Oxford-based biotech Summit Corporation has pared annual losses following a restructuring bout.
Oxford-based biotech Summit Corporation has pared annual losses following a restructuring bout.
The AIM-listed drug discoverer says losses were slashed by 55 per cent to £5.8 million in the year to January following extensive restructuring, including the selling off of its unprofitable Zebrafish and Dextra divisions in May and September respectively. These disposals, combined with significant headcount reductions and pay cuts, enabled Summit to reduce its cash burn rate by 70 per cent.
Head of corporate development, Richard Pye, explains that ‘last year was a time of transition and we completed an extensive restructuring programme aimed at reducing our losses. We cut down our leases from seven to one and our employees from 140 to 30. As a result our cash burn has decreased from over £1 million to around £250,000’.
Pye hopes investors will now ’realise the value we have in the business’, with Summit offering investors ‘significant opportunities for growth’ over the next few years.
Recent corporate highlights from Summit, headed by chief executive officer Steven Lee, include the signing of a deal worth $143 million (£94.4 million) in 2008 with US pharmaceutical firm Biomarin for licensing of the company’s pre-clinical candidate ‘SMT C1100’, to treat the fatal genetic disorder Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Then in December, Summit successfully raised £5.4 million from investors including Lansdowne group, which upped its stake in the company from 8 per cent to 29 per cent.
