to the market.”
In its trading update this morning, OptioBiotix also noted that the “continued transition” from a research and development business to a company showing commercial traction is making progress.
A total of 18 commercial agreements were secured during this period, which was eight more than the 10 deals concluded in 2017. These include 10 for the Probiotic division, six for SlimBiome, and two for SweetBiotix.
The online platform also launched in autumn 2018, creating another channel to market its technologies and products. The addition of CholBiome, and CholBiome 3X, and muesli pots to the store has helped to increase sales and an increasing contribution from online sales is also expected in 2019.
In a trading update for the last financial year, the company said: “These agreements are starting to generate recurring revenue streams and will form the backbone of future sales growth. This partnering strategy is designed to maximize the income potential of each product, whilst limiting the risk related to any individual deal.”
“We anticipate further execution of this strategy in 2019 with further revenues against a continued low-cost base creating profitable divisions across all areas of the company.”
