Life sciences investment group Malin loses €9.6m in first half

Listed life sciences investment group Malin has reported its maiden set of results.

Excluding the costs of establishing the company, Malin reported a loss before tax of €9.6 million with revenue from its various investments amounting to €2.5 million in the first half – effectively two months from its March 25th flotation.

Start-up costs added a further €17.1 million to that figure.

Malin has raised more than €370 million in its March IPO and a subsequent share placing. It has invested in 14 businesses to date – two of them after the reporting period under review.

These include majority stakes in Altan Pharma, a Dublin firm specialising in injectable speciality drugs and Emba Neuro, which is developing technology designed by a sister company in which Malin has a stake for use in the neurovascular field.

Largest investments

Its largest investments to date have been in Altan, a clinical stage company in dermatology and wound care called

Novan

, that is looking to capitalise on its success in addressing the difficulty of storing nitric oxide, and in

Melinta

, which is focused on overcoming drug-resistant, hospital-acquired infections.

After the reporting period, Malin made its biggest investment – almost €73 million – in biotech group Immunocore.

"We have expeditiously deployed the capital we raised from our ESM share placings in high-calibre life sciences assets across multiple therapeutic areas , markets and development stages and we are very encouraged by the progress of these companies," said Kelly Martin, who took over as chief executive in August and previously held the same role in biopharma group Elan.