Oxford BioMedica PLC (OXBDF)

[marcusl2]

2 great ‘hidden’ shares for growth investors

Jam tomorrow?
Motley Fool
Oxford Biomedica (LSE: OXB) shares have lost 59% over two years to 5.3p, so you might wonder what growth I see there. I could point out that we’ve seen a bit of a recovery of late, and that the price is actually up 68% from its recent low in October 2016, but that’s only part of the picture.

The bigger picture is one of ‘growth tomorrow’, hopefully, as Oxford Biomedica is a small biotech firm specialising in gene and cell therapy. It is not making any profits yet — and isn’t expected to this year nor next either, though the forecast loss per share should drop considerably in 2018.

The key to the firm’s 2016 results announcement was not in its finances, though it appears to have enough cash for now, especially after fundraising £17.5m during the year. But the key is in the collaboration agreements it has with other firms making use of its “world-leading lentiviral vector delivery platform for gene and cell therapy” (to use the words of chief executive John Dawson).

The firm’s collaboration with Novartis for what it calls a “blockbuster potential product” is said to be progressing well and is “close to market“, and collaborations with Orchard Therapeutics, Immune Design and others have been expanded with a new research and development collaboration with Green Cross LabCell.

The company’s own proprietary developments, which target conditions including Parkinson’s, cancer tumours and corneal graft rejection, also appear to be progressing well, though they’re mostly at relatively early stages of development.

Oxford Biomedica is a classic blue sky investment right now, but I think we’re looking at a future growth star.