UK’s Oxford Biomedica sees first-half sales surging on strong order book

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(Reuters) -British cell and gene therapy manufacturer Oxford Biomedica said on Monday it expects first-half sales to jump around 40% as orders remain strong, and maintained its annual forecasts for revenue and profit.

Oxford Biomedica, which provides contracting services to pharmaceutical firms, said it signed new contracts worth about 149 million pounds ($200 million) in the six months ended June 30, more than doubling from a year earlier, giving it confidence in both its full-year and medium-term targets.

Demand was particularly strong in late-stage programmes, allowing it to go ahead with planned capacity expansions to accommodate demand, the firm said.

Its shares rose more than 4% in early trading in London.

“With robust fundamentals in place and clear visibility into the second half of the year, we remain confident in our ability to deliver our full year guidance and achieve sustainable growth in 2025 and beyond,” CEO Frank Mathias said.

For the first half, Oxford Biomedica expects to report revenues of about 70 million pounds to 73 million pounds, higher by 38% to 44% from a year earlier.

Analysts at JPMorgan said at the midpoint of 71.5 million pounds, revenue was 3% ahead of consensus.

The company, spun off from the University of Oxford in 1995, continues to expect full-year revenue of 160 million pounds to 170 million pounds, with core profit in low-single-digit numbers, against a loss of 15.3 million pounds last year.

($1 = 0.7448 pounds)

(Reporting by Ankita Bora and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)