OptiBiotix revenues see healthy rise in first half

Obesity, cardiovascular and diabetes-focussed life sciences company OptiBiotix Health reported first-half total invoiced sales of ‘LPLDL’ and ‘SlimBiome’ as ingredient or final product of £1.074m in an update on Thursday, representing a year-on-year increase of 44.3% and ahead of its expectations for the period.

The AIM-traded firm said it believed it was in a strong position to meet or exceed its full-year sales forecast.

Each division saw growing sales, with invoiced sales in ProBiotix of £0.54m in the six months ended 30 June, up 57.7%, and PreBiotics sales of £0.54m, up 35% over the prior year.

As in previous years, there was no substantive contribution in the period from licence or royalty payments, which tended to be received in the second half of the year.

The company said it received £0.9m from the disposal of shares in SkinBioTherapeutics, which was not included in its figures.

Its figures also did not include any change in the value of its SkinBioTherapeutics investment, which increased to £22.95m as of 30 June, from £8.96m on 30 December.

“We have continued to make progress since the beginning of the current financial year with strong sales growth from a recurring revenue base which is increasing as partners launch new products, extend territories, and build brand presence,” said chief executive officer Stephen O'Hara.

“This provides a solid base for a sustainable business which will contribute to revenue growth in the second half and beyond.

“Our focus is now on growing sales of first-generation products with a smaller number of larger partners in key strategic markets and commercialising our pipeline of second-generation products.”

O'Hara said the company was now in the strongest position it had ever been in, with a “large and valuable” intellectual property portfolio in the microbiome space, multiple clinical studies showing product safety and efficacy, recurring orders, and a valuable asset in OptiBiotix's holding in SkinBioTherapeutics.

“We are also pleased to report progress with our pipeline of second-generation products with the industrial scale up of a range of our innovative SweetBiotix products with one partner, collaborative work with a second partner on jointly scaling up and commercialising another group of SweetBiotix products, and a number of large corporates signing material transfer agreements as they develop applications containing SweetBiotix.

“Of particular note is the recent progress with our microbiome modulators in developing an approach which allows us to manufacture these at scale.

“This has been a major technical challenge which was limiting commercial progress.”

That, Stephen O'Hara said, had the potential to be a “significant” value-enhancing step as it created the opportunity to precision engineer the gut and skin microbiome to prevent, manage and treat many human diseases.

“With industry and consumer interest in the microbiome and gut health growing OptiBiotix's portfolio of award winning first generation and industry disruptive second-generation products places it in a strong position for future growth in this exciting area of healthcare.”

At 1320 BST, shares in OptiBiotix Health were up 7.85% at 50.15p.