TIDMORPH
RNS Number : 9396D
Open Orphan PLC
08 March 2022
Open Orphan plc
("Open Orphan" or the "Company")
Trading Update
Volunteer Recruitment and Laboratory Facilities Expansion
New facilities doubles volunteer recruitment screening
capacity
Changes allow for expanded business scope and laboratory
services offering
Open Orphan plc (AIM: ORPH), a rapidly growing specialist
contract research organisation (CRO) and world leader in testing
infectious and respiratory disease products using human challenge
clinical trials, provides a trading update for the year ended 31
December 2021. The Company also announces it will be opening a new
primary FluCamp volunteer recruitment screening facility in
Plumbers Row, London ("Plumbers Row Facility") and a secondary
FluCamp recruitment facility in Manchester.
Trading Update
Subject to completion of the audit, the Company expects both
revenues and EBITDA to be in line with the expectation detailed at
the time of the interim results. Accordingly the Company expects
2021 to be EBITDA positive with revenues of approximately GBP40m.
Cash and cash equivalents as of 31 December 2021 was GBP15.6m (30
June 2021: GBP14.9m). The Company further expects to be in line
with management expectations for year-ending 31 December 2022,
targeting revenues in the region of GBP50m in non-COVID-19 work.
COVID-19 revenue for 2022 will be in addition to this and will
depend on the eventual timing of these studies.
Facilities Expansion
The new facilities will double the Company's previous volunteer
screening capacity, significantly boosting its ability to identify
and enrol study volunteers and patients and further strengthening
its world leading human challenge capabilities.
As part of the opening of a new specialised volunteer
recruitment facility in London, the Whitechapel quarantine clinic
and the Queen Mary's Bioenterprises Centre ("QMB") clinic will both
be exclusively dedicated to conducting human challenge studies
going forward. The space at QMB currently providing volunteer
screening will be converted into further quarantine bedrooms. As
such, the Company's QMB facility will expand to 31 beds, adding to
the Whitechapel Clinic's 19 beds and the Plumbers Row Facility's
12; in total the Company's bed count will reach 62. These new
facilities offer an opportunity to the Company to expand the scope
of the business to offer Phase I and Phase II vaccine field trials,
PK (pharmacokinetics) studies, bridging studies, and patient trials
(as opposed to healthy volunteer human challenge trials) as part of
large international multi-centre studies which do not require a
quarantine setting.
The increase in volunteer recruitment capacity will enable the
Company to recruit larger cohorts more quickly than before and
cement Open Orphan's world leading position and reputation in
volunteer recruitment. Particularly in Manchester, the secondary
facility extends the Company's reach for more volunteers and
facilitates the increasing demand for human challenge studies.
During volunteer screening there are large numbers of volunteers
that are ineligible to take part in challenge studies for a variety
of reasons, such as previous infection by the virus under
investigation. By broadening the business offering to include Phase
I and Phase II field trials, a large proportion of the volunteers
already in the FluCamp facility could be eligible to take part in
these studies.
The Plumbers Row Facility, London, plus the volunteer
recruitment facility in Manchester, will have additional laboratory
capacity, meaning samples collected during volunteer screening
visits can be processed and stabilised on site. As a result, the
primary laboratory at QMB has the capacity to expand its virology
lab services business and increases its biomarker and molecular
testing capabilities.
In addition, the Company's corporate office will move from Alie
Street to an upper floor in Plumbers Row. Both London and
Manchester facilities offered attractive terms; the new Plumbers
Row space is c. 9,000 sq ft and is a third of the cost of the
current space of 4,000 sq ft; the new Manchester facility comes at
the same cost as the old facility, but with four times the floor
space at c. 2,000 sq ft.
Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman of Open Orphan, said : "Despite
difficult market conditions during the year, which have continued
into 2022, I am pleased with the performance of the Open Orphan
team and during 2021 we signed an impressive number of human
challenge study contracts with Big Pharma and biotechnology
clients.
"We have continued our strong work at the start of this year,
and our new facilities in both London and Manchester will not only
enable the Company to screen a greater number of potential
volunteers, it will also increase our total bed count to 62.
