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LONDON (Alliance News) - Fusion Antibodies PLC on Monday said that increasing competition, pricing pressures, and lower order levels have resulted in a substantial fall in revenue and a sharply widened pretax loss for the first half of its financial year.
The pharmaceutical contract research organisation specialising in antibody engineering services recorded a pretax loss of GBP887,371 for the six months to September 30, compared with a pretax loss of GBP150,527 in the year-ago period, on a revenue of GBP658,456 and GBP1.4 million, respectively.
Administrative expenses increased to GBP1.1 million from GBP994,851 a year ago, partly due to costs incurred in expansion of the company's laboratory.
The company, which listed in December last year, raising GBP5.5 million in its initial public offering, said it continues to expect modest revenue growth in its 2019 financial year, based on the orders already in hand, pipeline of opportunities and recent marked improvement is order intake.
"As we have previously announced, the first six months of the current financial year have been challenging due to increasing competition and consequential pricing pressures. However, order levels have started to accelerate in October and November and I am cautiously optimistic that we have turned a corner," said Chief Executive Paul Kerr.
"I am pleased that the laboratory capacity expansion was completed on time and within budget, in August 2018, and the launch of the Rational Affinity Maturation Platform is on schedule for completion in December 2018. These important developments will reinforce our market-leading offering and enable us to resume growth of the business," Kerr added.
Fusion Antibodies has not recommended a dividend payment in relation to the first half of 2019 financial year.
Shares in the company were trading 2.5% lower at 59.94 pence Monday morning.
