Open Orphan plc (ORPH ) has announced a new contract with a Top 10 Global vaccine company to conduct another human viral challenge study worth up to £4.3m
The human viral challenger study will be conducted in the Company’s dedicated human viral challenge quarantine unit in London.
The hVIVO unit is Europe's only commercial 24-bedroom quarantine clinic with dedicated on-site virology laboratory. hVIVO is the only company globally offering the capability to conduct a commercial human challenge study and all volunteers will be recruited through hVIVO’s volunteer recruitment website, www.flucamp.com.
Preparatory work on this major new contract has already begun and is expected to be delivered in 1Q21, with the majority of revenues being recognised in 1H21.
Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman, Open Orphan, said: “Open Orphan continues to execute on its substantial pipeline that has been built up by the expertise and experience of our professional and hardworking teams in hVIVO and Venn Life Sciences. We are focused on continuing to deliver large and profitable contracts which demonstrate hVIVO’s position as the world leader in the testing of vaccines and antivirals using human challenge clinical trials."
Shares in ORPH have trended upwards strongly over the past three months following positive contract win announcements to spike at 18.75p on Wednesday following media speculation of the Group’s heavy involvement in the UK Government-funded COVID-19 testing programme. The shares settled at 16.30p on Thursday following a comprehensive response from the Company.
Less than a year ago the hVIVO facility was operating on utilisation rates between 20% and 25%. However, if the Company continues its current trajectory of contract wins for human challenge studies, the clinic could be completely booked out for the next 2 years within the next couple of months. This is before investors begin to speculate on the volume of demand from COVID-19 Challenger studies by corporates and Governments.
Cathal added; “I am hugely excited by the progress we are making as a Group since our IPO in 2019 and I look forward to continuing to update shareholders on the work we are doing over the coming months.”
Notice of Results
The Company’s 1H20 Results will be published Tuesday the 29th of September 2020.