Concepta losses widen ahead of myLotus' UK roll-out

(Sharecast News) - Concepta saw losses widen in the first half of its trading year as it ramped up for the launch of its myLotus fertility product across the UK within the next few months.For the six months ended 30 June, Concepta turned in a 38% deeper loss of £1.49m, as a result of costs associated with getting myLotus ready for its UK launch.Once Concepta has completed its UK roll-out, the firm is aiming for a European launch for myLotus, an easy-to-use home test that measures hormone levels in urine to give quantitative and qualitative measurements to help reveal an explanation for a woman's lack of fertility.While the Chinese market was Concepta's first choice for the product, progress had been "disappointing", leading new executive chairman Matthew Walls to pivot towards the UK and Europe."Whilst the positive study results from the Changhai hospital, Shanghai have helped bolster our confidence in the China product, given our limited bandwidth and revenue growth objectives our efforts will be aligned to support the successful launch of myLotus in the UK," said Walls.Concepta ended the half with roughly £250,000 cash on hand - almost £1m less than it had access to a year ago - but noted that a £2m placing in August had helped the group bolster its standing somewhat.Elsewhere, Concepta revealed it had appointed Dr David Darrock to the board as its new chief operating officer.As of 1200 BST, Concepta shares had crashed 23.08% to 3.50p.