IXICO PLC (AIM:IXI, OTC:PHYOF) said it is on track to achieve its full-year guidance and expects revenue to increase in the second half and next year as it transitions to a higher proportion of early-phase clinical trials.
Results for the neuroscience analytics specialist’s half year to 31 March 2023 showed an order book of £13.3mln, up from £12.6mln a year earlier and with £11.6mln worth of contracts signed in the last 12 months.
As well as shifting to early-stage trials, the company has expanded its core MRI, PET and SPECT imaging services into Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's, as well as Huntington's disease, where £1mln of funding was secured for IXICO to lead a consortium analysing over 6,000 MRI data sets.
As flagged in a recent update, revenues of £3.2mln in the half were down from £3.9mln a year ago, reflecting the cessation of large late-stage clinical trials, while underlying losses (LBITDA) were confirmed at £0.6mln compared to a £0.5mln profit last time.
Chief executive Giulio Cerroni said IXICO is “on track” to achieve guidance of £7mln revenues for the year and return to year-on-year revenue growth in 2024.
The size and shape of the order book, said Cerroni, “provide improved visibility to future contracted revenues, as compared to twelve months ago” and “supports our expectation that revenues would bottom out during the first half of 2023”.
Cash stood at £5mln at the end of March, with £0.2mln of operational inflow.
Looking forward, Cerrone said the culmination of a multi-year programme of investment in IT infrastructure would be the anticipated launch of the next-generation TrialTracker image data collection and management system in the coming year.
“This highly scalable platform will ensure that IXICO continues to be able to satisfy our clients' increasingly stringent data security requirements as we look to further penetrate a highly regulated clinical trials market.
“The new platform ensures that our business can easily scale as we anticipate levels of investment in neurological development to accelerate further as tangible drug development progress in disease areas such as Alzheimer's disease is delivered by the biopharmaceutical industry.”
He said the development of the order book remains a priority, which is being addressed through further investment in commercial capabilities.