City briefs: Surgical Innovations and Avacta
Medical technology business, Surgical Innovations Group, says it now expects its revenue for the full year to exceed £6m, following a recovery in the second half of the year.
In a trading update for the financial year ending 31 December 2020, the Leeds-based firm, which designs and makes technology for minimally invasive surgery, says its production resumed in October.
The company raised equity of £2.05m (net of associated costs) in September 2020 to provide investment capital and additional financial headroom.
As of 30 November 2020, its net cash balances amounted to £3.38m, an increase of £2.69m since its interim report of 30 June 2020 (£0.69m).
Its update adds: “The Global Healthcare market continues to build some resilience to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with improved pathways for treating patients with Coronavirus enabling elective surgery to resume to some degree in most markets in the second half of 2020.
“Elective surgery in the NHS, whilst still reduced compared to pre-COVID-19 levels, has been less impacted by the second wave compared to the first.
“The USA remains strong despite the well-documented COVID-19 situation and we continue to see sales at levels close to those seen last year.
“Asia Pacific has performed well in 2020 despite COVID-19 and is on plan for the year, and the company expect this to be another key area for us in 2021.
“Europe is still slower to recover than most markets but we are seeing consistent, albeit lower, levels of ordering by key partners.
“Whilst the various COVID-19 vaccines are welcome news, it is anticipated roll out will take some months.
“Recent developments suggest that it is reasonable to anticipate greater seasonal pressure on beds, and further reductions in elective surgery over the winter.
“The company is well positioned to conserve resources during this period of continued subdued demand, and then benefit from an expected recovery, with a return to normalised activity levels towards the end of 2021.”
CEO David Marsh said: “We are pleased with the work we carried out to mitigate the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, taking advantage of the production hiatus to streamline operational and regulatory processes.
“This has been beneficial for the Group as we continue to be at the forefront of the sustainability agenda with our ResposableTM product portfolio.
“Recent progress suggests our product portfolio is well aligned with the needs of healthcare practitioners and providers and so, notwithstanding the ongoing effects of the pandemic, we are optimistic for the medium to long-term outlook.”
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Avacta Group, which develops cancer therapies and diagnostics based on its Affimer® and pre|CISIONTM platforms, has struck a license agreement with Astrea Bioseparations for use of its Affimer platform in affinity purification applications.
Astrea is a provider of affinity separation solutions to the pharmaceutical and biomanufacturing industries.
It is a division of Gamma Biosciences, the life sciences tools platform created by KKR, to build a leading position in next-generation bioprocessing for advanced therapies.
Following Astrea’s evaluation of Affimer reagents for affinity separation, the two companies have entered into a non-exclusive license agreement for the use of the Affimer technology in this field.
The deal includes a £0.5m upfront payment to Avacta which gives Astrea the rights to generate and develop Affimer reagents in-house for affinity separation.
It also provides Astrea with an option to convert the agreement into an exclusive license if certain commercial performance criteria are met over the next three years and subject to the payment of an additional undisclosed option exercise fee.
Avacta will receive royalties on future sales of Astrea’s purification products that contain Affimer reagents.
Alastair Smith, chief executive officer of Avacta, said: “I am delighted to have entered into this license agreement with Astrea following their evaluation of the Affimer platform.
“It is another strong endorsement of the Affimer technology as well as an important validation of the licensing business model driven by an active pipeline of ongoing, paid-for technology evaluations.
“Affimer reagents are ideal for affinity purification of biological products from complex mixtures because they are highly specific to the product and are robust enough to withstand the harsh cleaning conditions required for repeated use.”
