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(Alliance News) - Aptamer Group PLC shares rose on Monday, after it noted progression on its contract with Unilever PLC.
Shares in the York, England-based biotechnology firm were up 10% to 0.80 pence each in London on Monday morning. Over the last 12 months, however, the stock has plummeted 98%.
Meanwhile, shares in FTSE 100 Unilever edged up 0.1% to 3,841.00p. Unilever is a London-based maker of food & drink, cleaning, toiletry, and personal care products.
Aptamer noted the "successful progression" of its long-standing development partnership with Unilever for identification of Optimers capable of supporting the development of novel fast moving consumer goods applications.
"Aptamer has successfully developed the required Optimers and demonstrated their performance through in-house assays. After being shipped to Unilever, the Optimers delivered highly positive and reproducible results in their laboratories, indicating their potential for use in downstream products. In parallel, Aptamer has streamlined the Optimers to improve their function and manufacturability and is working to transfer these to Unilever for further evaluation," it explained.
Based on this, Aptamer and Unilever are now drafting patent applications to protect these developments and downstream commercial applications.
Chair Steve Hull said: "Over the past two years, we have worked closely with the team at Unilever, to develop successful binders and are pleased to see the promising results the binders are delivering in their laboratories, further validating our technology and leadership position in the affinity ligand market. With such strong results and the continued progression of this partnership, we are pleased to begin patenting these binders and allow the next stage of advances."
By Sophie Rose, Alliance News senior reporter
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