Yourgene Health plc (AIM: YGEN), the international molecular diagnostics group which commercialises genetic products and services, announces its unaudited half-year results for the six months ended 30 September 2018.
Financial highlights
- Revenues increased by 45% to £3.9m (H1 2017-18: £2.7m)
- Gross profit up 49% to £2.0m (H1 2017-18: £1.3m)
- General administrative expenses down 4% to £4.4m (H1 2017-18: £4.5m)
– Expenses excluding depreciation and amortisation down to £3.8m (H1 2017-18: £4.1m)
– Further £1m annualised cost reduction being implemented - Operating loss reduced by 46% to £2.5m (H1 2017-18: £4.7m)
- Loss before tax reduced by 30% to £3.5m (H1 2017-18: £4.9m)
- Cash used by operations reduced by 25% to £3.2m (H1 2017-18: £4.3m)
- Cash and cash equivalents at 30 September 2018 of £0.2m (31 March 2018: £0.3m)
- Post period-end, in October 2018, completed a £3.1m equity raise
Operational highlights
- Test volumes increased by 73% to 38,000 (H1 2017-18: 22,000)
- Entered into a legal settlement and licence agreement with Illumina, ending all patent litigation
– Development of the Illumina-based IONA® test progressing well and on schedule - Appointment of Mr Lyn Rees as Chief Executive Officer
- Appointment of Mr Hayden Jeffreys as Group Commercial Director
- Significant commercial progress achieved, including:
– Continued to expand international footprint in both existing and new territories with laboratories added in Africa and Asia
– A 3-year agreement signed with one of India’s leading diagnostics groups to offer mass-population non-invasive prenatal testing (“NIPT”) screening
– Secured an agreement with Coastal Genomics to develop advanced technologies for clinical DNA sequencing tests
– Entered into a partnership with Abnova to collaborate on the development of next generation sequencing (“NGS”) capabilities for single cell analysis - Post period-end
– Announced a $1m collaboration agreement between Yourgene Bioscience and a leading clinical research organisation in Taiwan to deliver NGS testing in oncology
– Changed the Group’s name to Yourgene Health plc, to reflect the Group’s broadened product development ambitions and research service capabilities
Lyn Rees, Chief Executive Officer of Yourgene, commented:
“We are making excellent commercial progress, with revenues and test volumes up by 45% and 73% respectively in the first half, with costs and cash consumption reducing rapidly.
“We continued to grow our customer base successfully outside of the IP-restricted markets for NIPT in the period, and now have product and service sales in over 20 global territories. With market access now clear post the settlement with Illumina, we will look to broaden our international reach with a refreshed and upskilled commercial structure. As well as bringing new customers to the business, we are excited to rapidly expand existing markets such as India, the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia where the foundations for growth have been laid.
“We are also implementing a rapid reorientation of the business towards strategic growth drivers in line with my initial goals for the business, and I believe we now have a very significant opportunity ahead of us. I look forward to providing further updates as we leverage our redefined structure and industry leading technical capabilities to offer contract development services, develop our product portfolio and accelerate growth and geographic expansion.“
premaitha