Epistem sees solid growth

Adult stem cell specialist Epistem scraped into profit in the first half of its financial year.The company, which made its maiden full year profit last year, saw profit before tax in the six months to the end of December rise to £0.1m from £5,000 in the corresponding period of 2009.Revenue rose to £2.98m from £2.76m the year before, largely driven by an improvement in the group's Contract Research and Personalised Medicine activities. Novel Therapies revenues remained constant throughout the first half based on the fixed funded resources in support of the Novartis discovery programme. "Over the second half we expect to see improving Contract Research Services and Biomarker revenues alongside the advance of the first revenues from our 'Genedrive' diagnostic platform. Novel Therapies discussions will continue across a group of partners, including Novartis, but there may be some uncertainty around the timings, duration and outcome of these discussions," the company advised.- - -jh