Oxford Biomedica sees swing to FY profit on Covid vaccine hopes

Drugs maker Oxford Biomedica, which has partnered with pharma giant AstraZeneca to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, said it expected higher second half revenues to push it to a low-to-single digit full year profit.

The company, which is pinning its hopes on the AZD1222 trial treatment, said the drug could lift revenues by more than £10m “subject to successful scale up and regulatory approval … early in the fourth quarter of 2020”.

Interim operating losses before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came in at £0.4m compared with a loss of £1.4m a year ago. Revenue rose to £34m from £32.1m.

AstraZeneca has paid the gene and cell therapy firm $15m upfront to reserve manufacturing capacity at its plant to mass produce its vaccine candidate.

Oxford Biomedica joined forces with AstraZeeneca in May to produce the vaccine and earlier this month said it could get an extra $35m plus other costs until the end of 2021 under a new 18-month deal. The vaccine will be produced in three suites in the company’s Oxbox manufacturing centre.