Half-year report

Bioventix plc
(“Bioventix” or the “Company”)
Unaudited Interim Results for the six months ended 31 December 2018

Bioventix plc (BVXP) (“Bioventix” or “the Company”), a UK company specialising in the development and commercial supply of high-affinity monoclonal antibodies for applications in clinical diagnostics, announces its unaudited interim financial results for the six-month period ended 31 December 2018.

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Highlights

Normalised* revenue up 24% to £4.4 million (2017: £3.5m)
Normalised* profit before tax up 24% to £3.2 million (2017: £2.6m)
Closing cash balances of £5.5 million (2017: £5.6m)
First interim dividend up 20% to 30p per share (2017: 25p)

_{* excluding back-dated royalties of £0.77 million received in the year ended 30 June 2018}

Business review

We are pleased to report interim results for the six-month period ended 31 December 2018.

In comparing the revenues for the equivalent period in 2017, we have excluded a “one-off” back-royalty of £770k that featured in interims of the 2017/18 accounts to arrive at normalised figures.

Revenues for the half-year of £4.4 million (2017: £3.5 million) were 24% up on the previous year.

Total profits before tax for the half-year increased by 24% to £3.2 million (2017: £2.6 million).  The cash balances remained similar, finishing the period at £5.5 million (31 December 2017: £5.6 million).

Vitamin D antibody sales continued at the healthy levels seen during the period 2H.2018 and this contributed significantly towards the growth.  Whilst this is very encouraging, there is increasing evidence of a plateau in the downstream global vitamin D assay market.  Nevertheless, we have seen a growth in sales from some individual customers who appear to be performing well in the downstream market with our antibody.  Diazyme (San Diego, US) have made progress with their vitamin D assay which has the attractive feature of being run on general “chemistry” analysers.  Boditech (South Korea) is another Bioventix customer who use the vitD3.5H10 antibody and has achieved significant success in the growing Asian vitamin D market with their vitamin D assay.

Other revenue streams for the established antibodies to T3, NT-proBNP and progesterone also performed well during the period.

Sales relating to troponin antibodies (i.e. Siemens & those relating to Beckman Coulter) were not significant in the context of the overall totals for the period.  Nevertheless, we can see these revenues increasing and this provides encouragement for future sales performance.  There is further evidence of a roll-out of high sensitivity troponin assays reported in the academic literature (Clinical Chemistry; March 2019) though it is possible that some new use of such tests could be part of clinical evaluations or comparisons supported by supplies of free samples that would not register as commercial sales.

Our research activities continue in line with the plans described in the 2018 annual report and we will report further on these various projects with our full year results.

The overall context of the business and the landscape in which we operate has not materially changed since the 2018 annual report and we draw the attention of any new shareholders to this report.

The Board continues to follow a progressive dividend policy that embraces continuity.  For the period under review, the Board is pleased to announce a first interim dividend of 30p per share which represents a 20% increase on 1H.2018.

The shares will be marked ex-dividend on 11 April 2019 and the dividend will be paid on 26 April 2019 to shareholders on the register at close of business on 12 April 2019.

We are delighted to be able to report such positive news for the current half-year.  We are pleased with the continued success of our vitamin D antibody and the remainder of the core antibody business.  We remain optimistic about our troponin revenues and the success of these high sensitivity troponin products around the world and we look forward to further progress in the second half of the year.

P Harrison                                 I J Nicholson

Chief Executive Officer               Non-Executive Chairman

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About Bioventix plc:

Bioventix (www.bioventix.com) specialises in the development and commercial supply of high-affinity monoclonal antibodies with a primary focus on their application in clinical diagnostics, such as in automated immunoassays used in blood testing. The antibodies created at Bioventix are generated in sheep and are of particular benefit where the target is present at low concentration and where conventional monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies have failed to produce a suitable reagent. Bioventix currently offers a portfolio of antibodies to customers for both commercial use and R&D purposes, for the diagnosis or monitoring of a broad range of conditions, including heart disease, cancer, fertility, thyroid function and drug abuse. Bioventix currently supplies antibody products and services to the majority of multinational clinical diagnostics companies. Bioventix is based in Farnham, UK and its shares are traded on AIM under the symbol BVXP.

The information communicated in this announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.