Angle losses widen in 'breakthrough year'

Liquid biopsy specialist Angle described a “breakthrough year” in its 2022 results on Friday, with both FDA clearance and positive results from the ovarian cancer study being achieved.

The AIM-traded company said its revenue for the 12 months ended 31 December was unchanged from the prior year at £1m.

Its loss for the year totalled £21.7m, reflecting planned investment, widening from a loss of £15m in 2021.

The firm raised gross proceeds of £20.1m from both existing and new institutional investors, and ended 2022 with cash and cash equivalents of £31.9m.

Looking ahead, Angle said its product and services revenues for 2023 were progressing well, with unaudited first quarter revenue “strongly ahead” year-on-year.

The pharma services business was said to be growing well, with new customers such as Crescendo Biologics, and a growing pipeline of opportunities under discussion.

Angle’s repeat pharma services business model was being demonstrated with existing customers signing additional contracts, the board added.

The company’s prostate cancer pilot study enrollment was on track for headline data around the end of the year.

Angle had also signed a corporate deal with BioView for the development of a HER2 breast cancer test, which was expected to deliver revenues of around £1.2m in the initial phase, with the prospect of adding other large corporate partners in due course.

The board said it was encouraged by the initial results from third-party molecular tests on the Parsortix CTC harvests, which were opening the potential for high-value molecular tests in the future for pharma services and clinical use.

Shortly after the year-end, Angle appointed two new non-executive directors, strengthening the board for the next phase of the company's development.

The firm said its current pipeline of commercial opportunities supported its confidence in delivering strong growth in 2023 and beyond.

“2022 was a breakthrough year for Angle, with the world's first ever FDA product clearance for a system to harvest CTCs, intact living cancer cells, from metastatic breast cancer patient blood for subsequent analysis,” said non-executive chairman Garth Selvey.

“This was followed by Angle’s ovarian cancer study demonstrating the clinical validity of analysing Parsortix CTCs for real-world clinical applications.

“We are executing on our strategy to commercialise the Parsortix system through: a product business, with distribution partners for Parsortix instruments and consumables; and a services business, to utilise the Parsortix system in cancer drug trials and as an accelerator and demonstrator to support product sales.”

Selvey said that in both business areas, Angle was looking to leverage corporate partnerships to accelerate multiple commercial opportunities through clinical validation, regulatory approval and reimbursement authorities.

“The increasing number of published studies for a variety of cancer types combined with the FDA clearance have placed Angle in a strong position to play a leading role in the emerging liquid biopsy market for personalised cancer care.

“The CTCs harvested by the Parsortix system have wide applicability for diagnosis, treatment selection and monitoring to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.

“We are pleased to see that 2023 has started strongly and look forward to continued commercial progress in the year ahead.”

At 1046 BST, shares in Angle were up 5.8% at 21.69p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.