24 July 2012 -- Source BioScience plc (LSE: SBS), the international diagnostic and genetic analysis business serving the healthcare and research markets, announces the following trading update ahead of its results for the six months ended 30 June 2012.
Overall business performance
Source BioScience has maintained double digit revenue growth during the first six months of 2012. This progress has continued on the basis of good performances from our LifeSciences’ DNA sequencing service and Healthcare’s cervical cancer screening business.
Overall performance is in line with expectations and full financial details will be presented in the Half Year Report in August.
LifeSciences
A major event in 2011 for the LifeSciences division was the launch of the Overnight Service for DNA sequencing. Since then, our market share in the UK has increased significantly; we are now the only company offering a UK-based sequencing service and we are building a leading position as a commercial provider of DNA sequencing in Europe. Sequencing volumes during the first half of 2012 were 60% greater compared with the same period last year. We continue to drive this growth by introducing new services, such as our Weekend Service which was launched in July 2012.
GenomeCube®, our proprietary search engine and bioinformatics tool, has delivered to plan during the period, with website traffic increasing and internet orders up by more than 50% on a year on year basis. As part of the Phase III development stage of our e-commerce solution, we appointed our first regional franchise distributor for the genomic products portfolio and we launched the first country-specific, local language, GenomeCube® in Japan through KK DNAForm. We see the GenomeCube® platform as a major part of the Group’s growth strategy for the medium to longer term.
Healthcare
Revenue from our Healthcare activities has increased by over 25% compared with the same period last year. This growth has primarily been driven by high demand for our liquid based cytology (‘LBC’) offering, which underpins approximately 50% of the cervical cancer screening programme in England and Wales. Much of this demand has arisen from the scheduled three year recall of women who underwent screening tests in early 2009, when there was a spike in test volumes following the extensive media coverage of Jade Goody’s death from cervical cancer.
Implementation of our BD FocalPoint™ automated imaging solution for cervical cancer screening continues. Access to BD FocalPoint™ was instrumental in the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust’s decision to award the LBC supply contract to Source BioScience, the first time that an NHS Trust had switched LBC technology provider. Molecular diagnostic testing, especially gene-based companion diagnostic testing which provides information about how a patient might respond to a particular drug therapy, is increasingly being adopted within the NHS. Demand for one such test, the K-RAS gene test for colorectal cancer treatment, has risen more than 80% in the period compared with last year.
Outlook
The strong first half performance and growth initiatives underway, underpin our confidence that we will meet the financial expectations of the Group for the full year.
We plan to report the Half Year results for the six months ended 30 June 2012 on 21 August 2012. There will be an analyst meeting held on the morning of 21 August at College Hill’s offices. Please contact Jayne Crook at College Hill for further details.
For further information, please contact:
Source BioScience plc
Dr Nick Ash, CEO
Tel: +44 (0)115 973 9010
Email: enquiries@sourcebioscience.com
www.sourcebioscience.com
College Hill (PR Agency to Source BioScience)
Melanie Toyne-Sewell/Jayne Crook
Tel: +44 (0)207 457 2020
Email: sourcebioscience@collegehill.com
About Source BioScience:
Source BioScience plc (LSE: SBS) is an international diagnostics and genetic analysis business serving the healthcare and research markets. The LifeSciences division provides core laboratory research support from conceptualisation to implementation, calling upon a wide range of cutting-edge technology platforms including an online catalogue of biomolecular tools. The Company is a trusted provider of a complete range of sophisticated microarray, next generation and conventional sequencing services. GLP, GCP and CPA accreditations make the sequencing offerings also very attractive for applications in regulatory studies or clinical settings. Its Healthcare operations provide screening and reference laboratory diagnostic testing for cancer and other diseases and additional predictive testing for treatment optimisation for clinicians and patients. The Group has its headquarters in Nottingham, UK. Further information about Source BioScience can be found at www.sourcebioscience.com
