Fusion Antibodies PLC on Monday reported a widened loss and reduced revenue for its latest half year, but said its growth prospects are ‘increasingly positive’.

Shares in Fusion were trading 26% lower at 4.35 pence on Monday morning in London.

The Belfast-based contract researcher, which provides discovery, design and optimisation services for therapeutic antibodies to the healthcare market, said its pretax loss for the six months that ended on September 30 was £1.4 million. This followed Fusion’s £1.3 million loss the year before.

Fusion Antibodies also said revenue decreased 71% to £541,000 from £1.9 million. It explained that trading conditions ‘remain very challenging’, and several projects for which revenue should have been recognised in the first half were instead delayed due to ‘certain technical challenges’.

This ‘commercially challenging period’, Fusion said, was mainly due to weak market conditions for investment in new drug discovery and development. Fusion had expected these constraints to ease during the period, but ‘this has not materialised as quickly as expected’.

‘During this calendar year,’ commented Chief Executive Officer Adrian Kinkaid, ‘the industry has been experiencing significant headwinds especially in the venture capital (’VC’) funded biotech sector. A number of clients have consequently delayed initiating their projects with us.’

However, Fusion Antibodies is ‘confident’ that its growth prospects are ‘increasingly positive’, noting that it expects full-year revenue to be ‘significant weighted towards’ the second half of the year ending on March 31.

‘This is supported by the revenue growth trend observed through H1 FY2024 and the marked growth in its sales opportunities pipeline over the last six months,’ Fusion said.

Kinkaid, meanwhile, said that ‘we have generated a significantly stronger pipeline which includes a wider diversity of clients that are less dependent on VC funding.

‘Consequently, whilst overall revenues for the period are low as previously announced, through our efforts we have benefitted from a trend of increasing month-on-month revenues throughout the H1 FY2024 period, which we hope will continue to strengthen in the remainder of H2 and beyond.’

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