Oxford BioMedica PLC on Wednesday warned it will swing to a loss in 2022 and revenue will fall as Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing for AstraZeneca PLC will take a pause.

Shares in the company were 6.0% lower at 600.39 pence each in London on Wednesday morning, one of the worst mid-cap performers.

The Oxford-based company, which develops gene and cell therapies and manufactures drugs for other pharmaceutical firms, said talks with FTSE 100-listed Astra for a possible extension of a supply deal are continuing.

In 2021, revenue rose 63% to £142.8 million from £87.7 million. Oxford BioMedica swung to a pretax profit of £19.9 million from a £6.6 million loss.

‘[The] 2021 financial performance was exceptional due to large-scale manufacture of the adenovirus-based Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, and we have successfully manufactured over 100 million doses since the partnership began. During the year, we also built on our existing partnerships, including with Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as signed two new partnerships with innovative biotech companies, Immatics and Arcellx,’ Chair & Interim Chief Executive Officer Roch Doliveux commented.

‘2022 will be another important year as we execute on our strategy to become a global viral vector leader, providing life-changing therapies and vaccines to patients. With the outsourced vector manufacturing supply market growing rapidly, we see significant potential to build upon our success with lentiviral vectors and expand the scope of our innovative process development and manufacturing to all classes of viral vectors.’

Viral vectors are tools which are used to deliver genetic material to cells. They can be used for gene therapies and vaccine development.

Looking to 2022, Oxford BioMedica warned it will post an operating loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, swinging from an operating Ebitda of £35.9 million in 2021.

‘The group expects to be loss-making on an operating Ebitda level in 2022, after consolidation of Oxford Biomedica Solutions. This is driven by one-off costs for integrating the new business, as well as R&D costs, which are targeted to be higher than in 2021 as the group invests in innovation,’ the company explained.

‘Currently, total revenues in 2022 are expected to be lower than in 2021 (but significantly ahead of 2020) due to a pause in vaccine manufacturing activity while discussions with AstraZeneca continue on a potential extension of the supply agreement.’

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