Open Orphan (ORPH) has announced a new contract with a US biotechnology Company for the provision of a Respiratory Syncytial Virus (“RSV”) human challenge study utilising the combined Clinical Research Organisation ("CRO") services of hVIVO and Venn Life Sciences ("Venn") following the completion of a merger.
Contract Win
The contract is projected to deliver £3.5 million in revenue, all of which is expected to be recognised in 2020 financial year.
The signing of this new contract follows the signing in March of this year of another RSV human challenge contract, now underway, for an initial £3.2 million.
Following the contract win announced 6 March 2020 for £3.2m, this contract win represents further conversion of Open Orphan’s substantial services pipeline and clearly validates its position as world leader in the provision of viral challenge studies, vaccine and viral laboratory services to support product development for customers developing antivirals, vaccines and respiratory therapeutics.
These services are particularly relevant and topical in environment of heightened awareness of virology following the onset of Covid-19.
This study will commence in hVIVO’s unique London-based quarantine unit in the third quarter of 2020, which is Europe's only commercial 24-bed quarantine clinic with on-site virology laboratory. hVIVO is the only company globally with the capability to run an RSV human challenge study.
Importantly, this agreement also confirms the enhanced value proposition from Open Orphan for the combined service offerings from hVIVO and Venn.
All aspects of the study will be conducted within Open Orphan, with data management, biostats and medical writing leading to the elimination of sub-contractor costs and retention of more contracted revenue.
Board Restructuring
Trevor Phillips, CEO, is standing down from the Board with immediate effect to hand over his role to the Exec Chair in an orderly transition until the end of June.
Trevor was brought into hVIVO in 2017 and successfully completed the restructuring and repositioning the business culminating in the merger with Open Orphan plc.
The Board and senior management team now consists of Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman, who will continue to lead the Company alongside Tim Sharpington, COO, who has been with hVIVO for two years.
Leo Toole, who has been with the Company for one year, was appointed to the Board as CFO on 27 February 29020 and will continue to focus on cost reduction and financial control.
Andrew Catchpole, who has been with hVIVO for 14 years, is the Group’s Chief Scientific Officer and maintains an active role and involvement in the business development process.
Shares in Open Orphan have reacted positively to the Groups strategy and position within the Covid-19 crisis over the past month. Since the Beginning of April the shares have increased from 6.2p to close Friday 1 April at 8.9p.
Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman of Open Orphan, said: "Firstly, I would like to thank Trevor for his help merging Open Orphan and hVIVO. Trevor had previously successfully right sized and focused hVIVO and our refreshed management team is now focused on delivering growth at a very exciting time for the Company."
“The signing of this new £3.5 million contract with a US Biotechnology Company is further evidence of this exciting time as we successfully convert Open Orphan’s pipeline of prospects into formal customer contracts. Open Orphan will be utilising its complementary in-house CRO services of hVIVO and Venn to deliver this contract. This contract demonstrates the Open Orphan and hVivo group’s focus on building long term contracts with recurring revenues to deliver future profitability while ensuring rationalising the business and reduce costs.”
Trevor Phillips, CEO of Open Orphan, said: “This is an exciting time for Open Orphan, I wish the company well. It was an honour to have led hVIVO and its staff through the business turnaround and with the merger completed I leave the Company in a stronger position as it enters its next phase of growth.”