Growth returns after sales pipeline rebuilt at life sciences company

York-headquartered life sciences business, Aptamer Group, has hailed an upturn in its sales and order book in a trading update for the year ending 30 June 2024.

The company’s unaudited revenue for the year was approximately £0.85m, with £0.55m generated in the second half of the year.

Following a lull in customer confidence caused by an acute funding problem in summer of 2023, confidence had to be rebuilt with customers which translated into the rebuilding of the sales pipeline.

Aptamer says these efforts led to increased revenues in the second half of the year and an encouraging rise in order book values.

In the last quarter of the financial year, £0.98m worth of orders were won which has resulted in a total of £1.8m in signed orders currently being processed or awaiting processing in the laboratory.

In addition to the order book, the firm has a current pipeline of advanced sales negotiations worth £2.1m.

Aptamer develops custom affinity binders through its proprietary Optimer^® platform, which can serve as an alternative to antibodies and enable new approaches in therapeutics, diagnostics, and research applications.

Steve Hull, executive chair, said: “The trajectory of both sales and revenue shows increasing potential, putting Aptamer Group on a good footing for the forthcoming year.

“The team has worked hard to rebuild the pipeline in the past year, and it is pleasing to see we have achieved a continued increase in sales throughout the year, with £0.98m sales orders signed in the final quarter alone showing this work is beginning to pay off for the company.

“We have made excellent technical progress this year having focused on key strategic assets.

“We have had high interest from multiple top pharma companies in our Optimer delivery vehicles for fibrotic liver disease.”

Also this morning, Aptamer has issued an update on its partnership with Unilever to deliver Optimer binders for cosmetic applications.

In 2022, Aptamer initiated this partnership for the development of Optimer binders with the aim of treating malodour in personal care products.

It says these binders have been tested at both Aptamer Group and Unilever showing highly positive and reproducible results.

A patent was submitted on 28 March 2024, to protect the developed Optimer binders and give Aptamer Group precedence for the protection of the intellectual property.

Work to test the Optimer binders is ongoing in Unilever’s labs. Unilever plans to conduct on-person functionality studies in the second half of 2024.

It is anticipated this project will be completed over the next two years, and if successful, could result in Aptamer licensing the Optimer binders to Unilever.

Dr Arron Tolley, chief technical officer of Aptamer Group, said: “The early success we have seen to date in evaluating our Optimers that aim to treat malodour has been promising.

“We’re excited to support our partners at Unilever in advancing these binders to the next stage of development with on-person functionality studies.

“Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) like personal care products can progress to market more rapidly than diagnostics or therapeutic products.

“Optimers offer advantages such as stability, shelf life and consistent manufacturability making them ideal molecules for FMCG/cosmetic applications.”