‘Progress’ at Aptamer despite dip
YORK-BASED life sciences firm Aptamer Group has said it has made “encouraging progress” despite the effects of a lull in customer confidence last year.
In November, the firm warned that its half-year revenue would likely fall below that of the same period the year prior. This came after a £3.6m fundraise for the firm in July, which was followed by a series of board changes.
The company has now posted its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2023, in which it reported revenue of £0.3m, down from £1m for the same period the year prior.
Gross profit for the first half of the financial year was nil for the firm, down from £0.5m the year prior.
Aptamer supplies pharmaceutical companies with Optimer binders that can be used as synthetic antibody alternatives to assist researchers working across the bioprocessing, diagnostic, and drug development sectors.
Stephen Hull, chairman of Aptamer Group, said: “The group has continued to make encouraging progress since recapitalising in August, rebuilding the pipeline of sales opportunities and reinvigorating operations through the laboratory.
“We are seeing increasing conversion of the deal pipeline, including repeat business being won and the potential for large deals in the drug delivery space."
The company posted adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) loss of £1.8 million, an improvement from £2.5 million in the same period the year before. It said the decrease in losses was mainly a result of reducing administrative expenses.
Cash balance for the company at December 31 was £1.8 million, slightly below the £1.9m posted the same date the year prior.
Aptamer said it completed the reset of its fixed cost base to £3.5m per annum, whilst maintaining the ability to “win sales and deliver projects”.
The firm announced a partnership with Unilever, following successful testing of developed Optimer binders by Unilever to support novel applications in fast-moving consumer goods, with patent applications for the binders now being prepared.
It also announced a follow-on deal with a US-based vaccine development company during the period to develop Optimer binders. August also saw the firm’s pre-IPO chairman and co-founder return to support the company.
Mr Hull added: "The strong technical delivery in the first half of the year, includes the new demonstration of binder performance in gene therapy delivery and IHC, and we are pleased that large pharmaceutical company partners have shown significant interest in binders developed for both of these applications.
“Positive validation of Optimer performance both in-house from our own scientific team and from external partners has resulted in interest in the licensing of current assets, which remains part of our strategy, particularly within the key focus areas of drug delivery and IHC, where we have identified a specific market need that Optimer and our new Optimer-Fc platform are well placed to address.”