What it does
Integumen PLC's (LON:SKIN) backbone of the company is a product called Labskin, a laboratory-grown skin that is used by cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies to see how their latest products will react with human skin.
Labskin gives scientists a much better idea of how their cream or gel or make-up will react in the real world.
Not only does it make animal testing redundant, the added accuracy it gives researchers reduces R&D costs by helping to improve success rates.
Other activities
It owns STOER, a premium skincare range for men and also has a 9.35% stake in Cellulac, which produces biodegradable plastic ingredients and natural oils.
Growth drivers
With the help of artificial intelligence firm Rinocloud, which it bought in April, Integumen is building Labskin-on-a-chip, which will record every treatment tested on the platform and store its effects in a database.
That will give every dermatology clinic with a computer the ability to take a swab of a patient’s own skin bacteria, place it on the Labskin platform, run it against the database, and advise what the best course of treatment might be.
Then there’s Labskin AI, a digital extension to the lab-grown skin to clone the skin of volunteers in clinical trials.
The company said the new test would cut the number of volunteers required for trials by 50%, reducing recruitment times and project management costs.
How it is doing
Revenue for the current year is expected to be £4mln said Integumen, which will soon be renamed DeepVerge PLC.
Achieving that target will see a significant ramp-up. The company generated some £1mln of revenue in the first six months of 2020, and it expected to bring in another £1mln in the third quarter and then the fourth.
The company reported a £611,000 gross profit for the first half, it made a £552,000 underlying loss (EBITDA before exceptional items), and net profit was marked at £925,000.
Chief executive Gerard Brandon pointed out that the business continues to grow and evolve via collaboration and acquisition.
Most recently, in August, the company agreed to a £21.25mln merger with Modern Water PLC (LON:MWG).
In September, it signed an MoU with the WaterRising Institute to supply equipment to detect pathogens including COVID-19 in the Great Lakes region in Michigan.
The WaterRising Institute is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to provide real-time alerts to identify sources of water pollution.
What the boss says: chief executive Gerry Brandon
“COVID-19 contamination detection in wastewater increasingly becomes an important tool in the fight against the disease,"
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What the broker says: Turner Pope
“Given the anticipated need for such safety equipment, this first-mover advantage derived from combination of proprietary technologies could potentially create a transformative future opportunity."
“Notwithstanding this, the addition of value and opportunity through the Group’s [Integumen’s] AI division is already opening other options to develop data analytic tools/facilities for Modern Water monitoring equipment, with the potential to include ‘bolt-on’ services in anticipation of new longer-term national requirements and scope to secure higher client revenues."
“This, together with ongoing expansion of Rinocloud’s high margin data and AI services, Labskin’s analytical/monitoring technologies and the extended customer reach being offered through ecowaterOS’s multi-continental consortium, highlights the scale of opportunities being presented to Integumen in its underserved global markets.”
Inflexion points
- Sales start to accrue from Modern Water merger
- Partnerships with Avacta, Aptamer continue to develop
- Labskin sales gain momentum
- Revenue grows four-fold
