Oxford Biomedica reports year of solid growth

Oxford Biomedica reported a 63% improvement in total revenues in its preliminary results on Wednesday, to ยฃ142.8m.
The FTSE 250 cell and gene therapy company said revenues from bioprocessing and commercial development continued their upward trend, growing 87% over the 12 months ended 31 December.

It put that growth down to large-scale commercial manufacture of the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

Revenues from milestones, licences and royalties, which included recognition of the ยฃ4m licence fee from Boehringer Ingelheim, decreased 25% to ยฃ14.4m.

The board noted that in 2020, a licence fee from Bristol-Myers Squibb subsidiary Juno Therapeutics of ยฃ7.8m was recognised.

Operating EBITDA and operating profits improved by ยฃ28.5m and ยฃ26.5m, respectively, with the group generating an operating EBITDA profit of ยฃ35.9m and an operating profit of ยฃ20.8m.

The firm’s platform division made an operating EBITDA profit of ยฃ45.3m and an operating profit of ยฃ31.4m, while the product division made an operating EBITDA loss of ยฃ9.4m and an operating loss of ยฃ10.6m.

Cash generated from operations totalled ยฃ24.5m in 2021, swinging from ยฃ3.9m used in operations in 2020, as a result of vaccine manufacture for AstraZeneca, offset by further operational investments required.

Gross proceeds of ยฃ50m were raised through a placing with Serum Life Sciences in September, the company noted, to develop the fallow area of the Oxbox manufacturing facility.

Cash at year-end on 31 December totalled ยฃ108.9m, and ยฃ144m on 31 March.

“I am delighted with our performance in 2021 which was a true testament to the hard work of all our employees,” said chair and interim chief executive officer Dr Roch Doliveux.

“2021 financial performance was exceptional due to large-scale manufacture of the adenovirus-based Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, and we have successfully manufactured over 100 million doses since the partnership began.

“During the year we also built on our existing partnerships, including with Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as signed two new partnerships with innovative biotech companies, Immatics and Arcellx.”

Dr Doliveux said 2022 would be “another important year”, as the company executed on its strategy to become a “global viral vector leader”, providing “life-changing therapies” and vaccines to patients.

“With the outsourced vector manufacturing supply market growing rapidly, we see significant potential to build upon our success with lentiviral vectors and expand the scope of our innovative process development and manufacturing to all classes of viral vectors.

“Our recently launched Boston, US-based adeno-associated virus (AAV) manufacturing and innovation business, brings a fully established and operating ‘plug and play’ platform, four patent families, and the full breadth of AAV capabilities and capacity into Oxford Biomedica.

“This lays the foundation to increase our presence in the strategically important US market and build our global footprint.”

At 0853 BST, shares in Oxford Biomedica were down 5.84% at 601.68p.

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