FULL year losses have doubled over the last year at AIM-listed Fusion Antibodies, the Belfast-based company specialising in gene therapies for cancers and other conditions.
In an announcement to the Stock Market, the pharma firm - which floated in December 2017 - said losses for the year to March 31 rose to £1.3 million from £0.7m the year previous.
But the damage was done in a slow first half of the trading year, with an improvement reported over the second six months, where Fusion enjoyed a "significant increase in orders and revenues"
Full year revenues fell by 19 per cent to £2.2m, though again this was attributed to a weak first half, and the £1.6m of revenues in the second half was the company's strongest-ever six-month period.
Fusion's chief executive Dr Paul Kerr said: “We have had a strong improvement during the second half of the year which has been due to a significant increase in orders and revenues.
“This has been achieved by a mix of factors including addressing the external competitive pressures seen during the second half of 2018 and first half of 2019 and expanding and improving the quality of the company’s business development and marketing function.
“We are encouraged to see some good initial interest from potential customers in our new Rational Affinity Maturation Platform (RAMPTM) technology, introduced in December, which will enable customers to improve the performance of many of their antibody based drugs."
Dr Kerr added: "We are excited about the next 12 months and are grateful to our shareholders for their continued support.”
Fusion, which was founded in 2001 as a spin-out from Queen's University and whose equity backers include Crescent Capital, expanded and strengthened its business development team over the year. It has a staff of 38.
The company completed a major expansion of its facilities over the year, including building a new laboratory, which in turn has contributed to its cash position at year-end sitting at just £2 million (against £4.5m a year earlier).
