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(Alliance News) - Oxford BioMedica PLC on Wednesday said sales more than doubled in the first half of 2021 thanks to Covid vaccine manufacturing contracts, and it announced an investment from the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd.
The Oxford-based company, which develops gene and cell therapies and manufactures drugs for other pharmaceutical firms, made revenue of GBP81.3 million, up from GBP34.0 million in the first half of 2021. That helped it swing to a pretax profit of GBP19.2 million, from a loss of GBP6.1 million.
Shares were up 6.5% to 1,574.00 pence in London on Wednesday morning, the top performer in the FTSE 250 index.
Earnings were largely driven by Oxford BioMedica's contract to manufacture the AstraZeneca PLC Covid vaccine. The two companies signed an 18-month agreement in September 2020.
Second-half revenue is expected to be at a similar level to the first half. While Oxford BioMedica is confident of announcing new partnerships in the rest of the year, "leading to additional revenue streams", those will be offset by reduced revenue due to planned clean and recalibration of manufacturing suites.
In March, Oxford BioMedica said Sanofi SA had ended the collaboration and license agreement the pair had entered in 2018 for the process development and manufacturing of lentiviral vectors to treat haemophilia. However, the UK company said it remains on good terms with Sanofi, and the impact on revenue over the next two years is expected to be "negligible".
Meanwhile, operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation will be below the first half figure of GBP27.1 million, because of an increase in research and development, administrative, and bioprocessing costs.
"As we move from strength to strength, and with rapid growth in the cell and gene therapy market, we are in a great position to maximise on the opportunities ahead, both in lentiviral vectors as well as other viral vector types and look forward to the remainder of 2021 and beyond with considerable confidence," Chief Executive John Dawson said.
Separately, Oxford BioMedica announced that vaccine manufacturing giant the Serum Institute of India has agreed to make a strategic investment of GBP50.0 million. The Serum Institute will buy 3.4 million newly issued shares for 1,478p each, equal to Tuesday's closing price, giving it a 3.9% stake.
Oxford BioMedica said it will use the money to nearly double the size of its "Oxbox" factory complex, to 84,000 square feet from 45,000 square feet. The additional facilities will include manufacturing capacity for vaccines and other products.
"Serum Life Sciences is delighted to have a strategic partnership with Oxford BioMedica, with the objective of building long term capacity in the UK," Serum Institute Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla said.
Dawson said: "This investment will allow us to expand capacity at Oxbox at a time when our business development pipeline has never looked stronger."
By Ivan Edwards; ivanedwards@alliancenews.com
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