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MaxCyte confident after strong year; hails long-term momentum of the business

Published: 16:45 21 Apr 2020 AEST

MaxCyte Inc -

MaxCyte Inc (LON:MXCT) said it “remained highly confident” after a strong year operationally and financially, although it recognised the coronavirus lockdown would have some impact on the business.

The company, which earns its commercial income from its cell engineering expertise, saw revenues for the year to December 31, 2019, jump by 30% to US$21.6mln.

Using a proprietary platform called CARMA, MaxCyte has also been developing its own cancer drug candidates in-house that are at the cutting-edge of immuno-oncology. MCY-M11, for ovarian cancer and peritoneal forms of the disease, is being developed by new subsidiary CARMA Cell Therapies.

The company invested US$11.7mln on phase I treatment and other programmes last year, which brought total operating expenses to US$31.5mln.

Looking ahead, the firm said a larger part of its revenues would come from so-called milestone payments where its technology has become core to a new drug going through clinical development.

The group estimates it could potentially receive up to US$800m in pre-commercial milestones, plus a share of the commercial value of any product.

MaxCyte chief executive Doug Doerfler said 2019 was a year of “outstanding progress across all areas of our business”.

However, he cautioned that coronavirus delays could impact on the clinical development of MCY-M11, while flagging the potential impact on revenues “through slowdowns in customer operations or delays in clinical trials”.

“However, we remain confident that MaxCyte has a resilient business model underpinned by strong recurring revenues and prospects for continued growth,” Doerfler added.

Returning to the financials, MaxCyte saw its revenue growth accelerate in the second half. It also made an underlying (EBITDA) profit before investing in CARMA of US$1.3mln. At the period-end, it was sitting on US$16.7mln of cash.

MaxCyte signed five new clinical and/or commercial licences signed in 2019, including with industry leaders Kite (a Gilead Company), Editas Medicine, Vor Biopharma and KSQ Therapeutics. And last month it partnered with Allogene Therapeutics.

It now has more than 100 cell therapy programmes licensed, more than 70 for clinical use.

"We have every reason to remain highly optimistic for the future,” said CEO Doerfler.

“I believe we will continue to see long-term momentum in MaxCyte's business as a whole and, notwithstanding the COVID-19 situation, I look forward to updating the market with our continued positive progress."

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