Revenues are rising at Oxford Biomedica (OXB) thanks to the drug developer’s commercial partnership with pharma giant Novartis (Ch:NOVN). But the drug they’ve collaborated on – leukaemia treatment CTL019 – has yet to be fully approved by regulators. The drug isn’t expected to get the green light until October at the earliest. But shareholders can take solace from the fact that pre-tax losses are narrowing. That’s because management has been instilling better financial discipline, which should be further assisted by a recent debt refinancing. Cash outflow before financing activities fell to £2.2m compared with £3.2m this time last year and post period-end, the cash position looks even better. In July, a new agreement with Novartis – initially for three years but extendable to five – included an upfront payment worth $10m (£7.8m).
OXB is still looking for licence partners for the other drug development programmes it has in the pipeline, which include potential treatments for Parkinson’s disease, corneal graft rejection and solid cancer tumours. It also recently entered a £2m collaboration agreement with a consortium of partners focused on gene and cell therapy manufacturing, co-funded by governmental agency, Innovate UK.
Analysts at N+1 Singer expect losses to narrow to £5.5m for the year ending December 2017, equating to virtually flat EPS, compared with losses of £20.3m and a loss per share of 0.6p in 2016.
| OXFORD BIOMEDICA (OXB) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 8.9p | MARKET VALUE: | £275m | |
| TOUCH: | 8.9-8.95p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 11p | LOW: 3p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | NA | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 0.3p | NET DEBT: | 217% | |
| Half-year to 30 June | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2016 | 12.5 | -12.0 | -0.4 | nil |
| 2017 | 15.7 | -5.8 | -0.1 | nil |
| % change | +26 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na |
