Abzena: Half Year Results: Delivery, Acquisition And Growth

CAMBRIDGE, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Abzena plc (AIM:ABZA, ‘Abzena’ or the ‘Group’), a life sciences group providing services and technologies enabling the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, publishes its half year results for the six months to 30 September 2015.

“The business has grown significantly in the period, both organically and via acquisition. We anticipate further growth with the recent acquisition of PacificGMP which adds manufacturing to our offering, enabling us to support our customers from lead identification through to clinical trials.”

Operational Highlights

• 10 partner programs with ‘Abzena inside’ technology now in clinical development
  • Gilead’s GS-5745 progressed into Phase III (gastric cancer) with ongoing trials also in ulcerative colitis (Phase II/III) and Crohn’s Disease (Phase II)
  • Post period end, developer of ‘Abzena inside’ product SDP051, Adheron Therapeutics acquired by Roche for up to $580m - SDP051 will now move into Phase II
• Service business revenues up 47% on H1 2015, primarily through strong organic growth as partners increasingly engage across the full spectrum of Abzena’s biopharmaceutical development offering
• Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) technology achieving significant traction as plans are developed for progression of ThioBridge™ ADCs towards clinical development by Abzena’s partners
• Acquisition of PacificGMP for $7.0 million (£4.5 million) in September 2015
  • Expands offering to include GMP (‘Good Manufacturing Practice’) manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals for clinical trial
  • Provides USA operating footprint within major West coast biotech hub
• Announced today, Placing to raise £20 million (net of costs) and agreed acquisition of The Chemical Research Solution LLC (TCRS) for $15m (£10m) – see separate releases for further information

Financial Highlights

• Group revenue up 43% to £3.5 million (H1 2015: £2.4 million)
• Gross profit up 31% to £1.6 million (H1 2015: £1.2 million)
• Reported loss of £3.5 million (H1 2015: £2.7 million) reflecting increased investment in the business
• Cash and cash equivalents at 30 September 2015 of £7.4 million (31 March 2015: £15.8 million) following acquisition of PacificGMP

Dr John Burt, CEO of Abzena commented:

“The business has grown significantly in the period, both organically and via acquisition. We anticipate further growth with the recent acquisition of PacificGMP which adds manufacturing to our offering, enabling us to support our customers from lead identification through to clinical trials.”

“The increasing number of ‘Abzena inside’ products in clinical development represents significant value to the Group in the form of potential milestones and/or royalty payments. In addition, as seen by the acquisition of Adheron Therapeutics by Roche, the attractiveness of these products to big pharma for their own pipelines is further evidence of their value.”

“Since IPO we have actively demonstrated our ability to acquire, integrate and grow our business in line with our strategy to expand our range of technologies and services to attract more customers and partners. We start the second half of the period with good current trading and the planned acquisition of TCRS that will extend our offering in the ADC field.”

-Ends-

An analyst briefing will be held at 9:30am on Tuesday, 24 November 2015 at the offices of Instinctif Partners, 65 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7NQ.

For the full release, please visit the Group website at www.abzena.com.

About Abzena

Abzena provides proprietary technologies and complementary services in the UK and USA to enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products. The development of biopharmaceuticals is a growing area and requires specialist technology and expertise.

The Group comprises Antitope, PacificGMP and PolyTherics, which between them have built a global customer base including the majority of the top 20 biopharmaceutical companies as well as large and small biotech companies and academic groups.

Antitope provides immunogenicity assessment, protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins, and cell line development for manufacture.

PacificGMP provides contract process development and manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, vaccines, and gene therapy and cell therapy products, for preclinical and clinical studies.

PolyTherics specializes in proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies for antibody drug conjugate development and solutions for optimizing the therapeutic properties of biopharmaceuticals.

Abzena (AIM: ABZA) has its main operations in Cambridge, UK and in San Diego, CA, USA. For more information, please see www.abzena.com.

Note: The term “Abzena inside” is applied to cover products that have been created using or incorporate Abzena’s proprietary technologies, and include Composite Human Antibodies™ and ThioBridge™ antibody drug conjugates. These products are being developed by Abzena’s partners and Abzena has the potential to earn future licence fees, milestone payments and/or royalties.