Aptamer Group PLC on Thursday announced a cost-cutting drive as it aims to break even within two years.
The York-based biotech firm that makes synthetic antibodies capable of binding to targets such as tumour cells plans to reduce its annual cost base to £3.5 million in the current financial year, down 45% from £6.4 million in the year to June 30, with job losses expected.
‘The company will focus on tight costs discipline with the intention of reaching an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation and cash break even position within two years,’ it said in a statement.
To further support this aim, Aptamer is targeting revenue of £3.0 million for the current financial year, rising to £6.0 million for the year ending June 30, 2026. These figures are significantly lower than previous targets and reflect a change of emphasis in setting expectations, it explained.
Aptamer said that since the initial public offering it has found that whilst there is significant appetite for its technology, reaching and securing licensing agreements is taking much longer than anticipated and can be impacted by factors outside the group’s control.
The shake-up came as the firm confirmed it had successfully raised £3.6 million by way of a placing and subscription. Proceeds will be used for working capital purposes.
Aptamer also announced a reshuffle of its senior management team with Stephen Hull becoming executive chairman, replacing Ian Gilham. Co-founder Arron Tolley now serves as chief technical officer while the other co-founder David Bunka is chief scientific officer. The company is looking for a new chief executive. The changes take effect from August 21.
In addition, Andrew Rapson will become chief financial officer replacing former interim chief executive and CFO Rob Quinn, while Alastair Fleming remains as chief operating officer.
Aptamer’s model will remain to use its contract research relationships as a platform to build lower-risk fee-for-service revenues and horizon scan for material licence fee opportunities. Under the revised strategy, the company’s focus will be on developing the core fee-for-service revenues to achieve profitability.
Earlier on Thursday, the company said it had signed two new contracts with an unnamed ‘top five pharma partner’, valued up to £219,000.
The first contract is for the development of an Optimer pair to a neurodegenerative biomarker for use in an immunoassay platform.
The second contract is a follow-on contract for the final stage of Optimer development to a neuronal protein target for immunohistochemistry, following positive results in the earlier stages of Optimer development.
‘Optimer binders are being sought as alternatives to traditional antibodies for analytical assays to enable increased accuracy and selectivity in the detection of validated biomarkers, while the extended target range of Optimer binders compared with antibodies enables the generation of reagents to novel biomarkers,’ Aptamer said.
Shares in Aptamer tumbled 32% to 1.25 pence in London on Thursday.
Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
