FUSION IP confident about future

The Sheffield-based firm posted a pre-tax loss of £1.7m, up from £414,000 but said it expects to hit its profit targets for the year. It said the first-half figures were distorted by the timing of funding rounds and it is “on plan” to meet its targets for the year.

Chief executive David Baynes said: “This has been another good half year for the company. The key change for Fusion is that many of our early stage spinouts are gaining sufficient critical mass to demonstrate clearly the potential value of our exclusive university pipelines.

“We remain confident that our business - the process of creating new technology companies out of some of the country’s best university derived intellectual property - is an increasingly valuable model, with great future potential for our shareholders.”

In the first half of the year, the company raised £5m and signed a pharmaceutical licensing deal which could earn the company £1m a year.

The company’s second half has already seen it exit from Sheffield-based Simcyp in a deal which earned the company £4m, a 200-fold return on its investment.