Oxford Molecular Group Plc made a encouraging start to the year. During the first half the Oxford, UK-based computer aided drug design software specialist completed four US acquisitions, financed by a rights issue in February that raised 16.9m British pounds net of expenses, and reduced its net losses to 1.0m pounds from 2.1m pounds last time. Revenue shot up 54% to 4.4m pounds, of which 681,000 pounds derived from acquisitions, and chairman Roderick Hall said the firm had made major advances towards its goal of becoming the world’s best drug discovery services company. Revenues were said to be on target in the Computer Aided Molecular Design Division. Each of Oxford’s acquisitions, PSI International Inc’s Chemical Information division, Health Designs Inc, the computational chemistry business Unichem, which came from Cray Research Inc and the MacVector business of Eastman Kodak Co develop biochemical software and fit well within the group’s marketing position. The long-term agreement with Glaxo Wellcome Plc to co-develop software is on schedule, with the first product from the collaboration, Diva, announced as a pre-release version in March. And yesterday both companies moved their alliance ahead by agreeing to set up an on-line library that would give users access to software and databases of genetic information. The system will be maintained at Glaxo’s new Stevenage research base and is intended to streamline the drug discovery process by providing downloadable software tools, methods and reference materials. The Contract Drug Discovery Division focuses on the creation and management of drug discovery collaborations targeted to fill the gap between academic research and proof of concept. During the period the division started work on a major design contract with Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd and two more design contracts were signed recently. The group’s most important objective is the drive towards profitability while retaining its investment in the engineering of new products, and Hall said Oxford is looking forward to a promising second half. No dividend has been recommended.
