Open Orphan plc (LON:AVCT) Chief Executive Officer Cathal Friel caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss their new contract with a top 3 pharma company.
Q1: Cathal, you have announced a major new contract with a top 3 pharma company, what can you tell us about it?
A1: We are very excited about this new contract with a top 3 pharma company, this is a £4m RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) human challenge study clinical trial which kicks off immediately with the bulk of the revenues coming in this year. This is the second time in 6 weeks that we have signed a substantial contract with a top 3 pharma company and as such, within this period, we have now done business with 2 of the top 3 pharma companies in the world which is quite achievement for a small and fast growing company such as Open Orphan given that we only completed our IPO 14 months ago.
Q2: How many RSV contracts is this now?
A2: This is the third such RSV contract win for the company in 2020 following the announcement on the 4th May of a £3.5m challenge study and on the 6th of March of a £3.2m challenge study with the potential to deliver significant further revenue expected to be a minimum of £7m.
Q3: What does this contract mean for Open Orphan?
A3: This new contract win is very exciting as it re-affirms that we have now completely transformed and turned around both Venn and hVIVO and after a period of restructuring and cut backs, the business is very much on the expansion, winning and signing new contracts. As you will see in the announced RNS, we are the only company in the world who is able to supply an RSV human challenge study clinical trial and it also reaffirms that we now have a very steady and flowing traditional human challenge study clinical trial business while rapidly building up capabilities to start signing covid-19 human challenge study vaccine trials later this year.
