Tepnel cuts losses as sales climb
the year ended 30 June, helped by the sale last month of its first
robotic Nucleopure DNA purification systems.
Tepnel Life Sciences has trimmed its losses in the year ended 30 June, following a 13 per cent increase in sales to £3.74 million (€5.36m) helped by the sale last month of its first robotic Nucleopure DNA purification systems.
Pretax losses at the group declined by a third to £2.37 million, helped by a reduction in Tepnel's cash burn by over 47 per cent as implementation work on the Nucleopure system, used to extract DNA from mouse tissue, comes to an end. The company currently has just over £1 million in cash, down from more than £3 million a year ago, and added to its coffers in July with a £1.5 million private placement.
These funds will be used for the accelerated development of theNucleomax (T3000) DNA purification system, Tepnel's latest automated system, which is being designed for the rapid purification of DNA from blood samples for pharmacogenomic applications. In addition, the new funds will be used to extend Tepnel's activities for its existing automated instruments, such as the Nucleopure,
Tepnel expects further sales of the Nucleopure system over the next six months. Ben Matzilevich, the company's chief executive, said the deal would generate a significant ongoing revenue stream from reagents and other consumables required for the operation of the system. The annual reagent pull-through for each system is estimated to be between £20,000 and £80,000.
Turning to Tepnel's other businesses, the company noted that the Tepnel Scientific Services business, which provides a range of analytical chemistry, bioanalytical and microbiological services for biopharmaceutical and healthcare customers, was profitable and cash-generative in the latter half of the year. The division has located a site for a new centralised facility for the analysis business in Scotland, and is scheduled to move into the premises in September 2004.
Finally, Tepnel BioSystems, which makes test kits for the food industry saw its profitability constrained by costs associated with development of a new Biokit for detecting peanuts in food.
