Collagen Solutions narrows full year losses as revenue surges

Collagen Solutions, a manufacturer and developer of collagen medical products, narrowed its full year losses as revenue jumped following a new acquisition and investment in patented products.

Revenue and other income for the year ending 31 March increased by 213% to £3.2m. The company said this reflected solid results from newly acquired Southern Lights Biomaterials, which increased its global reach.

The company said that revenue for North America grew by 231% to £1.808m, which was also partly due to the acquisition and organic growth from existing customers. Revenue from Asia increased by 311% to £1.175m. Revenue for Europe was flat at £147,000 for the year, but the company expects growth from the region to increase due to an appointment of new dedicated manager for the region.

Administrative expenses increased 95.4% to over £2.4m. Losses before interest tax and depreciation and amortisation (LBITDA) decreased 40.6% to £410,016. Loss per share fell 51.3% to 0.57p.

Net cash used in operations during the year was down 81.8% to £194,82 and net cash used in investing activities was also down 72.6% to £660,012. The company’s cash balance was down 26.4% to £2,493,146.

Collagen Solutions said they had a mix of activities as 61% came from contract manufacturing, 31% materials supply, and 8% development and other services. It said that is “relatively consistent” with last year's activity as there was shift of service revenue to contact manufacturing.

In September 2015 the company acquired an intellectual property licence to a biomaterials platform technology based around a bi-layered collagen sponge which was the result of research at Cambridge and MIT universities.

The company said that through this licence they would be able to create strategic value through appropriate partnering and investment in a way that de-risks the company's opportunity in collagen biomaterial applications.

In May this year Collagen solutions was also granted the US patent for the processing of a novel biomaterial for heart valve surgery patients and other applications. During the last year the company has announced collaborations with various academic and industry partners, including participation in the European Horizon 2020 consortium to develop a disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson's which could slow down the progression of the disease rather than offering symptomatic benefits.

The company said they had set up a joint venture set up with Cre8ive in April 2016 to exploit distribution channels in China.

Chief executive Jamal Rushdy said: "Our focused strategy is to scale our commercial platform, and develop finished devices through both internal development and acquired technologies, such as the ChondroMimetic platform, that we will commercialise via licensing and distribution partnerships.

“We strengthened and grew our core biomaterials supply and manufacturing business resulting in a full year of solid results from our acquired Southern Lights Biomaterials business, and we have also executed new customer agreements and continue to establish a global commercial organisation focused on core business growth.

“The past year was transformational for the company in terms of a step change in scale, product and technology breadth, and organisational development… to become the industry's first choice for regenerative biomaterials."