Life sciences firm sees revenues rise 16% but losses widen
Life sciences firm Avacta has seen a 16% increase in revenue while pre-tax losses widened to £4.4m, with research and development costs of £1.5m within the reporting period.
Reporting on the six months to 31 January 2018, the Wetherby-based group said revenue for the period increased 16% to £1.5m, up from £1.3m the year before.
However, its pre-tax losses widened to £4.4m compared to £3.8m for the same period in the previous year. Its cash balances stood at £8.3m, reduced from £13.2m reported on 31 July 2017.
Avacta, which develops Affimers, an engineered alternative to antibodies, said it had seen “strong progress” with in-house programmes and that it was on track to deliver several key pre-clinical milestones in 2018.
The firm said it had seen a positive outcome of an initial trial with Glythera, leading to a new drug development partnership for Affimer drug conjugates.
It added that Avacta was in discussion with multiple pharma and biotech regarding Affimer therapeutics opportunities, with a pipeline of opportunities which continues to grow across multiple applications.
Alastair Smith, chief executive said: “The Group has delivered strongly against the objectives set out in 2015 when it raised funds to initiate an Affimer drug development programme and to begin commercialisation of Affimer reagents.
“We remain focused on the key objective of generating clinical data for our lead Affimer therapeutic programme. This first-time-in-human data is a significant value inflection point for the technology and a major de-risking point from a partnering perspective. Whilst we progress towards the clinic in 2020, the Group will continue to build-out a potentially transformative pipeline of assets in immuno-oncology. Avacta is confident that partnerships can be established for assets in this pipeline before the technology is in the clinic, but we also believe that the value of these deals will rise markedly when the first Affimer human clinical data is obtained.
“We will continue to grow the Affimer reagents revenue during this time period, with a focus on long term recurring royalty revenue rather than short term services income, with the objective of creating a potentially stand-alone business unit.
“As a proven platform technology addressing multiple markets, the downside risk is low, with significant upside potential as we build a pipeline of valuable drug assets. Sanofi’s recent acquisition of a clinical stage comparator to Avacta (Ablynx) for $5bn highlights the potential valuation of a clinical stage platform technology like Affimers with a pipeline of assets in development.”
