BIRMINGHAM, England, November 11 /PRNewswire/ --
- Revenues Expected to be up 26%, Freelite(TM) Sales up More Than 50%
The Binding Site Limited (“The Binding Site” or the “Company”), a privately-owned specialist UK diagnostics company, today announces a trading update for the year ended 30th September 2008. The full audited results will be announced in early December 2008.
Revenues are expected to be GBP38.9 million, representing sales growth of approximately 26% in comparison to the previous financial year. The Company has seen strong growth across all its major markets, with approximately 25% growth in revenues in the U.S. and similar growth rates seen in Europe and emerging markets.
The progress has been driven by continued strong demand for Freelite(TM), which is used for the diagnosis and monitoring of multiple myeloma, a cancer of cells in the bone marrow. Sales of Freelite are expected to be up by around 52% at GBP12.6 million in the year to the end of September, underlining the increasing acceptance of the product.
Autoimmune product sales increased approximately 22% to GBP13.6 million year on year, strongly outperforming their market as The Binding Site gained market share and increased its level of new business. The performance was buoyed by the solid growth of newly introduced products and a rise in the base of installed instruments. Sales from the Company’s core products business have increased by around 10% to GBP12.7 million in the period, supported by continuing technical improvements and promotional activities.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Paul Duncan, Chief Executive Officer of The Binding Site, said:
“This has been an excellent year for The Binding Site and we expect the considerable growth in revenues to be reflected in a strong increase in EBITDA figures. Freelite continues to gain market recognition, with more than 100 scientific publications appearing during the last 12 months. With current sales of over GBP12 million and an anticipated continued annual growth rate of more than 50% for the next few years, the prospects for this novel product are now firmly established.
“We expect the Company’s current strong performance to continue into 2009 and are confident that the product portfolio will continue to deliver exceptional results. In addition, we are investing heavily in our pipeline to further drive future performance and deliver long term growth.”
Notes to Editors:
About The Binding Site
The Binding Site Ltd. is a British based company specialising in the research, development and production of immunodiagnostic kits and reagents. The Binding Site manufactures a wide range of high quality and innovative products used in clinical laboratories world-wide. The business is divided into three main areas:-
Freelite(TM), a novel and highly significant assay increasingly used for the diagnosis and monitoring of multiple myeloma (MM), a cancer of cells in the bone marrow. MM is the second most common blood cancer after non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Considered almost untreatable only 20 years ago, huge strides have been made in the successful treatment of multiple myeloma with new drugs becoming available and new treatment regimes being assessed. Freelite has been used as a sensitive marker for the efficacy of some of these newer treatments and has helped clinicians gain a clear understanding of how some of these drugs are benefiting their patients. Furthermore, with numerous different therapies now available, treatment decisions which may have taken weeks or months can now be made in days thanks to the availability of sensitive and reliable results using Freelite. National and International guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of multiple myeloma and associated cancers now include Freelite results as a requirement for monitoring the treatment of patients. Numerous clinical trials are underway to look at the use of Freelite in a range of other malignancies as well as how the results may radically change the management of complications such as renal disease in cancer patients. There are currently approximately 1.5 million Freelite tests performed per annum with the number of analyses increasing at a rate of approx. 50% p.a.
The diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from autoimmune diseases (caused when the body is unable to distinguish between foreign and self). Many common diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis are autoimmune in origin and The Binding Site manufactures a range of diagnostic assays and reagents used in hospital laboratories worldwide to help diagnose and monitor the treatment of these diseases, e.g. antiphospholipid syndrome, vasculitis and coeliac disease.
Products used for the detection of immunodeficiency. These include the inherited or acquired disorders of the immune system and products used in donor selection and manufacture of vaccines. The Binding Site has been and remains a market leader in products for the investigation of these diseases.
For more information please see http://www.bindingsite.co.uk.
CONTACT: Enquiries: The Binding Site, Paul Duncan, Tel: +44-121-436-1000;
Financial Dynamics, Jonathan Birt / Lara Mott, Tel: +44-20-7269-7182
