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LONDON (Alliance News) - Oxford BioDynamics PLC on Tuesday said its loss widened in the first half of its financial year due to higher staff and administrative costs.
Shares in Oxford BioDynamics were down 4.5% at 155.20 pence in late morning trade.
The biotechnology company posted a GBP1.6 million pretax loss for the six months to March 31, widening from a GBP1.3 million loss the year before.
Driving this loss was a 25% rise in staff costs to GBP1.1 million from GBP876,000. This was coupled with increased general and other administrative costs, which jumped 37% to GBP664,000 from USD485,000.
The company also only recorded other operating income of GBP1,000, having posted GBP197,000 of other operating income the year before.
More positively, research and administrative costs, excluding staff costs, dropped by more than a third to GBP203,000 from GBP316,000.
Revenue increased 21% to GBP574,000 from GBP473,000, despite revenue in the US being cut by almost two thirds to GBP55,000 from GBP162,000. Rest of world revenue increased 67% to GBP519,000 from GBP311,000 and reflected licence fee and research project income.
Epigenetics is the study changes in the expression of genes, rather than changes in the genes themselves, and is Oxford BioDynamics' main focus. The company discovers and develops epigenetic biomarkers - signs of these epigenetic changes - which can then be used to test patients for certain conditions.
During its financial first half, the company signed its fifth commercial collaboration, joined in a trial evaluating different prostate cancer screening methods, and expanded its intellectual property portfolio to cover its EpiSwitch platform.
The company also assisted with the development of epigenetic biomarkers to diagnose autism spectrum disorder and had a study published of its research into the epigenetic changes for monitoring the progression of Huntington's disease.
Oxford BioDynamics Chief Executive Christian Millar said: "We have made further strong operational and commercial progress in the first half of the year. Our EpiSwitch technology platform has been adopted by prestigious clinical trials in the US and UK; we have enhanced the senior leadership team and board to drive the next phase of growth; and have entered into promising new collaboration agreements. We were also delighted to be awarded the prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation, a great recognition of the value our EpiSwitch platform has generated to date."
