Cambridge, UK – Abzena plc (AIM: ABZA), a life sciences company providing services and technologies that enable the development of better biopharmaceutical products, today announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2014.
Corporate highlights
• Successful completion of Initial Public Offering and Admission to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange on 10 July 2014, raising £20 million (before expenses)
• Launch of the Abzena brand in May 2014 to provide group identity whilst maintaining the two individually strong brands of Antitope and PolyTherics
• Relocation of its corporate headquarters and the scientific operations of PolyTherics from London to the Babraham Research Campus near Cambridge, UK, consolidating the Group’s main operations in the heart of one of the world’s leading clusters for biopharmaceutical innovation
• Board strengthened with Peter Grant, CEO of Skyepharma plc, joining as a Non-executive Director of Abzena in July 2014 prior to the AIM admission
• Sixth therapeutic antibody candidate derived from Antitope’s Composite Human Antibody™ platform and being developed by Vascular Pharmaceuticals Inc. progresses into Phase 2 clinical study for diabetic nephropathy
• Multiple new agreements for services or technology licences including those announced with Alpha Cancer Technologies, Baylor Institute of Immunology Research, Synthon and University College London
Post-period highlights
• Data presented at World ADC Summit demonstrating the advantages of the ThioBridge ADC conjugation technology and novel ADC payloads developed by PolyTherics
• NKT Therapeutics has presented positive Phase 1 clinical data for its lead compound NKTT120, derived from the Composite Human Antibody platform, in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), as well as supportive data in a preclinical model of that condition at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting
Financial summary
• Revenues of £2.4 million (H1 2013: £0.8 million)
• Research and Development expenditure of £1.7 million (H1 2013: £1.1 million)
• Reported loss of £2.7 million (H1 2013: £2.4 million)
• Cash and cash equivalents of £18.7 million up from £2.8 million at 31 March 2014
John Burt, CEO of Abzena, said: “The evolution of the business during the first six months of our financial year has been substantial with the rebranding of the parent company, our admission to AIM, accompanied by significant investment to finance future growth, and relocation from London to Cambridge. We are now in a good position to move forward with our plans to grow the business based on the expansion and delivery of our services and technologies to support research & development in biopharmaceutical companies throughout the world.”
“We are delighted to have secured the continued commitment of high calibre investors at our IPO, with significant further investments from Invesco Perpetual and Imperial Innovations, and new investment from Woodford Investment Management, to enable the continued growth of the Company.”
“With six products derived from our antibody humanization technology now being developed in the clinic by our partners, and a portfolio of licence and option agreements for products at research and early development stage, all potentially revenue-bearing in the future, we will be watching the progress made by our partners with keen interest.”
“The business pipeline gives us confidence that we will achieve a strong second half of the year, comfortably ahead of the first half.”
”The completion of the IPO and relocation to Cambridge over the summer have been significant events for the business and I would like to thank the Abzena team for their commitment to achieving their scientific goals and to maintaining the high quality of the work delivered to our partners.”
About Abzena
Abzena provides proprietary technologies and complementary services to enable the development of better biopharmaceuticals. The Group comprises PolyTherics and Antitope which have established a broad suite of services and technologies that are designed to improve the chances of successful development of antibodies and proteins with enhanced therapeutic benefits.
Antitope provides immunogenicity assessment, protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins, and cell line development for manufacture.
PolyTherics specializes in proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies for antibody drug conjugate development and solutions for optimization of the therapeutic properties of biopharmaceuticals.
The Group has built a global customer base over the past decade which includes the majority of the top 20 biopharmaceutical companies, many large and small biotech companies, and academic groups.
Abzena is quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the symbol ABZA.
A pdf copy of the results is available at: http://www.abzena.com/results-and-presentations
For more information, please contact:
John Burt (Chief Executive Officer)
Julian Smith (Chief Financial Officer)
Abzena plc
Tel: +44 1223 903498
Email: john.burt@abzena.com or julian.smith@abzena.com
Christopher Golden and Bobbie Hilliam
Cenkos Securities (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Tel: +44 20 7397 8900
Mark Swallow, Sita Taylor or Chris Gardner
Citigate Dewe Rogerson (Corporate and Financial PR)
Tel: +44 20 7638 9571
Email: abzena@citigatedr.co.uk
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