- H1 sales up 25%, pre-tax profit up 27%, dividend up 20%
- Significant growth in heart attack antibody troponin
- Exciting new antibodies in development for Alzheimer’s
High-affinity monoclinal antibodies developer and supplier Bioventix (BVXP:AIM) increased revenues by 25% to £5.9 million and pre-tax profit by 27% to £4.5 million in the first half to 31 December 2022.
The board upped the first half dividend by 20% to 62p per share, which is equivalent to the full-year payout in 2018, demonstrating high teens double-digit growth. Investors welcomed the positive news, pushing the shares up 7% to £39.90.
Management said sales of physical antibodies from vitamin D and other core antibodies performed as anticipated while sales relating to troponin antibodies grew ‘significantly’.
The company’s high-affinity troponin antibody is used as a key biomarker in diagnostic tests for heart attacks. High levels of troponin are a sign that a heart attack has occurred.
Bioventix focuses on sheep monoclonal antibodies which have advantages over conventional rodent antibodies where the target is present at low concentration levels.
NEW ANTIBODIES DRIVE GROWTH
With the difficulties caused by the pandemic now in the rear view mirror the company said it was pleased with the ‘solid’ performance of the core business and remained ‘optimistic’ about troponin sales for the remainder of the year.
Looking forward, Bioventix has several new antibodies in development. One of the most important is the Tau biomarker which shows ‘exciting’ potential in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease.
‘We continue to create new antibodies which will be subjected to assay development and validation using clinical samples at the world-renowned laboratory of Kaj Blennow and Henrik Zetterberg at the University of Gothenburg’, said the company.
‘We will be providing additional antibodies from the Bioventix pipeline for further evaluation in Gothenburg later in 2023. We are delighted with the continuing development of this collaboration and the outlook remains exciting.’
Bioventix is also progressing with its development of an industrial pollution assay and lateral flow test for pyrene in industrial worker’s urine.
