(Alliance News) - Allergy Therapeutics PLC on Wednesday said it swung to a profit in its most recent financial year as sales of the Venomil and Acarovac Plus vaccines "grew very strongly".
The allergy vaccine developer reported a GBP3.5 million pretax profit for its year ended June 30, reversing a GBP7.5 million loss the year before.
The transformation was credited to strong Venomil and Acarovac Plus sales, as well as "reasonable growth" in Pollinex and Pollinex Quattro vaccine sales, which took group revenue up 7.9% to GBP73.7 million from GBP68.3 million.
Allergy Therapeutics said: "In terms of products, Venomil, Acarovac Plus, Pollinex and Pollinex Quattro were the top performers. Higher sales of Venomil, used for bee and wasp allergies, have been driven by a number of allergists using the product for the first time.
"The increase of Pollinex and Pollinex Quattro has been driven by increased penetration of the markets due to the quality of the products and the expertise of our sales and marketing team. We continue to look for new markets and we are exploring potential partnership options for the Chinese market."
The firm is predicting "increasing regulatory requirements" in its sector going forward, which is likely to create "both challenges and opportunities in the short and mid-term".
Chief Executive Manuel Llobet said: "Allergy Therapeutics has traded well in 2019 with good sales growth, cost control and the favourable settlement of legal action delivering profitability for the year. Clinically, the unexpected failure of the Birch trial has been a disappointment, but we have learned from this outcome and will apply the lessons to our future clinical field-trials including the Grass MATA MPL phase 3 trial.
"We are looking forward to the first in human peanut trial in the summer of next year. With our strong cash position, successful core products and exciting R&D pipeline, we look forward to the future with confidence."
Shares in Allergy Therapeutics were up 0.8% at 13.10 pence in London on Wednesday morning.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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Allergy Thera. (AGY)