YEAR-END REPORT JANUARY-DECEMBER 2010

New product launches and continued strong sales growth

2010 in brief

• Total revenues rose to SEK 3,963k (1,178k). Net sales climbed to SEK 1,595k (986k), with SEK 630k (478k) in the fourth quarter
• Loss after financial items fell to SEK 11,334k (loss: 12,768k), with a loss of SEK 3,311k (loss: 3,378k) in the fourth quarter
• Net loss declined to SEK 11,292k (loss: 17,558k), with a loss of SEK 3,301k (loss: 8,168k) in the fourth quarter
• Earnings per share increased to SEK -0.27 (-0.71), with -0.08 (-0.40) in the fourth quarter.
• Cash and cash equivalents at end of period amounted to SEK 4,073k (416k).
• During the fourth quarter Genovis launched the FragIT™ and deGlycIT™ product concepts.
• In December Genovis signed an exclusive distribution agreement with ADVANCYS Technologies for Life Ltd. for the Israeli market.
• At the international Immunology 2010 conference in the United States, Genovis presented new findings that facilitate and improve production and quality control of substances such as antibody-based drugs. The results, which are based on a study carried out in cooperation with Lund University, show that the combination of two unique products from Genovis’ protein engineering portfolio is highly advantageous in mass spectroscopy of antibody molecules.
• Genovis received SEK 600,000 from LMK Industri AB in research support for the Sentinel node project. The funding will be used to develop nanostructures for use in medical imaging to identify very small tumors that can rapidly arise in the lymph nodes of patients with conditions such as breast cancer or malignant melanoma.
• Genovis is participating in two research projects that were granted external research support in 2010: the EU LUPAS project and the Sentinel node project. The company received SEK 1.7 million from the EU for the first initiatives in the LUPAS project, which means that so far this year Genovis received SEK 2.4 million for the two projects.
•  In April Genovis carried out a rights issue, which raised SEK 15.7 million after issue expenses.

Events after the end of the period

Genovis acquired an exclusive license for a new technology that uses so-called upconverting nanoparticles as contrast agents in optical biomedical imaging. Genovis is acquiring the license from Lumito, a LUAB company, including an option to acquire the technology as a whole. The license grants exclusive rights to upconverting nanoparticles and to the technology required to detect particles in biological material. Genovis has already developed a technique for coating nanoparticles with a nontoxic surface that provides stability and good distribution in various organs and biological tissues. By combining Genovis’ technology with the acquired license Genovis will soon be able to offer a product on the technology front. The goal is to commercialize the technology within one year primarily for the preclinical market and ultimately to evaluate the clinical potential of this technology. 

ABOUT GENOVIS

Genovis develops and sells innovative technologies that will facilitate its customers’ preclinical* research. The products launched to date consist of nanostructures and enzymes (proteins). The company conducts research and development projects focused on design, production, and characterization of nanostructures for medical imaging, diagnostics, and delivery. The nanostructures and methods that Genovis focuses on can be used as contrast in medical imaging and as carriers of various substances in the development of new drug delivery methods. Customers are primarily found within the life sciences industry and academic research. The operation largely consists of research and development of new technology, though the company has initiated some sales over the past two years.

* Preclinical studies refer to the pharmaceutical research that takes place before the product is sufficiently documented to be studied in humans.

CEO comments 2010

The final quarter of 2010 was a clear validation that our overall strategy for 2010 - 2011 is starting to deliver. We achieved our best performance ever in terms of sales and it was particularly gratifying that our product development resulted in three new products that were launched at the European Antibody Congress in Geneva in December. We developed these products to provide our customers with time-saving, easy to use products, applying a scalable technology suitable for both laboratory scale and large-scale processes. We received direct orders for the new products and my assessment is that our product development is now more effective, resulting in targeted launches that reach both existing and new customers. Of course much remains to be done, but an analysis of our performance over the twelve-month period shows a stable trend. This trend is reflected in our customer list, which has grown dramatically over the year.

Looking back at the year as a whole, I can conclude that we vigilantly followed our plan. We wanted to achieve two main goals. The first was to increase sales from the protein engineering portfolio by working with more resources in relation to our customers, launching product improvements, and clarifying applications. The second was to develop our nano portfolio in the same way, so that we can carry out a similar targeted campaign in 2011 to sell products and applications in preclinical imaging. Consequently we chose during the year to use our subsidiary Eijdo almost exclusively for internal product development together with the parent company's development group. This strategy, coupled with our Sentinel node research project, has given good results and concrete product concepts and applications. We will not know until 2011 whether we succeeded in achieving our goal, but currently the project is making good progress and looks promising. In addition, we have actively looked at several different types of nanoparticles that could further strengthen our line of imaging products for the preclinical market. We chose “upconverting nanoparticles,” which are used in optical biomedical imaging. It is both exciting and gratifying that we have now acquired the IP rights to such a technology and product development is in full swing in this project as well.

Sarah Fredriksson, CEO

For more information, please contact: Sarah Fredriksson, CEO, Genovis AB Tel: +46 46 10 12 35 sarah.fredriksson@genovis.com

Genovis is a biotech company on the leading edge of nanotechnology and nanoparticles. The company’s patented nano-induced magnetic transfer (NIMT®) technology was developed to facilitate effective preclinical research for the life science industry. Genovis shares are listed on Nasdaq OMX First North and Thenberg & Kinde Fondkommission is our certified adviser.