hVIVO Shares Rise On New £5.2m Contract

hVIVO (LON: HVO) shares jumped at the open Wednesday on the back of news it has signed a £5.2m contract with a biotechnology firm.

The contract with the biotechnology business, headquartered in Asia Pacific, will see hVIVO test the company's respiratory syncytial virus vaccine candidate using its established RSV Human Challenge Study Model.

hVIVO shares are up more than 3% at the time of writing.

hVIVO will conduct a Phase 2a double-blinded placebo-controlled human challenge trial that will take place at its specialist quarantine facilities in London. It will evaluate the safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of the biotechnology company's vaccine candidate against RSV infection.

The study is expected to begin in the second half of 2023, with the revenue recognised in 2023 and 2024.

The trial is the first that hVIVO has signed with a client in the Asia-Pacific region in more than a decade, and hVIVO said it is a growth area for the company as it looks to diversify its client base and order book.

“APAC has been identified as a key growth region for the company, and this contract is an encouraging indicator that our strategy there is bearing fruit,” said Yamin ‘Mo' Khan, Chief Executive Officer of hVIVO. “I am optimistic that more biopharma companies in the APAC region will increasingly recognise both the value of human challenge trials, and hVIVO's reputation as the ‘go-to' partner in the market.”

Khan added that the contract award further strengthens hVIVO's revenue visibility into 2024 and “gives weight to the fact that we have a strong and sustainable growth model.”