Considering the greater size and functionality of the new
facilities, as well as their cost, the Company has executed the
expansion in a highly cost-efficient manner."
Yamin Khan, Chief Executive Officer of Open Orphan, said: "I am
delighted to be opening a new primary FluCamp volunteer recruitment
and screening facility within walking distance from our other
Whitechapel facilities as well as a new, larger Manchester
volunteer recruitment facility. These facilities double our
volunteer screening capacity and importantly, expand on our already
world leading clinical trial and laboratory services offering.
"As a result of the changes, we have the potential to expand the
scope of our business as we head into a crucial period of
substantial growth across the infectious disease market. I believe
we are now very well positioned with an enhanced clinical trial
offering and unique volunteer and patient recruitment capacity,
which will enable us to serve an increasing pool of Big Pharma and
biotechnology clients seeking to test novel therapeutics against
different infectious and respiratory diseases."
Robin Rogiers, Director of Clinical Delivery & Innovation of
hVIVO, said: "The opening of the new primary and secondary FluCamp
volunteer facilities means we now boast a truly world class
clinical trial offering. With quarantine capacity significantly
increased and volunteer recruitment capacity doubled, we will be
able to expand the scope of our clinical trial business to include
vaccine field trials, PK studies, bridging studies and patient
trials as part of large international multi-centre studies. The
increased scope also includes an enhanced virology lab services
offering at QMB, which will now be able to increase its biomarker
and molecular testing capabilities."
Interested in becoming a volunteer?
hVIVO recruits many of its volunteers for its challenge study
clinical trials through its dedicated volunteer recruitment
website, www.flucamp.com . By volunteering to take part in one of
our studies in a safe, controlled, clinical environment under
expertly supervised conditions you are playing your part to further
medical research and help increase the understanding of respiratory
illnesses.
For further information please contact:
Open Orphan plc +353 (0) 1 644 0007
Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman
Yamin Khan, Chief Executive Officer
Arden Partners plc (Nominated Adviser
and Joint Broker) +44 (0) 20 7614 5900
John Llewellyn-Lloyd / Louisa Waddell
finnCap plc (Joint Broker) +44 (0) 20 7220 0500
Geoff Nash / James Thompson / Richard
Chambers
Davy (Euronext Growth Adviser and
Joint Broker) +353 (0) 1 679 6363
Anthony Farrell
Walbrook PR (Financial PR & IR) +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or openorphan@walbrookpr.com
Paul McManus / Sam Allen / Louis +44 (0)7980 541 893 / +44 (0) 7502 558
Ashe-Jepson 258 / +44 (0)
7747 515393
Notes to Editors
Open Orphan plc
Open Orphan plc (London and Euronext: ORPH) is a rapidly growing
contract research company that is a world leader in testing
vaccines and antivirals using human challenge clinical trials. The
Company provides services to Big Pharma, biotech, and
government/public health organisations.
Open Orphan runs challenge studies in London from both its
19-bedroom Whitechapel quarantine clinic and its state-of-the-art
24-bedroom QMB clinic with its highly specialised on-site virology
and immunology laboratory. The Company has a leading portfolio of
human challenge study models for infectious and respiratory
diseases and is developing a number of new models. There has been
significant growth of the infectious disease market, which is
estimated to grow to in excess of $250bn by 2025. The Group is
focused on refreshing its existing challenge models and develop new
models, such as Malaria, to address the dramatic growth potential
of the global infectious disease market.
Building upon its many years of challenge studies and virology
research, the Company is developing an in-depth database of
infectious disease progression data. Based on the Company's Disease
in Motion(R) platform, this unique dataset includes clinical,
immunological, virological, and digital (wearable) biomarkers. The
Disease in Motion platform has many potential applications across a
wide variety of end users including big technology, wearables,
pharma, and biotech companies.
Open Orphan's Paris office has been providing biometry, data
management and statistics to its many European pharmaceutical
clients for over 20 years. For over 15 years, the Company's
Netherlands office has been providing drug development consultancy
and services, including CMC (chemistry, manufacturing, and
controls), PK and medical writing, to a broad range of European
clients. Both offices are now also fully integrated with the London
office and working on challenge study contracts as well as
supporting third party trial contracts.
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