LONDON (Alliance News) - Horizon Discovery Group PLC Tuesday said it is "excited" about its future prospects as it invested heavily in its business in 2015, resulting in a widened loss as costs offset a rise in revenue.
Horizon Discovery is a life sciences company focused on gene editing, which designs and engineers genetically modified cells for research and clinical applications.
The life sciences company reported a pretax loss of GBP10.5 million for 2015, widened from a pretax loss of GBP6.1 million, as a rise in revenue to GBP20.2 million from GBP11.9 million was offset by a step up in operating costs as the company invested in developing and increasing the scale of its business.
Horizon Discovery's revenue growth was boosted by a rise in customer numbers, up to 1,400 at the end of 2015 from 955 at the end of 2014, helped by a significant expansion of its catalogue from its acquisition of Haplogen Genomics at the beginning of the year.
Research and development costs more than doubled to GBP5.3 million from GBP2.2 million as the company worked to increase its product catalogue and service offerings, and to improve its core capabilities in the genome editing space.
Sales and marketing costs increased to GBP5.1 million from GBP2.7 million due to investment in sales infrastructure, and its corporate and administrative costs rose to GBP11.1 million from GBP7.6 million as it invested in facilities and its enterprise resource planning system.
Horizon Discovery expects a year of "continued targeted investment" in 2016 alongside a focus on operating efficiencies.
"Success in the new era of Personalised and Genomic Medicine depends on a precise and deep understanding of patient genetics and an unparalleled expertise in precision gene editing. Horizon is at the forefront of these game-changing areas of medicine, and we remain committed to continuing to deliver our strategy of supplying innovative products, services and research that impact the development of personalised medicines through 2016 and beyond," said Chief Executive Officer Darrin Disley in a statement.
Shares in Horizon Discovery were up 1.7% at 180.50 pence Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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