Today, Gubra released its interim report for the first half of 2024. For the CRO business, performance was strong with organic revenue growth of 34% year-over-year. Within the Discovery & Partnerships (D&P) business, significant progress was made across several R&D projects, not the least by advancement for the anti-obesity Amylin program.
Henrik Blou, CEO of Gubra said:
"I am very pleased with the progress in the first half of 2024 - across the company. We continue to grow our CRO business at high pace and at the same time we take important steps forward in our D&P business. In parallel, we expand our organization to match this high activity level.
For the CRO business, we saw particularly strong growth of our obesity services which is well in line with the recent focus of the biotech and pharma industry into this disease area. On the back of the strong first half and sound current trading and orderbook, we yesterday raised the 2024 financial outlook for the CRO business.
In our D&P business, the most progressed internal anti-obesity asset, Amylin GUBamy, as planned completed enrolment of all key cohorts in June (cohorts 1-4) in the Phase 1 SAD-study. We were pleased to conclude on the safety profile for these key cohorts that allowed us to move forward and dose the additional optional high-dose cohort five (July 2024) and six (August 2024), and this means that topline results are now expected late 2024. As customary in SAD-studies, the primary objective of the study is safety. Also, we recently obtained final regulatory approval to initiate the multiple ascending dosing (MAD) which will start in September this year.
Aside from Amylin, our UCN2 program for high quality weight loss is being prepared for further development. We have initiated the GMP-production of the UCN2 API and expect to initiate the non-clinical toxicity programme in late 2024. Planning is also ongoing for a clinical study potentially starting in late 2025 or early 2026.
For partnered projects, we, together with partner Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), announced the launch of a Phase 1 study of BI 3034701, a long-acting triple agonist peptide with a potential to become a next-generation and first-in-class obesity treatment. We are excited to see BI taking this drug candidate from our second obesity partnership to clinical testing.
All in all, it is great to conclude on a highly successful first half of 2024. It gives us confidence to continue our growth journey rooted in scientific entrepreneurship and we aim to continue the development of both our CRO business as well as our D&P business at high pace.
Key financial highlights for H1 2024
| Key ratio | CRO segment | D&P segment | Group | |||
| DKK million | H1 2024 | H1 2023 | H1 2024 | H1 2023 | H1 2024 | H1 2023 |
| Revenue | 107.5 | 80.1 | 13.1 | 21.8 | 120.6 | 101.8 |
| Organic revenue growth | 34% | 21% | -40% | -31% | 18% | 4% |
| EBIT | 31.5 | 13.4 | -57.2 | -36.7 | -26.1 | -22.8 |
| Adjusted EBIT* | 34.5 | 21.2 | -54.8 | -30.4 | -20.6 | -9.2 |
| Adjusted EBIT-margin* | 32% | 27% | -417% | -140% | -17% | -9% |
| Total costs adjusted (cost of sales and OPEX)* | -74.1 | -58.9 | -68.8 | -52.3 | -143.3 | -111.1 |
| Amylin costs | n/a | n/a | -11.2 | -10.0 | -11.2 | -10.1 |
| Total costs adjusted less costs for Amylin* | -74.1 | -58.9 | -57.6 | -42.2 | -132.1 | -101.1 |
*Adjusted for special items
Key financial highlights for Q2 2024
| Key ratio | CRO segment | D&P segment | Group | |||
| DKK million | Q2 2024 | Q2 2023 | Q2 2024 | Q2 2023 | Q2 2024 | Q2 2023 |
| Revenue | 49.0 | 41.4 | 6.6 | 10.6 | 55.6 | 52.0 |
| Organic revenue growth | 18% | 23% | -38% | -20% | 7% | 11% |
| EBIT | 10.0 | 9.1 | -29.7 | -13.3 | -20.1 | -3.6 |
| Adjusted EBIT* | 12.0 | 9.9 | -28.2 | -12.8 | -16.6 | -2.9 |
| Adjusted EBIT-margin* | 24% | 24% | -426% | -121% | -30% | -6% |
| Total costs adjusted (cost of sales and OPEX)* | -38.3 | -31.4 | -35.7 | -23.2 | -74.2 | -54.6 |
| Amylin costs | n/a | n/a | -4.9 | -1.7 | -4.9 | -1.7 |
| Total costs adjusted less costs for Amylin* | -38.3 | -31.4 | -30.8 | -21.5 | -69.3 | -52.9 |
*Adjusted for special items
Outlook for 2024 (revised 21 August 2024)
Our outlook for 2024, which was raised upwards for CRO business on 21 August 2024, is provided in the table below.
| Key ratio | New outlook for 2024 | Previous outlook for 2024* |
| CRO Segment | ||
| Organic revenue growth y/y | 23-28% | 15-20% |
| Adjusted EBIT-margin | 29-32% | 28-31% |
| Discovery & Partnerships Segment | ||
| Number of new partnerships per year | 1-2 | 1-2 |
| Total costs (adjusted) | DKK 160-170m | DKK 160-170m |
| Total costs excl. Amylin asset (adjusted) | DKK 115-125m | DKK 115-125m |
* Previous outlook announced 6 May 2024
Conference call
A presentation for analysts and investors will be held today 22 August at 10:00am CET. The event will be hosted by the company's CEO Henrik Blou, CSO Louise S. Dalbøge and CFO Kristian Borbos. The presentation will be held in English.
To participate in the telephone conference, please use the dial-in details shown below:
DK: +45 7071 7174
UK: +44 20 8610 3532
When dialling-in, please state the name of the call "Gubra Q2 2024 earnings release" or the conference ID: 5443319.
The presentation can also be followed live via the link:
https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/369772385%0D
It will also be possible to take part of the audiocast afterwards at the same abovementioned link.
Contacts at Gubra
Media: Sofia Pitt Boserup, sbo@gubra.dk, +45 4188 9586
Investors: Kristian Borbos, kbo@gubra.dk, +45 3080 8035
About Gubra
Gubra, founded in 2008 in Denmark, listed on NASDAQ Copenhagen, is specialized in pre-clinical contract research services and peptide-based drug discovery within metabolic and fibrotic diseases. Gubra's activities are focused on the early stages of drug development and are organised in two business areas - CRO Services and Discovery & Partnerships (D&P). The two business areas are highly synergistic and create a unique entity capable of generating a steady cash flow from the CRO business while at the same time enjoying biotechnology upside in the form of potential development milestone payments and potential royalties from the D&P business. In 2023, Gubra had approx. 220 employees and revenue of DKK 205 million. See www.gubra.dk for more information.
