NI pharma firm working on Covid-19 antibody sees revenues rise
A NORTHERN Ireland pharma company which has started work on antibody research to treat Covid-19 has revealed a 79% jump in revenues to £3.9m.
But Fusion Antibodies plc, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market, ultimately made a loss of £0.7m in the year to the end of March, it announced on Wednesday. However, the loss was down on the previous year’s £1.3m deficit.
The listed company, based at Springbank Industrial Estate in Belfast, specialises in pre-clinical antibody discovery, engineering and supply.
Company chairman Dr Simon Douglas said the loss was down to its strategy to invest for growth. Staff numbers have grown from 38 to 47.
It has also raised revenues as it rolls out its Rational Affinity Maturation Platform (RAMP), which it says can improve the structure and performance of antibody-based drugs.
Since the year-end the company has raised £3m in equity.
It’s also worked on a Covid-19 programme as part of its Mammalian Antibody Library Development Plan, to help clients who are working towards solutions for the virus.
Chief executive Dr Paul Kerr said: “We have had a strong year with the increased revenue performance in the first and second half driven by the expansion of our existing services and newly introduced RAMP.
“The company has also seen strong geographical growth in the 2020 financial year with the appointment of two new distributors in Asia as well as carrying out a RAMP project for a large indigenous company in China.
“While Covid-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty for the 2021 financial year, trading so far has been in line with expectations and the £3m raised in April has allowed Fusion to expand the existing proof-of-concept work on the Mammalian Antibody Library to include Covid-19 as a new target. We are positive about the next 12 months and are grateful to our shareholders for their continued support.”