Drug manufacturer Shield Therapeutics has hailed rapid progress made on its move into the US market with its key iron deficiency tablets.
The Gateshead-based firm launched a partnership with Pennsylvania healthcare company Viatris last year in a bid to target more than 12,000 prescribers with its Accrufer product, which treats iron deficiency anaemia. In March, Shield saw a 21% growth in total prescriptions, and has now reported a big leap in full year revenues in 2022, from £1.5m to £4.5m.
Despite the gains, Shield's operating losses widened to £24.6m, compared with £19.5m in 2021, in a move it said was to be expected during its push into the US. Investors were told the firm hopes to reach cash flow breakeven at the end of next year, but investors may see future moves by the firm to list outside of the UK.
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Speaking to BusinessLive following the results update, Shield CEO Greg Madison said there were no immediate plans but confirmed the business was assessing its options. He said: "As we have evolved as an organisation and as a lot of the operations are now shifting to the US, and honestly the US revenues are going to be the biggest value driver for the organisation going forward. If we think about, you think: 'Boy, wouldn't it make sense to open up ourselves to the US investor market?', which right now is limited.
"I'm not saying US investors can't take it as a London Stock Exchange listed company but it definitely limits the pool down pretty dramatically. So, yes, for us being a US-focussed company, having access to the US investment community in addition to others probably makes a lot of sense and we're taking a look at what that could look like across the board, but there's nothing imminently in our plans that we want to get off the London Stock Exchange actively. We want to think about how we do this the right way that also takes into account the investors that came in at the fundraising deal at the end of December."
Shield's focus on the Stateside market has been decided as iron deficiency, with or without anaemia, is prevalent across the country with more than 13m prescriptions of oral iron written every year. Through its tie-up with Viatris, the pharmaceuticals maker is recruiting salespeople to tackle territories. Both companies plan to hire 50 people each - with most staff now in place and final training sessions now under way.
Mr Madison said: "Early Q1 2023 indicators are encouraging and show that our new US commercial strategy with Viatris for Accrufer is gaining good traction. March provided a strong conclusion to Q1 2023 and a springboard for the rest of the year as we see notable upticks across several key performance areas such as first time prescribers and new prescriptions.
"We achieved this with less than one third of our combined targeted sales team promoting Accrufer, including some of whom are just a month out of training. The combination of a complete sales team from Shield and our partner, Viatris, plus a strong Q1 and standout March, gives us confidence in the 2023 growth outlook for Accrufer.
"Our strong start to 2023 builds on Shield's very successful 2022. We notably advanced our strategy to make Accrufer the oral iron of choice in the U.S. Robust increases in Accrufer prescriptions, completion of the Viatris agreement and our £30m financing set Shield up for a strong future, with the resources to support our planned operations to cash flow break even, expected in Q4 2024."
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