Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman of Open Orphan discusses progress in previous 6 months and what's to come

Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman of Open Orphan discusses progress in previous 6 months and what's to come.

Operational Highlights:

·    Completed the acquisition of hVIVO plc for an aggregate consideration of approximately GBP£13 million in equity on 17 January 2020 

·    Implemented a major restructuring and integration of our operations to drive efficiency and competitiveness which is now substantially completed

·    Successfully secured a number of RSV human challenge studies in the period including:

-      £3.4m contract with a major European biotech company, with anticipated £7m follow-on study  

-      £3.7m contract with a US biotechnology company 

·    Driving growth of Dutch early clinical development services while refocussing French operations towards biometry services

·    Large contract signed with a global leader in vaccine development 

·    Launch of COVID-19 Antibody testing partnership with Quotient Ltd

·    Appointment of Leo Toole as Group Chief Financial Officer enhancing the executive management team

Financial Highlights:

·    Cash and cash equivalents at half year end of GBP £14.7m following two successful placings:

-      Executed a fundraise on 31 January 2020 raising GBP £5.3 million at 6.1p per share (before expenses)

-      Executed a fundraise on 22 May 2020 raising GBP £12.6 million at 11p per share (before expenses)

·    Reported Interim Results

o  Revenue of GBP £7.1 m for H1 2020 - continued focus on delivering larger contracts

o  EBITDA loss of GBP £4.1m for H1 2020

o  Operating Loss of GBP £5.0m for H1 2020

·    Pro-forma Interim Results

o  Revenue of GBP £7.4m (H1 2019 Revenue of GBP £11.6m)

o  EBITDA Loss of GBP £4.7m (H1 2019 EBITDA loss of GBP £4.7m)

o  Operating Loss of GBP £5.6m (H1 2019 Operating Loss of GBP £6.3m)

·    Post completion of Merger, reduction in overheads on target to deliver annualized cost efficiencies of GBP £10.1m by end of 2020

Post Period End:

·    Acquired the CHIMagents team in July, reinforcing hVIVO's position as the world leading services company in the testing of vaccines and antivirals through human challenge study clinical trials.

·    Integrated hVIVO's unparalleled database of infectious diseases progression data into the Open Orphan data platform - expecting potential commercialisation in Q4, with some of the world's largest wearable companies for this disease progression data.

·    Progressing as planned to monetise two of our non-core assets, the 49% stake in Imutex and the 62.6% stake in PrEP.

·    The Company continues to provide testing to large commercial employers in the UK and Ireland as part of a combined COVID-19 antibody and COVID-19 PCR (swab) testing offering. 

·    Contracts signed post period end include:

-      Laboratory services contracts signed with a number of parties - a key strategic growth area for Open Orphan taking advantage of our laboratory expertise.

-      Contract signed with Codagenix Inc. for a first-in-human Phase I COVID-19 vaccine study, demonstrating that hVIVO's quarantine facility is uniquely suited to conducting Phase I studies for infectious disease vaccines such as this.

-      Further RSV human challenge study contract for £4m signed with a Top 3 global pharma company with hVIVO acting as sponsor for this study.

-      First-in-human clinical pharmacology trial signed with Carna BioSciences.

-      Contract signed with a major European pharmaceutical company for data management, statistics and medical writing to support a 750 subject oncology study.

-      Contract signed for a further £4.3m human challenge study with a top 10 global vaccine company.

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