Post period-end, Oxford BioDynamics (OPD) picked up the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation, but acknowledgement from the Head of State will only get you so far. You get a better idea of where the biomarker developer might be headed through the collaborative agreements undertaken during the period.
The company’s proprietary EpiSwitch platform essentially enables clinicians to identify and evaluate changes in the regulation of a genome long before they manifest themselves as obvious abnormalities. It’s cutting edge stuff – and the potential applications are myriad.
By necessity, the adoption of any novel technology in the pharma/biotech space requires practical demonstrations of its efficacy, even beyond the licencing phase. To this end, Oxford BioDynamics has been engaged in a clinical trial, with Imperial College London to look at screening methods for prostate cancer, together with a collaboration with an Italian private scientific research hospital – Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza – to develop biomarkers for the diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder. That’s in addition to clinical projects linked to immuno-oncology, fibrosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Bloomberg consensus gives an adjusted earnings loss of 1.0p for the September 2019 year-end, falling to negative 0.7p in FY2020.
| OXFORD BIODYNAMICS (OBD) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 160p | MARKET VALUE: | £148m | |
| TOUCH: | 154-163p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 226p | LOW: 118p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | NA | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 20p | NET CASH: | £16.9m | |
| Half-year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2018 | 0.5 | -1.4 | -1.3 | nil |
| 2019 | 0.6 | -1.6 | -1.4 | nil |
| % change | +21 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | - | |||
| Payment: | - |
