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CEO Paul Duncan commented, "Once again a highly successful year for thegroup. With our focus now firmly on the antibody side of the business we havebeen able to position ourselves exactly where we need to be to take advantageof the significant opportunities we see in our marketplace. With a strongpipeline of products and applications coming through in the next year and acontinuing appetite for investment in growth we look forward to 2010 beingyet another strong year for us."
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Binding Site is committed to developing and providing innovative testswhich give clinicians and laboratory staff worldwide the tools tosignificantly improve the diagnosis and management of patients across a rangeof cancers and immune system disorders.
Last year it sold its autoimmune business to allow it to focus on thehigh growth/high profitability serum protein business, includingFreelite(TM). The figures reported relate to the serum protein area alone andhighlight the strong underlying performance of the ongoing business.
Demand for healthcare products is increasing and estimates are thatBinding Site's marketplace is growing at around 4% pa. Against this positivebackdrop, the company achieved sales growth of 21% on the previous year.
The growth comes from two main areas: Freelite(TM), a unique and highlysignificant test increasingly used for the diagnosis and monitoring ofMultiple Myeloma and other blood cancers; and the supply of tests for thedetection and management of primary immunodeficiency, illnesses that resultfrom a defective or missing part of the immune system.
The business's gross profit to sales improved by 44% on the same period,helped partly by the fall in Sterling as around 90% of sales are exported butmost production costs are in Sterling. Even with the currency impact removedmargins still grew by 24%.
As Binding Site's current financial year continues, its revenue andEBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization)remain positive and prospects for 2009/10 are strong; Sterling is expected toremain weak and the take up of Freelite(TM) will continue to drive growththanks to the investments made in previous years.
In addition, a complementary range of products, Hevylite(TM), arecurrently in trials. Provisional results are extremely promising and thegroup expects to launch this new range later this year.
Notes to Editors:
Freelite(TM) is a unique diagnostic test used to measure immunoglobulinfree light chains in serum, increased levels of which are associated withcancers such as Multiple Myeloma. Multiple Myeloma is the second most commonblood cancer after non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Freelite(TM) has been used as a sensitive marker for the efficacy of somenewer treatments and has helped clinicians gain a clear understanding of hownew drugs are benefiting their patients; treatment decisions which may havetaken weeks or months can now be made in days thanks to the availability ofsensitive and reliable results using Freelite(TM).
Currently there are approximately 3 million pairs of Freelite(TM) testsperformed annually worldwide with the number of analyses increasing at a rateof around 40% per year. In 2007 Binding Site introduced its own turbidimetricbench top analyser, the SPAPLUS which is optimised for running Freelite(TM)and other high sensitivity tests, allowing access to the test across allclinical laboratories.Key Highlights 12 months ended 12 months ended Increase Underlying 30 Sept 2009 30 Sept 2008 Increase Revenue GBP34.8m GBP24.3m 43% 21% Freelite(TM) sales GBP20.4m GBP12.6m 62% 35% EBITDA GBP9.2m GBP4.3m 114% 62% - Underlying sales growth of 21% - 35% growth in Freelite(TM) sales - 21% growth in North American sales - Continued revenue and margin growth driven by product development, marketing investment and operational controls - Disposal of the group's autoimmune business - Major advances in long-term research projects
SOURCE The Binding Site Group
