‘Temporary slowdown’ in Optim sales knocks revenues at Avacta group

The Wetherby-based company, whose flagship Optim device is designed to speed up and reduce the cost of drug development, said that revenues for the six months to January 31, 2013, were down to £1.15m from £1.72m a year previously. Pre-tax losses widened from £506,000 to £957,000. Alastair Smith, CEO of the Leeds University spin-out, said that revenues for the period were below last year because Optim sales “temporarily slowed” as Avacta introduced its next generation, upgraded Optim2 device, and trained up the sales team at ForteBio, the newly acquired subsidiary of its distribution partner Pall Corporation. Optim2 is now being sold in the United States and South-East Asia through ForteBio.

Mr Smith added: “We believe this short-term slowdown will be justified long term as ForteBio, which has a specialist high-end instrument sales team, is now fully trained. Indeed, we have already seen 10 orders for Optim2 since February 1 and a strong pipeline of prospective orders.”

Avacta said pre-tax losses grew due to the slowdown in sales of Optim and an increase in overhead and development expenditure.