Oncimmune Holdings' loss deepens on spiralling costs

Oncimmune Holdings reported a widened interim loss on Wednesday as increases to research & development costs and administrative costs outweighed a rise in revenue.

For the six-month period ended 30 November, the cancer immunodiagnostics specialist reported a loss before tax of £3.8m, a 37.3% increase in loss over the same period the year before, as research & development costs increased by 54.0% to £0.7m and administrative costs jumped by 35.2% to £2.6m.

Interim revenue came in at £0.1m, up by 57.1% as the AIM traded company seeks to improve sales by partnering across a range of applications and through acquisitions to generate scale and reach wider end markets.

Chief executive Adam Hill said: "Following the launch of our three-year forward strategy in October 2018, a significant amount of work has been undertaken in building the organisation required to deliver the strategy, as well as engaging with partners able to co-develop and distribute Oncimmune's biomarker panels in support of our growth trajectory."

The company had cash and cash equivalents of £9.0m at 30 November, up from £6.3m at the same point the year before.

By the time summer arrives, Oncimmune will receive formal results of its ECLS NHS lung cancer screening study, which is anticipated will create a step change in screening opportunities for EarlyCDT-Lung as preparatory work is already underway to use the test commercially within sectors of the NHS for risk assessment of high-risk candidates.

"Aligned with the forward strategy, and with the support of Oncimmune's new Scientific Board, our R&D programme has been focused on exploring the potential of tumour-related antibodies as combined and complementary diagnostic tests. Our commercial effort has concentrated on developing propositions for the diagnostic and pharmaceutical industry to maximise the latent potential of Oncimmune's immunogenic protein platform," said Hill.

Oncimmune's shares were up 0.52% at 96.50p at 0858 GMT.