Ixico H1 revenues grow despite Covid-19 impacts on clinical development sector

(Sharecast News) - Clinical research firm Ixico said on Monday that revenues were expected to have improved in the six months ended 31 March, despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the clinical development sector.
Revenues were pegged to be around £4.9m for the half, an 8% year-on-year improvement, while the group's adjusted order book was said to have grown from £15.3m to £19.0m, partly driven by the signing of £9.4m of contracts across several clients and neurological disease indications over the period.

The AIM-listed group also highlighted that it had a "strong" cash balance of £7.0m, up slightly from the £6.7m on hand at the same time a year earlier.

Ixico also acknowledged that its largest client had stopped dosing participants in its phase III and open-label extension trials in Huntington's disease back in March. However, the client had now provided it with a revised protocol for the trials.

Previously, Ixico had indicated that the maximum impact on revenues could be around £2.7m for the remainder of the 2021 trading year and about £5.0m in 2022 but receipt of the revised protocol enabled the company to estimate impacts on its 2021 performance as being roughly £700,000 and £2.8m for 2022, with a total of £7.1m removed from its order book through to 2024.

Chief executive Giulio Cerroni said: "Considering the delays experienced in the past year to new trial start-ups (other than Covid-19 trials), we are particularly pleased with the increasing pace of new contract wins, combined with continued top-line growth reported for the first half of 2021."

As of 0905 BST, Ixico shares were up 6.67% at 88.54p.