3rd Jun 2024 12:38
(Alliance News) - hVIVO PLC's contract win "neatly demonstrates the potential" of its new Canary Wharf facility, an analyst on Monday said.
hVIVO said the GBP2.5 million contract, with a mid-sized pharmaceutical company, aims to identify a dose of hVIVO's Omicron BA.5 challenge agent that establishes a safe, measurable and reproducible disease in healthy volunteers with sufficiently high infection rates to then be able to use the model to test the efficacy of antivirals and vaccines in the future.
hVIVO said the study is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the majority of revenue recognised in 2025. It will take place at the company's new CL3 quarantine facility at Canary Wharf in east London.
The facility has been specifically designed to meet the highest hospital isolation suite standards suitable for CL3 pathogens and is equipped with advanced safety features, the company said.
Dependent on the successful completion of the characterisation study and receipt of relevant regulatory approvals, hVIVO expects to conduct multiple Omicron human challenge trials to test the efficacy of medical products from mid-2025.
Chief Executive Yamin Khan said: "Securing this contract further validates the move to our new facilities and the new opportunities it brings for CL3 category projects."
Analysts at Stifel noted hVIVO already has "expertise in this area, having successfully conducted the world's first COVID characterisation study, using the original COVID strain back in 2021."
"This contract neatly demonstrates the potential of hVIVO's new Canary Wharf facility which offers the highest isolation standards suitable for CL3 pathogens," the broker added.
The inclusion of advanced safety features opens up the potential for hVIVO to continue to broaden its challenge model offering into CL3-level pathogens, Stifel said.
"Given Canary Wharf is the largest facility of its kind globally and hVIVO's market-leading position in the human challenge trial space, we remain bullish on hVIVO's prospects and continue to see upside at these levels," the broker added.
hVIVO says the facility has 50 quarantine beds, with the potential to expands to 70. It moved there this year from its previous facilities in Whitechapel, east London.
Stifel reiterated a 'buy' rating on hVIVO. The stock was up 2.2% to 27.39 pence on Monday afternoon in London. It is up 78% in the past 12 months.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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