Oxford BioDynamics PLC said on Tuesday that the company will need to generate increased revenue or find additional funding in the remainder of the year, as its half-year loss widened.

Shares in the Oxford-based biotechnology firm focused on discovering and developing epigenetic biomarkers tumbled 15% to 13.68 pence on Tuesday.

Oxford BioDynamics said that ‘there continues to be a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern’.

Chief Financial Officer Paul Stockdale explained that the company ‘will need to generate increased revenue and/or additional funding during the remainder of the year’. However ‘a number of factors’ would make it difficult to predict future revenue.

Pretax loss for the half-year that ended March 31 had widened to £4.8 million from £3.3 million the previous year. Revenue increased to £220,000 from £85,000 the prior year, but was significantly exceeded by the company’s operating costs.

Staff costs rose to £2.6 million from £2.1 million the year before, and research & development costs similarly increased to £284,000 from £191,000. The company did not declare a dividend.

The company remains focused on the development and distribution of its two core products: the EpiSwitch CiRT blood test and the Prostate Screeing EpiSwitch.

The EpiSwitch CiRT blood test predicts a patient’s likely response to immune checkpoint inhibitor, or ICI, therapies, with high levels of sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and negative predictive value across 15 cancer indications where ICI treatments are approved. The tests were launched in the US in February 2022.

PSE is a blood test that combines a prostate specific antigen test with a EpiSwitch prostate cancer classified developed by the company. The PSE test is set to launch in the final quarter of 2023.

Chief Executive Officer Jon Burrows said: ‘We are focused on two main objectives through the remainder of our financial year and through the end of calendar 2023. On CiRT, we continue to concentrate our efforts on sustaining growth in orders and reimbursements for the test and establishing a sustainable revenue engine from the product.

‘For PSE, we are on track to stand up our clinical labs and launch this important and highly sought-after test by the end of the calendar year.’

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