DNL.L Regulatory News (DNL)

26 January 2022

Diurnal Group plc

("Diurnal" or the "Company")

Trading update

Strong sales growth (+75%) driven by good Alkindi® performance and first sales of Efmody®

Initial launches of Efmody® in Germany, UK and Austria in line with the Company's expectations

Diurnal Group plc (AIM: DNL), the specialty pharmaceutical company targeting patient needs in chronic endocrine (hormonal) diseases, today provides an unaudited trading update for the six months ended 31 December 2021 ("Period").

Financial highlights:

Revenue

· Total revenues for the Period increased to £2.16m, representing year-on-year growth of 75% (six months ended 31 December 2020: £1.21m).

· Alkindi® (hydrocortisone granules in capsules for opening) product sales (including royalties) for the Period increased to £1.74m, representing year-on-year growth of 46% (six months ended 31 December 2020: £1.19m).

o Continued growth achieved in core markets (UK, Germany, Italy and Austria) with sales of £1.28m for the Period (six months ended 31 December 2020: £0.92m), increasing by 39% year-on-year despite the continued impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on patients' ability to visit hospitals and consequently physicians' ability to switch these patients to Alkindi®.

o Series of Alkindi® launches planned by Diurnal's global distribution partners in the first half of calendar year 2022, which are expected to further underpin the growth of Alkindi®.

· Efmody® (modified-release hydrocortisone) initial product sales for the Period of £0.39m (six months ended 31 December 2020: £nil) were in line with the Company's expectations, reflecting sales in the initial launch markets of Germany, UK and Austria since the first pricing approvals in September 2021.

o Efmody® sales are expected to accelerate significantly in the first half of calendar year 2022, as the Company begins to receive pricing and formulary approvals in its target European markets.

Cash

· Cash and cash equivalents as at 31 December 2021: £24.4m (as at 31 December 2020: £20.3m), including R&D tax credit of £1.5m received in December 2021.

Martin Whitaker, Chief Executive Officer of Diurnal, commented: 

"We are pleased that Alkindi® revenues have shown good growth, despite the continued challenges in access to hospitals due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, impacting both patients and our commercial team. We are also pleased with the continued progress of our commercialisation partners for Alkindi® and look forward to an increased contribution from territories outside of our core markets as commercial launch activities progress during 2022. We are now focused on the commercial launch and roll-out of Efmody® and expect to initiate commercial launch in key European markets during 2022 as we complete local pricing and reimbursement activities."

As reported at the Company's results for the year ended 30 June 2021 on 14 September 2021, Diurnal's financial year end has been changed to 31 December, with the next statutory reporting due for the 18-month period to 31 December 2022.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (MAR).

Notes to Editors

About Diurnal Group plc

Founded in 2004, Diurnal is a UK-headquartered, European specialty pharma company developing hormone therapeutics for the global market for the life-long treatment of chronic endocrine conditions, including congenital adrenal hyperplasia, adrenal insufficiency and hypogonadism. Its expertise and innovative research activities focus on circadian-based endocrinology to yield novel product candidates in the rare and chronic endocrine disease arena.

For further information about Diurnal, please visit www.diurnal.co.uk

Date of Preparation: January 2022 Code: CORP-GB-0165