Open Orphan (LON: ORPH) has seen its shares surge Wednesday after hVIVO, a subsidiary of Open Orphan, signed a £5.1m contract with a biopharmaceutical company.
The contract will see hVIVO test the biopharma firm's Investigational Medicinal Product (IMP) using hVIVO's respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) Human Challenge Study Model.
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The study is anticipated to start in H2 2022, with the revenue recognised in 2021 and 2022.
hVIVO is conducting the study on behalf of the client to demonstrate the efficacy of IMP against RSV infection. The contract win is the second within a few days for Open Orphan after another of its subsidiaries, Venn Life Sciences, signed a contract renewal with a major global pharmaceutical client worth £1.5m.
Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman of Open Orphan, stated: “We are pleased to have signed this contract to test our client's product using our RSV Human Challenge Study Model.
“It is testament to our position as the world leading provider of Phase IIa human challenge study clinical trials that innovative biopharmaceutical companies, as well as Big Pharma, are actively and regularly engaging us to test their novel vaccine and antiviral candidates.”
Open Orphan shares are up 3.7% at 19.6p following the news. They initially hit a high of 21.22p at the open.
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