Oxford Covid vaccine manufacturer reveals revenue rise of 37 per cent
Total revenues increased by 37 per cent to £87.7 million last year at Oxford Biomedica. The leading cell and gene therapy group which only opened its new 84,000 sq ft manufacturing facility at Oxbox in Oxford last year where it is manufacturing the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, said that bioprocessing and commercial development revenues increased by 45 per cent to £68.5 million with double digit growth across both activities, driven by new customers AstraZeneca, Beam Therapeutics and Juno/BMS. Revenues from licences, milestones and royalties increased to £19.2 million due to the recognition of a £7.8 million ($10 million) licence fee from Juno/BMS as well as other licence fees, milestones and royalties from customers.
John Dawson, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Biomedica, said: “I am truly proud of the Group’s achievements over the period. We not only secured major new partnerships, brought the Oxbox manufacturing facility online in record time and responded to the challenges of the pandemic, but the team has also been able to rapidly work with AstraZeneca to provide a vaccine solution for COVID-19. This is a true testament to the world-class calibre and dedication of our staff in the year that the Group also gained entry to the FTSE250. Looking to the future, with the continued tide of growth in cell and gene therapy, coupled with the Group’s leadership position in the lentiviral vector field, we are well positioned to advance both our own proprietary pipeline and that of our current and future partners’ programmes. I would like to thank all of Oxford Biomedica’s employees for their hard work throughout 2020 and our shareholders and partners for their continued support, and I look forward to a successful 2021.”
Last March the company signed a new licence and five-year clinical supply agreement with Juno Therapeutics/Bristol Myers Squibb for multiple CAR-T and TCR-T programmes. A £7.8 million ($10 million) upfront payment was recognised by the Group and up to $217 million could be paid in development, regulatory and sales related milestones in addition to undisclosed process development, scale up and batch revenues, and with an undisclosed royalty on sales.
The Group is a key manufacturer of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, AZD1222. Having signed an initial agreement in May last year, in September the Group signed an 18-month supply agreement under a three-year master supply and development agreement for the large-scale manufacture of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The Group received a £15 million capacity reservation fee with additional revenue in excess of £35 million expected by the end of 2021
By the fourth quarter, the Group was manufacturing the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in three suites at 1000L scale ahead of the MHRA granting emergency use for the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in December.
By October 2020, the MHRA had approved all four suites in the first phase of development of Oxbox, the Group’s new 84,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility. Three suites are producing the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at 1000L scale and one suite added to the existing capabilities of producing lentiviral vector-based products for the Group’s partners at 200L scale
Building work at Windrush Court was also undertaken to convert office space into GMP laboratories, with the first of the laboratories completed by the end of 2020
The company opened its new Corporate Head Office on new site within the Oxford Business Park.
