IXICO PLC (LON:IXI) has reported higher revenues and earnings in its first half as the group highlighted continued growth in its order book despite the effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In its results for the six months ended March 31, the neuroscience-focused data analytics firm reported earnings (EBITDA) of £0.9mln, up from £0.7mln a year ago, while revenues rose to £4.9mln to £4.6mln.
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IXICO also reported EBITDA margins of 18% in the period, up from 14.8% in 2020, while its profit per share grew to 1.78p from 1.01p.
During the six months, the company said its order book as of March 31 had expanded to £19mln from £15.3mln last year despite what it said were reductions relating to Phase III and OLE HD trail failures announced on March 23. The group also said £9.4mln worth of new contracts had been signed during the period across a range of clients and neurological therapeutic indications.
IXICO also noted “significant capital investment” in a next-generation image capture and analysis platform and an associated partnership with Microsoft, as well as research and development investments in an expanded range of analytical tools to support advanced quantitative image analysis.
Meanwhile, the group said it currently has an increased focus on corporate development and strategic partnership opportunities within Central Nervous System (CNS) indications across medical imaging and emerging digital health technologies.
"Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this is another strong set of financial results and I am particularly pleased with the continued top line revenue growth and acquisition of new clients reported through the period. The CNS clinical trials market is showing the green shoots of recovery and IXICO's technology-driven business model is well suited to support our pharma and biotech clients as they increasingly look to accelerate their adoption of remote data collection technologies. I am pleased, not only in the progress of our client traction across the last six months, but also in the operational progress we have made through investments to ensure we can scale to meet the demands of our growing marketplace,” IXICO chief executive Giulio Cerroni said in a statement.
"Whilst we expect to see the impact of clinical trial delays and of the recent loss of revenues from our order book following the client trial failure announced in March, we remain confident of our ability to grow across the medium to long term. This conviction is underpinned by increasing numbers of discussions with a wider range of clients for our specialist neuroimaging services, across a broader range of CNS therapeutic indications and potential strategic partnerships in emerging digital health technologies," the CEO added.
IXICO shares jumped 2.2% to 85.9p in early deals on Tuesday.