23rd May 2018 14:08
LONDON (Alliance News) - Optibiotix Health PLC said Wednesday it made "strong progress" in the year ended November 2017 as it transitioned from a research and development into a commercial business.
The life sciences company focused on developing compounds to tackle obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes posted a pretax profit profit of GBP1.7 million, compared with a GBP1.5 million loss the year before.
The swing to profit was attributed to the April 2017 listing of the company's unit SkinBiotherapeutics PLC, formerly SkinBiotix. However, there was a GBP4.1 million adjustment change in the value of SkinBiotherapeutics following its listing.
The company's operating loss in its financial year 2017, with this adjustment, stood at GBP2.1 million. Optibiotix holds a 41.9% stake in SkinBiotherapeutics.
The company's revenue decreased 34% to GBP191,073 from GBP288,119 the year before. Its administrative costs increased to GBP2.2 million from GBP1.8 million. Due to a "number" of non-recurring costs associated with the SkinBiotherapeutics listing.
OptiBiotix signed 10 commercial agreements in the period with the likes of DSM N.V, Tata Group, Nutrilinea and Galenicim Health S.L. The company is "pleased" with the "high level" of interest in both its LPLDL and SlimBiome products.
Looking forward, the company hopes the "rich deal" pipeline it has created will "translate into material revenue growth" in the next financial year.
Chief Executive Officer Stephen O'Hara said: "OptiBiotix has made significant progress in the last 12 months which has seen a growing number of awards for our science and products and an increased deal flow. We anticipate both the rate and value of deal flow increasing as we develop new applications, take existing products into new territories, and leverage our technology platforms to develop new product opportunities. We are particularly excited by the interest from partners in developing our products into biopharmaceuticals and see this as an area of significant future development and potential value uplift."
"The last twelve months has been an exciting period of transition for the company with new board appointments, ten commercial agreements, and an FDA registration for SlimBiome and LPLDL. We have been pleased with the progress of SkinBiotherapeutics PLC, which is making strong commercial progress and preparing for human studies, which if successful, should provide a substantive uplift in valuation. On behalf of everyone at OptiBiotix Health PLC, we would like to thank our investors for their continued support and look forward to an exciting future in this exciting area of science which has the potential to revolutionise the future of health care," he added.
Shares in Optibiotix Health were down 5.1% to 68.80 pence each Wednesday.
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