Open Orphan plc Announces Directorate Changes; Announce the Signing of a New Contract
May 04, 2020 at 02:00 am EDT
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Open Orphan plc announced Trevor Phillips is standing down as CEO and, to ensure an orderly transition, he will remain in his role until the end of June but leaves the Board with immediate effect. Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman, will continue to lead the Company alongside a refreshed, focused management team and Board. The Company has also recently formed an advisory board chaired by Professor John Oxford, Professor at Queen Mary's University London and one of the world's leading experts on global diseases such as influenza, including bird flu, SARS, MERS and Coronavirus, to help support customers' product development and the Company's response to Covid-19.
The company announced the signing of a new contract with a US biotechnology Company for the provision of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) human challenge study. The company has signed a contract with a US Biotech company for the provision of an RSV human challenge study with work to deliver the study expected to commence shortly. The contract is projected to deliver £3.5 million in revenue all of which is expected to be recognised in 2020. The signing of this new contract follows the signing in March of this year of another RSV human challenge contract, now underway, for an initial £3.2 million. This contract represents continued conversion of Open Orphan's substantial pipeline, generation of significant cash flow and further validates its position as world leader in the provision of viral challenge studies, vaccine and viral laboratory services, supporting product development for customers developing antivirals, vaccines and respiratory therapeutics. These services are particularly relevant and topical in environment of heightened awareness of virology following the onset of Covid-19. This study will commence in hVIVO's unique London-based quarantine unit in the third quarter of 2020, which is Europe's only commercial 24-bed quarantine clinic with on-site virology laboratory. hVIVO is the only company globally with the capability to run an RSV human challenge study. This agreement utilises what is now a broader and complementary in-house service offering. All aspects of the study will be conducted within Open Orphan, with data management, biostats and medical writing being provided by Venn Life Sciences colleagues leading to the elimination of sub-contractor costs and retention of more contracted revenue.
hVIVO plc is a rapidly growing specialist contract research organisation (CRO) and the world leader in testing infectious and respiratory disease vaccines and therapeutics using human challenge clinical trials. The Group provides end-to-end early clinical development services to its large, established and growing repeat client base, which includes four of the top 10 largest global biopharma companies.
The Group's fast-growing services business includes a unique portfolio of 10+ human challenge models to test a broad range of infectious and respiratory disease products, world class challenge agent manufacturing, specialist drug development and clinical consultancy services via its Venn Life Sciences brand, and a lab offering via its hLAB brand, which includes virology, immunology biomarker and molecular testing. The Group offers additional clinical field trial services such as patient recruitment and clinical trial site services.
hVIVO plc runs challenge studies in London from its Whitechapel quarantine clinic, its state-of-the-art QMB clinic with its highly specialized on-site virology and immunology laboratory, and its clinic in Plumbers Row. To recruit volunteers / patients for its studies, the Company leverages its unique clinical trial recruitment capacity via its FluCamp volunteer screening facilities in London and Manchester.
HVIVO PLC 
