1 billion sales forcast!3 Jul 2017 10:48
Posted last week by cadburyhill. Article from FT.
"Oxford BioMedica
Founded 20 years ago, Oxford BioMedica has grown rapidly in recent years, increasing staffing levels from 80 at the start of 2014 to 275 now, and investing £26m in the past two years in manufacturing facilities and laboratories. Its most important asset is the LentiVector platform — a gene delivery system using a virus that is introduced into the body, where it is used to transport cells that have been engineered to recognise and attack cancerous cells.
This treatment, known as CAR-T, is one of the most promising new approaches to tackling cancer. This opens up the prospect of lucrative partnerships with big drugmakers, which will need its delivery system as they develop their own CAR-T products.
In particular, the LentiVector has spawned a tie-up with Novartis, the Swiss pharma group, which has helped to increase the company’s revenues by 64 per cent in a year, from £18.8m in 2015 to £30.8m in 2016.
John Dawson, Oxford BioMedica’s chief executive, says a key “trigger” for the share price will be the expected approval, and launch, this year of the first CAR-T therapy for the treatment of leukaemia.
Peter Welford, an analyst at Jefferies, recently noted that Novartis had, for the first time, included Oxford BioMedica’s CTL019 on its pipeline of possible blockbusters, “underscoring its confidence in the product’s commercial potential”.
Jefferies is forecasting at least $1bn worldwide peak sales, which will provide “an important sustainable revenue stream” of about £65m to £75m in annual income for Oxford BioMedica, Mr Welford adds. The biotech’s share price has risen more than 30 per cent since the start of the year, at 5.37p."