Horizon Discovery sees slowdown during COVID

The price of shares in AIM-listed gene editing specialist Horizon Discovery (LON:HZD) dropped 5.61% to 101p (as of 11:30 BST) after the firm reported a 13.9% fall in revenues for the half year ended 30th June. The decline in revenues was largely down to a rapid fall in academic research activity and the impact of COVID-19. Management said that the company was seeing sustained recovery towards 2019 levels and that fundamental drivers remained strong.

CEO Terry Pizzie commented: “Despite the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic during the first half of 2020, we concentrated our efforts to ensure the business remained focused and executing on its strategy, whilst continuing to invest in long-term growth drivers such as our collaborations with Mammoth BioSciences and Rutgers in Base Editing.

“The fantastic efforts of our staff have ensured that we have been able to continue to operate effectively through the crisis, enhancing relationships with our biopharma customers despite the challenging operational environment. We are already seeing the benefit of this work through increased partnering activity with our customers, especially in Screening and Cell Line Engineering, as biopharma customers continue to adopt outsourcing.

“We are encouraged by the July 2020 trading levels, and looking ahead we expect a return to growth in the second half. With a good cash position and large parts of the business already regaining momentum, we look forward to the remainder of the year with confidence“.