Scancell losses widen on expense of ongoing trials

28th Oct 2022 14:42

(Sharecast News) - Cancer and infectious disease immunotherapy developer Scancell reported an operating loss of £13.3m in its final results on Friday, widening from £8.8m year-on-year, which it put down to the expense of its three ongoing clinical trials.

The AIM-traded firm said its cash balance at year-end on 30 April totalled £28.7m, down from £41.1m at the end of the 2021 period.

It said its capital structure was improved during the year, through the extension of the redemption dates of the outstanding unsecured convertible loan notes it issued in 2020.

On the operational front, Scancell said it expanded its research and development capabilities by taking new laboratory and office space in the Bellhouse Building at the Oxford Science Park.

It also confirmed that board director Dr Richard Goodfellow had decided to retire, and not to stand for re-election at the upcoming annual general meeting.

"It has been a year of strong operational and clinical progress for Scancell with three vaccine candidates now in the clinic and the antibody platforms gathering momentum with expanded internal research and external validation," said chief executive officer Lindy Durrant.

"We recently initiated cohort 2 of the Modi-1 clinical trial, the first candidate from our Moditope platform, and anticipate reporting early safety and efficacy data from the ModiFY study in the next 12 months.

"In addition, we continue to progress SCOPE for SCIB1, and have completed recruitment in our COVIDITY phase 1 trial in South Africa."

Professor Durrant said it was also a "transformational period" for its antibody technology, culminating in the post-period signing of a licensing agreement with Genmab, providing "strong commercial validation" of Scancell's scientific approach.

"Scancell is one of only a few companies globally which has the capability to produce high affinity, humanised anti-glycan antibodies and the board remains excited for what the future holds for this platform."

At 1417 BST, shares in Scancell Holdings were up 5.27% at 15.95p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.