Angel flying on new contract news

Published on 07/02/2012 00:00

Shares in life sciences firm Angel Biotechnology leapt yesterday as the company announced new contracts with its biggest customer worth “in excess of” £4.5 million.

The Edinburgh-based group said it had agreed three manufacturing deals with Russian drug developer Materia Medica, to run over the next 22 months.

Last year, Angel agreed to set up a joint venture with Moscow-based Materia to cater for an anticipated string of orders from the Russian company. Under the terms of the deal, Materia is funding the expansion of the Scottish firm’s facility at Cramlington, near Newcastle – which the company had used in the past and is being re-commissioned.

Angel said recently that it had reached full capacity and could not take on more work until it had re-opened the site.

Yesterday, it said manufacturing for the newly-announced contracts would start at its existing facilities before being moved to Cramlington later this year.

Angel’s executive chairman Paul Harper said the contracts put the joint venture company on a “sure footing” from the outset and demonstrated the confidence Materia had in its Scots partner’s ability to manufacture products for it. Shares in Angel, which recently raised £1.2m in a share placing, closed up almost 20 per cent at 0.28p.