29th Sep 2014 10:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - Advanced Oncotherapy PLC Monday posted a widened pretax loss in the half year to end-June as it continued to develop towards commercialisation its proton therapy system for the treatment of cancer.
The company posted a pretax loss of GBP2.3 million, widened from a loss of GBP777,023 a year before, due to a step up in administrative expenses, as revenue rose to GBP50,884 from GBP18,790.
The company posted administrative expenses of GBP2.5 million, up from GBP664,869 a year before, as a result of increased expenses after the acquisition ADAM SA and the development of its business.
Advanced Oncotherapy's key product its LIGHT radiotherapy system which stands for Linac for Image Guided Hadron Therapy. The system is based around technology Advanced Oncotherapy acquired in 2013 with ADAM, a spin-off company from the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, in Geneva.
During the half year, the company strengthened its management team and reorganised its business to focus on LIGHT. It is looking to sell its assets that are not part of this focus, including its properties in Folkstone and Southampton. It said it will use proceeds from this sale to continue developing LIGHT.
It said it has taken action to lower its debt and has made a provision of GBP10.1 million against a possible settlement in a claim brought against it by the buyer of a German business it sold in 2011.
Advanced Oncotherapy said it has letters of intent to deliver eight LIGHT systems to locations in the UK and the US, which it said if converted into full orders could be worth around GBP200 million.
Following the half year end the company raised GBP12 million to continue the development of LIGHT. It is considering other longer-term funding options for the business, including grant funding and milestone-related stage payments as the LIGHT systems move closer to completion.
"Not only do we expect to generate significant value for shareholders through the development and launch of LIGHT, but on a real human level this innovation has the potential to bring life-changing cancer treatments to thousands of patients around the world," said Chief Executive Sanjeev Pandya in a statement.
Shares in Advanced Oncotherapy were trading down 5.7% at 4.41 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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