Oncimmune Holdings plc (AIM: ONC.L), a leading autoantibody profiling company providing research services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to enable the delivery of precision medicine, announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 29 February 2024 (“H1 FY2024”).
Financial highlights
- Revenue for the period of £1.19m (H1 FY2023*: £1.12m). This compares to FY2023 12-month revenue for continuing operations of £1.15m, and signifies a step-change in the Group’s revenues since the strategy reset in October 2023. FY2024 guidance maintained.
- Gross profit for the period was £0.46m (H1 FY2023*: £0.48m).
- Operating loss for the period of £0.76m (H1 FY2023*: £3.53m). This compares to FY2023 12-month operating loss of £3.92m, demonstrating the impact of materially higher sales in H1 FY2024 and reduced costs, in particular at Group level.
- Gross cash balance at the period end of £0.91m, compared with £3.21m as at 31 August 2023. The net cash usage in the period of £2.3m represents the cash outflows of the largely fixed costs of the business and debt service, partially offset by cash inflows from customer contracts.
- Instructions have been sent for the release to Oncimmune of £1.17m from the escrow related to the disposal of Oncimmune Limited and other subsidiaries in May 2023. These funds are in line with the Company’s cash forecast.
* Represents the unaudited 6-month period to 28 February 2023 for both continuing and discontinued operations. Discontinued operations relate to Oncimmune Limited and other subsidiaries sold to Freenome Holdings, Inc. (“Freenome”) on 19 May 2023.
Commercial highlights and outlook
- Contracts signed for seven new projects in the period. All of these contracts are expected to be completed by the end of FY2024. These are in addition to contracts entered into prior to FY2024 and performed in the period, including the Master Services Agreement entered into with Freenome.
- First year of Master Services Agreement with Freenome has been completed and Freenome has indicated that it looks forward to continuing the relationship with Oncimmune.
- During FY2024 the Group’s commercial team has been rebuilt and now consists of three members in the US and two in Europe. The new team is fully onboarded and continues to make traction.
- 15 new commercial opportunities were at proposal stage as at the end of April 2024, with a total weighted pipeline value in excess of £2.5m. Some revenue is expected to be recognised in FY2024 and the majority of the remaining revenue expected in FY2025.
- Outlook remains positive, with commercial activity continuing to be high since the end of H1 FY2024. As previously indicated, revenues for FY2024 are expected to be approximately £3m. Some large contracts are expected to be executed and revenue partially recognised by the end of FY2024, underpinning the revenue forecast.
- Projects continue to be won and expanded through one of the major Contract Research Organisations, and discussions are ongoing with six others on potential collaborations.
Operational highlights
- Novel techniques continue to be developed within the Group’s commercial partnerships, including the ability to characterise difficult-to-measure immunoglobulin subtypes. Once validated, these methods can be applied more broadly to new commercial offerings.
- Commercial and technological focus has been extended into age-related diseases and mechanisms of ageing. Work has already been carried out with a leading drug discovery company and approaches received from several global pharma companies.
Martin Gouldstone, CEO of Oncimmune said: “I am very pleased to see that the Company’s performance in its first half of FY2024 has already generated revenues greater than the ImmunoINSIGHTSTM business during the whole of FY2023, demonstrating that our new strategic approach and commercial efforts are gaining traction. The momentum is continuing to build as our relatively new commercial team has now found its stride and I expect H2 FY2024 to deliver further growth as we continue to execute on our refocused strategy. Whilst we are seeing continuing headwinds in the industry as a whole, with some of the large international pharma companies still undertaking restructurings and reassessing R&D programmes, I am confident that our differentiated service offering, which we continue to develop and expand, will become an important tool for our current and future customers. I am looking forward to speaking at the BIO 2024 Conference in June alongside some of the major pharma companies.”
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Oncimmune Holdings plc