Acambis wins $30m US Govt smallpox vaccine order; raises ’06 guidance
Cambridge-based biopharma Acambis plc (ACM.L) capped a fine week with news today that the US Government will buy a further 10 million doses of its ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine in an order worth around $30m.
Outgoing chairman Alan Smith (pictured) said in a statement to stock exchanges accompanying its half year financial result that as a result of the recent stream of good news, including the new US Government order and the rescheduling of activities for its existing US Government MVA contract, “we are raising our guidance for 2006 predictable revenues from below £20m to around £30m and revising the gross profit margin upwards. In addition, we will receive $19m of cash from Novartis for the Arilvax settlement agreement.”
The stock market lapped it up, pushing Acambis’ share price up 7.5% to 146p, valuing the company at around £155m.
Under today’s new order, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has agreed to buy the extra 10 million doses under the existing ACAM2000 supply contract, under which Acambis has delivered 182.5 million doses of ACAM2000 for the US's Strategic National Stockpile. Acambis expects to supply the new order from its existing vaccine inventory in 2006.
Talks on warm base
In addition, the company said negotiations are underway to finalise the long-term ‘warm-base’ manufacturing contract, which is expected to be awarded following licensure of ACAM2000. The warm-base programme will provide the US with access to ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine production capability entirely in the US.
With regard to the company’s half-year result CEO Gordon Cameron said: "After many months of determined effort, we are delighted to be announcing encouraging progress across all areas of our business...
“Our development pipeline continues to make good progress with positive clinical news on two of our lead vaccine programmes. With the balance sheet also strengthened following the Arilvax settlement with Novartis, the outlook for Acambis is much improved as we move through the second half of the year."
He said Acambis had made good progress with encouraging data emerging from each of its clinical-stage R&D programmes. This includes results from a Phase 2 trial of MVA3000 in July, its ongoing Phase 2 trial of ChimeriVax-West Nile announced on 12 September and preliminary data from a Phase 1 trial in elderly subjects of its vaccine against Clostridium difficile. Data are also expected in the coming months from Phase 3 trials of our ChimeriVax-JE vaccine.
Revenue down
Revenue in Q2 was down to £4.6m from £6.4m in the same period last year and for H1 was £10.6m (2005 - £12.4m). The main sources of revenue were the two contracts with the NIAID for MVA3000, its fixed-price 155 million-dose smallpox contract with the CDC and product sales of Vivotif. The higher levels of revenue in 2005 reflected more intensive levels of activity on government contracts.
The pre-tax loss increased in Q2 to £11.5m (2005 - £7.0m) and in H1 to £22.9m (2005 - £12.8m) mainly as a result of reduced revenues and increased R&D costs to progress the pipeline.
The company has decided to delist its stock from NASDAQ because of the extra reporting obligations and related costs imposed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
13th September 2006
