9th Apr 2019 09:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - Avacta Group PLC on Tuesday reported a widened first half loss mainly due to lower income contribution from life sciences unit.
The stock was trading 8.5% lower on Tuesday at 34.30 pence a share.
The developer of Affimer biotherapeutics and research reagents said pretax loss in the six months to the end of January widened to GBP5.9 million from GBP4.5 million reported a year earlier, as revenue fell by 34% to GBP972,000 from GBP1.5 million.
Revenue contribution from the company's affimer business, Avacta Life Sciences, declined to GBP290,000 from GBP690,000 a year earlier due to a planned reduction in funded research services income. The company said it expects the new LG Chem development programme, which started in February, to contribute in the second half of the year.
Meanwhile, revenue from Avacta Animal Health, the allergy and diagnostic testing business, decreased marginally to GBP690,000 from GBP770,000 year-on-year.
Research & development costs from the expanding Affimer therapeutics programme increased to GBP2.4 million from GBP1.5 million the year ago.
"The group remains focused on the key objective of first-time-in-human data for the Affimer therapeutic programme and growing a profitable Affimer reagents business," said Chief Executive Alastair Smith.
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