Rising Angel plans manufacturing expansion
pharmafile | November 16, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Andrew Carver, Angel Biotechnology, GMP, Good Manufacturing Practice, Pentlands Science Park, Susan McKee, contract manufacturingÂ
Scottish contract manufacturing company Angel Biotechnology plans to increase its capacity by taking over a mothballed production facility after signing a series of new deals in recent months.
The news gives further evidence of Angel’s resistance to the tougher operating environment for contract manufacturers in the last couple of years. It also bookends a period of fast development at the firm since it was forced to sell off a UK plant in 2007 in order to concentrate on its main facility in Pentlands Science Park, near Edinburgh.
That plant too has been earmarked for expansion, with the help of a recently-completed £1.43 million rights offering.
Angel said it has signed four new projects and five contract extensions totalling more than £250,000 since July and has now secured about 70% of budgeted revenues for 2011, plus a forward order book of more than £4 million.
In a stock exchange filing, Angel said it is in “advanced discussions” to take over an unidentified Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production facility which, when fully commissioned, would increase its capacity by around five-fold.
While not ruling out other possibilities for expansion – including a new build – Angel said reinstating the plant would allow it to bring additional capacity online more quickly and in phases according to demand. To support this increase in manufacturing capacity Angel has recruited two new business development specialists, Andrew Carver and Susan McKee.
In its financial report for the first six moths of 2010, Angel reported sales of £1.45 million, up from £600,000 in the same period of 2009, and this was accompanied by a dramatic reduction in debt and other liabilities from £1.6 million to around £100,000. The company also made a maiden pre-tax profit of £106,000 in the period.
A recent analyst report from Matrix Corporate Capital notes that Angel is benefiting from less competition in the area of contract manufacturing of cell-based therapies, with four rival players going into liquidation or being acquired in recent years, and some of the larger CMOs paring back their activity in this area to reduce costs.
Phil Taylor
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