Fusion Antibodies makes £1.1m loss as it restructures business

Belfast biotech firm says it is repositioning company’s service offering to best serve clients

Fusion Antibodies’ latest half-year results show group revenue fell to £1.9m, down from £2.4m for the same period last year, while spending on research and development rose by 7% to £450,000. Photograph: iStock
Fusion Antibodies’ latest half-year results show group revenue fell to £1.9m, down from £2.4m for the same period last year, while spending on research and development rose by 7% to £450,000. Photograph: iStock

Fusion Antibodies, a Belfast-based contract research firm, made a loss of £1.1 million (€1.3m) for the six months to the end of September as it attempts to restructure the business.

The company’s latest half-year results show group revenue also fell to £1.9 million, down from £2.4 million for the same period last year, while spending on research and development rose by 7 per cent to £450,000.

Newly-installed chief executive Adrian Kinkaid said: “We are repositioning the company’s service offering to best serve our clients in therapeutic antibody drug discovery. Following the restructuring of our commercial team and once again attending in-person conferences, this is the right time to realign our services with client needs.

“By integrating our current discovery, engineering and supply services into one integrated end-to-end service we aim to enhance the client journey with the development of high performing antibodies to their targets,” he said.

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Mr Kinkaid, who was appointed as chief executive in August, said the integrated approach has been trialed with an existing client with “exceptionally good results” and would be augmented by the company’s new mammalian display technology. “While this has been a challenging period the board believes that we can deliver the H2 [second-half] performance necessary to continue to build shareholder value in the company.”

Fusion’s cash position as of the end of September was £1.2 million, down from £2 million at the end of March this year.

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy

Eoin Burke-Kennedy is Economics Correspondent of The Irish Times