Open Orphan (ORPH ) said its subsidiary, Venn Life Sciences (Venn), has signed a contract renewal with “a major global pharmaceutical client” worth a total of £1.5m over two years.
Starting in January 2022, Venn’s team in Breda, the Netherlands, will provide dedicated clinical pharmacokinetics (‘PK’) support on an array of drug development programmes, to study the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs within the body.
Venn, which has offices in Breda and Paris and has been a part of Open Orphan since 2019, offers a combination of drug development consultancy, clinical trial design and execution.
The specialist contract research organisation (CRO) said Venn’s combined services will enable it to provide its clients with a complete end-to-end service on all the stages of their drug development programmes, from the early planning phase to final execution.
Commenting on the contract renewal, Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman of Open Orphan highighlighted: “The continued support by Venn to a distinguished partner such as this demonstrates the value of Venn’s clinical pharmacokinetics offering, as part of its comprehensive offering in drug development consultancy, clinical trial design and execution.”
He added, “Open Orphan’s strengths lie in the established relationships we have with our pharmaceutical partners and we expect to continue to develop these relationships as well as focusing on converting our existing pipeline of new business opportunities.”
In September 2021, Open Orphan told investors that the six month period ended 30 June 2021 reflected “a period of significant revenue growth, profitability and strong outlook.”
Over the period, revenue increased 242% to £21.9m (1H20: £6.4m) with other income contributing a further £1.2m (1H20: £0.7m) reflecting six active challenge studies vs two in 1H20 and a solid performance from the Early Clinical / Biometry Services division.
The Group said its influenza human challenge study is expected to commence in Q1 2022, The study will be conducted at hVIVO’s facilities in London. Meanwhile, the Company said it expects the revenue from this contract to be recognised across 2021 and 2022.
The Group said its outlook is strong given that the infectious and respiratory disease market is seeing exponential growth, with an expected global market value of $250bn by 2025.
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